Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	believe_v	scripture_n	1,612	5	5.8214	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91474	The watcher: or, The stone cut out of the mountains without hands, striking at the feet of the image, whose head is gold, and brest of silver, and thighs of brass, and legs of iron, and feet part iron and part clay, Dan. 2. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35. Or, A discovery of the ground and end of all forms, professions, sects and opinions, and also how they now are made as friends, and joyn hand in hand against the substance, the life and power of God, which is now made manifest in his sons and daughters (according to his promise) as hath been plainly manifest in several meetings betwixt the people called Quakers, and the people called Baptists, which is here describ'd. And also a description of the true Church, ... / VVritten by a friend to all tender hearted ones, who hunger and thirst after God, who are hoping and seeking in forms for life, to the directing of their mindes, where and how to finde the true light which leads into the true life and power of Godliness, the end of all forms, where I rest with all who in spirit read me, who am known to them who are without, by the name, Iames Parnell.	Parnell, James, 1637?-1656.	1655 (1655)	Wing P541; Thomason E845_18; ESTC R621	62,535	56

talking foolish jesting and evil communication and to be short stil alive in the worlds nature strangers to the holy God and so under deaths dominion and here I comprehend all forms sects judgements and opinions by the light which slayes Death and takes away its Dominion unto its selfe to whom it belongs and doth see them and judge them to be out of the light in Darkness and so in confusion one clashing against another with their judgements and opinions and here is the disputes of this world and the one cries Lo here is Christ in this form and another cries so here is Christ in this form and none else when as Christ is within his Saints and theirs is a false Christ which they have set up in their imaginations and here is the false Prophets and false Christs that are gone out into the world who have deceived many And hereis the ground of forms a setting up a likeness of a thing a figure or image of a thing Reve. 13. but not the thing it selfe and here is the beast and the image of the beast which all the world worships and wonders after even Satan as an Angel of light in his several shapes forms and likenesses to deceive the simple and here is the form without the life and power and here is the building upon a sandy foundation which all must come down Luk 6.49 Mat. 19.20 who here the words and talk of the words and are sayers of the words and hear is him that saith he hath kept the commandments and Ordinances and yet his heart from God after other lovers who is searched and found out by Christ the Light and here is the Spirituall Babel with its foundation and Babels building and Babels builders and here is the Image whose head is gold whose breast is silver and thighes of brass Dan. 2. and legs of iron and feet part iron and part clay but now is he come and made manifest who strikes at feet of Image who is called the stone cut out of mountaine without hands even Jesus Christ the son of God now after all this profession of his name and of faith in him but now he findes none in the earth who hath revealed himself in the poor despised ones of the world and those which have been counted the blind and ignorant and as you have read the poor receive the Gospel the world was made by him but the world knew him not he came unto his own and his own received him not Iohn 1. Acts 2.16 17 18 19. but as many as receives him to them he gives power to become the Sons of God to whom that promise is fulfilled which was promised in the dayes of old by the father that in the last dayes he would poure forth his Spirit upon all flesh and his sons and daughters should prophesie and the young men see visions and if you wil receive it this is the Elias which was for to come in the Spirit as he came in the flesh even the life and power of what hath been so long professed which the Lord hath now manifested in his servants and handmaidens whom he hath now sent forth abroad Mat. 22.2 3. freely to call into the Supper of the Lord even the marriage of the Lamb and to preach his name no more after the flesh but after the Spirit and to preach him within the hope of glory the Ministry which hath been hid from ages and generations and they that will be his disciples must deny themselves and take up his Cross and follow him through evil report and good report through persecution and through death and who are faithful until death must receive a Crown of life and reigne with him for evermore in his Kingdome of which there is no end neither beginning over which he is made heire and King blessed be Jehovah sing Haelalujah to his name all ye that know him And now that his name is spreading abroad and his message declaring by the mouth of his faithful messengers those who have long talked of his name and so long professed his name knows him not neither believes on him but are found hypocrites and dissemblers and blind leaders of the blind whited walls and painted Sepulchers but within full of uncleanness hypocrisie and deceit even the generation of vipers and Serpents and those will not receive the message but makes light of it and saith they believe on a Christ at Jerusalem and now in the heavens far off they know not where and they cry he hath done all for us and hath satisfied for our sins and they shal not be imputed to us say they and they cry out this is a new Light and a strange Light and we know not whence it is but they say they wil keep to the old Rule the Scriptures which they call the word of God and the old way though they be meer strangers to the life of the Scriptures but it is that the Scripture might be fulfilled upon them as Christ saith for judgemet am I come into the world that they which see not might see Iohn 9.39 and that they which see might be made blind as their forefathers professed Abraham and Moses and said we know that God spake unto Moses but as for this fellow we know not whence he is Iohn 9.29 and they said God was their Father but Jesus Christ answered them and said Iohn 8. If ye were Abrahams children ye would do the works of Abraham and he also said If God were your Father then would you love me for I proceeded forth and came from him but saith he ye are of your Father the Devill and his works you do and will do and thus are the Pharisaicall professors of these times marked out to be in the steps of their fore-fathers for this is the same Christ that suffered at Ierusalem but they are blind and cannot see neither indeed do believe the Scripture nor walk according to it but are in the old and broad way of the world wherein their fore-fathers walked and led many to destruction but if these did believe the Scripture they would believe on this light which is come into the world which the Scripture bares testimony of even the Spirit of truth which the world cannot receive and some of them scoff and scorn and revile reproach and slander and rayle at the messengers of Truth and some strike them and stone them and buffer them and stock them and whip them and imprison them and despitefully use them yet they are made able through the power of him that hath sent them for to go on in boldness Mat. 22.4 5 6. but those persecutors are not found worthy Therefore the Lord wil send forth his Armies and destroy these murderers and burn up their City and these are they that have professed to be his near kindred friends and acquaintance but now are found strangers who prophesied in his name and in his name done

the Spirit and there is no respect of persons but all members of one body of which Christ is head serving one another in love and here is the new Covenant and the Children of the new Covenant who are washed and made clean by the blood of the new Covenant but you are Aliens and strangers from this Covenant who are in your notions and professions therefore all you ignorant people who are led by these deceitfull Priests and Pharisees and disdain to be wiser than your fore-fathers now see who is your fore-fathers and the originall of your Priests and who is your example for you are out of the life and practise of the Apostles and the Children of Light and by their life are judged and condemned for they was mortified to that life which you live in neither did the Ministers of the Gospell Baptise Infants with water neither did they teach for hire or stand up in the chiefest place in the Assembly neither was they called of men Master neither had they the long Gowns neither did they respect any place more than another to teach or preach in except for conveniency Acts 20.17.18 20. for they teached in dwelling houses and by the River sides or in any open place neither did they give to the world Davids Conditions to be sung in a Meeter neither did they give to naturall men and women bread and wine which you call a SACRAMENT neither did they use to Church women as you call it and take money for it neither did they take a Text of other mens words 2 Pet 1.21 and speak from it a divination of their own brain neither did they study what or how to preach but spoke as they was moved by the holy Ghost neither did they teach people the Letter was the Word Iohn 1. or that the Letter was the light but they bore witness of God to be the Word and Christ to be the light neither did they tearh people that they could never be free from sin while they were upon the earth but they preached Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who came to take away the sinnes of the world and to redeeme his people from their sin and to set them in the glorious liberty of the Sons of God that he might redeeme unto himself a pure Church not having spot or wrincle Eph. 5.26 27. or any such thing neither did they teach people that a house of lime and stone was the Church or the house of God neither was they set up or upheld by a Law of man or came by the will of man or stood in the will of man Gal. 1. but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ and from him they received their Message and Command neither was they brought up in humane learning at an University as it is called to learn Arts and Sciences and take degrees from Sir to Batcheller and from Batcheller to Master of Arts from Master to Batcheller of Divinity from Batcheller of Divinity to Doctor of Divinity and had so many severall Gowns but the Pharisees loved these things but the Ministers of Christ was not such but most of them was ignorant and unlearned in that wisdome and learning Mat. 13.11 but unto them it was given to know the mysteries of the Kingdome but it was hid from the world and the wise ones thereof and now the wise ones of the world say that is the meanes ordained of God to come to the knowledge of the truth and that is the originall to wit humane learning and deny all revelation or immediate inspiration and say it is ceased for all which they have no Scripture proofe for the Apostles never taught this Doctrine nor prescribed this way therefore your teachers are such as bring another Doctrine and climbe up another way who are not to be received but shut out for thieves and robbers who shut up the Kingdome of heaven against men Iohn 10.1 and wil neither enter in themselves nor suffer others that would and the Ministers of the Gospel never preached up Hebrew and Greek to be the originall but they preached the word to be the originall neither took tythes Iohn 11. nor ever had a set maintenance or so much a year namely forty fifty or sixty or a hundred or two hundred pounds a year more or less to abide in one place neither sued any at the Law for any such thing but all their care was to make the Gospel free and without charge 1 Cor. 9 1● neither did they take of those that did not own them as denyed them but shaked off the dust of their feet and so left them neither had they an hour-glass to limit themselves by or had a Clark to say Amen but your Priests wil tel you now the Gospell is published and the Churches are gathered and planted Oh! with shame might they speak it what Churches have they gathered here I have before laid down their Church the ground thereof the gathering thereof and the planting thereof and what they are and also the gathering of the Apostles Church and the planting thereof so that here you may see the difference betwixt the one and the other the one a form and tradition and profession the other the life and power and substance and here also you may see what Englands Church which Englands Priests have planted now differs from the heathen and now set Drunkards aside set swearers aside set lyars aside set proud ones aside set covetous ones aside set raylers aside set murderers aside and whoremongers aside set wild ones prophane ones and wanton ones aside set quarrellers and fighters aside and hypocrites dissemblers and persecutors aside and back-biters extortioners and lustfull ones and such like aside and then see where Englands Church is which your Priests have made you believe they have planted and let them eat no where but of their own vinyard and it will make them go about to plant a better vineyard or else to cast off their long Gowns and fall to dig with a spade for some of them have sometimes brought that place of Scripture to uphold their 40 or 50. or 100. or 200. l. by the year where the Apostle saith who planted a vinyard eateth not of the fruit thereof 1 Cor. 19.7 now according to this the vinyard must be planted first before they can eat of the fruit thereof and set those aside that I mentioned as aforesaid for the Apostles cast out suchweeds and wild plants out of their vinyard and then see where their vinyard is which they have plaeted let them only eat of the fruit thereof and not rob others vinyards and this is but equity according to Scriptures example but they are such greedy Doggs as the Prophet Isajah declared Isa 56. against in his time and such ravening wolves and foxes as they live all upon the spoyle and the fruits of others labours and those that hunts them out of their Vinyards and Barns

be taken and all that receive his marke and worship his image into the Lake shal go small and great and there to lye forevermore Mat. 31.42.44 and this is the stone which the builders have rejected which now is become the head of the corner and whomsoever falls upon it shal be broken but on whomsoever it falls it wil grind them to powder this is the Stone cut out of the mountain without hands which strikes at the feet of the Image here is a blow to the foundation of the priests church of England Therefore now all people who are captivated under the Priests turne your minds within to the Light of the Lord Jesus which reproves you in secret when you tel a lye or use any deceit which shewes you your evill deeds and that your hearts are not right towards God for all your duties and shorship and profession and that which cals for uprightness of heart and an holy life and a change and reformation and a newness of life hearken unto this it is the free grace of God unto your souls and teacheth freely and by this you wil come to profit for it teacheth godliness and godliness is great gain so that you will not need to spend your moneys for that which is not bread 1 Tim. 6 6. Isa 59.1 2. nor your labor for that which profiteth not nor to be led captive by your blind guides ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth but stil in blindness and darkness for you have a teacher within which is a more sure word of prophesie 2 Pet. 1.19 to the which you do wel to take heed unto as to a Light shining in a dark place untill the day dawn and the Day-Star arise in your hearts this is the measure of the grace of God even the free gift of God which God hath given you to profit withal which wil accuse you or excuse you before the throne of God to which I now leave you having discharged my conscience concerning you and so I proceed to the rest of forms Now within these late yeers the Light of Christ beginning to stir in peoples hearts so that many come to see themselves in much darkness and ignorance of these things which they read of in the Scripture and also the corruption of the Priests and Teachers and what Reprobates they were concerning the faith and that they profited not the people at all but they had heard them so long and still blind and ignorant so that many come to see their folly yet their minds not being directed to the light which showed them this and should have led them out of this condition upon which they should have waited for direction to have found the way of truth but they run without to the Letter in their own wils and wisdome and so would find out a way by their own wisdome and imagination and so went out to search the Scripture but with a wrong eye giving their own meanings and interpretations upon the Scripture and one cries this is my opinion and another cries this is my opinion and another cries this is my judgment and thus they are confounded and divided into their severall judgments and opinions yet all still in one life and one Nature but onely confounded and divided in their judgments of what the Prophets meant and Christ meant and what the Apostles meant but it is as a Book sealed both to the learned and unlearned and none is found worthy but the Lamb to open the seals Isa 29.11 who is the light wherein lies the Ministry so this is the cause why they whose mindes are from the light are so divided and scattered in their judgments and opinions and one sets up a form in his imagination and another sets up a Forme in his immagination and one runs abroad into the world with his wisdome and he wil go preach up his form and judgment to be the truth and another he wil cry down that form for delusion anp preach up his form for a truth and so many deceivers and false Spirits are entred into the world and one cries lo here is Christ if you can believe and be baptised you shall be saved so they that can say that is the way and that they believe Christ dyed for them then they must be dipped in the water and that they call baptising of them and then they are of their Church and then they call themselves Saints though they are stil in the old nature and so in the fall and in their sins and corruptions and it is not the washing away the filth of the flesh that doth change them but because they are come out from the Priests and turnd into another judgment and profession they think themselves Saints Acts 19.6 and they read the Scripture of laying on the Apostles hands and then the disciples received the Holy Ghost and so those formalists and selfe-actors layes on their hands but there wants the Holy Ghost and thus they act and form and imitate and make the form or likeness of a Church and they read of washing the feet in the figure and so they dote upon the Letter Iohn 13 5. 1 Cor. 5.1 2 3 4 5. and wash one anothers feet and they read of delivering up to Satan one for fornication for the destruction of the flesh in the name and power of our Lord Jesus Christ for in the spirit Paul discerned it for saith he though absent in body yet present in spirit I have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath done this deed and so those formalists imitators if any differ from them in judgment they wil also deliver him up to Satan as they imagine taking the Apostles words though they cannot tax him for any thing but his judgment differing from them but they want the power and here they are the Magicians like Iannes and Iambres opposing the truth and those are they that are called Baptists and another form they are more spirituall in their judgment and they hold a spirituall baptisme and not a water baptisme and as many as hold with them are of their Church and faith and thus they are devided into several forms and Churches and so have several names and there are severall judgments of one thing under one name and here is the confusion of Babylon with their severall sects judgments and opinions and every one professing the name of the Lord and stealing the words of the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and saying the Lord saith when he never spoke to them and here the difference from another onely in profession judgment or opinion but stil in Babylon and Babylons fashions customes and traditions and fellowship manners and breeding which is all heathenish and at enmity with God being in the fall and thus they stand in the first nature in pride in covetousness anger wrath malice fleshliness and lustfulness and idle words vain

many wondrous works and yet they must depart for works of iniquity he knows them not now read your selves you wicked ones you murderers you rude multitude you Priests you Pharises and professors you formalists selfe-actors and im●tators for now all joyne hand in hand and Gog and Magog joyns in Battel against the Lamb and Pilate and Herod is made friends and you chiefe Priests and Pharises who are the professors of these times and you Rulers and you rude and bruitish ones and you formalists and sectaries now at the comming of Christ in the Spirit even the substance of what you have long talked of all joyned together in one who formerly have been at great division and wars among your selves but now you are made friends and muster up all your strength against the substance even Jesus Christ whom you as your fore-fathers did call a blasphemer a seducer a deceiver and a devil and now the rude multitude they stand up for their Priests and they fall upon the messengers of Christ when they come into their Synagogues and they hale them out of their Synagogues and strike them and buffet them and despitefully use them and stone them as their fore-father ever did and the Priests they seek to Rulers Magistrates and hales them before them and they persecute them and imprison them as their fore-fathers ever did and the pharises and ancient hypocriticall rotten professors they side with the Priests and goes about railing and evill speaking of the truth learning and insensing peoples mindes against it with their lyes and slanders and reproaches to present it odious to all people and also fauning and crouching and seeking to Magistrates to act in their wills and persecute as their forefathers alwayes did against the same seed and likewise the formalists and sectaries do the same and thus they that were after the flesh alwayes persecuted them that were after the spirit Gal. 4.29 and yet these are ready to cry out what hard hearted Jews was those that crucified Christ and persecuted his Apostles and if they had been in those dayes they would not have been partakers with them in the blood of Christ and his Apostles whenas they are now found the same generation of persecutors persecuting the righteous seed and so they fil up the measure of their fathers wrath that upon them might come all the righteous blood-shed from righteous Abel until now And now the Priests and the Baptists can agree and they joyne together and the Priests calls them honest men and the Baptists calls them Gentlemen of Divinity and the Baptists and Independents they joyne together and the Independants and the Presbiterians they joyne togegether all against the life and power which the Lord hath now manifested in his Sons and Daughters and hath sent them to declare and lay open their hypocrisie and deceit which they have long covered with a Gospell-like profession but now all their coverings are found too narrow before the Light which is come now into the world to convince and reprove them of their sin of their righteousness and of their judgment and therefore now they have enough to do to joyne together with all their strength and wisdome to put out this light and so they endeavour to sew their tares in peoples hearts and all the wayes they can invent to destroy the work which now is begun and as Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses so do they withstand the truth according to the prophesie of the Apostle being men of corrupt mindes and reprobates concerning the saith which I have much experience in severall meetings which I have had with the teachers of the baptized people which shall follow in order afterward But the more they strive in their wills and wisdomes the more doth the work of the Lord prosper and go on and flourish by his mighty power and outstretched arm and their shame and folly and down-fall the more appear and when they have done all they can they shall be glad to lay down their grounds and bow unto this truth which they now so oppose and every tongue shall confess it though to their condemnation who do now oppose and gain-say it wo unto such they shall perish in the gain-saying of Core And the time shal come Luke 13.25 that when the master of the house shall have shut the dore they shall knock and shall strive to enter and shall not be able all who now oppose and reject the Counsell of the Lord and will not hearken now they are called And thus the LORD will exhalt his SONNE in his SAINTS when his ENEMIES shall bee his Foot stole and be made to bow before him And thus doth all Sects Judgements and Opinions joyne in one against the Life and Substance they being all sprung from one Root so make up all one Image whose head is Gold Breast of silver whose Thighes is Brass and Legs of Iron and feet part of Iron and part of Clay and the Stone cut out of the Mountain without hands which strikes at the feet of the Image Now the head of the Image which is of gold those that have had a light shining into them and have had a sight of many things have seen the emptiness of many forms and have gotten the thing in their comprehension have a notion above others of much of that which is now witnessed possest in life by the faithful there have been exalted gotten up a life therein and a false rest but have lost the light which once shined into them by catching the thing in their Comprehension and so got it in the notion but did not obey nor suffer the death of the Cross and the breast of the Image which is of Silver and the thighes of brass are the rest of the sects and opinions and forms and likenesses which are more glorious one than another for as I said before Satan can imitate every appearance of the true Light in his forms shapes and likenesses and the more glorious the light appears in any creature so doth he refine himself and appear more glorious to deceive the simple so that many by the light of God stirring in them have come to see the deceit and emptiness in one form and how they have been deceived therein then presently the deceit appears in another more glorious shape or form and calls that the truth and the creature stil looking without from the Light within it is insnared there again stil painted with the Scripture words and then the creature thinks its a Saint in that form whenas it s but a painted Sepulcher stil in the old nature and under the power of the same deceit but the Cross tryes all for there all forms and professions misses and comes short so that many a creature hath passed through many forms and hath thought it self a Saint in every form but coming yea but to see the Cross which they are to take up before they can be the

Disciples of Christ and there have stumbled and cryed out it is hard and straight and goes away sorrowfull I know this is witnessed and answered in many consciences for here every mans faith and works comes to the tryall and so to some the preaching of the Cross is foolishness and to some a stumbling-block but unto them that believe and take it up it is witnessed the power of God unto salvation and such rejoyces in it with Paul who are crucified to the world and the world to them upon whom the ends of the world are come but it would be an easie thing to the flesh if that was all 1 Cor. 10.11 to turn out of one profession into another and out of one form and judgement into another but the way to life is through death And the Legs of the Image which is of Iron is the Beast or the power of the Beast upon which these stand where lies their strength and the feet of the Image which is part of Iron and part of Clay are the Priests and Pharises joyned to the powers of the earth which upholds them for but for that as I said before they are the weakest of all forms and so they are the part of clay and the power that upholds them is that part of Iron which is the strongest of the mettalls and the watcher or the stone cut out of the mountain without hands which strikes at the feet of the Image is the King of righteousness Rev. 19.11 12 13 c. Rev. 17.12 13 14. even he that rides upon the white horse out of whose mouth goes a sharp sword whose name is called the word of God who comes to strike at the powers of the earth even the Kings of the earth who have given their power unto the Beast and joyne in war against the Lamb but the Lamb shall overcome and he will overturn all untill it come into his hand whose own it is Rev. 19.20 Rev. 21.1 and the Beast and the false Prophet that hath thus deceived the nations and all that receive the mark of the Beast and worship his Image shall be taken and cast into the lake that burneth for ever which was of old prepared for them and he wil create new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness where there shal not be war any more but he shall reigne in peace with his Saints for evermore Oh blessed are all they that fight in this Banner and here lay down their lives they shall take them up again with an everlasting Crown and reigne for evermore singing Halelujah to their king to whom be all praise honour power dominion and thanks for evermore Amen And thus shall this great Image be broken to pieces by the Stone cut out of the mountain without hands which wil become a heavy mountain even a burdensome stone to all nations but upon this Mountain shall the true Church stand as a City set on a Hill Mat. 5.14 that cannot be hid and thus I have laid down the ground and end of all sects forms and professions with a blow to this great Image with a weapon which is not carnall but spirituall he that can receive it let him And now concerning the CHURCH which is now gathering and redeeming not by the wil of man nor by the wisdome of many but by the wil and power and spirit of God which according unto his promise he hath poured down upon his Sons and Daughters now in these latter dayes by which we are carried abroad in the power of the Almighty now to declare abroad his powerfull Truth which the Lord hath decreed shall prevail upon the hearts of the people which is glad tydings of great joy unto them that receive it but unto the stubborn and stiff-necked and rebellious tydings of wo and misery and though the messengers of the Gospell are by some rejected reviled reproached scoffed and scorned stocked stoned and imprisoned and despitefully used slandered and abused yet nevertheless blessed be the name of the Lord there are some found worthy and do receive with much joy the messengers of the Gospel Rom. 10.15 so that they know how beautifull are the feet of those that bring glad tydings to the reviving the just witness for God and raising up to life the dead and so the living comes to know and praise the Lord and so the just comes to reign and the wicked comes to be judged and the minde comes to be turned from the darkness to the light to which we do preach in every creature and to the same are made manifest and known to them who do like to retain it in their mindes and from whence we come and the testimony which we do declare but they that do not receive it to them we are not known and therefore are by them esteemed as deceivers and deluders vagabonds and wanderers and the like yet at all this we do not wonder for we read the servant is not greater than his lord for if they have called the Master of the House Belzebub how much more those of his houshould and if they had known him Mat. 10.24 25 they would not have crucified the Lord of glory yet nevertheless we have a witness in every Conscience both in them that believe and in them that perish unto which we do clear our consciences and leave all without excuse by the same which wil answer for us in the mighty day though to the condemnation of those that hate it wherein we have our great joy above all our sufferings but as many as receives this to them he gives Power to bccome the Sons of God and those are they who are led and guided by the one spirit of Truth which the world cannot receive even the Comforter of whom you have heard should come by which they are seperated out of the world redeemed out of the rudiments polutions therof their fashions their customes their words their ways their manners their breeding their fellowip love and friendship their honor and glory and their worship and so are become strangers to the world and so are hated of the world because they are not of the world and the enmity stands betwixt the two seeds but while they was of the world the world loved them but now they are gathered out of the world and seperated from the world and testifies against the world both in words and actions therefore the enmity is raised in the world against the righteous seed and those are they upon whom the ends of the world are come to whom it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdome though to the world in Parables and those are they that are come with a mighty arm and power to turn the world upside down whom the Lord hath gathered and is a gathering out of the world by his owne Spirit of Truth and Love to walk in the way of Truth even the way of Holiness where the Ransomed of the Lord

of this World Here all you are shut out who live at ease in your pleasures and live want only upon the earth in the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye Iames 5.5.6 and the pride of life you are the Children of Babylon you kill the just and he lies slain in the streets but here you all are shut out of the new Covenant of Life in the dark world under deaths dominion of what profession and judgment soever Alians and Strangers to the Covenant of Promise for they that are not with us are against us and our union and society is in the light of life Mat. 12.30 but you must all suffer the death of the Cross to the life which you now live in before you can witness this Redemption for those that live with Christ are crucified with him therefore so it is they that wil take up life must first lay down life for the way to life is through death therefore you must be stripped of all your old covers naked and bare that your deceit and shame may appear which you have so long covered with your own righteousness but now you must suffer the shame of the Cross if you would have part in Christ and all your old wisdome knowledg and notions which you have gotten into your comprehensions by your conceivings of the Scripture Letter wherin hath bin your life and pride and exaltation must all come to the death of the Cross that no flesh should glory in his presence but I say unto all you Professors Formalists Notionists and Disputers and Wise ones of this World if you will not take up and imbrace this Cross Publicans and Harlots shall enter the Kingdome before you therefore not many mighty nor many noble nor many wise after the flesh are called but he hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise 1 Cor. 25.26 to the end and the weak to confound those that are mighty that no FLESH should glory in his PRESENCE but CHRIST is made over unto us Wisdome Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption that they which glory might glory in the Lord and this I witness in my measure the things which I have seen and heard and felt and tasted of the good Word of Life which was in the beginning the same do I declare and am known and read by the children of Light And now I shall proceed to severall passages that I have had with the people called Baptists in seveverall meetings that their deceit and delusion may be laid open to the simple hearted Upon the thirtieth day of the first Month called March in the yeare 1655. I was atone Ashens house in Fenstanten in Huntingtonshire where I was freely declaring the Truth of God to the people that came there together that day as I was taught and moved by the Spirit of Truth by which the holy men of God spoke forth the Scripture as they was moved and there came severall of the people called Baptists into the Roome amongst us amongst whom was one of their Teachers called Richard Elligood who after a while stood up in his wil and wisdome to accuse me and said that I said that God did not respect any forms and yet saith he you use the form and so use that which God hath no respect to but his first words was Sir if you please I wil speak something to what you have said to which I made answer here needs no complements and then he runs on as aforesaid to which accusation I replyed was false and bid him prove what form I used and he said the Letter and I replyed he that takes the Letter to talk of without the life and power such sets up a Form and makes a Form but this would not satisfie his filthy wisdome which darkned his understanding but because I spoke words which are mentioned in the Scripture by the same spirit that spoke forth the Scripture by which I challenge the Scripture from him and all such who have gotten it to talk of but denies the life and are strangers to the life and power therefore with his contrary spirit tasked me with a Form which by his logick and deceitfull art would have proved but could not but his deceit was laid open to the people and many declared against him for a form is this as I said before the likeness of a thing but not the thing it self as they have the likeness of a Church which they have imagined from the Letter with their Elders Pastors and Teachers but not the Church it selfe and so they imitate the Scriptures but live not in the life of them that spoke forth the Scriptures neither are acted or guided by the same spirit that gave forth the Scriptures and so wants the life and power and those are the formalists that makes forms and likenesses to deceive the simple as the devil hath the form of an Angell of Light but not the life and power who appears to rule in those formalists and selfe-actors but the day doth make him manifest and therefore he rages and then this Elligood denyed that I had the same spirit that gave forth the Scripture and he said the Spirit might be tryed by the Letter for he said many false Spirits are entred into the world and I asked him by what did the Apostle know that false spirits were gon out into the world and he replyed and said by the Spirit of God then I replyed and said if by the Spirit of God the Apostle knew that there was many false spirits gone out into the world then by the Spirit of God he tryed false Spirits and knew false spirits from the true and here his deceit was laid open to the people and he judged out of his own mouth to be a lyar and to be guided by a false spirit who would try the living by the dead and again he said that one Spirit could not try another for by that judgments the evil Spirits might try the good Spirits to which I replyed by the Spirit of God all other spirits are tryed and also that by the Light darkness is discovered but Darkness cannot comprehend the Light neither discover the Light and here again his blindness and ignorance and deceit was much discovered to the people although he fed himself and would have shufled it off by his consequences and filthy logick but it the more laid open his deceit and presently the said Elligood was found with another lye in his mouth for he said that I said the thing should be proved by every mans spirit which was a very lye for I said that the baptisme of the spirit was the substance of the outward baptisme the which he denyed and bid me prove it and I said I spoke to the witness in every mans conscience which his dark mind could not comprehend but with his dark mind wrested my words and therefore said that I said it was witnessed by every mans spirit but his

not Babel yea or nay These things I do not ask because I know them not but that the Truth may be made manifest and the deceit laid open therefore answer by plain Scripture or else all you formalists imitators and selfe-actors bow unto the truth and be silent and let your mouths be stopped and thereby confess and yeild your selves in an error and to have gotten the form without the life and power that the simple may no longer be deceived by you taking the shaddow for the substance Read this openly in your Church that all may hear and answer for themselves from him who by one of you was called a deceiver yet true who according to the world am called Iames Parnel A Copy of most of these Quaeries was sent to the chiefe Teacher of the baptised people in Fenstanten and after a certain time these words they sent me back again as followeth A few words to him that saith that according to the world he is called JAMES PARNELL We have received your Paper and according to your desire read it in the Congregation unto which you desire our answer by plain Scripture to which we reply that when you make good your affirmation that you are no deceiver but true by plain Scripture then shall we return you a further answer to your queries From them who desire to serve the Lord Jesus Christ Iohn Denne Edmund Male. Then after I had received this Libel I returned them this answer at the bottome of their own paper An. This is plain Scripture though as a deceiver yet true and if my life and conversation doth not prove the same and make good my affirmation then in your answer to my queries you might have taxed me and proved to the contrary but this of you is but a plain shufle to blind the world and shun the shame and still to blind the people who are enslaved under your deceit but this wil the more manifest your ignoranre then not long after they returned me this answer as followeth It is not plain Scripture though as a deceiver yet true as deceivers and yet true is plain Scripture the greatest deceiver in the world might as wel brought it to prove himself no deceiver but true as wel as you for your conversation we know it not we have not to say to that but this we know that wolves may come in sheeps cloathing and this doth appear in you in drawing people from the truth as namely from Water-baptisme which is a command of the Lord unto believers as for your saying we might have taxed you in our answer to your queries we think you might plainly see your folly in this you affirmed nothing in them as your judgment how should we then tax you and prove the contrary and again we made no promise to answer and therefore you might have spared your daring and false words to say the people are enslaved under our deceit and therefore until you have made good what you have taken in hand by plain Scripture by the fruit of your lips by bringing the Doctrine of Christ and owning his Commandments we say untill then we are exhorted to let you alone let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind you having been so plainly manifest unto us Rep. Here all people who with a single eye reads may see the deceit of this people for I spoke but of one and therefore in that respect it is plain Scripture though as v deceiver yet true but these are they who if they could would make a make a man an offender for a word Isa 29.21 my conversation they cannot touch and yet are not ashamed to say the greatest deceiver might as wel have brought this Scripture as I and this is the blindness of their mindes and also say because I deny water-baptisme to be an Ordinance or a Command of Christ that I am a woolf in sheeps cloathing which they do affirm to be a command but cannot prove it and so are such as use their tongues and say the Lord saith when he never spoke to them but surely a woolf in sheeps cloathing is to be known by the life and practise but in this they are blind and cannot discern and so themselves are the blind leaders of the blind but I shall not let you alone but make you manifest unto the world neither did Christ let them alone but pronounced woes and declared against them and here I am sure you might see your folly who say I have been so manifest unto you and said you know not my conversation what a confusion is this but it is your mothers language and also in expecting me to affirm my judgment upon my own queries then what need I send them to you to answe if I answer them my self and here I am sure you might see your own folly for it is here plainly plainly laid open so that all who are led by you are plainly seen to be enslaved under your deceit and these words shall stand for truth against you which you call false who are the blind and so put evill for good and good for evil and the Doctrine of Christ I have brought and his commandments I do own from and against you who are the busie-bodies and selfe-actors who have nought to do with him nor his commands therefore silence deceivers for here I have made good what I have taken in hand which witnessed shall be in your condemnation The occation of another meeting betwixt the people called Baptists and the people called Quakers SEverall times when I have come to the Town of Cambridge I have heard a rumour of a boasting and daring that sprung from the people called Baptists behind my back concerning a dispute with me yet I had received nothing from them neither by word nor writing to be certain of their mindes therefore I being in the Town sent them word that I heard a voyce of such a thing but knew not the certainty therefore to let me know their mindes in writing if they intended such a thing so then one Hindes a Tanner in Cambridge sent me this Note as followeth which Ioseph Doughty had sent unto him The Note Brother Hind as touching a Discourse with James Parnel I shall be willing to do God and men service in it to my power given to me Frst Provided that it be somewhat publike the questions in controversie may be stated in writing 2. That the questions may be such as may be resolved and answered according to Scripture 3. That the questions agreed upon may be delivered into the disputants hands three dayes before the day of dispute 4 That to avoid confusion in multitude of words a short form of Argument shall be used on both parts 5. That some shall be chosen on both sides to see order on both sides observed in discourse and competent Judges also appointed 6. That censorious rash terms of judging shall not be used 7. That the disputants shal declare before

for me and so I went up thither and when I came there the Goaler discharged me for staying there and said I caused tumults though I had not spoken any thing to the people whereby to cause a tumult but the generation of this world was alwayes tumultuous both about Christ and his Apostles though they were known to be innocent and harmless offering violence to none yet it was so with them then and it is so now with the same seed where it is born up to rule because it is not of the world but hated of the world for the enmity lodgeth in the world the world is the sea with its tumultuous gathering together of the raging roaring waves castnig up mire and dirt foaming out its own shame and though an innocent person travel here he must such distractions expect and tumults of raging waves about him casting up such as they have but he that made the bounds of the sea can and doth deliver his out of the compass of its bounds and then it cannot pass its bounds for its bounds it keeps here is a parable hid from the wisdome of the world but the same which gave it forth the same wil open it to the unlearned Then after the Goaler had spoke to me they made some way for me to come up to the Baptists who was there sitting upon the bench like Judges this Doughty and one Rix a brewer an old Pharisee in Cambridge the one a baptist and the other of the Independant sect so called but two great enemies one again another in opposition against each sect yet these two was joyned together as friends against me and thus sate Pilate and Herod together like judges against the innocent so when I was gotten amongst the people I would not meddle until the Goaler had given freedome for me to stay there as he had before discharged me so after a while he gave leave so that we would be short then this Doughty the baptist so called stood up and put off his hat to the people after the manner of the heathen with a complement pleading of the shortness of the time and so begun with a question so I said his question might stand and as he had liberty to speak to the people so would I and then he would have hindred me contrary to what was before agreed upon betwixt us by the passages aforesaid so I got liberty to speak something to the people and declared what I was made a minister of according to the wil of God and then I took out a paper and read unto the people the occasion of my comming thither to meet the baptists that day and by the conclusions therein I was to have liberty to speak my mind as wel as he and he was to accuse me before the people or the truth which I bore testimony unto but he broke his first agreement and flew to question so then to satisfie the simple hearted I gave this answer to the understanding of the simple First the Baptists question Qu. The writings of the Prophets and Apostles which are called Scripture whether are they the words and sayings of the most high God yea or nay Answ The Word of God which is God which dwelt in the Prophets and Apostles from it they spoke forth the things which is recorded in Scripture but this would not satisfie the Baptists but cryed out no answer and Doughty stood up and put off his hat and beckoned to the young Priests and Schollars and said Judg ye Gentlemen of Divinity there was one Anger a drunken Priest sided with the Baptists now let all see how contrary to their own principles they acted but some of the Schollars had so much understanding as to receive it for an answer but the drunkards sided with the Baptists and the ruder sort who could not understand though there was many simple hearts that with this answer was satisfied but the wise must be catched in their own craftiness and several times I repeated this answer over to the people but the Baptist and his party could not receive it because it was in the gross to their wisdome but there was that which I spoke to which could and did receive it then Ioseph Doughty the Baptist and Henry Rix the old Pharisee joyned together and with one consent said I durst not answer it and thus the unclean spirits joyned together and made lies their refuge and after that I was repeating my answer over to the people Doughty stood up and said I spoke I knew not what and then I taxed him with a lie and then hee said it was not to his question but I bid him prove that I spoke I knew not what but he could not but shuffled off and said I would flie from his question and there he stood then the Goaler called to depart and Doughty stood up and spoke to the Goaler not to suffer me to stay after him least I should seduce the people there I stood up and challenged him to prove me a seducer to the people but hee had noting to say for that but manifested himselfe to be a seducer and a slanderer and a reproacher of the truth of God and so must take part with his fore-fathers of the wrath of God then I openly spoke to the people that if any there could tax me or lay any thing to my charge I was there to answer but none did or could there accuse me so then I passed into the Castle-yard then the wilde bruitish Schollars who had plotted together as I was after informed to abuse me and they flocked together about me like the wilde beasts of the Forrest there I was tossed as amongst the raging waves of the Sea to and fro and at last was hurried into a house where I got shut of those Caterpillars which the Nation swarms with but the baptised party passed away without disturbance so it appears the world loves its own Oh Cambridge is this the fruits of thy Ministry which thou hast so long professed which hath been so long preached in thee is this thy Divinity and is these thy preachers of Divinity nay they are now found out by the light of God to be the Diviners and Sorcerers Witches and Magicians that are onely opposers and gainsayers of the truth who must perish in the gain-saying of Core they are known by their fruits and the fruits of their Ministry and thy Wel-head of Divinity is now found the Well-head of Sorcery witchcraft and spiritual whoredome Iam. 3.11 and all abomination and uncleanness the day doth declare it and one Fountain cannot bring forth both bitter water and fresh Oh! Antichrist hath reigned long over poor inslaved captivated souls but now Israels Redeemer hath appeared and the Son of Righteousness is risen with healing in his wings and Antichrists Kingdome is come and coming to an end Mal. 4.2 and Christ himselfe will reign and rule in truth and in righteousness in his ransomed ones

would have been persecuting of me but by the power of God I was preserved and kept from the hands of such unreasonable men but thus did all Sects ever joyn against the one single Truth but it is but that the Scripture should be fulfilled Isai 3 1 2 3. that Gog and Magog should joyne in Battel against the Lamb but the Lamb shall overcome and they shall lay down their Crowns before Him and his Enemies shall become his Foot-stoole and he wil tread them in the wine-press alone without the City therefore tremble all you Formalists Imitators and Selfe-actors who have gotten a Form but deny the life and power even Iesus Christ whom you have crucified which you shall be made to confess with weeping tears where your eyes behold him whom you have pierced So after I had passed out of the Steeple-house when the Baptist was put to the rout I stood upon a Grave in the Grave-yard and there I called to the people if any of them had any thing to object against me I was there to maintain and stand up for the truth to the which I had openly born testimony in their Town but none would come to my face and there was one Captain Cole there present who had been counted an Independant Teacher until his flock forsook him and owned the Truth and he had railed against the Truth behind my back but he would not come then and speak to my face and since he hath imprisoned one of his neighbours Sonne for obeying the command of God and coming to his House for a signe so I spoke the Truth unto the people and proved this Ray openly to be a Deceiver among them and judged him out of his own mouth and so cleared my conscience to the people and so I came away with my friends in Peace having cleared and discharged my conscience unto them by which they are eternally left without excuse whether they would hear or forbear their blood will be upon their own heads and so I leave them Now upon the Day following it happened that a friend of mine did speak with this Ray who unto him did falsely affirm that I said I was the head of the true Church when as I never spoke any such a thing therefore I hearing of a meeting of the Baptists that day and that this Ray was there I several of my friends went unto this meeting when I came at the house the dore was open and I went in amongst them and this Ray was speaking unto the people and when he saw me he stopped his speaking and shut his book before I opened my mouth to speak and bid me be gone out of the house and I said is thy spirit limited is thy spirit bound and he bid me begone and said why did I disturb them and asked him how did I disturb you was not I silent until thou spoke to me but guilt tormenting him within he could not forbear me but called for the man of the house to command me out several times but he was not amongst them as they said so this Ray was much vexed and in much wrath and one of their Elders named Iohn Tabram of VVickin stood up and pushed me with his hand upon my breast several times in much wrath to have me out of the house and I did not resist him he said if I would not go out they would send for the officers now let all people see what weapons they make use of when one comes soberly and civilly without any violence amongst them and presently to be in such disorder and confusion and rage as they was and threatning to send for the officers whenas there was no violence offered by us but here you might see what these people would do if they had a law to guard them as the Priests hath then there was one man that had been hearing of them and he spoke and said to this Ray you say they are deceivers and they say you are deceivers now I would have you dispute it that those that are ignorant might know which are the deceivers but Ray slighted him and said who are you I know you not would by no means have his deeds brought to the light to be tryed but gets amongst the blind where he cannot be seen so then they brought the woman of the house to me and she bid me go out of her house which I did not resist and so I called to Ray and told him he was ashamed of his doctrine so I shoke off the dust of my feet for a witness against them and so left them and then they shut their dore but poore people I do pitty you to see how ignorantly and blindly you are led by the deceitfulness of Satan to think that you are the Church of Christ and none else whenas your teachers dare not stand to maintain their doctrine but flies away when they should come to the proof and calls for Officers when one comes in amongst you without any carnal weapon is this the doctrine of Christ which you talk so much of or of Antichrist surely if I had been a deceiver and he a minister of Christ then I could not have stopped his mouth but he would have stopped mine for the ministers of Christ are able to stop the mouths of gainsayers but his mouth was stopped yea when he was busie at that he calls preaching too but my mouth he could not stop and he was found the deceiver whom truth put to silence who was ashamed of his doctrine Oh people take heed how you reject so great Salvation for this is the day of your visitation now you are warned by one who amongst you is counted a deceiver yet true witnessed in all your consciences by that which will either accuse you or excuse you before the the throne of God who am known to all the children of Light The Excommunicaiion of Ezekiel Cater Samuel Cater out of the Bapists society by Iohn Ray with their Answer thereunto VVe two namely Ezekiel Cater and Samuel Cater being met together amongst our friends upon the 4 day of 3 month waiting upon the Lord there came three of the teachers of the baptised people amongst whom was one John Ray a chiefe Teacher who came and said he had a message to deliver but his message was denyed but he said he would speak and so disorderly ran into many words to this effect There being a generall meeting at Cambridge this week Excom John Ray. where the Church of Christ was met together and there it was agreed upon by the Elders that Samuel Cater and Ezekiel Cater who were formerly Elders of the church of Christ in this town namely Littleport and being they have departed from the sweet fellowship of the Church of Christ c. and after so many admonitions would not be reconciled should be delivered unto Satan I was there appointed to be the messenger and so he run on with his excommunication

according to their form with their stoln words Reply Now for the truths sake for which thou John Ray hast cast us out of your society we shall hereby cleare our selves from what is or may be cast upon us in this matter by thee John Ray and the rest of thy society whom we know to be most bitter slanderers of the truth This we deny that ever we was Elders in the church of Christ you made us Elders in your church who call your selves jews and are not but the Synagogue of Satan out of which you have cast us but not before we forsaked you we by the light of Iesus Christ through the love of God seeing both you and we setting our selves of acting and imitating the Apostles in our wils with a blind zeal for life but strangers to the life and power neither could witness the same infallible spirit as they had as you know we all confessed and therefore we had nothing but what we got into our brains of their words and so got a notion with adding to our own imaginations of them and wresting the same with our fallible spirits for we durst not say it was infallible as you also confessed your selves then it must needs be fallible for there are but two kindes of SPIRITS and if not the INFALLIBLE then the fallible and though we did the very same things and spoke the same words and not from the same Spirit it was all false and as nothing as they that swore God lived swore falsely for they that have not the Spirit of Christ are none of his and his spirit is infallible in the least measure and thus you are shut out in all that you can do of your selves with your formed Ordinances and this we know we was also strangers to the Cross of Christ and the Light and Life and Power of Christ which the Apostles lived in and also the one Baptisme of Christ without which none can be his Disciples so we was only jews outwardly washing the outside but within as foul as ever as you also are yet we say not but we had a zeale in the same though not according to knowledge but now the true Light is sprung in through the mighty love of God towards us so that we see the weakness of our own actings and formings in our own wils for life and now are made willing through the power of God to lay down our crowns at the feet of Iesus and to wait in what he hath given us of his Light and we have tasted of his powerful VVord through his gracious love towards us and now we have a witness vvithin our selves whenas before we knew it not but murdered it as you also do and for this you have cast us out of your society but not for fornication as he was in that place of Scripture which you imitate 1 Cor. 5. nor for making shipwrack of faith and a good conscience for we witness an increase of both but the discerning and power is wanting in you and so you do you know not what but know this we are not fallen to a looser life but to a more stricter severe life for to serve the Lord Iesus Christ but remember this that if they that believed your form to be the truth could but patter over a few words of faith and call it theirs and then according to your form they was put into the VVater and taken out again and then received into your Church and communion though no change of life or nature and this must needs be the Synagogue of Satan and this I Samuel Cater can vvitness for so have I baptised and at you I learned and you allovved of it but novv my eye is opened I do see it and do testifie against it that all I did so by I deceived them though then I confess it vvas ignorance and so vvas yours but novv you might see if you vvould therefore it shall no more be called ignorance but vvilful blindness but I knovv you vvill alledge you teach Godliness and holyness but I ansvver you run and the Lord never sent you as vve also did therefore you profit not the people at all and if you had not the VVords of Godliness and the form 2 Cor. 11.14 15 then the Ministers of Antichrist vvould not be like the Ministers of Christ but you are but I say your lives comes short of vvhat you profess for in them there is no change but they that are Earthly Minded and Covetous are so stil and your lives are in pride ambition and arrogancy puffed up vvith your vain knovvledg and vvith respect of persons and so are out of the faith of Christ and in vvrath and anger and envy and bitterness and in lying and slandering and backbiting and lust fleshliness we formerly being in the same Society do witness it now our eys are open out of which society you have cast us and praised be the Lord that vve have escaped the snares of darkness by the bright shining of his light into our dark hearts to the vvhich light do vve speak in you all by it to read your selves and judge your selves for by it are you seen and judged to be in darkness and in confusion out of the faith and society of the Saints but these things do vve not speak out of envy or Revenge but for the clearing of the Truth and our consciences from your slanderous tongues and to lay oped your deceit and vvay of delusion to the simple that they may escape the delusion vvhich vve vvas ensnared in and that so you may proceed no further vvith it that your folly might be manifested to all men as theirs vvas vvho vvithstood Moses E.C. S.C. A Copy of the most of the Queries aforesaid was given to this Ray but no Answer did he return NOw a word to all you who are stil in your own formings selfe-actings Rom. 8.7 and imitatings you are acting in that nature which is at enmity with God which is not subject to the Law of God neither can so all your formings and actings is in vain for it is not from life but from death for life but life comes from death for in the destruction of death is life obtained therefore to the light of the Lord Jesus in all your consciences take heed which is the witness for God to which I speak in you all which witnesseth for God against the secrets of your hearts which reproves you in secret for your secret actions and deeds of darkness and it will search you through and let you see what you can witness of the work of God in you hearts for all this your long and great profession and esteeming your selves of the Church and faith of Christ and Saints in Christ so if you can witness yet the earth quakes and that the earth is yet removed out of its place and mountains removed by the eye of faith and if the vail of darkness be yet rent Is not