Regenerates them nor Seals it unto them but is a thing of Mens devising which the Lord never required at your hands And though Scriptures be wrested by you to keep it up and many Reasons brought to prove it yet I say and I and not I only but many more know in the Light it is proved that there is not one Scripture rightly understood that is for it nor one true Reason from Scripture to keep up your Sprinkling Infants But it is a Custom that in the Apostasie had its Rise and by such as are not recovered out of the Apostasie kept up and pleaded for Now for the stir thou makest about something that was said by one of our Friends about the Press that was about Christ by People that came to be Healed and that therefore the Disciples might say something as tending to hinder the little Children from coming and that the Children were brought upon other accounts to Christ and not to be Baptized at all with outward Water I say thou wrongest our Friend in mixing and charging words on him he spoke not and therefore now that I see thee make so bad an use of his words and so misrepresent them it is good time to take notice of thee And now I may add something more concerning thy ungrounded Reasons thou bringest for Infant-Baptism 1. Thou sayst Where the Disease is there ought the Remedy to be applied but the Disease to wit Original Sin is in Children as well as Men Therefore the Remedy which is Baptism ought to be applied to Children as well as Men. I answer That by this both thy self and all that take part with thee in this thing are manifest to be like the Papists in this Point about Infant Baptism for they hold that Baptism of Infants washes away Original Sin and so do these English Priests it seems I knew that you were Idolaters from the Womb giving that to the Creature which is proper to the Creator If the Disease be Original Sin and the Remedy be outward Baptisin then it seems those that are so cured must certainly be saved then it 's no Wonder though poor People that are perswaded of this Lie do run so fast to you with their Children to be Sprinkled and no wonder that they do so admire you and worship you that are such Saviours and none must be thought worthy to do it it seems but your selves O sad Work But by this Craft you get great Livings and that pleases your Carnal Mind well But God will judge for all such things And if this Tradition of yours were true How can ever any that have Original Sin so cured and washed from them Sin at all For take away the Cause and Root of a thing and the Effect and Fruit which comes and springs from them must needs cease also And therefore thy Interpretation of the Remedy against Original Sin that it is outward Water-Baptism which thou didst mention in thy Argument I do utterly deny and do with all the Children of Light pronounce it to be contrary to the Word of God for God's Word is Truth and no Lie is of but contrary to the Word of Truth And so where the Door or In-let into your Church is such an unsound Doctrine as this what a Church is that And now if thou couldst convert to Truth according to thy seeming Promise it would be well for thy Soul Therefore whilst it is called to day harden not thy Heart Thy second Reason is answered already in shewing thy false Exposition of that place of Scripture Gen. 17.7 3. Thy third Reason No means of Salvation ought to be denied to the Children of the Faithful whereof they are capable but Baptism is an outward means of Salvation whereof Children are capable under the Gospel as well as Children of the Jews were capable of it under the Law therefore c. To this I say Though in a general Sence Your own grant that Insants cannot observe the Requisites of Baptism to wit Faith and Repentance shews their Incapacity for it the Major Proposition as you tearm it may be granted but restrained to your Sence I say that before you intitle your Children to Priviledges because of your Faith you had need prove your selves to be in the Faith which yet you have not done lest both the Root Tree and Branches fall all together And for the Minor as you tearm it I say it is false that your Sprinkling is any means of Salvation either to your selves or your Children because as is proved it hath no ground nor footing in the Truth but a meer Invention of Man's wanting both Precept and President in the Scriptures of Truth And for Children being capable of it under the Gospel I ask how capable Dost thou say they understand what is done to them in it or can make any Spiritual use of it in their Infancy Then I say The Multitude shall condemn thee and the least in the Flock witness against thee But if thou say they are capable of it only so as to suffer it to be done on them without understanding then I say it is no Gospelâ— Capacity for in the Gospel Ministration all must be done and received in and with the Spirit and Understanding except you will joyn hands again with the Papists and say ex opere operato to wit From the Work of the Priest done upon them they are saved O sad That ever we should have occasion to speak thus to a People after so long a time of professing the Scripture and Protestant Religion 4. The fourth Reason speaks all as it were in one and doth fully make manifest the Darkness in thee from whence all thy Unchristian Doctrines have proceeded and it is this All those who receive the thing signified by Baptism ought to receive the outward Sign it is the Argument of St. Peter Acts 10.47 Can any Man forbid Water that these should not be Baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we But Children of the Faithful receive the thing signified by Baptism to wit Regeneration and Remission of Sins Therefore c. To thy first Proposition drawn from Peter's words Acts 10.47 thou might have left that to others who Idolize outward Baptism in another Form for they will tell thee it belongs nothing to you at all who Sprinkle before Confession or any visible Appearance of any inward Work But then sayst thou If Children be not Regenerated and receive Remission of Sins you must needs hold that all Children are damned I say thou belies us and the Truth for there is no necessity at all for such a wild and falfe Conclusion from our true and harmless Premises for what though God please to have Mercy upon Children whether some or all whom and as he pleaseth What ground is that for you to say hand over head that all that you Sprinkle are Regenerated when you know nothing at all of God's Mind in the thing And for your calling such Children
Christ which they be freely inlightned withal which shines in their very Hearts and Consciences which searches their very Hearts and Reins and makes manifest to Man his Thoughts and from which none can hide any thing but all things are naked and bare before him the Light Christ Jesus who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Jew and Gentile one and other who searcheth the most hidden things of Man and brings them forth to the Judgment of his Righteousness for though the Night may hide the Adulterer and the Thief from Man it hides them not from God there is one nigh in the Heart and Conscience that tells Man and Woman all that ever they have done and do daily do even their secret Thoughts is not this the Christ of God the true Messiah that was to come and is come and dwells amongst us and we look not for another And of his Fulness have all we received and do daily receive who believe in his Light which shines in our Hearts according to the Scriptures of Truth And this the Fulness of our Blessed God and Saviour Jesus Christ the Light is it which filleth all that come to him with all Spiritual Blessings and Heavenly Good Things and without whom all is Darkness Emptiness Death and Desolation as all the poor deceived lost Sons and Daughters of the faln Adam do sooner or later know and are made to confess But Blessed are they that consider of things in time and lay things to Heart before it be too late for there are but Twelve Hours in a Day in which Men may work saith Christ and then the Night cometh in which none can work but the Door will be shut upon all who have slighted and neglected the Day of their Visitation O England England and all Lands far and near that you had known or could yet believe the things that belong to your Everlasting Peace before they be hid from your Eyes therefore turn ye turn ye at the Reproofs of God's Wisdom and Spirit of Light and Truth which sounds through all and lets you see the Vanity and Evil of all your Works and Frailty of all your Lives how soon the Thread of your Life is cut off And then where is the great Emperors and Kings with all their Crowns And where is the great Captains and Commanders with all their Bloody Victories And where is the Wise Achitophel's and Cunning Counsellors of the Earth with all their Admirers And where is the Covetous Oppressors with all their Houses full of the Spoils of the Innocent Yea in that Day where is all the Glory and Lusts of the World with all the Lovers of it Surely in Darkness and Misery shall they lye down together and Death shall have Dominion over them even all who have not believed in the Light Christ Jesus and who have not followed him in the Regeneration that they may be saved but have spent their Days in the Pleasures and Lusts of the present evil World to Destruction Now therefore O all People hearken to the Counsel of the Lord in this your Day and learn of the Lamb the Light who calls you to Repentance from all your grievous Ways How long shall the Spirit of the Lord strive with you When will you cease learning War and Destruction and Oppression and Spoil O when will you beat your Swords into Plow-shares and your Spears into Pruning-hooks O when will you go and say one to another one Neighbour to another and one Nation to another Come let us all be humbled before the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who made us all of one Blood to dwell together upon the Face of the Earth in Truth Goodness and Love to serve one another and so as Branches of one Tree to receive Life and Vertue and Power from our God into our Souls to strengthen us unto his holy Work who came not to destroy Mens Lives but to save them whose Kingdom is not of this World and therefore is not set up or maintained with Carnal Weapons Violence and Spoil but by the Eternal Spirit of our God whose Fruit is in all Goodness and Righteousness and Truth and let not the wicked Devil the Destroyer deceive us any more by his Lies and Delusions but let us all with one Heart and Soul resist his Temptations when he perswades us to seek to be great in the Earth and be avenged on them we count our Enemies let us not hearken to him but let us overcome their Evil with Goodness and not to seek the Destruction of their Persons or Spoil of their Estates as the Heathen do that know not God but let us follow the Example of Jesus Christ God manifested in Flesh who when he was reviled reviled not again but pray'd for such as despitefully used him O come let us follow this meek Lamb in Righteousness and Truth and let us learn of him in our Hearts who is meek and lowly that we may find rest for our Souls who rebuked his Disciples who would have had Fire to come down from Heaven to destroy the Samaritans who would not at that time receive Christ for what knowest thou O Man but the Samaritans may in time come to a better Mind and then thou wilt see it was thy Will and not God's that desired their Destruction in their Sins for Christ would have all to be Saved and to come to the Knowledge of his Truth but many will not come to him that they might have Life and so their Destruction is of themselves and their Condemnation just And who are now therefore those that withstand the Doctrine of the Truth which saith Love your Enemies and seek not the Destruction of their Persons and Estates but seek them by good Doctrine and good Life to bring them out of their Sins And if they will not but rather hate thee for thy Good-will be content thou hast quitted thy own Soul and art clear of their Blood and so thou becomes a Sufferer with Jesus Christ and shalt Reign with him in due time I say who are these now on the Earth that are against the good Self-denying Doctrine of Christ and continue in the hateful destroying ways of the old Jews and Gentiles but such as will not be counselled by the Lamb of God the suffering Seed who said Learn of me for I am meek and lowly of Heart but ye are Men of corrupt Minds and account Gain and worldly Honours and Promotions more than Godliness who cry Peace Peace to themselves in their Sins And that same Spirit in them which creates that false Peace in them is the same that stirs them up to kill destroy oppress and spoil one another for selfish and worldly Ends but the Lord is arisen to Judge all these Evil things and to redeem a Seed to serve him as in the beginning of the Gospel before Antichrist the Murtherer got up amongst them that professed Christ in Words but denied him in Deeds and so had a Name
Blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were Slain upon the Earth Rev. 18.24 For what Spiritual Man did ever ask such a Question or rather affirm for in him his question is an Affirmation to wit That no man is able by the inward Teachings of the Spirit alone to Expound one Chapter in the Bible And that there is none can solidly Vnfold any Doctrine of Divinity which he never Read or Heard of or can teach the Truth or defend that Religion which he was never taught by Man Oh happy therefore are they who are come to the Everlasting Covenant of God and to know the inward Teachings and Leadings of his Holy Spirit in their Heart to lead them into all Truth according to Promise John 16. without being beholding to vain Man's Help for whereof is he to be accounted as is manifest even as a thing of naught is the best of them out of the Truth For O! How Ignorant of the Ministry of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit 's Inspiration sufficient Teaching is this R. B. who is not content to fit among the Parish-Teachers as a Fellow but even takes upon him to be a Teacher of the Teachers Yea so Ignorant and Unbelieving is he concerning the Spirit 's Power and Sufficiency in these Days that without an outward Miracle he will not believe any such thing Nay he would not have People believe for themselves that God teacheth their own Hearts unless it comes in Man's Way and by humane Study Labour and natural Means Therefore the Lord saw good for his own Glory and for the Vindication of his own Honourable and Everlasting Truth which the Hirelings had made void by their Traditions and for the absolute necessity of his own beloved Seed to restore unto us the Ancient Doctrine of the Holy Spirit 's Sufficiency in all the Work of bringing Man out of the Fall to God that the Lord the Spirit might be the first and the last yea all in all in their Salvation without Man's help for he is worthy who as he Created all things by his own alone Power and according to his good Will so he Restores all things according to the Counsel of his own Will and not of Flesh nor of Blood nor of the Will of Man as the Apostle also Speaks John 1.13 But Oh! How unlike is this Doctrine of the Apostles to R. B's for when the Apostle had said To them that received Christ to them he gave Power to become the Sons of God lest any should think as this R. B. doth that it was either by Man's Labour or Study or humane Endeavour or Art or Parts or any Natural Abilities or Helps whatsoever he saith It was not of Flesh nor of Blood nor of the Will of Man but of God And of his own Will begat he us by the Word of Truth saith that other Apostle Jam. 1.17 18. And he bids not Err as this R. B. doth to set up another Fountain or Root and that this Word of Truth is not any outward Writing Voice or any Creature John in his first Chapter tells us That in the beginning was this Word and the Word was with God and is God And his Name is called the Word of God Rev. 19.13 So this Word though it works according to the Witness of the Scripture which it gave forth freely and as it self pleaseth in the Children of Men yet it is not the Scripture For search the Scriptures or ye do search the Scriptures saith Christ that witness of me but you will not come to me that you may have Life and these were they that Paul said He bore them Record that they had a Zeal for God and Scripture but not according to Knowledge for they being Ignorant of God's Righteousness went about to Establish their own Righteousness and submitted not to God's And so even so this R. B. and many such like have a blind Zeal and a great Talk of the Scriptures without and of the Spirits Teaching by the Letter and humane Helps and the like but will not come to Christ to know him in them that they may have Life and Wisdom and Righteousness But would Establish their own which is meer Emptiness and Vanity in the sight of God and all truly Spiritual Men 1 Cor. 13.5 Rom. 10.3 And how far this R. B's Language in those other words where he saith That if any will pretend to a good Vnderstanding of the Scriptures without learning the Languages which they are written in and the Customs of those Times Countries or without much Reading and long Study of the Scriptures themselves and the Writings of them that better understand them had need of some Miracle or something like a Miracle to perswade themselves or others that they are not deceived How far I say is this Doctrine and Language in this R. B. from the Language of the Holy Men of God that writ the Scripture let the Spiritual Man who best understands all things Judge for the Holy Apostles Magnified the free Grace and the free Teachings of the Spirit of Grace and debased Man and all meer humane Helps as is said before and as the Scripture Witnesseth But this R. B. tyeth the weight and main Stress of all upon humane Learning natural Parts knowledge of Custom and Countries much Reading long Study and the like insomuch that without them Man must not look that any should believe him Nay nor he must not own God's Teaching in his own Heart without these unless seconded by some Miracle or the like But Oh the Misery thereof of such poor Souls as follow such wretched Teachers and their unsound Doctrine as I may well say And Oh! for ever Blessed are they who are brought from off such Barren Mountains into the good Fold where all the Lambs of Christ lye down in the good Pasture of the Spirit 's Fulness and walk up and down in the Light of the Lord under the Hand of the good Shepherd Christ Jesus where none can come to make afraid nor deceive for in the Light of our God we see all these false Teachers and their devouring Doctrines and by the Holy Power of God are delivered from them and made able in the overcoming Spirit of Truth to declare against them Glory to God for ever Amen Again let us review and consider in particular a little of those words of his before set down where he saith as an Argument to perswade his young Ones and Dissenters to his falsly called Humility Especially saith he If you know your Advantages for Knowledge have been less than other Men's that you are younger or that it is but a few Years since you entered upon the Study of the Scripture or that you have not any stronger Natural Parts than other Men or that you have not had that Measure of Learning which might further your Knowledge of the Holy Scripture But that others that differ from you have had much more of all these Helps and Means
Antichrist there shall be Overturnings and Commotions by which the Carnal Church shall be terribly stirred up and moved against the Evangelical Spirit of Christ but that the Whore of Babylon the Carnal Church shall fall in which time the Saints shall preach saying From this time it is no longer the Church of Christ but the Synagogue of Satan and the Habitation of Devils which before said in the Pride of her Heart I sit as a Queen in great Honour and Glory I Rule over my Kingdom I sit at ease I am no Widow i. e. I have Bishops and Kings on my side That the Roman Church is that Great Whore spoken of in the Revelations which hath committed Fornication with this World having departed from the Worship and sincere Love and Delights of Christ her Spouse and embraced the World the Riches and Pleasures of it and the Devil and Kings and Princes and Prelates and all the Lovers of this World Also Page 285. For if we have no other Helps for the understanding of their Prayer of Contemplation than what Mr. Cressy gives in his Preface we may as well hope to understand the Quakers Canting as Mr. Cressy ' s. And this Author Page 289. saith Christ and his Apostles taught Men a plain and intelligible way of serving God and bid them look for Perfection in another World Also Page 295. telling of some Romish Phanaticks says Did not they deliver this for their Doctrine that Men ought to harken to the immediate Impulses of the Spirit of God within them and that now God doth acquaint his own People with his Mind and Will in a way peculiar to themselves And says afterwards That our Enthusiasts do not boast of so many Raptures Visions and Revelations as those of the Church of Rome have done Now to this I say that when any of those that pretend to be Head of the Protestant Church are come to such a pass and measure of Darkness as that they cannot allow that Christians ought to harken to the immediate Impulses of the Spirit of God within them or that now God doth acquaint his own People c. I say it is sad and the Times may well be said to be perilous indeed What! Doth either the Scripture without or the inward Faculty which thou says must be Antecedent to all Divine Revelation Dictate to thee that these Sayings are Phanatical What! Are not the Children of God led by the Spirit of God which is in them And must they not harken to the Doctrine and Movings of their Teacher and Leader And doth not Christ say to you to wit my peculiar People and Disciples it is given to know the Mystery of the Kingdom of God but to others it is not given to wit to those that are without that follow their Wisdom and not Christ's Spirit But both the Carnal Church of Papists and Protestants deny to harken to the inward Movings or Impulses as are here called of God's Spirit that they may Establish their own Traditions some in one way some in another but all in vain for the Lamb shall have the Victory and a little Child shall lead them and the Meek shall increase their Joy in the Lord and he the Lord whom the World despises shall lead them by the Fountain of Living Water But let me ask this Doctor this Serious Question whether he accounts that part of Romish Phanaticism here set down or the Common Tenets of them called the Orthodox among them the better Doctrine Surely of the Two this he calls Phanaticism is the more favoured by Scripture and so consequently the more Orthodox and may I not say the more Protestant too For the first Reformers pretended to take Scripture for their Rule though in many things they missed it sadly And are not we that go amongst them under the Name of Quakers counted Phanaticks at this Day from this very ground because we Preach Scripture Doctrine and Speak Scripture Language at this Day As for instance because we say Christ lighteth every man that cometh into the World according to John 1.9 And because we say this Light or Grace and Truth of God which hath appeared unto all Men is the Saints Teacher and would be a sufficient Teacher and Leader into Life to all Men if they did not resist it and rebel against the Motions of it And because we say that the Saints who are in this Anointing of the Holy One know all things necessary to Salvation according to 1 John 2. And because we say that People ought not to have the Faith of Christ with respect of Persons but such as respect Persons commit Sin according to Lev. 19.15 And because we say the Work of the true Ministry is for perfecting the Body of Christ Eph. 4. And the false Ministry perfects nothing but keeps People always Learning and never brings them to the Knowledge of the Truth And because we say thee and thou to a particular Person according to Scripture I say for these and many the like Doctrines doth the present evil World of Papists and Protestants Professors and Prophane hate us and deride us and persecute us to their own shame who would be accounted Owners of Scripture Thomas Taylor The Day is Dawned that makes all Wickedness manifest FOR now even now the Day is Dawned which makes all things manifest Praises to the Lord God of Heaven and Earth and now no Worker of Iniquity can be hid any more for now the Glory of the Lord fills the Earth and the Knowledge of God covers the Earth as the Waters do the Sea And now the pure Truth of the Ever-living God hath lift up its Head above all the Clouds and Floods of Error and over all the Mists and Fogs of the dark perishing World Glory to the God of Truth our Life and Light this Day who is appeared in the Riches of his Bounty to gather our Souls to himself and to unite our very Hearts and Souls unto him in the Covenant of his Life and Love never to be broken nor forgot And now the Kingdom of God is come indeed to the Believers in the Light according to the Promise of the Lord and the Saints Prayer into which no unclean thing can enter but the unbelieving World stand without wondring despising and perishing in their manifold Opposition to the Truth and Light of this Day of God the true God over all Blessed for Evermore And now all those who will not take Warning by the harms of such Gainsayers of the Light as are gone before them will fall with a double Destruction because they would not apply their Hearts to that pure Wisdom that comes so plentifully from God in the Light of his Son this Day to learn his fear therein but take more pleasure in the Works of their own deceived Hearts and unclean Hands than in the pure Law and Handy-work of the Ever-living Blessed Lord God that gives Life and Breath and all things who is this Day indeed exalting
saith Again saith this Popish Book asking this Question Is the Church visible He answers She is and must be visible at all times as consisting of a Hierarchy of Pastors Governing Teaching and Administring Sacraments to the Worlds end and of other People governed taught and receiving Sacraments at their Hands all publickly professing the same Faith all which things are visible And for this brings Ephes 4.11 12. Mat. 5.14 15. Answer Now to this I say that the true Church the Spouse of Christ and not the Adulterer the Popedom are visible and known to God and its own Members but invisible to the World as such as the Apostle saith 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the Sons of God therefore the World knows us not because it knew not him to wit Christ Jesus their Head though he did appear in Flesh and so the Flesh was the Vail by which he was hid from the World then as the Flesh is the Vail by which the true Saints are hid from the World now And this makes manifest that that Scripture Ephes 4.11 12. makes nothing for his Purpose at all And as for that other Scripture Mat. 5.14 15. where it is said Ye are the Light of the World a City set on a Hill which speaks of them that were truly so and kept their savour and not at all for the Pope or his great Army of Apostates nor of any other who have the Name only of Christians but have lost the good savour and so want the true Christian Life and so having put the Candle under a Bushel though they may have a shew in outward Observances of their own devising of a Church yet still wanting the true heavenly savoury Life I say they are to be trodden under Foot of Men as unsavoury Salt and so this Scripture makes nothing for them neither But some may say Though this makes not for the Pope or any false Church yet doth it not make something for the visibility of the true Church I answer No not in the Popish or Worldly Sense at all for though the good Life of the true Church be very savoury to that of God in every Man and the same Holy Life shining before Men is of great Service to Men and Glory to God and so because they separate from the World not only in the inward but outwardly also therefore they cannot be hid if they do any thing contrary to their Holy Profession and Separation yet still the Apostle 1 John 3.1 stands firm in his Testimony to which my Spirit agrees Therefore the World knows us not because they knew not Christ For how can the World who are in the False Life and Religion and yet think it is true know or believe them to be the True Church of Christ who separate from them and bear witness against them And this farther appears if we consider how the True Church as Christ himself was ever hated and persecuted of the World Rev. 12.6 c. and many other Scriptures And wherefore is all this Enmity but even because the World knew them not as they were but even accounted them through their great Ignorance as the Off-scouring of all things As it is reported also concerning the Christians in the Heathenish Persecutions after Christ Sejanus vir bonus sed est Christianus Such a one is a good Man but he is a Christian So amongst and by you called Papists Such a one is a good Man but he is a Protestant And amongst the common Protestants Such a one is a good Man but he is a Quaker Thus hath the true living Seed been vailed from the World under some Reproach or other through Ages and Generations as at this day And so to conclude I say That which is here said of the Invisibility of the True Church is not as this Popish Book would wickedly Insinuate Because there were none called Protestants before Luther's Time or because others since Luther's Time have had other Names but because the Truth according to the Scripture of Truth so judges as is here in a few words set down But to return the Wickedness of these Popish Pleaders upon their own Heads it may be truly said That the End of their Pleading so much for the Visibility of the Church is Because they have little in their Religion if any thing at all but what the blind and evil World can both see and exercise themselves in and yet continue still in their sinful Nature So that the Pope's Daughter the Popish Synagogue is most unlike the Heavenly King's Daughter the True Church which is all Glorious within but the Pope and his Daughter the False Church is all Foul within and only Glorious on the out fiâ—e and that not with a true out-side Comliness or Glory neither but even with the rotten filthy Rays and menstruous Clouts of Humane Traditions and Carnal Ordinances and Observations of their own Devising beautiful only to the Adulterous Eye but not with the Ornament of a truly Godly Life and Holy Conversation which is the True Churches Golden Ornament or Rayment which is truly Beautiful in the Eye of God and his Saints It is so as saith God's Good Spirit in his Servant A Warning to the Papists at Stafford Thomas Taylor a Servant of the True and Everliving God in the Everlasting Gospel and Kingdom of his Son sendeth Greeting and a Warning unto you from him in whose Hand is your Breath and the Breath of all the Living I say unto you who call your selves Catholicks or Roman Catholicks here about Stafford Awake Awake look into your selves Trim your Lamps and see whether the true Oyl be in you which the first Christians witnessed in them which they had of God whereby they knew all things for if you would be found true Catholicks Members of the Universal Church the Heavenly Body this you must have for the Cry is gone forth Behold the Bridegroom cometh and it 's none but the Wise in Heart the pure Virgin Souls can enter God's Kingdom it 's not enough for you to say We are Catholicks or Roman Catholicks and our Religion is old or so for it is not how Old but how Good for how much old an Error or Way of Evil is by so much the worse it is and to imagine that God will receive you because of your many Outside Observations and Carnal Ordinances you are very much mistaken so long as the inside is unwashed for it 's a pure Heart and a right Spiritual Worship from the same that God Requires And did not the Apostle to the Galatians say He was afraid of them because they thought to Please God in observing Days and Months and Times and Years after Christ was come in the Flesh and Offered up to end all such Shadows and all of like Nature that can be brought in since then as a part of God's Worship and to bring in Everlasting Righteousness even the
TRVTH 's INNOCENCY AND SIMPLICITY SHINING Through the Conversion Gospel-Ministry Labours Epistles of Love Testimonies and Warnings to Professors and Profane With the Long and Patient Sufferings of that Ancient and Faithful Minister and Servant of JESUS CHRIST Thomas Taylor Who finish'd his Course in the Year MDCLXXXI 1 Thess 2.5 6. For neither at any time used we flattering words nor a Cloak of Covetousness God is Witness Nor of Men sought we Glory c. LONDON Printed and Sold by T. Sowle next Door to the Meeting-house in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-street and at the Bible in Leaden-hall-street near the Market 1697. AN EPISTLE TO ALL Friendly and Impartial READERS THE Ensuing Collection is Recommended to your Serious Perusal Charitable and Tender Considerations wherein expect not to find either Empty Flourishes Curiosity of Speech or Acquired Eloquence but Plainness and Simplicity wherein the Substantial Truth is sincerely aimed and pointed at The Author by the Grace of God through Jesus Christ being Converted from a Literal Worldly and Mercenary Priest tho' one of the Better Sort to be a Spiritual Minister of Christ and Free Preacher of Righteousness in Life and Doctrine knowing that Gospel-Ministers and good Preachers must be good Livers none being meet to Convert others to God or Christ but who are first truly Converted themselves by his Power This Innocent and Upright-hearted Man Thomas Taylor seeing the great Corruptions Pride and Covetousness and other Enormities among too many of the Worldly Teachers Priests and Hearers was the more Fervent in his Testimony against them who pleased themselves and others with good Words whilst they lived Bad Lives This our Deceased Brother and Servant of Jesus Christ when Sufferings or Storms approached or Wolves appeared to Devour did not Flee with Hirelings nor Flatter with Temporizers nor Admire Mens Persons for Advantage but as one having a fixed Confidence in the Lord and true Zeal for his Glory was Valiant for his Truth on Earth and used much Plainness in his Ministry Testimony and Warnings both to High and Low Professors and Profane not sparing Disguis'd Hypocrites or Deceitful Workers no more than Open and Gross Offenders but as a Partaker of the same Spirit and Life the Primitive Ministers of Christ were in according to his Measure was Exercised in the like Sincerity Uprightness and Self-denial intimated in 2 Cor. 2.17 For we are not as many which deal deceitfully with or make Merchandize of the Word of God and 1 Thes 2.3 For our Exhortation was not of Deceit nor of Vncleanness nor in Guile Ver. 4. But as we were allowed of God to be put in Trust with the Gospel even so we speak not as pleasing Men but God which trieth our Hearts Ver. 5. For neither at any time used we flattering words as ye know nor a Cloak of Covetousness God is witness Ver. 6. Nor of Men sought we Glory neither of you nor yet of others c. In like manner this Faithful Servant of Christ whom we now speak of did not sooth up People in their Sins nor sow Pillows under their Arm-holes like False Sin-pleasing Prophets but in Tender Love and Pity to their Poor Souls Faithfully Warned them and Perswaded them to Repentance as one knowing the Terrors of the Lord and Revelation of his Righteous Judgments against all Unrighteousness of Men being also sensible when the Lord had spoken who can but Prophesie And when he saith Cry aloud and spare not lift up thy Voice like a Trumpet and shew the People their Wickedness Abominations and Transgrâ—ssions What Faithful Messenger dare be silent He was a true Encourager of Vertue and Witness against Vice and Profaneness and the Lord was with him in his Christian Labours Mâ—â—â—stry and Deep Sufferings Wherefore Friendly Readers let not the Simplicity of his Stile nor his Plainness Sharpness or Zeal against Hypocrisie or Deceit offend you in the following Collection or any Passages therein we hope there is nothing in them justly offensive or that may not bear a Charitable and Just Construction with the Impartial and Unprejudic'd if any thing should seem Dubious Though where Prejudice or Envy is against Persons or Things how Just soever it will carp and quarrel at the Clearest Truths as hath appeared both from Envious Apostates and other Enemies to Christ and his Followers The Holy Scriptures themselves not escaping the Causeless Cavils of Irreligious and Atheistical Persons This Faithful and Zealous Servant of Christ was Divinely endued with a Gospel-Spirit and Ministry and was of a True Christian Gentle and Humble Disposition and his Judgment was mix'd with Mercy and Compassion to poor Souls and his Company and Society was Sweet and Acceptable to all the Faithful in Christ who had a True and Spiritual Knowledge of him and Acquaintance with him He sincerely affected Christian Humility Poverty of Spirit and Simplicity in Christ beyond all Artificial Painting and Humane Acquirements And seeing the Vanity of all Airy Notions Scholastick Craft and Self-righteousness he laid it all aside and was Refin'd from all that Dross esteeming the pure Gold the Heavenly Treasure the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord above all therein asserting his Sincerity and Innocency when a Prisoner in about 1665 in Praise to the Lord God who supported him in his Sufferings Patience and Innocent Condition Concerning which please to observe his own Testimony inserted here as followeth viz. This is my Confidence in the Sight of the Lord God and my Clearness before all People that though I have been hated and persecuted and evil spoken of by many these many Years yet it hath altogether been without Cause I praise the Lord. For I can truly say That I never sought the Hurt of any Man living upon the Earth though in Matters of Religion or otherwise he was never so contrary to me or against me Yea the Terrors of God and his Truth did preserve my Heart from seeking my own Revenges but taught me still to commit my Cause to God and he according to his Word did still bring forth my Righteousness as the Light and my Judgment and Just Dealing as the Noon-day Psal 37.5 6. to his Holy Name 's Praise and my Soul 's great Rejoycing and did still let me see that the patient abiding of the Meek is never forgotten of God And so though I have been kept here a Prisoner above four Years for my pure Conscience sake to God yet to the King and the People under whom I Suffer have I done no Harm nor can think or intend them Evil but have endeavoured in all things in the Power of God as a true Christian to live peaceably with all Men as those that have known me from the beginning can witness For I never drew Sword nor Plotted against any nor could ever perswade any others so to do but have still lamented the Misery of Mankind to see them instead of Loving and Helping one another contrariwise Hating Biting Devouring and
the great People of the Earth who love the Pleasures of Sin these TO you that are great in the Earth and in the Glory of the World exalted the Word of the Lord God is to you come down come down to the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ in your Consciences which shows you Sin and Evil and it will let you see how you have spent your time and how your Hearts are taken up with the Love of the World and the Lusts thereof that the one thing necessary is not so minded by you as the worth of your Precious Souls requires but you eat and drink and sport your selves with the Pleasures of Sin and feed your minds with the vain Delights thereof so fat and so full of Self love are you that there is no place empty for Christ in you wherein to lodge or whereon to lay his Head but as a Stranger in you and in your Families is the pure Son of God found and an empty Profession of him that is heavenly in your earthly Minds is all the Food that he can find amongst you Alas Alas For you poor Careless People what will ye do in the Day of the Lord when an Account is required of you of all that ever hath been done in your Body Is not Christ a Stranger amongst you and not taken in Sick and in Prison and ye visit him not Read within Oh how often hath the Lord knocked at your Door and he is not yet in Love entertained in the Heart 's full of other Lovers he cannot Sup there with you and so you Sup not with him but you eat your own Supper and prefers that before his and so discerns not the Lord's Body and so Condemnation is near Do you not to that in your Conscience I speak Do you not I say sit down to eat and drink and rise up to play Is not all Places where you are found Witnesses against you that you serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but your own vain Minds and perishing Lusts rather Doth not your Houses your Diet your Changeable Suits of Apparel and your daily New Fashions with your manner of going abroad whether upon Horse or in Coach and your many unnecessary Attendants and their Attire show you to be so far from Christ's Doctrine and out of his Life that scarce any thing of the true Christianity is to be found amongst you For where is the daily Cross to your Wills and Lusts taken up by you Or where is the Crucifying of the World to you and you to the World witnessed amongst you Or any such thing as the pure Worship of God which stands in Spirit and Truth wherein he only delights But this poor Soul doth mostly satisfie you to wit to get a Carnal Man who loves to be called of Men Master to say over a few devised words or so which he calls Praying and Preaching to please your itching Ears but neither he nor you doing the things which Christ Commands you nor do you live the Life of what in words you profess and so to your other Sins you add that great Sin of Hypocrisie which is in words to profess the Knowledge of God but in deeds to deny it But better it were for you all to mind the Fear of the Lord and to consider what end the Lord made you for and not to pass away your precious time so without the Fear of the Lord God in your Careless Minds as you do for this you should know that the Lord of Glory who respects no Man's Person will not be mocked neither can the respecters of Persons who love the Praise of Men and seek the Worlds Glory live with him for such are Unbelievers as receive Honour one of another and seek not that Honour that comes from God only See John 5. toward the end And now that you have time prize it and lay aside your vain Thoughts a little and in the cool of your Minds consider and let that of God in your Consciences speak if it be not the greatest Folly in the World to Gain the Lusts of the World with the Loss of your Precious Souls And are you not in great danger of being found in this state so long as the true Prophet Christ Jesus whom God hath sent a Light into the World that all through him should come out of Sin is no more regarded by you So now having time prize it and know this Day of your Visitation and what indeed belongs unto your Eternal Peace Rests Thomas Taylor Concerning Bread and Wine THE Lord Jesus never ordained that the unbelieving evil World should eat Bread and drink Wine in remembrance of him when they daily deny him in their Life and Conversation for that were Abomination Carry such an Offering to the Governour and see if he will accept thee will he be pleased with thy words when he sees thy deeds daily contrary to his Mind and Will And how much less then can the pure God accept thee or thine Offering whilst thou only in thy words seems for him but in the whole Course of thy Life art directly contrary to Him and his Holiness O thou that art in the state of Sin and Corruption whose Fruits manifest thy Nature and Inside to be evil how canst thou endure the Trial of this Day of God which is as Fire wherein all that are proud and do wickedly are as Stubble to be burnt up Root and Branch he that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit saith Thomas Taylor The Indignation of the Lord upon all Nations THE Indignation of the Lord is upon all Nations and his Fury upon all their Armies he shall greatly distress the Inhabitants of the World he will now plead the Cause of his Covenant against all those that withstand his Glorious Appearance and Work of Restoration in this the Day of his Mighty Power wherein he is Restoring the Kingdom of his Everlasting Peace to Israel's Seed under the whole Heavens who fear his great Name and tremble at his Almighty Word of Life which shakes not only Earth but Heaven also And now is the Lord God Almighty bringing forth his Glory to light and Creating the New Heavens and New Earth wherein dwells Righteousness according to his Promise Isa 65.17 c. wherein the People beat their Swords into Plow-shares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks never to learn War any more but every one now that believes in the Truth Christ Jesus the Light and true King of Righteousness and Peace shall sit under him the true Vine and none to make them afraid Isa 2.2 c And now even now is the Lord God Almighty got up into his High Throne of Majesty and Everlasting Glory to Reign and of this his Peaceable Kingdom which he hath begun to set up in his Trembling People there never shall be end The true Israel of God is now coming up out of the Spiritual Egypt indeed to possess the true Land of Promise the Inheritance and
and Bears led about your Streets with a Drum and a multitude of People in order to more Vanity and Wickedness and that at such a time as this wherein you pretend to be more Servants of God than ordinary by your Communicating together in your Eating and Drinking the Signs of Christ's Body and Blood But alas for you What will all this avail you so long as Bull and Bear-baitings are tolerated amongst you with such full Allowance as this to the Grief of God's Spirit which abhors all such Cruel Sports and Heathenish Customs Do you not publickly profess in your Church-Service Repentance and Amendment of Life for all that 's contrary to Christ And do you not yet see that to delight in seeing Bulls and Bears and Dogs tearing and tormenting one another without cause is a grievous Sin in the sight of God and therefore not to be tolerated by you Besides the great hurt it doth in the Minds of your young ones who are led away from remembring their Creator in the days of their Youth by these things Surely the Lord is grieved with you will you not see the Evil of such Doings for I know if you would come to the Light of Christ in your Consciences you could not but see them and stand against them with all your might and so discharge a good Conscience towards God and his Creation And how do you know but the general Liberty for these Evils to act upon the Stage of these Nations is one cause of the present Judgment of the Sword amongst them Rests God's Servant who hath been a Mourner in Spirit for ye almost this Ten Years because of the Evil of your Doings but as yet you have not laid things rightly to Heart which shows your Misery to be great Thomas Taylor A Testimony against Sporting and Playing NOne can rightly rejoice in the Birth of Christ but the Spiritual New-born in Christ Those that think to please Christ with Eating and Drinking and Sporting and Playing are Carnally-minded and the Carnal Mind is Enmity to God and those that live in the Fleshly Mind cannot please God Rom. 8.6 7 8. So its manifest that the Service and Kingdom of God stands not in Meats and Drinks and Worldly Delights but in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 For Meats for the Belly and the Bâ—lly for Meats but God will destroy bâ—th it and them saith the Apostle But God will never destroy such as Serve and Worship him in Spirit and Truth all the days of their new and redeemed Life And so it is manifest the more Spiritual that any one is the more are they dead and separated from that foolish Mind and vain Customs that the Evil World loves and lives in And on the contrary those that make most Provision for the Flesh to satisfie it in the Lusts thereof let the Time be what it may are the greatest Enemies to Christ and their own Souls so let things be well weighed and considered and it will appear to the open Eye that God is not more dishonoured many Twelve Days of the Year than in these that People pretend most to Honour him in which to a Godly Heart cannot but be matter of great Sorrow as saith the Apostle Phil. 3.18 19. Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even Weeping that they are Enemies to the Cross of Christ whose end is Destruction whose God is their Belly and whose Glory is in their Shame who mind Earthly things And this is the miserable and woful Condition of the most part of People that in these Days bear the name of Christians over whom the Spirit mourns Thomas Taylor A Loving Exhortation TO All Kings Princes Potentates Bishops and People in the whole Christendom Wherein is a Distinction betwixt the True and False Teachers To be Read over in Meekness and the Fear of the Lord. OYE Kings Princes Potentates and Rulers of the Earth we desire not your Thrones Honours Places or Dignities neither do we envy you for them for we have enough in God our Father who hath made us Kings and Priests to himself by Jesus Christ Spiritually to reign over the Evil in the World and to offer up our selves in Righteousness to his Glory and this is our Crown and that which we strive after in a pure Conscience for we are not of those that fight with Flesh and Blood and with Carnal Weapons for an Earthly Crown but such as in the Strength of Almighty God are taught with Spiritual Weapons to War only against that Mystery of Iniquity and Power of Darkness that captivates the precious Soul of Man and keeps it short of the Glory of God desiring from the Truth of our Hearts that neither the Soul nor Body of any may perish but that this Wicked one which is the Enemy of both may be destroyed out of the Earth in this day of Christ by the Spirit of his Mouth and Brightness of his appearing that so the whole Creation of God may be delivered from Bondage to stand in its Holy Order to the Glory of the Creator as in the Beginning that so he may take delight in the Children of Men and make his Abode with them as at that time when the Morning Stars sung for Joy and all was full of Beauty and Sweetness and no Death in them And O ye Bishops and high Teachers of the World we desire not your Seats neither do we envy you for your great Promotions but do desire that you may know with us the true Shepherd and Bishop of the Soul Christ Jesus the good and true Shepherd and Bishop who gave himself for the Sheep that he might Redeem them from all Iniquity and deliver their Souls from the hands of all Oppression to serve him in his own free Spirit where none can come to make afraid And as this Saviour you come to know and receive your knowledge of Men and Things according to the Flesh will cease and the Love of the World and the Worlds things will die in you and a Love to the Seed that breaths after Righteousness will arise in you and you will know what God requires of you and how you may do that which will commend you to God in the great Day of his Judgment which is nigh at hand and apply your Hearts thereto Therefore awake awake arise arise for the great Day of the Lord is indeed nigh at hand yea the Sun is already arisen and his bright Glory shineth upon the Sons of the Morning and the true fearching Light from which nothing can be hid is felt and known in the Earth and before it the Workers of Iniquity are as Chaff and before it can no mortal Man stand in Judgment though he glister never so much in outward Glory in the Worlds eye for in the presence of this Light the Judgment proceedeth not according to Person or Worldly Appearance but according to Truth Equity and Righteousness and
is above all and over all who was before the World was and hath brought us to reign with him eternally above the World Now here is the Joy and cause of our Rejoycing who have followed the Lamb through great Tribulation and are brought above the Tribulations to dwell in the Presence of the Living God This is Joy unspeakable and full of Glory which shall never have an end Hallelujah to our King for evermore By a Friend Thomas Taylor Watching for Sin WO to you that wake to Sin and watch for Iniquity that spend their Days in Vanity and so bring themselves with Sorrow to the Graves and their Souls to the Pit of Destruction The Trumpet of the Lord is sounding to awaken you to the Judgment of his great Day which burns as an Oven against all the Workers of Iniquity upon the Face of the whole Earth The Apostle saith Awake to Righteousness and Sin not But you that observe these Popish Wakes and Antichristian Revels you awake to Sin and Unrighteousness with the Strength and Delight of your uncircumcised Hearts like the Heathen that know not God The Papists appointed a Feast at the Dedication of their old dead Mass-houses and you their Children who uphold these Wakes bear witness against your selves that you were never yet in heart truly separated from their Idolatries O the Blindness and Deadness of your Teachers that cannot bark against this dead Idol And therefore doth the Lord warn you all to stand up from the Dead that Christ may be your Light to see such wretched and Soul destroying Vanities as these Wakes are that so through Repentance for them you may find Mercy and not perish with them that perish from the right way Rests God's Servant Thomas Taylor A Warning to the NATIONS To Layaside all Prejudice and Enmity The Ground of Strife and Wars And to come and Embrace the Light of Christ Jesus that they may see themselves and come to be Saved and Healed and United in the Love of God THE Indignation of the Lord is upon all Nations and his Fury upon all their Armies he will greatly distress the Inhabitants of the World he will now plead the Cause of his Covenant of Light against all those that withstand his Glorious Appearance and Work of Restoration in this the day of his Mighty Power wherein he is giving the Kingdom of his Everlasting Peace to Israel's Seed under the whole Heavens who fear his Great Name and tremble at his Almighty Word of Life which shakes not only Earth but Heaven also And now is the Lord God Almighty bringing forth his Glory to light and creating the new Heavens and new Earth wherein dwells Righteousness according to his Promise Isa 65.17 c. wherein the People beat their Swords into Plow-shears and their Spears into Pruning-hooks never to learn War any more but every one now that believes in the Truth Christ Jesus the Light and true King of Righteousness and Peace shall sit under him the true Vine and none to make them afraid Isa 2.2 c. And now even now is the Lord God Almighty arisen and got up into his high Throne of Majesty and everlasting Glory to Reign and of this his Peaceable Kingdom which he hath begun to set up in his Trembling People there never shall be End The true Israel of God is now coming up out of the Spiritual Egypt indeed to possess the true Land of Promise the Inheritance and Free Gift of our God and no Inchantment shall now stand against God's Spiritual Host nor Divination against the Redeemed of the Lord who have known his Wonders in the Deep and known the Out-goings of God's Power against Pharaoh and all his Host in the Red Sea of his Fiery Indignation And now will God be exalted in Judgment and avenged in Righteousness upon all Nations and People under Heaven who hold the Truth in Unrighteousness and will not that God's Holy Son Christ Jesus the Light should reign though he be come to Reign and Judge in the Earth For to him the Light who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World is all Power in Heaven and Earth given And his Light shines freely into all your Hearts O all People of the Earth and shineth in the thickest Darkness to make manifest the Creator's Will to all your Consciences though your Darkness O People comprehends it not but it comprehends you and all your dark Ways and destroying Phoughts and lets you see plainly That for all your great Workings and toilsom Labour in an Out-side Profession in your Earthly Wills you have wrought no Deliverance in the Earth but your Souls Enemies still stand in strength And it lets you see that for all your Striving and Fighting and Killing and Spoiling and Destroying one another about Earthly Things you have done no good at all but brought God's Judgments upon all your Souls and pierced your selves through with many Sorrows And therefore the Heavenly Voice sounds through the Earth and calls aloud in your Ears and knocks at the Door of your Hearts O all People of the World High and Low Professor and Prophane Jews and Gentiles Christians so called and Turks Arise Arise Awake Awake turn in your Minds to the pure Light of Jesus Christ the Judge of Quick and Dead the Son of the eternal God Creator of Heaven and Earth who died for your Sins and rose again to give you a New Holy and Everlasting Life in himself through Faith in his Name And behold he lives for evermore And all see and search diligently in your selves what you know of his Holy Life made manifest in you to destroy the Body of Sin and Death in you which in the days of Darkness hath filled your Vessel and brought your very Soul Mind and Heart into the Thraldom of that Wicked One who is called the Devil and Satan and compassed with Terrors and Fears and Affrightments your very Life and whole Man because of the Wrath of the Almighty which you by your Sinful and Unrighteous and Unholy and Cruel Doings both against God and your Neighbour have stirred up against you And behold the Earth languisheth because of these things and the Children of Light who are redeemed to God out of these sore Evils and grievous Plagues do mourn for you and bewail your Misery Night and Day as well knowing in the Light of the Lord what your woful End will be if these Bryars and Thorns and noisom Weeds the proper Fruits of the Curse be still suffered to grow in you and cumber God's Ground Oh! how nigh unto Cursing is that Field which God's Rain rains upon and yet brings forth no better Fruit than Killing and Slaying and Spoiling and Cousening and Cheating and Defiling and Oppressing one another besides Lying and Swearing and Cursing and Drunkenness and Pride and Persecution of God's Righteous Seed with all other Abominations of the World against the Holy Light c. Checks and Reproofs of the good Spirit of the
Almighty both in their own Consciences and the Mouth of God's Servants and Holy Witness of Truth in the Scriptures which notwithstanding all these their Abominations many of them profess to be their Rule But know O Man whoever thou art or whatsoever Profession thou art of that that 's thy God and Ruler and Father and Teacher and Way whose Commands thou lovest and whose Works thou dost and whose Will in the inward of thy Mind thou clofest with As Christ said to those Lyars false Accusers and Murderers in his Day John 8.44 c. Ye are of your Father the Devil for his Works ye will do he was a Lyar and Murderer from the beginning So thou that goest from the Light of God in thee which shews thee thy Sin and the evil Lustings and Desires of thy Flesh and Mind thou goest from God and from his Fear and from the Way of Peace And so thou going from this and joyning to evil Motions of Sin in thy Flesh and corrupted Mind thou joynest to the Devil and so bringest forth Sin which is the Devil's Work and the Wages of every such Work is Death And so in the very moment of time in which thou dost the evil Work whatsoever it be contrary to God's Light in thee thou dyest the Death and so remainest dead from the Life of God and his blessed Righteousness until the Day of true Repentance and Amendment of Life And then what will it profit thee to have gained the World or Victory over thy Neighbour or Satisfaction to thy Lusts to the Loss of thy Soul's Life Therefore Arise Arise Awake Awake O all Nations and People Come forth to the Judgment of this great Day of God Almighty For now is the effect of every Vision to be known and felt in the Earth and the High Towers of the City of Confusion the Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots shall fall to the Ground and the Mountain of the House of the Lord shall be exalted over all yea the Lord alone and his Righteousness and Truth and Peaceable Kingdom on the Top of all shall stand and no Weapon formed against him and his People shall ever prosper any more And how is it O all Nations Kings and People that ye are not yet willing after so long a time knocking at the Gates of your Cities and Doors of your Hearts that ye will not open to the King of Glory Christ Jesus the Light that lighteth every one that cometh into the World that he may come in and be Judge Lawgiver and King in the midst of you that the Desire of all Nations may come and be Head in all For what is it that the Soul that God hath made in all Nations doth desire but to see it self unburthened of that grievous Corruption which hath defiled it and to be delivered from that Body of Sin and Death which hath and doth so imbondage it from the beginning until the Day of Christ's Power be known within to work the Work of God and to destroy the Work of the Devil and to save the Soul from its Sin and to present it spotless to God which is the true Salvation indeed Now this is my Witness for God amongst the Servants and Redeemed of the Lord this Day whom the World in Scorn calls Quakers who am a Sufferer with them for the Kingdom of God's sake That there is none can thus know the Day of Christ's Power to Salvation but as they believe and receive that Light of God and Christ which they be freely enlightened withal which shines in their very Hearts and Consciences which searcheth their very Hearts and Reins and maketh manifest to Man his Thoughts and from which none can hide any thing but all things are naked and bare before him the Light Christ Jesus who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Jew and Gentile one and other who searcheth the most hidden things of Man and brings them forth to the Judgment of his Righteousness For though the Night may hide the Adulterer and the Thief from Man it hides them not from God there is one nigh in the Heart and Conscience that tells Man and Woman all that ever they have done and do daily do even their secret Thorghts Is not this the Christ of God the true Messiah that was to come and is come and dwells amongst us And we look not for another and of his Fulness have all we received and do daily receive who believe in his Light which shines in our Hearts according to the Scriptures of Truth And this the Fulness of our Blessed God and Saviour Jesus Christ the Light is it which filleth all that come to him with all Spiritual Blessings and Heavenly good Things and without whom all is Darkness Emptiness Death and Desolation as all the poor deceived lost Sons and Daughters of the faln Adam do sooner or later know and are made to confess But blessed are they that consider of things in time and lay things to Heart before it be too late For there are but Twelve Hours in a Day in which Men may work saith Chriff and then the Night cometh in which no Man can work But the Door will be shut upon all who have slighted and neglected the Day of their Visitation Oh England England and all Lands far and near that you had known or could yet believe the things that belong to your Everlasting Peace before they be hid from your Eyes Therefore turn ye turn ye at the Reproofs of God's Wisdom and Spirit of Light and Truth which sounds through all and lets you see the Vanity and Evil of all your Works and Frailty of all your Lives how soon the Thread of your Life is out off and then where are the great Emperors and Kings with all their Crowns And where are the great Captains and Commanders with all their Bloody Victories And where are the Wise Achitophel's and Cunning Counsellors of the Earth with all their Admirers And where are the Covetous Oppressors with all their Houses full of the Spoils of the Innocent Yea in that Day where is all the Glory and Lusts of the World with all the Lovers of it Surely in Darkness and Misery shall they lye down together and Death shall have Dominion over them even all who have not believed in the Light Christ Jesus and who have not followed him in the Regeneration that they might be saved but have spent their Days in the Pleasures and Lusts of the present Evil World to Destruction Now therefore O all People Hearken to the Counsel of the Lord in this your Day and learn of the Lamb the Light who calls you to Repentance from all your grievous Ways How long shall the Spirit of the Lord strive with you When will you cease learning War and Destruction and Oppression and Spoil O when will you beat your Swords into Plow-shares and your Spears into Pruning-hooks O when will you go and say one to another
one Neighbour to another and one Nation to another Come let us all be humbled before the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who made us all of one Blood to dwell together upon the Face of the Earth in Truth Goodness and Love to serve one another and so as Branches of one Tree to receive Life and Vertue and Power from our God into our Souls to strengthen us unto his holy Work who came not to destroy Mens Lives but to save them whose Kingdom is not of this World and therefore is not set up or maintained with Carnal Weapons Violence and Spoil but by the Eternal Spirit of our God whose Fruit is in all Goodness and Righteousness and Truth And let not the wicked Devil the Destroyer deceive us any more by his Lies and Delusions but let us all with one Heart and Soul resist his Temptations When he perswades us to seek to be great in the Earth and be avenged on them we count our Enemies let us not hearken to him but let us over come their Evil with Goodness and not to seek the Destruction of their Persons or Spoil of their Estates as the Heathens do that know not God but let us follow the Example of Jesus Christ God manifest in Flesh who when he was reviled reviled not again but prayed for such as despitefully used him O come let us follow this meek Lamb in Righteousness and Truth and learn of him in our Heart who is Meek and Lowly that we may find Rest for our Souls who rebuked his Disciples who would have had Fire to come down from Heaven to destroy the Samaritans that would not at that time receive Christ For what knowest thou O Man but the Samaritans may in time come to a better Mind and then thou wilt see it was thy Will and not God's that desired their Destruction in their Sins For Christ would have all to be saved and come to the Knowledge of his Truth But many will not come to him that they might have Life and so their Destruction is of themselves and their Condemnation just And who are those now therefore that withstand the Doctrine of the Truth which said Love your Enemies and seek not the Destruction of their Persons and the Spoil of their Estates but seek by good Doctrine and good Life to bring them out of their Sins And if they will not but rather hate thee for thy good Will be content thou hast quitted thy own Soul and art clear of their Blood and so thou becomest a Sufferer with Jesus Christ and shalt Reign with him in due time I say who are these now on the Earth that withstand Truth and continue in the hateful destroying Ways of the Old Jews and Gentiles but such as will not be counselled by the Lamb of God the Suffering Seed who said Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in Heart But are Men of Corrupt Minds who account Gain and Worldly Honour and Promotions more than Godliness who cries Peace to themselves in their Sins And that same Spirit in them which crieâ— that false Peace in them is the same that stirs them up to Kill Destroy Oppress and Spoil one another for Selfish and Worldly Ends. But the Lord is arisen to Judge all these Evil Things and to Redeem a Seed to serve him as in the beginning of the Gospel before Antichrist the Murderer got up amongst them that professed Christ in Words but denied him in Deeds who had a Name that they lived but were dead from that true Life which was in Christ Jesus whom in Words they professed And though the Passage we seel now to be as hard of coming from amongst the false Christians and Turks as it was for the first true Christians to come from amongst the Jews and Gentiles yet the Almighty Power of our God is able over all and through all to carry us on to the end whom he hath called and saved with a mighty Salvation ever-praised be his Name and who will yet save his Beloved Seed Israel and gather them from the East and West and from the North and South to sit down with Christ in his Kingdom And this is no ill News to any but who are glewed to Deceit and married to Iniquity but it is Glad-tidings indeed to all that love their Souls and the Honour and Glory of Truth more than the things of this perishing World And I could desire that all who are apt to reason as the Jews did when they heard the Declaration of the Gospel of Peace and Kingdom of God which stands in Righteousness and Peace saying If we let this go on then the Romans or Others will come and take our Place and Nation I say that they would consider That the very Course which they to wit the Jews in the Denial of the Truth took for saving of themselves brought utter Destruction upon them and their Nation But what shall vain Man in his foolish faln Wisdom and earthly Reasoning think to be Wiser than God and to have a greater Care and Love to the Creation than God himself who made it hath What! shall Angels at the Birth of Christâ—sing Glory to God on high and Good-will to Men and yet when the way of God in Christ is published for bringing this great Work of Salvation to pass vain Man must come in with his false Mind and say This is the way to confound all Order and destroy all Good And that this Doctrine turneth the World up-side down And that the Messengers of Christ are pestilent Fellows and Movers of Sedition O Earth Earth Tremble before the Lord for thou shalt never have Peace in thy own Ways thou shalt never be Saved by thy own Strength thou shalt never be Established by thy own Counsels thou shalt never have true Peace nor any Plenty within thy Borders until thou believest the Gospel which saith Learn of Christ whose Kingdom is not of this World and whose Weapons are not Carnal but Spiritual Mighty through God not for the pulling down of Outward Walls and Bodies but for razing and pulling down and destroying the strong Holds of Sin and Satan in the Hearts and Lives of the Children of Men For after that saith the Apostle The World by Wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the Foolishness of Preaching to wit such Doctrine as this which is a Cross and Stumbling-block to all Corrupt Flesh to save them that believe So lay things to heart ye People of the World and Inhabitants of all the Earth for God's Purpose is not to exalt any Man or Men of this World or to glorifie any Flesh but to exalt his own Son Christ Jesus the heavenly Man the Lord from Heaven the Truth over all of whose Kingdom and Government there shall be no End And all that obey his Voice and for Obedience thereunto are made willing to Suffer with him shall reign with him for evermore But all others whether they be called Christians or Turks
Provision for the Flesh to satisfie it in the Lusts thereof with Meats Drinks Pleasures Pastimes and all manner of foolish Inventions but that People should abstain from Fleshly Lusts because they War against the Soul And did not the Apostle weep for such as made a God of their Belly and Gloried in their Shame and minded Earthly Things and plainly tells them That they were â—nemies to the Cross of Christ and their End was Destruction Phil. 3. And so thou whoever thou art that pretends to Honour Christ by making Provision for thy Fleshly Part to satisfie it in the Lusts thereof thou art no Servant of God and Christ in this but a denyer of his Truth and so instead of following Christ in the Regeneration and daily Cross and Self denlal thou follows Christ's Enemy the great Antichrist and Satan who hath seduced the Minds of People from Christ's Doctrine and Life into the Doctrine and Life of all Unrighteousness and so they that Eat and Drink and Game and Sport after the Custome of the Heathenish World their Professing of Christ in Words will do them no good in the Day of the Lord when God will Reward every Man according to their Deeds for now instead of a Holy Pure Righteous Self-denying Life which God requires thou offers him an unclean Sacrifice of an unholy and corrupt Life which he will not accept And so many shall come in that Day and say Lord Lord Open unto us to whom he will Answer I know ye not depart ye Workers of Iniquity O dreadful Sentence to such as it hits who like Esau sell their Birth-right for a mess of Pottage and chuse rather to follow the Fleshly Sinful World in the broad way to Destruction than the Lambs of Christ in the streight way that leads to Life Eternal So all Awake and Arise from your dead defiled Customs and Practices of Sin to the pure clean Fear and Worship of God for God is a Spirit and Christ is a Spiritual Lord and will be Worshipped and Served in Spirit and Truth and who is this Day seeking such to Worship him who shall bring forth Fruits to him worthy amendment of Life And one thing is needful saith Christ and Mary that sate at his Feet hearing his Word chused that good Part which shall never be taken from her but Martha was cumbred about much in the outward as too many are now and that in a Heart far from that of Mary's Heart to their Souls great disadvantage So he that hath an Ear let him hear for these Words are Faithful and True Thomas Taylor To the King O That the King and all his Councils the Parliament and the Rest would hear and believe these Words for in the Truth of God's Spirit and Uprightness of my Heart are they thus written and sent to them for that purpose Consider of your ways for thus saith the Lord the Holy One Creator of Heaven and Earth Mine Anger is kindled against you because you have not made a Separation betwixt the Precious and the Vile but have numbred my People who tremble at my Word with the Transgressors and will not hear the Voice of my Mouth to let my Israel have their Liberty to meet together in my own free Spirit as I have Taught them to wait upon me and to Edify one another in their most Holy Faith but you will Punish them and Afflict them and evil Intreat them for this and surely if you go on in this Work and think to destroy this my Heritage from being a People upon the Earth and to Root them up from bearing a Testimony to my Name in their Holy Assemblies before the Children of Men I will Work Wonders yea I will Work Wonders and make all the Earth to know that these your Thoughts and your Doings are against the Lord and his People as truly as ever Pharoah and Egypt and the Nations there abouts in that Day of Israel 's Oppressions and Deliverances did know have you no Vnderstanding that you would eat up my People as Bread saith the Lord in whose hand is your Breath Oh! that you could once lay things to Heart what you have done and what you should do and not still take Counsel at a wrong Spirit which hurries you thus on in a way that is not good to the grief of God's Spirit and in the end if continued in your own Destruction have you not Heard and do not you Read what God hath done in former times to great Kings and strong Nations for their Doings against his People and do you not know that the same Evil Spirit which causes you in other things to do what you ought not to do and to leave undone what you ought to do is the putter of you forward in this grievous Work of Persecuting the Seed of God who Fear and Tremble at his Word and work out their Salvation with Fear and Trembling as the Lord Commands and who in their Meetings never had nor at this Day have any other end but to Glorifie their God the true God over all in obeying his Voice with a true good Will in our Hearts towards all Men without the least thought of Evil to any as God's true God over all Men without the least thought of Evil to any as God's true Witness in all Consciences where it is harkened unto doth plainly Testifie at this Day as it hath done ever since we were to God a People For from War Bloodshed Wrong and Spoil hath the Lord called and delivered our Souls into his Holy Habitation of Truth Peace and Love that as Lambs we might in the midst of the Earth stand in Christ's Innocency to hold forth the Virtues of God who hath Blessed us in Christ Jesus with the Knowledge of himself whom to know is Life Eternal And so if you hate us because God loves us what will be the end O Consider consider this matter is of the weightiest Nature And so though at present by reason of the Darkness that is upon your Minds you do not see us as we are but present us to your selves as Evil-doers or so yet seeing you know in your own Consciences as in Words also you often Confess that in other things you are miserable Offenders you ought to be more Moderate Sparing and Careful what you do in this present matter concerning us because where Sin is and remains there must of necessity be a want of Ability as to the right judging and discerning of Men and Matters Spiritual as Christ foretold of some that through the Error of their Minds should think they did God Service when they were Killing his Children This was a sad Mistake Therefore let this be upon your Hearts when you lye down and when you rise up and when you sit in Counsel and walk by the Way to keep you from Sinning this great Sin against God for never did any strive against God and Prosper and thus in God's Spirit having given you in a few Words
is gathering his Lots from amongst them into his happy Fold of Truth and Rest that the Judgments of God may hasten upon the wicked Sodom and Egypt who burden the Just that God's righteous Soul may be eased of them Even so come Lord Jesus for thou art worthy to reign saith my Soul Thomas Taylor Richard Baxter's BOOK ENTITULED The Cure of Church-Divisions ANSWER'D and CONFUTED And he PROV'D to be a Physician of no Value Who hath Manifested his Folly and Weakness in Undertaking a Work which he hath so little Understanding in By THOMAS TAYLOR For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to Covetousness c. They have Heal'd also the Hurt of the Daughter of my People with sweet words saying Peace Peace when there is no Peace Jer. 6.13 14. But ye are Forgers of Lies ye are all Physicians of no Value Job 13.4 London Printed and Sold by T. Sowle next Door to the Meeting-house in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-Street and at the Bible in Leaden-Hall-Street near the Market 1697. Richard Baxter's BOOK ENTITULED The Cure of Church-Divisions ANSWER'D and CONFUTED RICHARD BAXTER a Man who through a shew of Learning and Religion had gotten in Oliver Cromwell's Days a great Esteem in the Minds of the Ignorantly Zealous Professors of Religion in this Nation and especially in the Parts of Worcester-shire about Kidderminster where he then resided hath since the Change of the Times and coming in of the Old Common-Prayer-Book-again much manifested his Nakedness Confusion and Unsoundness to every Eye that in any measure is open to see the difference of Truth and Error in the ground of it as by his Works appear And that it is so amongst other things that Book of his fasly call'd The Cure of Church-Divisions which I have now under-hand to Answer doth plainly manifest For instead of Curing Divisions he hath shew'd himself to be a Physician of no Value and so instead of Curing hath struck at under a Judas Kiss of Unity and Concord the very Life and Foundation of all true Christian Unity and Amity to wit The Free and Perfect Teachings and Gifts and Work of the Spirit of Truth the Spirit of the Father and Son in his Believing Members whereby they cry in a spotless Mind Abba Father and freely and powerfully declare the Glory of his Kingdom to the Children of Men and instead thereof would bring in and establish that Soul-deceiving and Church-dividing Doctrine of Humane Learning and Humane Helps as absolutely necessary to the procuring and engaging as it were the Holy unlimited God to give unto the Creature his Holy Spirit and the Knowledge of the Mysteries of his Eternal Will and Kingdom for the same as in Answer to an Objection in the 6th Page of his Book in his first Direction so call'd is to be seen The Objection against his Carnal Reasonings for Old Men's Knowledge is in Page 5. where he saith I know those that I have to do with will say That Divinity is not learn'd by Labour and Men's teaching as other Sciences and Arts are but by Teaching I add yea and most free Gift of the Spirit of God and therefore the Youngest may have as much of it as the Eldest And to this R. B. there thus Answers Answ There is some Truth saith he and some Falshood and much Confusion in this Objection But let us hear how this R. B. proves that that there is either Falshood or Confusion in the Objection It is true saith he that the Saving Knowledge of Divinity must be taught by the Spirit of God but it is false that Labour and Humane Teaching are not the Means which must be us'd by them who will have the Teaching of the Spirit Reply But O the Darkness yea rather Enmity that is in R. B's Heart against the free Teaching of God's Spirit That he would find any thing against so plain and manifest Truth as is in this Objection But what will not Flesh do that is lifted up with Conceits of his own Wisdom to keep up its Honour before the People rather than the Purâ— Undoubted Truth of the Gospel and Self-abasing Spirit of Truth should Reign and have the Preheminence But to this I say that a Child of Light in the least Measure doth easily see the Falshood of that Spirit by which this R. B. is acted in this his Answer For the Wind of the Spirit bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof thou natural Man but neither knows whence it comes nor whither it goes so is every one that is Born of God And without this Birth all thy Knowledge is Damning not Saving John 3.7 8 c. And Job 32.7.8 I said Days should Speak and multitude of Years should Teach Wisdom But there is a Spirit in Man and the Inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding And saith God It shall come to pass in the last Days that I will pour out my Spirit upon all Flesh and they shall all know me from the least to the gâ—eatest Yea and Young-men shall see Visions and Servants and Hand-maids shall Prophesie And ye have received an Vnction from the Holy One And ye know all things saith the Apostle John and ye need not that any Man teach you This is the Day of the Lord wherein these things are fulfill'd prais'd be God And the New Covenant abundantly witness'd in the Children of Light whom this wicked Book of R. B's strikes at but his Wickedness turns upon his own Pate and his own Iniquities shall slay him For he by his Carnal Wisdom would darken Knowledge and shut the Kingdom of Heaven against Men as his Predecessors of Old the Pharisâ—es mention'd Mat. 23. did But the Lord hath open'd a Door to the Believing Souls this Day which all the Powers of Darkness shall never be able to shut Glory to his Name for Ever But what is that Labour and Humane Means that People must use for getting the Spirit of God or Saving Knowledge of Divinity as he calls it Is it tumbling over a Ruck of Books stuffed with Art and Humane Wisdom or Learning from below as this R. B. hath long done to the darkning of his Heart from the Knowledge of God and Way of his Spirit so that he knows nothing of it after all his long lost Labour but what he knows naturally as a Brute Beast and that 's plain for it sanctifies him not as by his confessing That his best Duties even his Prayers are not without Sin and affirming That no Man prays without Sin As in his Book is to be seen Page 195. and in his Preface And so the Prayer of Faith and Preaching by the Spirit he is ignorant of yea Preaching by the Spirit is become a Mock and a Derision to him and his Brethren at this Day But Paul and all the Ministers of Christ Magnifie the Free Grace and Infinite Gift of the Spirit of God according to that 2 Cor. 3. saying Not
that we are sufficient of our selves to think a good Thought but our Ability is of God who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter kills but the Spirit gives Life And that which the Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath entred into the Heart of Man or Humane Heart to conceive hath God reveal'd to us by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the Deep Things of God and which Things we Preach or Speak not in the words which Man 's or Humane Wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual 1 Cor. 2. But this R. B. comparing Spiritual Things with Carnal is not wise who because Old Men and long Students in Arts and worldly Sciences are most Wise or likely to be so therefore they that Labour and Study most in Books of Divinity so call'd get most of the Spirit 's Teaching O sad that ever the Minds of the Children of Men should be so cover'd with Darkness and yet read the Scripture of Truth which witnesses to no one thing more than to the Free Teachings of the Spirit of God without Humane Helps For all the Help that is Humane or that Man who is ab humo that is from the Earth can afford is but Natural and of this World which comes to nought therefore is it said That none of the Princes that is the Chief Men of this World knew the Mystery of Christ and his Kingdom then which made them so Band against him see the 2d Psalm And the Natural Man with all his Natural Means discerns not the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discern'd So every one that would know the Mind of the Spirit of God must come to feel through the Most Holy Faith a measure of it in themselves For after ye believ'd ye were Seal'd with the Spirit of Promise saith Paul And the Word is nigh thee even in thy Heart and Mouth O thou that hast an Ear to hear hear what the Spirit speaks even the Word of Faith which we Preach Therefore go not forth from the Anointing of God in thy Heart to hear the frothy and false Doctrine of such as R. B. who have run and set up themselves by their Humane Helps in the Place of Teachers and God never sent them and therefore they cannot profit the People at all but lead them about like silly Women laden with divers Sins and Lusts yea in their Prayers and best Performances as is manifest and so not being sent and enabled by God's Spirit they can never lead you to it but from it as is manifest Also R. B. in Page 6. before-mention'd saith The Objection hath much Confusion in it And how proves he that But by saying 1. It confoundeth the Spirit 's teaching us by inditing the Scripture with the Spirit 's teaching us the meaning of the Scriptures 2. And it confoundeth the Common Knowledge of Divinity with the Saving Knowledge of it No Man cometh to a Common Knowledge fit for a Teacher of others without the Spirit 's teaching by the Scriptures for that was the first part of the Spirit 's teaching us to inspire the Prophets and Apostles to deliver a Teaching Word to the Churches by which we might all be taught of God through all Generations But many Men have Excellent Common Knowledge by this Word and by the Common Help of the Spirit without that Special Help which begetteth Saving Knowledge And all Knowledge requireth Time and Labour to obtain it though the Spirit giveth it and though it may be sanctified to us in a little time but that may be a means of saving others which saveth not the Man that hath it And in Page 114. farther saith Take them not for no Ministers that want Grace totally And marvel not that Gifts are more necessary to the validity of Ministration than Grace is he may perform the Office of a Minister to the Benefit of the Church that hath no Saving Grace at all Thus far R. B. O! What Sorcery and Egyptian-darkness is here to make void the New Covenant and Free Gracious Teachings of the Spirit of God in these Days and to Establish the Letter in the room and stead thereof which only witnesses to is and is a Declaration concerning what the Spirit of God did in them and in the World before Christ's coming in the Flesh and what was done during his being in it and what the Spirit would do in the Believing Souls and in the World after that time But this the Hirelings do that they by their trading with and giving their false meanings upon the Scriptures they may keep the People in Blindness and so from the Anointing and Teaching and Enjoyment of that Spirit that was in them that gave forth Scriptures that they may not see their deceitful Doctrines and Merchandizes lest they should buy no more of them For no Man that knows the badness of Babylon will buy them any more and then will the Merchants of Souls mourn For they that know the Lord and his Spirit 's Teaching in them which is the Good Old Way yea and the ever New Fresh Profitable and Living VVAY will follow no more such Men as would bring in and establish a Graceless Ministry as this R. B. doth here to his Shame But such Graceless Priests the Lord will have none of nor his People neither For my Sheep hear my Voice saith Christ and a stranger they will not hear Surely a Graceless Man is this Stranger They to wit graceless Men saith John 1 Epist 4. are of the World and the World hear them we are of God Stewards of the manifold Grace of God 1 Pet. 4.10 And they that are of God hear us And so Ever Bless'd and Prais'd be the Great and Glorious Name of the Lord Jesus who hath restor'd to them that Obey him the Glorious Doctrine of the Spirit 's Teaching as was in the Apostles Days according to his true Promise where all in the Truth of which we the People of God in Scorn call'd Quakers are Members is done in and by the Holy Spirit prais'd be God and nothing own'd amongst us but what is so done Here is Praying in and by the Spirit and Preaching in and by the Spirit and Singing in and by the Spirit of our Holy Lord God and so the Head being Spiritual and the Members of the Body every one Spiritual for we are all Baptized by one Holy Spirit into the one Heavenly Body our Food is also Spiritual Heavenly Bread and Heavenly Wine and the Water Spiritual that sanctifies us and makâ—s us clean to God in all our Sacrifices and Services For Christ gave himself for his Church which is his Body that he might wash it and present it spotless to himself and without all Deformity by the washing of Water even the Water of Life in the Word of Life the Creating Word of the
Everlasting Father which is Spirit and Life the Resurrection and the Life in every believing Soul for we are Redeemed from Death thereby that we might for Ever hereafter serve God in the newness of his own Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter as all such do as know no other Teaching Word but the Letter as this R. B. doth and so they having gotten a little Brain-knowledge by their Humane Helps and not by the Spirit of Truth they wrest Scripture to their own and others Destruction desiring and boasting themselves to be Masters and Teachers of others whilst themselves need teaching what the very Principles or beginning Doctrines of the true Christian Religion is as is plainly manifested by his seeking to bring in a graceless Minister or Wolf into Christ's Fold surely the Wolf comes not but to rob and destroy All that ever came before me saith Christ are Thieves and Robbers and never came in by the Door as its plain the Graceless Man doth not but hath climb'd up another way by his Humane Helps as Baxter speaks and to this purpose see John the 10th and Mat. 23. where Christ at large sets forth such Wolfish Teachers who can perk themselves up in Places of Teachers by the World's help outwardly but will neither enter into the Kingdom of God themselves nor suffer others but shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men by such deceitful Doctrine and Antichristian Inventions as this R. B. hath by saying That Gifts are more necessary to the validity of Ministration than Grace is and that he may perform the Office of a Minister to the Benefit of the Church that hath no Saving Grace at all And all Knowledge requireth Time and Labour to obtain it though the Spirit giveth it which last saying doth directly thwart and contradict the Scripture which saith I was found of them that sought me not Isa 65.1 And Paul sets believing and working in this great Matter of the Knowledge of God and Christ to Salvation one against the other as the way of the Law and Gospel for to him that worketh saith he is the Reward reckon'd of Debt not Gift of Grace but to him that Believeth it is of Grace to the Glory of God's great Love to Man for saith the Scripture God so loved the World that he gave his Son that whosoever on him believe should not perish but have Life Eternal And none can truly say but those are the best knowers and wisest People that have Eternal Life in them though they never laboured for it nor sought for it and so such as this R. B. who looks at all as obtain'd by Time and Labour they are those Spiritual Proud Ones who are swelâ—ed so big with Spiritual Pride that Self-idolizing Sin which as himself saith in his second Direction so called is the great Rebel against God the chief part of the Devil's Image that one Sin which breaketh every Commandment the Heart of the Old Man the Root and Parent and Summary of all other Sin the Antichristian Vice which is most directly contrary to the Life of Christ c. and these Letter-wise Men that have parched together a Garment of Fig-leaves to cover their sinful Nakedness are Proud of meer supposed Spiritual Excellencies for the way of the Blessed Spirit and its free Gifts and free Workings in the Children of Men they are strangers unto and then through their Humane Learning and lost Labour having gotten a little or a great deal of talk from the Letter of the Scripture concerning Religion in their Earthly Spirits which sees nothing of the Kingdom of God they condemn the Generation of the Just whom God teacheth and Blesseth with all Spiritual Knowledge in Heavenly Things and call them Spiritually Proud because they cannot but speak very highly and yet in the truest humility of Heart concerning the great Things that God hath done for their Souls and because they cannot join with the Wicked whom God abhorreth neither in their Worship nor other sinful Customs And so out of that Old Bottel come all those unsavoury Expressions of R. B. before-mentioned against the free Teachings of God's Spirit yea so great an Enemy he is to the wholsom Doctrine of Free Grace that Page 7. he saith Is it not Blaspheming of God's Spirit to make it the Patron of Mens sloth and idleness under pretence of Magnifying Grace To which I answer That pretending we deny and truly say with the Apostle That God who commanded Light to shine out of Darkness hath shined in our Hearts to give us yea most freely without our own La-Labour or any Humane Help The Knowledge of the Glory of his Kingdom and those that call this Doctrine either in the Apostle or us a Patronizing of Sloth and Idleness are those that do really Blaspheme God's Spirit which teacheth it But many Texts saith R. B. commands us diligence and sloth is a great Sin To which I say the Scripture indeed commands a diligent Improvement and holy Exercise of the free Gifts which the Spirit hath given the Faithful But the Scripture never said that Humane Labour and Helps are the Means to be used for getting the Spirit 's Teachings and without which no Knowledge in Spiritual Matters is now received Stir up the Gift of God in thee saith Paul to Timothy so say I but he no where puts the Humane or Carnal Man to Work or Labour to get the Spirit for that is quite contrary to this Scripture Gal. 3.2 as also Rom. 9.16 Obj. But this R. B. asks this Question Why hath God setled a Teaching Office in his Church and commanded all to attend and hear and learn if we are taught by the Spirit without Man's help Why were the Apostles sent forth into all the World c Answer Here is the great stumbling of these Unbelievers the Worldly-wise Ones indeed what because God in his free unlimited Spirit did begift Men and in his own Spiritual Power sent them forth to preach and publish all abroad the Glory of his Kingdom and Good Will to Men cannot People therefore be taught by the Spirit without Man's help What Reasoning's this When the Scripture expresly saith That all the Gifts and Abilities Helps and Means of bringing People to God and the Knowledge and Enjoyment of all the Good Things of his Kingdom are meerly solely and wholly from God and his Blessed Spirit 's free Gift in Christ and not from Man at all And therefore when the Corinthians began to look at Man whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas he calls it Carnal and said Christ was not divided signifying plainly it was Christ and the Spirit of his Power that alone did all in all as Christ said Joh. 15. Without me you can do nothing for in the True Church Christ ever was and ever will be all in all and and Man nothing as Paul said of himself Paul is nothing But in the False Church where R. B. is pleading for Man yea Graceless Ministers Man
lurked in him under a Cloak of Zeal for Reformation when the World pretended to such things but now that the World is for a manifest Establishing of their old dark Stuff he turns about and is all for them as it were and against Zeal against Reformation Separation Immediate Revelation or any thing that may manifest People to have a care of their Souls But Oh the Misery the Misery the unspeakable Misery of such as are not yet redeemed from under the Slavery and Egyptian Bondage of such Men But the Lord will break the Rod of the Oppressor as in times of old as in the days of Midian and Egypt where both Jannes and Jambres who withstood the Lord's Servant Moses in his calling Israel out of Egypt were made manifest and their Folly by all clearly seen as this R. B's is by every open Eye Praised be the Lord for his Infinite Love in all things But the Hearts of the Righteous whom God delights to comfort he doth all he can to make Sad by perswading the dark cruel World that the cause of all the Miseries of the late years yea and at present in these Islands is much what if not mostly occasioned by those who in tenderness of Conscience to God could not nor cannot joyn with nor uphold the Popish Customs and Imposition in Matters relating to Religion and the Soul which is more pretious to them that know it than all the World And in the Truth we may say that if we should come amongst the Steeple-house Worshippers or any other Company who are only separated from them in Form and not in Life and Power and their exercise not in the Gift and Heavenly Holy Worship and Service to the Lord Jesus Christ our God we should even Sacrifice the Abomination of the Egyptians before their Eyes and now would you not Stone us or Imprison us or otherwise evilly iâ—treat us even as you do and ever have done Yea yea and as they dealt with the Prophet Isaiah for saying Chap. 66.3 He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a Man he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dog's Neck c. and Chap. 1.11 c. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of them and who hath required it at your hands to tread my Courts Bring no more vain Oblations c. For which it is said they slew him so they would deal with us And what measure have the dear Servants of God in New-England met withal not long since for the like witness against those Hypocrites but Death and cruel Whippings and Banishment and in old England lately but most Savage and Cruel Usage And would this R. B. yet have us yea and those he counts his Brethren and of his Flock who have any Tenderness in them to communicate with such whose Hands are full of Blood If he were as the Mouth of God he would put a difference between the Clean and Unclean But he being of another Spirit is for leading People back again into Egypt not for bringing them out of Egypt into the Promised Land which Work and Endeavour is rejected of God and of all that know God who are escaped out of Sodom and Egypt and Babylon Spiritual where our Lord was Crucified And to us the Lord hath said Let them return to you ye Saved People but return not you to them For their Pastors are become brutish and have not sought the Lord therefore they shall not prosper and all their Flocks shall be scattered Jer. 10.21 He that hath Ears let him hear and he that readeth let him understand for the time is at hand for the Lord is arisen to plead with all the False Worshippers upon Earth and with him is no respect of Persons And now is the Lord God of ever blessed Power and love appeared in the Earth after the long Night of Apostacy to restore all things and now are the Virgins called upon through the whole World to trim their Lamps for behold the Bridegroom is come and coming and now the foolish Virgins who have been long sleeping and slumbering in a dead Profession of Christ and the Scriptures are found wanting in their Faith Holiness Love and all other Christian Virtues and so in their Unholiness shut out yea and though they run to the Hirelings that set all things to Sale to Buy yet still before they come the Door is shut for whilst the Lord stood waiting upon them with his pure free and full Grace and Spirit they would have none of it but rather chosed to go their own ways of Carnal Endeavours and Man-commanded Religion and so like the Jews of old going about to Establish their own Righteousness have not submitted to the Righteousness of God which is by Faith in Christ Jesus But the wise Virgns who are of an honest Heart to fear God and wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to appear in their Spirits to set up his heavenly and everlasting Kingdom in them they receive daily of his Fullness which filleth all in all where the true Oyl of the Kingdom is found in their Holy Lamps to the Praise of the Glory of the unspeakable Love and free Grace of the Almighty Father So be it Again to that part of this R. B's former Answer where he saith That in all Ages God giveth to some few Men more excellent Natural Parts than others and he engageth some in deeper and more laborious Studies and he blesseth some Mens Studies more than other and therefore there are still some few who know more than the rest of the Country or Mankind and it were well for the rest if they knew these and would learn of them Query But how may one know these hard and laborious Studiers as he calls them Oh saith this R. B. They are such as give proof of their Knowledge they pretend to and they are such as imploy their Knowledge to the preserving of the Peace and Concord of Believers and do not proudly make a stir with it to set up their own Names though thereby they set the World on fire To which I answer and say It is still more and more manifest that this R. B. lays the weight and stress upon Natural Parts and hard Studies as though the Kingdom of God were not at all come nor the Promise of God concerning the Free Gifts and plentiful pouring forth of the Spirit yet fulfilled and so a necessity of learning at the feet of Gamaliel and earthly Doctors still But now that the Spirit of Truth according to God's blessed Promise is come and witnessed amongst us that believe praised be God we cannot go to such as this R. B. with all their Natural Parts and hard Studies for the Spirit of Truth leads us and all that obey it into all Truth but this R. B. and such as he leads are in an Error as is manifest for they are of those that lead about a Company of
poor Souls silly as Women laden with divers Sins and Lusts ever learning but never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth which sets free from Sin for that and nothing else is the Truth which sets free from Sin for saith Christ If ye know the Truth the Truth shall set you free indeed But this R. B. and all such teach it for Doctrine That they are so far from being free from Sin that their very Prayers and best Performances are not free from Sin but Sin is in them all Oh Sad that ever they should dare to pretend to the Ministry of the Gospel who preach such a Doctrine as make nothing perfect but leaves them in Sin all their Lives long And no wonder that they and their Doctrine should be void of all good Fruit for saith God They have run and I have not sent them therefore they shall not profit the People at all And yet they would gladly have People know them and learn of them though they can do them no good at all and this is that sorry and bad Proof that the Hirelings make of their great Knowledge they pretend unto which they have gotten with their Natural Parts and hard Studies And so thy own words shall witness against thee Oh R. B. and thy Brethren who have given no good Proof of your Knowledge to this day nor have thereby preserved Peace and Concord amongst Believers but done what you can to break it for that Doctrine that makes not Men free from Sin leaves all the Seeds of Discord and Dissention still in Peoples Minds for as Sin separated Man from God at first so doth it to this day keep them and so keeps them from Love for God is Love and none live or dwell in Love but such as live and dwell in God But such as live in Sin and never Pray without it are out of God as the Apostle said of People in Unbelief They were without God in the World It is not any outward Conformity that will or can make them to be at Peace with or love one another for if it were possible to bring Papist Atheist and Carnal Protestants and Professors of all sorts into one Form of outward Worship as for Time Place Words or the like Yet there would be neither Love Peace nor Concord amongst them for want of Unity with God and his good Spirit the only true Ground and Foundation of all true Love Peace and Concord And so Oh R. B. we have known thee this many Years to be a great Enemy and therefore we may not learn of thee nor any such but of Christ do we learn ever praised be his Name who teaches his People to profit and so it 's only the poor deluded Multitude that knows thee not who learn of thee and suck in such poysoned Doctrine as makes them most uncapable of the pure Word of Life and Doctrine of Salvation so that Publicans and Harlots who make little or no Profession enter into the Kingdom of God before you And as for making a stir with thy Knowledge and striving to set up thy own Name thereby though thou set the whole World on fire by it Who more Notorious than thy self in this R. B as witness all thy lying frothy Words Books and Pamphlets which thou hast spoken and written against the appearance of Christ and his Truth in these late years but thy Studies and such Works God hath cursed for no Child of Light will ever buy any of thy Merchandize nor the deceitful Wares of any other Merchants of Babylon for evermore Blessed be God for his unspeakable Gift Amen But the end of these words of setting the World on fire set down here by this R. B. is easily seen to be this to wit To perswade People that those who are Zealous for God in these days in publishing his everlasting Gospel upon the Earth in a cross to the World are such as set up themselves and would set the World on fire And so he is manifest to be one of the old evil Generation of Priests who accused Christ for a mover of Sedition and Paul for a pestilent Fellow Oh it was that good stirring Spirit of the Lord Jesus in himself and his Followers which did so trouble the World the combustible World in all Ages that made and doth make the Hireling Priests and their deluded Followers so rage and cry out but as for setting the World on fire in a good sence Christ Jesus saith That he came to set Fire in the Earth But for setting the World on fire in R. B's sence that is sowing Discord and Dissention amongst People this is the Work and ever was the Work of the Hireling Priests who loved to be called of Men Masters as this R. B. is witness not only our own Age but the Holy Scripture and the Histories of all Times and Ages as those that read may understand And yet these proud Masterly and false Teachers were ever the first and forwardest that cried against Christ and his Followers for disturbing the World's Peace when as this Doctrine of Christ's Spirit though it did always disturb the Devil's yet it did always tend to the working of the Hearts and Souls of the People into God's Peace and did ever and doth at this day work this glorious and blessed Effect in all that believe Whereof we are Witnesses praised be God though for the Testimony of Christ we are troubled on every side by the wicked World So that even now when the Wicked have no Peace for there is no Peace to the Wicked we whom the World Mock Stone and Persecute under the Nick name of Quakers or so have Peace in all our Dwellings Egypt is full of Darkness that one may feel it yet in our Goshen is plenty of Light ever praised be God And when the World of false Christians are learning War and preparing Weapons we are ceasing from War and not to learn it any more as the Lord hath said And therefore Oh ye Inhabitants of the Earth if ye knew us ye would not hate us and persecute us but love us with your Hearts because of the good Will of our Hearts towards you for our Weapons are not Carnal but Spiritual Not for pulling down or Destroying of you but your Enemies your Sins which War against your Souls And the Reason why we cannot joyn with you in your Liturgies and Worship-actions is not because we hate you but because we love God and your Souls for if we should joyn with you in your defiled Worships as your selves confess they are we should strengthen you in an evil Way But by our separating from you because of the Unholiness of your Sacrifices occasion may be ministred to you to question your State and so some of you in time may come out of your Darkness into the marvellous Light of the Lord Jesus with us and praise the Lord in the Land of the Living So be it Another of this R. B's
to Cure your Self-willedness and Humour and to do you good and to preserve the Publick Peace And though you think much you Christians that we Imprison you deny you Civil Liberties and Priviledges and count you unworthy to be suffered in the Land yet all this by R. B's Doctrine is far less than you do to us Jews for you think us so bad that you avoid Communion with us and deny us Church-liberty and Priviledges yea and think us unworthy to be suffered in the Churches Come R. B. Would this have been good and true Reasoning by the Jews against the Christians or by the Papists against the Protestants Then if it would not as no sober Man can say it would then for Ever stop thy Mouth and let shame cover thy Face for Ever speaking any more of things pertaining to Christian or Christ's Religion for an Enemy to Christ and his People thou art herein manifest to be And lest thou should'st want any thing to make thee compleat in Wickedness thou goest on and in answer to an Objection which is to this purpose That the Persecutors separated from are bad and prophane and he that separates saith he charges them truly but he is not Schismatical or Heretical but they accuse him falsly To this I say this R. B. with a Whores Forehead on the behalf of the Persecutors answers and saith You to wit you that separate say so and they to wit the Persecutors say the same of you They say you are Schismatical but they are not Prophane Now how shall a stander-by know which of you are in the right doubtless by the Witnesses and Evidences saith he they try you in some Court or before some Magistrate before they punish you saith he you never try them nor hear them speak for themselves nor examine any Witness publickly against them nor allow them any Church-Justice but avoid their Communion upon Reports or pretence of private Knowledge They judge you Personally one by one you condemn whole Parishes in the lump unheard They condemn you as for a positive Crime but you condemn them without charging any one Crime upon them c. To which I answer for the Lord and his Truth in this Day of Israel's Trouble and Trials and say The Lord rebuke thee thou Lying Spirit in this R. B. Was there ever heard such Notorious Falshoods and Abominations come from one professing the Gospel yea professing himself to be a Minister of the Gospel yea and taking upon him to be a Teacher of the Teachers as is here from this R. B Oh! the Envy Oh! the Malice the deep-rooted Iniquity of this Man against them that depart from Iniquity in these Islands and cannot join with the People of this wicked World in their Bloody Offerings Oh! the Patience and Long-suffering of God towards such though they continue long in their Wickedness but the Lord will certainly plead with thee O R. B. and all his Adversaries for your great Envy to his People and Work in these Days But come let us see again if these Lies of R. B.'s would not have suited as well for the Persecuting Jews against the first Christians or the Persecuting Papists against the Protestants as it doth for the Persecutors in these Days against those that in Obedience to God are separated from them For what if Tertullus or any Jewish Lying Orator had stood up in behalf of the Jews against the Christians and said The Jews try you in some Court or before some Magistrate before they punish you but you Christians never try them nor hear them speak for themselves nor examine any VVitnesses publickly against them nor allow them any Church-Justice but avoid their Communion upon report or pretence of private Knowledge and so condemn them by the lump yea a whole Nation together c. And so if the Papist against the Protestants had used the like reasoning would it have been any thing but gross Untruth and Falshood in either of their Mouths Or were either the first Christians or first Protestants any more to be blamed for their Separation because of such Liars Nay nay neither are the People of God in these Days any worse to be thought of for separating from the Wicked notwithstanding all these gross Lies of R. B. or any of his Spirit I say they are most gross Lies if they be said of us the People of God whom they World in Scorn calls Quakers that we have not Tried them c. For we have Tried them and heard them often what they can say for themselves and we have by the Spirit of the Lord found them wanting of the Life and Power of Godliness like the Heathen who profess not Christ and publick Witnesses there are of it not only their own Works which are daily manifest in the Face of the Sun but also their own Words and Confessions when they meet to Worship for they say they have left undone what God commands and done what he forbids and so have no Spiritual Health in them which signifies plainly they have denied Christ come in the Flesh for whosoever receives him receives God's Saving Health and are a saved People spiritually healthful they have condemned themselves by their Unbelief and evil Deeds from the Common-wealth and Inheritance of Israel And so not only the Spirit of the Lord in us but even the Witness of God in their own Consciences charges not only one but even many great and grievous Crimes upon them And so R. B. with all his Lies and evil Inventions if he Repent not is for the Lake and if ever he be saved it must be through fiery terrible Judgment which will consume the Adversary For Oh! how hath Satan blinded his Eye that he should thus rise up against the People and Work of God in these Days to his hurt And when it is objected that of all Men living no Man think that a Persecutor is godly and fit for Church-Communion he doth not like a Christian confess to the Truth thereof but after his accustomed manner Heathen-like he invents his sorry shifts to avoid the force of the Truth by saying Did all the Ministers and Common People persecute you And then asking a Question concerning the doings of the Souldiers under Oliver and the like which are meer shifts For what is the doings of any Men to make void the Truth by it For whatsoever any in their Ignorance of the Truth have done against the Truth serves nothing to the making void of this to wit That a Persecutor of the Godly is not godly nor fit for Church-Communion but instead of giving Glory to God by Confessing to Truth this R. B. after he hath wearied himself with his words of what was done in Oliver's time he sums up his Devilish Doctrine of pleading for the Persecutors and against those whom God hath separated from them saying to the same wicked purpose as before It is but one and the same Sin in Persecutors and the Separates which causeth
unsound unchristian and ignorant Sayings it fully appears that this Bryan is one of them who have neither seen nor known Christ seeing he would bring in the Heathen into the Temple without the Word And so Who is more Ignorant and Prophane than this Priest Bryan himself as also his Brother R. B. who is not ashamed to make such a one a Tutor or Father of Ministers who is ignorant of the very Door and Entrance into the Church and of Christ's second Coming Nay who is ignorant of his first Appearance which was for Judgment even to whip the Buyers and Sellers and all Prophane ones out of his House as he said himself For Judgment come I into this World What Pastors or Teachers can such Tutor as are so ignorant of Christ's Kingdom and so admit the Ignorant and Prophane into their Church or Cage of unclean Birds for the Church of Christ which is visibly seen and known by the Spiritual Eye to be his Body is Holy and into it can no unclean thing enter as saith the Scripture Rev. 21.27 but into the World's Church may both Ignorant and Prophane enter and dwell But at such dishonest Gain as is gotten by such Doctrines as this of Bryan and R. B. hath the Lord long shaken his Hand Is this your Ware that you sell to the People at so dear a Rate Is this your Straw and Stubble that you seed them with But no Man of any Understanding in Heavenly Matters will buy any more of your Merchandize For God is come to teach his People himself and the Spirit of God is felt and witnessed amongst us praised be God yea and in our very Hearts to teach us and by which we feel Christ come again the second Time without Sin to Salvation according to his Holy Promises and by whose all-powerful Word of Faith and Heavenly Presence in us are we joyned together unto him in one Holy Body Glory to his Name over all for he is worthy And for that Saying That Christian Princes have not less Power to abolish Idolatry and by Law and Penalties to compel the Subjects in Matters of Religion where there is a parity of reason than the Jewish Kings under that Law had I answer and say That all are not Christians who are so called and this crying up the Worldly Magistrates Power in Matters Spiritual is the only In-let into Persecution of the Tender-hearted People of God who cannot bow to every thing the World sets up yea though it come under the name or shew of Christian Religion and if the Image be of Gold never so goodly yet wanting Life and Power they cannot bow to it I say They who Preach up the Worldly Princes under what Name soever to have Power over the Consciences of People in Matters purely Spiritual as the whole Body of Christian Religion is are Antichristian and the great Enemies of that Liberty which Christ hath purchased for his People and which the Apostles sealed unto with their Blood saying in such cases Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own Heart And who art thou that judges much less forcest and compellest as Bryan and R B's Doctrine would have it another to his own Master to wit God the Judge of all he standeth or falleth see Rom. 14. at large but what account will those Daubers give to the Lord for all the Innocent Blood they have caused to be shed these many hundred Years is Sad to consider For though such Magistrates as are evil inclined are not free yet the False Teachers who by their Lies stir up yea and bring forth that evil Inclination into real Actings against the Good shall receive the greater Condemnation And yet notwithstanding all the Evil both in the one and in the other the Lord will certainly carry on his great Work to his own Praise which he hath begun Glory to his Name for ever And the Beast Whore and False Prophet shall alive together be cast into the Lake prepared for them and into the Pit which they had digged for others Also whereas he saith That it sufficeth that we have Examples in the Old Testament for the Magistrates Power in Church matters though none in the New Testament I say It is no more true than if we should reason for an outward worldly Temple Sacrifices and Circumcision now because there is Examples of these things in the Old Testament and for Revenge and Retaliation now because it is mentioned in the Old contrary to Christ For though it hath been said of old saith Christ an Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth yet I say to you my Disciples under the New Covenant If any Man smite you on the one Cheek turn to him the other and the Apostle saith Dearly beloved avenge not your selves butif thy Enemy hunger seed him c. and so Christ being come and all Power in Heaven and Earth given him Is not he in these Spiritual Matters relating to the very Soul and Conscience the only Lord Law-giver and King and Supreme and ought of right to rule in his own House and Temple which is in Man and those that will not that he should Rule must bow before him and be ashamed before his Face So that now the Son of God being come and seated by right of Inheritance the true King and Heir upon David's Throne to Rule in Righteousness for ever in the Hearts of his Children he commands the true Seed of Israel to obey his Heavenly Voice Law and Doctrine spoken and written within as those outward and typical Kings did command the fleshly Seed of Abraham to keep Moses's Law written without and as those that obeyed not that outward Law of Moses were lyable to the Punishment of that Law so they now that obey not Christ's Spiritual Law written in the Heart and Conscience by his Holy Power are lyable to the Eternal Judgment of Jesus Christ the Judge of Quick and Dead as he saith The Father judges no Man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son And as for the worldly Magistrate he is to Rule in outward things betwixt Man and Man to see that every one as to the Body and outward Estate be well behaved one towards another and not to bear the Sword in vain as hath been too much in use even amongst many called Christian Magistrates as well as others from whence it hath come to pass that for the sake of the Poor whom the worldly Powers have oppressed as well in Temporals as Spirituals the Lord hath overturned them one Sort after another as they were found in the Abuse of that Power and Trust which was put into their Hands for the Protection of and Encouragement and Praise of the Good and Punishment of the Evil doers but not the contrary according to that of the Prophet I will overturn overturn overturn till he come whose Right it is And so until Truth Righteousness Goodness Equity and Justice rule both in the Hearts and Lives of
the Kingdom of his own Son over all to whom every Knee shall how and every Tongue confess for he is worthy The Springs of Life gush out apace from the Presence of the Lord into the Hearts of the Righteous and Righteousness runs down like a Stream through the Valleys of Israel to bring forth the Heavenly Fruits of Righteousness to the Glory and Praise of the Great and Good Husbandman who is over all God Blessed for Ever of whose Holy Reign Kingdom and Government there never shall be end But of the Kingdom of the Man of Sin and all Antichrists there shall be an utter end and Death and Hell shall be cast into the Lake of Fire and the Judgment of the Living and Everlasting Truth of our Heavenly Father shall go forth more and more for the discovering and consuming the false Hope and lying Refuges of all Hypocrites who have covered themselves and not with the Spirit of the Lord the Zeal of the Lord of Life will perform this that his Name over all may be exalted who is worthy whose Appearance in Glory this Day the Children of the Night have greatly withstood and the Dragon hath made great War against the Lamb but praised be the Lord the Lamb hath got the Victory and the Lamb's Followers are this Day with their Feet upon the Holy Mountain where none can make them afraid rejoicing in this that they have found the Lord whom their Souls loved and do love for Evermore So be it Thomas Taylor To some of T. Hicks's Friends YE Hicks's Hearers of Tixall-hall and elsewhere who Read his Defiled and Defiling Book called A Dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker Fear the Lord God of Heaven and Earth for I do affirm in the Truth of Christ that it is a meer Work and Invention of the Wicked One in that Servant of his called T. Hicks who goes under the Name and Profession of an Anabaptist as they are termed I say this Man was put on by the Wicked One who is called the Devil and Satan who was a Lier and False Accuser of the Brethren of Christ from the beginning to Render us the Servants of the Lord called Quakers Odious to the World For the very first Words and Title of his Book is an absolute Lie for never was there such a Dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker but it is a meer Fiction of his own naughty Heart and Head for Rendring us and the Truth we hold Odious and it is a False and Wicked Representation of us and our Religion to the World for the which God will severely Judge him And indeed by this manner of way that he takes who or what kind of Profession is there that he can miss grosly to abuse Seeing he takes upon him like a Prevaricator or Stage-player both to ask the Question and give the Answer so as may serve most for his own wicked End and Purpose and make his Opposite infamous O the Wickedness of such Actors and their Work but Praised be the Lord we are out of the reach of his Malice for under the Holy Wing of God's Power and Protection are our Souls gathered by the Eternal Power of his Living Word in Christ Jesus our Lord And you that Read this Book whether called Papists or Protestants if this Hicks had a Mind to Render you Odious could he not this way he takes do it as Plausibly as against us and so I would not have you hurt your selves so as to strengthen your selves against us and the Truth which we Live in by such bad Books and Endeavours as this Hicks hath come forth in for if that your Minds stand open to receive them you will never want them for the Enemy of your Souls and ours yea of all Mankind will never be wanting to furnish you with Lies for Strengthening his Kingdom in you and hindering you from entring into the Kingdom of God And if you would know the Reason of his thus rising up against us I say it is because through the Grace of God given us we Preach the Mystery of the Kingdom of God even the Wisdom of God in a Mystery as Scripture speaks And that Striking at his carnal Conceptions of things and his Idolatrous Thoughts of outward Water-Baptism hath stirred up the Venom in him which by this his Book he hath Vented but the Lord is the Pleader of his People's Cause which is our Joy and our Armour against all the fiery Darts of all wicked Ones for the Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascention Glorification of Christ and his Coming again to us according to the Scriptures of Truth and Heavenly Promises through the Power of God to our Souls Eternal Salvation and Comfort we Witness Glory to the Lord for ever whatsoever this Book or any thing of like nature can or may say to the contrary so as Christ said to one of our Brethren in times past The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against us And so in the Peaceable Habitation of the Love of God in Christ Jesus do we lye down together with all Holy Souls and Spirits of Just Men made Perfect Hallelujah for the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth in Mount Zion and before his Ancients Gloriously And so let the Mouth of all Iniquity be stopped for ever saith my Soul Thomas Taylor Something concerning that called the Common-Prayer AND Now all People that you may see we do not without cause Cry against the Priests and deny to joyn with them in the present Common Service now in use amongst the Parish Teachers of England which you are enjoyned upon several Penalties to submit unto I shall in the strength of Truth unbowel it a little unto you that you may at least in part see the true inside of it and not be deceived with the outward Appearance any longer for the Lord is arisen in his mighty Glorious Power to scatter all those Clouds of Ignorance and Error that have long vailed and covered the Minds of People and to be himself the Teacher of his People how to Worship him For his Spirit is greatly burdened with the Manners of the People who take his Name so continually in vain as such do as are only Confessors of their Sins but never forsake them but all their Lives long doing what they should not do and so instead of lessening their Sins are daily adding Sin to Sin covering with a vain verbal unfeeling Confession of Sin but not with the Spirit of the Lord. And so in the very entrance into their Work their Foundation is seen for they manifest themselves not to be in the New Covenant of the Spirit of the God of Life but in the Old Covenant of the Letter saying The Scripture moves them to confess their manifold Sins and Trespasses But when will it be seen that the Scripture moves them to forsake them for a Confession of Sin in Words we hear amongst them but the time of forsaking them never as yet come to be seen
thou wilt not follow nor be led by them And then these Ignorant Sureties of what sort soever being fore-instructed by the Priest must Answer I Renounce them all What! People are ye all Dead or fast asleep that ye never consider such things as these but rush like a Horse into the Battel without fear into such weighty Matters as these Were it not fit that such who promise so boldly so great Matters for others were first looked into whether ever they did half nay the hundredth part of so much for themselves but where the Blind leads the Blind what less than such Pits can be expected And further these Bold Sureties on the Child's behalf being asked concerning his Belief of the Articles of Faith called the Creed go on and being taught of Man are not afraid to say any thing and affirm That all that they stedfastly believe though in their Heart the Knowledge of God is not And being further asked Whether be will obediently keep God's Holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the Days of his Life The Answer is without stop or lett without asking Counsel of God at all I will O what a thing is Man left to himself What a heap of Confusion and Contradiction is he O what Task-masters of Egypt are these Blind Guides to bind that on others which they will not touch with one of their Fingers for they themselves neither forsake the Devil nor his Works as is manifest nor believe in God nor Christ stedfastly for how should they trust God for their Souls who dare not trust him for their Bellies as their Covetous Practices shews And how can they be said to keep God's Holy Will and Commandments all their Days who are doing what they should not do by their own Confession all their Lives long And when the Priests have thus far taken God's Name in vain and deceived themselves and the Parents by making them believe that they are what they are not by this their sorry doing they proceed to give Charge to the God-fathers and God-mothers so called that they bring the Child when it can say for it must be noted that their Religion stands in saying the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments in the Vulgar Tongue that they bring it to the Bishop to be Confirmed by him O sad O sad that ever Men should thus dare to trifle with Holy Things For Regeneration is a Holy Thing but is neither wrought by outward Washings nor vain Mens Words nor Promises nor their Prayers but only by Jesus Christ the great and true Baptizer according to the working of his Heavenly Power and Spirit of Life in the Will of God as he saith The Wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes so is every one that is Born of God's Spirit John 3.8 And to shut up this Business that none may be ignorant of the grosness of Darkness that goes all along in this thing and so ends it they say It is certain by God's Word that Children which are Baptized dying before they commit Actual Sin are undoubtedly Saved Understand thus Baptized as aforesaid Now to this I say that if People can be wrought into such Darkness as to believe this and to rest satisfied that it is according to the Word of God when it is a meer Invention of the Nations in the Apostacy and so no Scripture of Truth at all for it it 's no wonder if they can get them into the Belief of lesser Errors And also it 's no wonder to see the Poor People thus deluded make such haste to get their Infants to the Priest when they perceive them in any danger of dying For these that lay so much stress upon this outward Sprinkling or Baptism as they call it must needs have dismal Thoughts concerning such as Die without the same to wit that they are little less if not altogether Damned And as also may easily be gathered from the Words before their Burial of their Dead which runs thus Here is to be noted say they that the Office ensuing to wit of their manner of their Burial of the Dead which they call Christian Burial is not to be used for any that Die unbaptized to wit unsprinkled by the Priest as aforesaid or Excommunicate or have laid violent Hands upon themselves O what Darkness what Destruction and Misery is in all their Ways who account not People worthy of Christian Burial who are either Excommunicate by these Wretched Men and that may be for not paying a Groat or two for Repair of their Steeple house or high Place Or will not nay cannot for Conscience-sake come under their Sprinkling But as for the Man they speak of who hath laid violent Hands upon himself what if it prove one that they say has been made Inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven yea confirmed in it by their Office and was never Excommunicated by them must not he have Christian Burial neither O strange confused doings Then it seems the Gates of Hell may prevail against such as are of your Faith though they be confirmed in it never so much And by this it also appears that you are such Sinners as God hears not as was said before for you prayed after your wretched Fashion in your sprinkling of them that the Old Adam might die in them but lo here he lives and hath laid violent Hands upon the Body you prayed for Power over the Devil for them but lo here the Devil hath overcome them you prayed that those Dedicated by your Ministry might be Everlastingly Rewarded with good but lo here your Child is become a Man and a Self-murderer and not thought worthy of Christian Burial as you call it But the Lord sees all your grievous doings your End is come and coming and the Lord Jesus Christ himself the Everlasting High-priest is at Work Baptizing with his Holy Spirit and Fire O! his Fan is in his Hand throughly to purge the Floor But you Mer-made Priests who have presumed to speak and he never sent you you are not as his Mouth or Messengers for you put no difference neither know ye how to put difference betwixt the Precious and the Vile You bring in the uncircumcised and unclean you matter not what you do you weigh not your Doings nor Words in God's Ballance but the Love of Money the Root of all Evil hath so blinded your Eyes that you will see nothing at all of Truth for your Eye being Evil your whole Body is full of Darkness as Christ saith your Skirts are discovered the Books are opened and now will the Lord give you according to your Deeds as you have grieved and burdened his good Spirit so will he burden you with his Plagues and Terrors And though you may cry to the Rocks and the Mountains yet nothing shall hide you from his Wrath as Truth hath said it is so Some have been lopping
heavy Burdens that lye upon Soul or Body and so in Deed and Truth to let the Oppressed go free and to break every Yoke and to be Merciful Pittiful and Tender-hearted one to another according to Jesus Christ O! this is the Fast that pleaseth God that which his Soul and the Soul of the Righteous Loveth But to see People gather together for a few Hours of a Day and in a few or many Formal Words Confess Sin and Wickedness and yet Live in it this is Abominable in the sight of God and all good Men. Therefore all Awake Arise and stand up to Judgment O all ye People of the Earth who are found in such Deceitful Worship for God is not Mocked neither will he be at all Reconciled to you until you from the Heart put away all your Sins whereby his Glory this Day is so much stained and until you bring forth Fruits of Righteousness and such Words and Works daily as are worthy amendment of Life Thomas Taylor Something in Answer to some Passages in that naughty Book called A Looking-Glass for Ladies HE saith in Page 89 and 90. There are two sorts of Love One Legal The other Evangelical The First which is Legal is to Love God with all our Hearts all our Souls and all our Might This saith this Man no Man can attain unto in this Life no not the Regenerate themselves To which I Answer That this Man shews plainly that he knows not what he saith but is not only a False Witness against God and his Work in his Regenerate People but also a manifest Contradicter of himself for saith he Evangelical Love is when a Man begins here truly to Love God 2. When he doth daily grow and increase in this Love 3. When he is Constant in the same to the end so that nothing can draw him from God This he and all that sort will in words confess the Regenerate in this Life may do and yet not love God with that Love the Law requires What Contradiction is this Is not this Love perfect and answerable to God's Law when one First Loves God truly Secondly Grows and Increases daily in this true Love and Thirdly When one is so constant in the same that nothing can draw the Soul from it And therefore saith the Apostle Rom. 8.3 c. That which the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned him in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Now let any who knows God give in his Witness if this Man do not deny the very End of Christ's Coming in the Flesh which was as the Apostle saith here to fulfil the Law in and for his People that they might love the Lord their God in Christ Jesus with all their Heart Soul and Might according to his Holy Law as one well said That which the Law requireth the Gospel fulfilleth But such Men as this who flatters the faln Sons and Daughters of Adam by pleading for respect to their Persons knows nothing of the Matter in themselves but only as they imagine from the Letter without they tell every Man his Dream to his Neighbour and so by their false Doctrines and Self-contradictions as is manifest here do daily make the shame of their Nakedness appear and their Envy to the Servants of God whom they Reproach under the Name of Quakers appears very much in such sayings as he there sets down saying This serves to reprove the Quakers who are possessed of Perfection through Satan's Pride and adds O that ever a poor Worm of the Earth a very Lump of Sin and Corruption to think that he dare look God in the Face in a sinless Condition These need not a Psalm of Mercy saith the Lying Spirit in this Sam. Smith that writ that Book these will not be beholding to Christ To which I answer and say First It 's Blasphemy to say That the Regenerate Man's sinless Perfection is proud Satan's Work For it is Christ's Blessed Work to perfect his Saints as Eph. 4.12 13 14. and Chap. 5.25 26 27. And Secondly It 's a false Slander and unjust Accusation of us whom the World calls Quakers to say That we either say or think that any Worm of the Earth or Lump of Sin and Corruption either dares or ever possibly can look God in the Face or ever attain to a sinless Condition for Earth Sin and Corruption cannot enter into God's Kingdom or inherit Incorruption But this we say That the Regenerate who are Born again even Born of God of the Incorruptible Seed of his Heavenly Ever-living Word are sinless and perfect in Christ Jesus with whom they are one and in him do in all Holy Humility and Acceptance with the Father stand before his Throne where no Earth nor lumps of Sin and Corruption nor no false Accuser of the Brethren nor Respecter of Persons can ever come Again whereas this Man Sam. Smith saith The Evangelical Love before described is far short of that Love the Law requireth is a false Witness and Accuser of Christ as though he came to destroy or make void the Law But do not think saith Christ that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfil And is not this the great Thing and Sum of all the Law and the Prophets thou shalt love the Lord God with all thy Soul Mind and Strength And doth not Christ the Power of God fulfil this in his Members Yea yea as Paul said expresly in Rom 8.4 before mentioned That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit But now such as profess the Letter and want the Life and so walk not after the Spirit but the Flesh these do not love wholly nay not at all in Truth and so with this Smith are Breakers of the Law of God and so not at all in the Kingdom of God The next thing observable in this wretched Man's Book aforesaid called The Looking-glass is his grievous Opposition against the Doctrine of Perfection Where he saith That there is none so Godly Righteous or Religious here in this Life or can attain to that Measure of Grace to be Perfect but stands in need of the Exhortation Prayers and Godly Advice of others To which I answer and say That though godly Exhortation Prayers and Advice amongst Brethren of Christ be lovely yet for him to say There is none so perfect but stands in an absolute Necessity of these from Man is not true for the Apostle speaking not to the Teachers only but to the Brethren of Christ in general 1 John 2.27 These Things I have written to you concerning them that seduce you but the anointing which ye have of God the Holy One teacheth you all things and you need not that any Man teach
you but as that teacheth you c. and you know all things And these things saith another Apostle to the Brethren do I write unto you by way of remembrance not absolute Necessity as this Man speaks to stir up your pure Minds And this Doctrine of the Hirelings is only to keep up their Masterly Power over the poor Peoples Consciences and indeed denies the Gift of God's Spirit and coming of Christ in the Flesh and the very End of his Ministry which was for the perfâ—cting of the Saints even in this Life See Eph. 4. at large But the Hirelings Doctrine which perfects nothing but Sin keeps People always learning laden with divers Sins and Lusts but never brings them to the Knowledge of the Truth which sets free from Sin and therefore from such according to Christ's Doctrine ought all People to turn away But what must this Sam. Smith and his Fellows who would be accounted Masters of Assemblies be taught of others Indeed they stand in need of teaching for they have run and God never sent them and therefore they cannot profit the People at all as is here manifest The Reasons of this Smith for denying Perfection saith he is Because the Best of God's Saints and Servants in this Life are not capable of Perfection And is any Child saith he put by his Master into the highest Form the first day he comes to School Or doth he not lead him on by degrees The Apostles themselves that had the Spirit and so in a Capacity of more plentiful Revelation than we are yet Christ tells them he had many things to tell them but they could not bear them then And for this he brings John 16.12 To which I answer That this Man here doth manifestly abuse Scripture and by that the Nature of his Naughty Spirit in all his Discourse is easily seen For here he saith they had the Spirit and yet could not bear Christ's words whereas Christ in that place makes the want of the coming of the Spirit the very Cause why they could not then bear his words and therefore he saith in the very next words in that of John 16.13 Howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth and shew you things to come And so this Smith is one of them that abuses and wrests Scripture tending to his own and others Destruction But whereas he saith That the Apostles who had the Spirit were capable of a more plentiful Revelation than they are that 's true for they to wit such Hirelings and Wresters of Scripture as this Smith is are Sensual not having the Spirit and so are far from receiving any Vision or Revelation from God seeing it 's their common Doctrine to deny Immediate Teachings and Revelations from God for that 's ceased say they But for him to say as these his words would insinuate That the Apostles in those Days were capable of more plentiful Revelation than any are in these Days is false for God is the same to his now as then and such as are Faithful in a little now shall be Ruler over much as well as formerly and saith Christ I pray not for these only but for all that shall believe on me through their words that they may be one as we are One. And for his Reason or Proof That the Best of the Best of the Saints and Servants of God in this Life are not capable of Perfection the very Child or School-boy he speaks of may come forth and consute it For what though a Scholar be not perfect in his Book at first doth it follow that he never shall be while he lives He may as well say so as the other for his Comparison doth utterly make void his false Doctrine against Perfection as Experience of all Men both Masters and Scholars proves But what a Mountain of Enmity is risen up in these Deceitful Teachers of these Times who love to be called of Men Master against that Heavenly Doctrine of sinless Perfection is manifest to all in this that though they can allow of a Perfection in all Arts and Sciences in their kinds yea and of a Perfection in the growth of all other Creatures in this kind but cannot endure to hear tell of much less to allow of a Perfection in the Children of the Everlasting Father God over all who is this Day well witnessed upon his Throne Ever Praised be his Name bringing forth his Heavenly Birth and Babes and so making all things new But who ever but this Slanderous Spirit in this Smith said That though People have lived in Drunkenness Swearing and open Prophaneness many Years yet if but once come to be lifted as he scornfully calls it into that Society to wit of such as he and the rest of the World in Scorn call Quakers that presently they are perfect and without Sin And then like the troubled Sea he foams out his own Shame and adds saying in that forementioned Book I Challenge all the Quakers on Earth and in Hell to give a sober answer to these Texts of Scripture Eccles 7.2 1 Kings 8.46 Prov. 20.9 Answer By these words of this Enemy of God and his Perfect Work in his Saints any who judge in the Light of God in the least measure may see the Rancour and Malicious Blind Nature of that Spirit by which he was acted O! that ever Men should take upon them to be Ministers of the Gospel as such would be accounted and yet utter such base words Did ever any Enemy of Truth from the beginning of the World to this Day make such a Challenge What! must People come out of Hell to give thee a Sober Answer What! hath Passion and Envy so blinded thy Heart as to imagine that the Inhabitants of Hell can resolve Questions and that in soberness nay nay they must be Heavenly People that give truly sober Answers in such weighty Matters as these and therefore thy unsober wild words in these Matters shews where thy Dwelling is to wit not in Heaven amongst the Saints and Spirits of Just Men made perfect but in the Earthly Sensual and Devilish Wisdom amongst those who are Enemies to Truth and Perfection and so Ministers of Antichrist who plead for Sin during tearm of Life and not of Christ who came for that very end to perfect his Saints and to present them himself even in this Life without spot or wrinkle or any such thing Eph. 5.25 c. And so the Reproachful and Malicious words of this Sam. Smith against the People of God called Quakers and their Holy Doctrine of Perfection put aside I say concerning those Scriptures he mentions and first to that Eccles 7.20 For there is not a Just Man upon Earth that doeth good and sinneth not that Solomon here speaks of Men under the Law and of the Generation of the First Adam in the Fall amongst whom there is not indeed a Just Man that doeth good and sinneth not but this doth not make
Scripture and yet is to be believed To which I answer If the Apostles Creed so called either be not in Scripture in so many words or do not wholly agree with it in nature we are not to believe it But the reason why we believe it is not because the Pope saith it is Apostolical but because rightly Expounded or understood but not with the Popish or other wrong Exposition we find it for Substance agreeable to Holy Scripture But saith he If a Man shall deny or obstinately doubt of one Point of Faith Would he thereby lose his whole Faith Yes saith he because true Faith must always be entire and be that faileth in one is made guilty of all by discrediting the Authority of God revealing it Then say I Neither to Pope nor General Councils need People be beholden for their Faith but to God only according to Christ's words John 6.45 They shall all be taught of God But now mark People under these seeming words of this Sophister what a World of Wickedness lyeth hid For though he use the words of God's revealing Faith for a Cloak yet he intendeth nothing so indeed For if I or another Man should come and truly say God hath revealed this and the other thing to be his Will I should believe and that by his Spirit I am able to make it manifest that it agrees with the Scripture of Truth yet if the Pope and his Councils do not approve of it it shall be no Faith with them but I shall be accounted an Heretick and fit to be Burned where they get Power as hath been manifoldly proved in England and other places And again this Wickedness lyes hid under his words That if a Messenger of the Pope as Jesuit or other Priest or Teacher of them say to the poor People that do in general too much believe their False Doctrines and Practices yet if they do not in particular believe all their Superstitions then they have lost all their Faith and so consequently are Damned If they be told I say that they must say so many Ave Maries so many Pater-nosters do such Penance observe such and such Saints-days so called and their Eves and Ember-weeks and receive such and such for their Ghostly Fathers though they see and right-well know them to be Sensual and meer Carnal-minded Men and what not that these Priests commend unto them for Holy Doctrines and Catholick Practices tedious to relate If they do not believe all then by this Man's Doctrine they have lost all their Faith And why Because say they the Pope and his Councils which they account God's revealing for no other God they look at to teach them as afterwards in this his Book appears have said it must be so O the miserable Slavery of all such as are under this Hellish Egyptian Yoke The Lord deliver all simple Hearts from it And for his Worshipping and Praying unto Angels as also Saints which here and elsewhere he mentions and brings some Scripture wrested as their Custom is seemingly to prove it That one Scripture I say instead of many others which might be brought shall serve for ever to dash in pieces the Head of that Venomous and Idolatrous Doctrine and Practice of Bowing and Praying unto Saints and Angels where it is said That to God in Christ every Knee in Heaven Earth and under the Earth must bow and every Tongue confess And when he brings in his only begotten into the World he saith Let all the Angels of God worship him And therefore the Angel in Rev. 22.8 9. utterly denied John's worshipping him saying Worship God And in Rev. 7. The whole Company both of Saints and Angels fell down according to their Duty and great Engagement and did worship God So that if the Saints and Angels were as ready and as well pleased to receive Honour as these Superstitious Men are to give it them they would lose their Holy Place and be like them for saith Christ How can ye believe that receive Honour one of another and seek not that Honour which comes from God only John 5.44 But truly Holy Saints and Angels are better learned than so and therefore abhor all Honour but that which comes from God only and for that they return to him alone as his due all Honour Glory and Praise saying as in Rev. 4 last Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory Honour and Power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created And so true Heaveny Brethren and Fellow-Servants and Keepers of the Commandments of God as all true Saints and Angels whether in Heaven or Earth are look not for Worship one from another but gives all to God their Maker and Saviour to whom it 's due But it 's the Devil that would have God's Honour from him to himself as Matt. 4.9 10. but none but the Wicked will give it him And then if the Saints and Angels themselves be not to be worshipped much less their Pictures Also I say If such living Images of God and Christ as Holy Saints and Angels are are not to be worshipped much less dead Images of God and Christ invented by Man's Brain and framed by Man's hand are to be adored but to be trampled upon as Nehustan that little piece of Brass was which the Children of Israel Idolized And this Popish Book speaking of the Necessity of the Incarnation saith If it had not been scarce one of a Thousand and those great Clerks only would have known God to any Saving Purpose or so because of his Spiritual Sublimity c. By this it appears how perfectly this great Clerk is ignorant of Truth and in this how diametrically opposite to the Apostle's Doctrine 1 Cor. first and second Chapters for there he makes the World's Wisdom in general Foolishness with God and in particular the wisest sort of them farthest from the Saving Knowledge of God And so attributes all Saving Knowledge to the alone Revelation of the Spirit of God and that to Babes and Sucklings Matt. 11. But this Sophister imagines great Clerks can do something more than others in this matter And it were well if all Protestants were well purged of this bad Disease In his Fourth Article of the Greed he asks Is it lawful to honour the Cross Yea saith he with a relative Honour Because saith he it is a special Memorial of the Passion and is called the Sign of the Son of Man Matt. 24 20. he would say it 's like Verse 30. To which I say It 's a meer Dream and Falshood to call an outward Cross the Sign of the Son of Man for in that Scripture there is not the least Intimation of a Cross for the words are these Then to wit as in the former Verse when the Powers of Heaven shall be shaken shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven And then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of Man
are approved may be made manifest He doth not say Heresies come for want of a Pope and General Council And I may add another Reason and that a main and universal one and that is Peoples either not living in the Spirit or not walking in the Spirit and so not keeping the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace And so not keeping the Head to wit Christ in whom if the whole Body be coupled and knit together increase of the whole Body to wit the true Church is made to the Edifying of it self in Love and not otherwise Eph. 4. This is the Cause and continual Cause A Second Reason of those Differences saith that Popish Book is because the very Ground work of Protestancy is That all Men even the whole Church of God are Fallible and subject to Err so that they cannot pretend to Certainty or Infallibility saith he for any one Point of their Belief To which I say if any Protestant say the whole Church of God is Fallible and subject to Err if they understand the Church as Paul doth in Ephes 5.25 26 27. and as he doth in 1 Tim. 3.15 or as Christ doth in Mat. 16.18 where it is said The Gates of Hell shall not provail against it they do not well For though all Men as Men in Adam the Earthly are not only Fallible and subject to Err but also really in Deceit and Error yet in Christ Jesus the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven that quickning preserving Spirit of Truth there is no Fallibility nor Error as the Apostle saith 1 John 3. He that abideth in Christ sinneth not Ver. 6. And he that is Born of God sinneth not nor can sin Ver. 9. But what is all or any of this Glory to the Pope or his Synagogue which he falsly calls the Church of God For they do not attribute the Infallibility to the Eternal Spirit which is in every true Member of Christ's Church which is their Leader into and Preserver of their Souls into all Truth but to the Pope and General Councils as though Infallibility were annexed to the Dream of Peter's Chair and not to Christ's Spirit in the Faithful O the Abomination of Desolation that is in this Popish Doctrine But what is there such Unity amongst these Deluded Disciples of the Pope Surely nay for as we read there was amongst the Jews the several Sorts and Sects of Pharisees Sadducees Libertines Cirenians Alexandrians and the like yet all against Christ So in the Popish Hierarchy there are the several different and divided Sorts and Sects of Franciscans Dominicans Jesuits Cappuchins Carthusians and others all agreed this Day as of long time they have been against the Blessed Crown Kingdom Dignity and Dominion of our Lord Jesus Christ But these with all the rest of Mystery Babylon's Merchants have cause to wail because the Light and Spirit of God in Christ Jesus is broken forth in Power and great Glory this Day to judge them all that the Kingdom not Worldly but Heavenly may be given to the People of the Saints of the Most High God for an Everlasting Inheritance as in Dan. 7.27 Here also I may well take notice of some other words that this Popish Pleader hath in his Book Treating of this Matter viz. Since then saith he to be of one Religion is to be of one setled Perswasion in Points of Faith and seeling cannot be without Infallibility or Necessity it is not well possible that any two Protestants or Sectaries to be of one Religion every Man Expounding the Scripture as he lists and no one having Power to Controul the others Exposition of it I Answer and in the Power of Christ do grapple with this Beast that arose out of the Sea and with his Image also and do say That no Humane Conceit nor Natural Man's Exposition with the help of all the World's Wit and Skill whether Pope or other is infallible or binding or controuling But by the same Spirit that gave forth Scripture whether in a Fisherman Tradesman or other now as well as formerly is the Scripture rightly Understood and Expounded So the true Oneness in Religion stands in the Oneness of that Spirit that gave forth Scripture and gives a right understanding of it and of all things as the Apostle saith The Anointing which ye have of the Holy One teacheth all things and by it you know all things 1 John 2.20 And he that hath not this Spirit is none of Christ's Rom. 8.9 And he that is guided by this Spirit is a Spiritual Man and so not to be judged or controuled in his Spiritual Concernment by any Man of this World neither Pope nor other as saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.10 15. It is so But whereas he tells of every Man Expounding the Scripture as he lists I say this is the Pope and all his Priests Fault and of all the wicked World besides who are not in Heart and Life subject to that one Pure and Holy Spirit that is of Jesus that leads Spiritually into all Truth which Truth is one And so though they that are of another Spirit may agree never so much and in never so great numbers in their several Ways of Deceit yet the true Religion of God's Holy Ones in Light they still remain ignorant of And so his Blindness of imagining that Protestants and Sectaries as he calls them cannot be two of them of one Religion doth hereby fully appear For not only they but all the People of the Earth under what Name Notion or Profession soever are either the Children of Light or Children of Darkness and so not only two but all of the same sort may and do agree in the Root in their Religion if it may be called so though we know there is but one true Religion and that is truly and properly the Religion of God's People the Children of his Light even that which in Purity and Holiness binds their Hearts to God And so by this word Controuling which this Remish Agent here useth it is easily seen how the Pope hath set up and maintained his Wicked Kingdom that is to say by a Worldly Controuling Power over Mens Souls and Consciences and not by the Power of Truth For if his Earthly Power with his Worldly Assistants were taken from him his Decretals Expositions Bulls Excommunications and Curses for not obeying his Commands would be of little force this Day in the Earth because of the Light that God hath raised up in the Hearts of People this Day to discover him Glory to his Great Name for Evermore And so the true Judge and Controuler of all Judgments and Controulers is on his Throne this Day judging in Righteousness and on his White of Glorious Power going on Conquering and to Conquer the Man of Sin in all Lands and his Holy Ones in Light His Called Faithful and Chosen follow him with great Joy of Heart Rev. 19.11 12 13. He that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit
plunged or overwhelmed in Outward Water If yea then tell us upon what Scripture Proof your Faith is grounded seeing there is no Water there mentioned And if some were then Baptized in Water a second time why then may there not be as much Necessity now unto such as have not received the Holy Ghost at their first plunging into Water to be Baptized again in Water a second time And why was the Name of the Lord Jesus there only used and not the Form of words which you use and plead for seeing it was after that Commission Mat. 28.19 Let us know your Faith concerning these things and whether the most Orthodox amongst you be of one and the same Judgment concerning them 6. Why do you call you Dipping or Plunging People into Outward Water Sacred Baptism What Scripture President and Rule have you for that Tearm Did John the Baptist call his Baptism Sacred Or did Paul call it so Acts 19.3 4 Or was it not the Pope of Rome in his Decretal Epistle that called his Baptizing in Water Sacred Baptism and the Water in which he Baptized Holy Water And do not you use the same Tearm for yours But tell us plainly whether it be your Act of Dipping in Water that you call Sacred or the Water in which you Dip or Plunge People Or where you had that Tearm to call your Water-baptism Sacred if not from the Pope of Rome 7. Wherefore are you offended at us for calling your Baptizing in Water Dipping or Plunging seeing that we understand to be the import or signification of the Word in plain English 8. When you Dip or Plunge People into Elementary Water whether do you Dip or Plunge them in reality of Truth in or rather into the Name of Father Son and Holy Spirit yea or nay For if not do you not deceive them in making them believe that you Baptize or Plunge them according as Christ commanded his Disciples into the Name of Father Son and Holy Spirit when in reality you do but only Dip or Plunge them into Outward Water 9. Do you believe that the Name of Father Son and Holy Spirit is Elementary Water seeing I find in that Scripture Mat. 28.19 so often quoted by you to prove your Mission to Baptize in Water that Christ gave his Disciples Commission to Baptize in or rather into as it is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit but nothing said of Baptizing in Water Or do you believe that the Father the Word and the Spirit are one Is not his Name Spiritual representing his Nature yea Spirit Power and Life If yea why then do you seek to introduce and impose your Baptizing in Water from that Scripture And why do you presume beyond what is there written especially seeing that you your selves Confess that the Scriptures are the Ground and Rule of your Faith Why do you seek to impose a Faith upon us from that Scripture beyond what is there written What Ground and Rule have you for that And what Ground and Rule have you for your Baptizing in Water from that Scripture seeing Water is not in the least mentioned in it Tell us plainly 10. Did not Jesus Christ who gave that Commission Mat. 28.19 Command his Disciples to tarry at Jerusalem until they were Endued with Power from on High Luke 24.49 And whether did they go forth to Baptize all Nations before they had waited at Jerusalem and received that Power Answer plainly 11. Have all you that go forth to Baptize in Water under pretence of that Commission Mat. 28.19 obeyed Christ's Command Recorded Luke 24.49 Acts 1.4 And have you received that Promise and Power If yea what is it A Book or Books or Writings without or the Spirit Power and Life of Christ revealed within But and if you have not obeyed Christ's Command as aforesaid but run before you have received that Power are you not therein manifest Transgressors of the Doctrine and Command of Christ even in that which you pretend to be the Ground and Rule of your Faith and Mission And if so are you not thereby plainly manifested to be Intruders and false Apostles who are not to be owned nor received but to be denied and judged by all that live in the Power of God and true Gospel Fellowship 12. Was the Apostle Paul any whit inferior or behind the very Chief Apostles And was not that Commission Mat. 28.19 as much his as yours And did not he know the Mind of Christ in it as fully as any of you the Counsel of God being revealed to him Notwithstanding which did not he expresly testifie that Christ sent him not to Baptize 1 Cor. 1.17 but to Preach the Gospel Now if you have a Mission or Commission to Baptize in Water which belongs not to him as fully as to any of you tell us plainly who gave it when you received it and your Scripture for it 13. Do you believe that Paul was Called and fully Endued for the Ministry And was his Commission Acts 26.17 18. Evangelical and Full for the Gathering and Planting of Churches according to Gospel-Order seeing we find nothing in it of Christ's sending him to Baptize Or do you think his Commission insufficient for the End aforesaid because he was not sent to Baptize in Water and that yours now is more Full and Evangelical If you do tell us what Scripture have you for the Ground and Rule of your Faith in that Matter 14. Whether do you believe that the One Baptism spoken of Ephes 4.5 be that of John's in Water or that of Christ's in the Holy Ghost seeing both John Christ and his true Apostles did distinguish betwixt them as aforesaid Now if you say that that One Baptism there mentioned is the Baptism in Water then I Query whether you do believe that the Baptism of or in the Spirit is now ceased or not of such Absolute Necessity as that in Water seeing the Apostle speaks but of One Lord even so of One Faith and One Baptism And whether you do believe that any now are or can be really made Members of that One Body and true Church of Christ by Water-baptism or any other way than by being Baptized by that One Spirit into that One Body Answer plainly Thomas Taylor Christ Exalted above Moses and the Spirit above the Letter MANY are and have been in all Ages the Enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ and of the Blessed Truth and Life Immortal which he hath brought to Light by his Appearance in and through his Servants both in the Days of his Flesh and since his Ascention by the pourings out of his Spirit according to his Holy Promise whereby it hath come to pass that many simple Minds have been greatly hindred from receiving the Truth for a time until it pleased the Lord by the Arm of his Mighty Power to Consume the Adversaries of his Glory and so to remove the Stumbling-blocks out of the
or audience in so much that the boasting Spirit began to get up in some of them as in this John Reynolds as though nothing should stop their passage and so would have all accounted Liars that had said to the Contrary But behold the Wisdom if God in suffering things so to come to pass that all things might be fully manifest And so an Act of Parliament must come out against them unless they will Conform And then lo behold this shower of Rain forces in their tender Heads as not being able to endure the sharpness of the Storm for want of the true Spiritual Armour For Words and Profession could never secure any from the Fiery Trials that are still ordered in the Wisdom of God for the manifesting of every Seed So if these ensuing answers may be serviceable unto any of these Zealous Hearts to provoke them to a further search of themselves and be a means now when they are something low to give them a sight of any thing wherein they have Sined against God and Erred from his way of Life and so to move them to Repentance it will be well and a gladding of my Heart and of my Brethren who cannot but desire and endeavour not only theirs but even the good of all Men yea of them that either in times past have or at this day do shew the greatest Enmity against us for we know they none of them understand aright the Innocency of our Hearts to them and the Fear and Love of our Souls to God and his Truth for if they did how could they forbear to Love us But Glory to God for ever that hath given us not only to believe but even as need is to suffer for his Name and Truths sake and to pass by great Offences done to us which in Love to the Soul we could desire might be also the Portion of all that name Truth Rests God Servant Thomas Taylor Ignorance and Error REPROVED c. JOHN REYNOLDS A Paper of Queries coming to my hand as seems from thee to John Finch and John Payton of Dudly and weighing it well I could not but in obedience to God write something to it not so much for the use of these two young men who by the Light that God hath raised in them do see thy deceit therein as for the sake of some simple people who are as yet admirers of thee and deceived by thee and such like who under a pretence of zeal for the letter of Scripture and things you have set up in your wills under the name of Ordinances not knowing nor considering that Christ is come the end of all things to them that believe Though you may sometimes unwillingly light on Scriptures that speaks the thing and so if by what here may be said the Truth may more appear and their simple Souls be helped God will be Glorified and that will be Reward sufficient But before the Queries themselves be answered something may be said to that which goes before them in that Paper and from that I have noted the nature of thy Fawning Flattering Self-contradicting and Confused Spirit but to hide that from the Light thou backs thy sayings with quotations of Scripture as though mentioning what the Holy Men of God spoke by the true Spirit could prove that to be a true Spirit which acts in thee Nay nay the day is dawned Praised be God and the Sheepskin no longer can hide the Wolves from being seen of the Lambs of Christ for such hear Christs Voice and follow him and so are Children of the Light but the Stranger they will not follow though he may Paint him self over never so cunningly with words but all your fair words in the beginning of your work ye Fair-sayers whether in Pulpit or in Press is but to make way for your sting that follows for you resemble the Scorpion whose sling is in his Tail mentioned in Revelations for the end of all thy fair words here is but to draw these young men from the simplicity that is in Christ and his Light that Lighteth every man that cometh into the World for the great Malice of thy Heart is against the sufficiency of Christs Light in every man and so would have something to be added to it from without that so thou may'st bring in thy own traditions but what condition shall one gather by thy words these two Men John Finch and John Payton were in at the writing of these Queries to them for one while thou seemest to apply Scriptures respecting the conditions of the unbelieving Jews to them and another while thou applies those that respect the condition of pretty well-grown Christians But however the sum of all is to perswade them from following the Light of Christ in them as not being sufficient and so thy love is not testified unto them in Deed and in Truth as thou say'st it is but in meer Hypocrisie and Deceit as may further appear But what is that Soul enlightning Commandment Psalm 29.8 Whereby thou seemest to desire they may be enlightned Is it this letter without or the Light of Christ within If thou say the letter as thou must say or else thwarts the whole current of thy Doctrine and then all that have Eyes may see thee to be an outward Jew only But if thou say with us it is the Light of Christ that shineth in Darkness John 1. which at the Commandment of God shineth out of Darkness 2 Cor. 4. to give the knowledge of Gods Glory to Man in the Face of Christ then the business about Sufficiency of the Light between us is at an end and the Truth stands over the from thy own words The next is when thou hearest the Scripture mentioned thy Windy Slightly Crafty Doctrine of Deceivers Ephes 4.14 then thou shoots thy Sting at the Innocent and would'st have People believe that is to be applyed to us who Preach Christ and his all-sufficiency in and for every one that can Receive Him who is near every Man and by his Light shineth to Conviction and Judgment in every Man who would have all Men to be saved and come to the knowledge of his Truth which is nigh in the Heart and in the Mouth but this was the Apostles Doctrine and so not to be condemned in us but thou goest on telling of two ways of Deceiving the one thou namest the upper way which thou say'st is by Philosophy the Traditions of Men Rudiments of the World and Sciences falsly so called And Praised be God thou art as it were forced by the Light in thy Conscience to acquit us from being of this Number but truly the Light in our conscience tells us expresly that thou John Reynolds art one of them that areiâ—n this upper way as thou callest it of deceit for of Philosophy Traditions of Men Worldly Rudiments and false Sciences is the Body of thy Divinity made up as well as other of thy Brethren the Hirelings â—â—ou would'st condemn for the difference
thee who wilt not have it to rule in thee the Lord hath no respect nor to thy Offering So prize your Time O all ye Strangers to the Life of God and make supplication to your Judge Christ Jesus that Lights every Man that comes into the World for this is the condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men Loved and do Love their evil deeds and hate the Light for every evil Doer hates the Light saith Christ yea it is so whatsoever the Hypocrite the Evil-Doer with his Mouth may say to the contrary And all ye Children of the Light walk in the Light and be thankful for the Lord is Arisen in Mighty Power to Crown you with his Glory his Glorious Righteous Wisdom Holiness and Salvation he is come indeed to fulfil all his Promises in you and for you to the Glorifying of the Arm of his own Power and for your Souls endless comfort and why should any of you be afraid of what Man can do against you seeing you fear God and love the Children of Men and you are not of them that seek to destroy Mens Lives but to save them as much as in you lieth Arise Arise break forth into singing ye Sons and Daughters of the Heavenly King the Lord our Righteousness for thy Light is come and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee And thou shalt no more be termed desolate for thy Maker is thy Husband and thy Land is married indeed And thy Plants grow and thy Gardens cast a Sweet Smell Oh! Happy are they who Believe in thy Light and walk in the clear Sun-shine of thy Day No Stumbling nor ocasion of Stumbling is on thy Mountain nor in thy Valleys but on the Dark Mountains whereon the Haters of Christ walk is all the Stumbling of this present World Thou who art come in at the true Door Christ Jesus the Light of the World thy Kingdom is not of this World but is a Kingdom without End which cannot be shaken wherein dwels Righteousness indeed and thy Pasture is Fresh and green all the Year bong being wet with the Dew of Heaven yea in thy Happy Lot are both the upper and nether Springs and Bread of Life for evermore where rests with thee in the Purest Love thy Brother in the Joys and Sufferings of the Gospel Thomas Taylor In the 12 of the 6th Month 1669. A Message of Truth to Professors WO to the Teachers of the People that daub with untemper'd Morter and cry Peace Peace when the Lord hath not spoken Peace For the Lord speaks Peace to none in their Sins but they Teach for Doctrine That none can Live out of Sin whil'st on this side the Grave and so they Minister for Antichrist the Man of Sin and not for Christ who is without Sin in Gods Righteousness And he that keepeth Christ's Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and his Commandments are not Grievous saith John And again He that is Born of Christ Sinneth not for the Everlasting Father of the Vnspotted Generation it he And herein saith the same John and all the Living Members of Christ is our Love made Perfect that we may have Boldness in the Day of Judgment because as he is so are we in this World But the Masterly Teachers of this world cry out O the Commands of Christ who is God are hard none can keep them we must â—ive in Sin whilst on Earth no Perfection here no Victory over all while on this side the outward Grave These have their Eyes abroad and Judge after the Flesh and the things of Gods Spirit are Foolishness to them The Grave of Sir 〈◊〉 lie dead in and know not the Resurrection from it and so 〈◊〉 norant of Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life And the â—â—r in such is shut as yet that should hear the Sons Voice whose Vâ—â—â—e raiseth the Dead O Foolish and Slow of Heart to believe all that Christ and his Prophets have spoken Doth not Christ say The hour is coming and now is when the Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall Live For as the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have Life in himself John 5.26 And in another place He that Liveth and Believeth in me shall never die for God is not the God of the Dead but of the Living for the Dead cannot Praise him And And I will Ransom them from the Power of the Grace I will Redeem them from Death O Death I will be thy Flagnes O Grave I will be thy Destruction Hos 13.14 And again Ezek. 27.12 c. Thus saith the Lord God Behold O my People I will open your Graves and cause you to come up out of your Graves and ye shall know that I am the Lord and I will Place my Sanctuary in the midst of you for evermore These Words are Faithful and True and the Israel of God who are risen with Christ know them and in the Birth Immortal being passed from Death to Life do set to their Seal That God is a Faithful Performer of his Promises this Day For Life and Immortality is brought to Light through the Gospel which is the Power of God to Salvation in all that believe in God and know his Christ in them who is the Death of Death and Destruction of Sin and Life Eternal to enjoy Glory to his Name for ever And against this Living Faith and Quickning Power the Gates of Hâ—ll shall never be able no prevail But as any said before Wo to the Teachers of the People who Daub with Untempâ—â—ed Morter who look outward and judge of things according to the Flesâ— and outward appearance of things and plead for the Life of Sin during the whole time of Mans being upon Earth and look at the Grave without and Death without and so lie Dead in Sin and Buried in the Grave of their Spiritual Wickedness themselves and so leâ—d about a People filly as Women in Matters Spiritual laden like themselves with divers Sins and Lusts always learning but never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth For who know the Truth as it is in Jesus are set free by it For if you be set free by the Truth then are ye free indeed saith Christ This is more than all outward Knowledge and Profession to be so free as not to be under the Power of any Sin Lust Temptation Will of Man nor any of the Powers of Darkness whatsoever but Free as Christ is Free who is over all God Blessed forever But now that Christ is come to set up this his Holy Glorious Kingdom in the Hearts of the Children of Men where is this Faith to be found on Earth But the Multitudes of Earthly Professors cry the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter the Kingdom of Glory hereafter no Perfection on this side the outward Grave none can overcome or put off the Body of Sin whilst here and the
the Life and Vertue of what they do profess And praised be God for Ever who through his Grace gives our Souls the Victory but as for this R. B. and his Followers who are so full of that earthly faln Wisdom which receives Honour of Men and judges of things according to the Flesh I say for them to seek God's Honour and glorifie him in such low contemptible things as this is is at present far from them but to put off the Hat in Honour to proud Flesh and to love gâ—eetings in the Markets and to go in long Robes as the Old Pharisees did and to be called of Men Master and the like which gets Praise and Applause of the World though Christ forbid it never so much I say these things they like better the more is the pity see Mat. 23. and so it appears who are in the Selfishness Pride and Hypocrisie and who are not and so is the Scripture fulfilled which saith In that Day it shall be seen who are they that fear God and who not Glory to God for his unspeakable Gift and not unto us but to thy Name be the Praise O Lord. What would this R. B. if he had been in those Days have said of Christ of whom it was said That he taught the Way of God truly and regarded not the Persons of Men then surely he put not off a Hat in Honour to proud Flesh as ye do I say would not this Man have called him some odd Conceited Singular Proud Fellow like as his Predecessors the Pharisees of those Days who received Honour one of another did No question but he would for if he do thus to us his Servants what would he have done to him our Lord and Master But happy are all they in this Day who chuse rather to suffer the Affliction and Reproach with Christ and his People than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin which are but for a Season So be it Also because this R. B. in Page 27. of his Preface saith That People are far more averse that is contrary or against to Communion or Concord with the Parish Churches than the Conforming Ministers are and yet he seems in his Epistle to Bryan's Book to be unwilling that People should think he hath Conformed though he hath pleaded for it and against Separating from the Parish Assemblies and Worships as now manag'd And also seeing that Bryan as he saith is or was silenced for Nonconformity himself I desire all that reads these Lines to take notice of what a strange uneven and unrighteous Spirit these Men are of in their creeping and twisting and twining to and fro yet the Eye of the Lord and his Blessed Spirit in his Children this Day doth easily spy them out Sometimes they are all for Conformity and against Separation by any means and plead the Common-Prayer-Peoples Cause with all their might as it were and yet presently they are all on a fire against any that shall think they are Conformists Nay says R. B. How can any judge him to be a Conformist who is silenced for Nonconformity But if this Man sometime a Head to those called Presbyterians at and about Kidderminster and Bryan of the same Nature sometimes a Teacher at Coventry be not Conformed or be not yet Conformists as well as others of their Brethren who have long since swallowed down the Old Common Prayer Service as they called it which they rejected in Oliver's time because it hindred them then from devouring the Peoples Labours and seeing they plead so shamelesly for it now and also seeing this R. B. in express words confesseth That they are not so much against Conformity with the Common-Prayer Service as the People are What may be the Reason of this strange thing to wit That they do not in all things conform in Deed and Practice as well as in words save only as is plain to me this because they judge that their Admirers are not yet sufficiently wearied out with keeping off nor sufficiently moulded and fitted in their Minds for coming in and therefore they have lingred and may yet linger a while longer before they do openly and before all appear Conformists desiring if possible to see the People in before them for these Two Chief Presbyterian Priests so called are already in the Parish Stuff in their Judgment and with their Minds and Hearts already or at least would be thought so to be by the wicked World of whom they are Lovers Yet they see not how to vend their flattering Doctrines if their Admirers Conform not and come not in with them or rather be not in the Pit before them so weak and wretched a thing is Man yea the best-seeming of the Sons of Men out of the Truth Oh! how truly fulfilled by these Men are those words of the Apostle where he speaking of the False Hypocritical Ontside Teachers of that Time saith With good Words and fair Speeches they deceive the Hearts of the Simple Therefore ever-praised be Christ who hath opened our Eyes to see and perswaded our Hearts to avoid such Wolves in Sheeps clothing as this R B. and Bryan are for what finer and higher Talk or Skin or Clothing can the Wolf get than to make Sermons of dwelling with God and the like as this Bryan doth When it 's manifest he neither knows God nor his Way nor his Dwelling-place but is inwardly ravened from that Good and Blessed Spirit of Truth and Honesty which should commend him to God The Wolves Nature in R. B. is already in this Writing set down and manifest and now I come in the Light of the Lord to make manifest some of his Brother Bryan's And first shall set down that Blasphemous Passage of his in p. 291 and 292. of his sixth Sermon in that Book of his Intituled Dwelling with God c. where he saith I am not ignorant that many of you whose Habitation I question not but the Lond is who have your Habitation in several Countries of this King dom have drunk a deep Prejudice against all the Parochial Congregations whereof you are Legal Members and where all you were Baptized and thereby were made the Members of Christ the Children of God and Heirs of his Kingdom I fear some of you will startle at these Expressions found in the Common Prayer but if you consult the Holy Scriptures you will find them warranted in a Sacramental Senon and your Prejudice hath so far wrought upon you that you have forsaken the assembling of your selves together with your Neighbours in the publick Meeting-places Thus far this Bryan Answ But ever praised be the Lord who hath delivered us from the Mouths of such manifest Wolves as these are who in times past were hidden but are now fully seen who though his Brother R. B. says his Mouth was stopt or silenced for not Conforming yet here it seems it is wide open still according to his and their Custom to manifest his Folly and wicked in-side against the
Truth and for Deceit that the Simple-hearted might for ever be warned from following such any more for who would have thought that ever him called Dr. Bryan of Coventry and Richard called Mr. Baxter of Kidderminster who were so promoted in Oliver's time for Conformity to Oliver's Laws and Religion in opposition to the Prelates and their Common-Prayers should now with a little blast of Mens Breath be silenced as R. B's Epistle to his Book saith for a time and so shattered and confoundâ—d with the Fall that when they awaked and got a little Breath that they should for fear of Men be so transformed into other shapes as not to be ashamed to get into their Mouths blasphemous words of making People Members of Christ Children of God and Heirs of his Kingdom by having a little Water sprinkled on their Faces by a Man-made Priest when they were Infants and understood nothing which passage is contrary to the Scriptures of Truth as all sober minded People may well understand yea and this Bryan himself knows in his own Conscience that they are not sound words though he most notoriously and falsly says to please the present Evil World with all that the Holy Scriptures warrant them in a Sacramental Sence But I desire that all People who fear the Lord would take heed of such dangerous Heresies for the Scriptures of Truth do not allow of Falshood in any Sence at all for it 's absolutely false in the sight of God and to all good Men that Infants by any such outward Sprinkling or doing as they call Baptism are made the Children of God Members of Christ Heirs of his Kingdom seeing the Scripture now here commands any such thing but saith That except People be born from above they cannot see the Kingdom of God But the Day is dawned that makes all things manifest Praises to God And therefore People consider what a Wretchedness those are under who follow such blind Guides as turn and change with every Time and can be any thing or nothing in appearance so that they can but keep up their Name amongst Men. What was was the Common-Prayers and such things so odious a thing in the Eyes of these Priests in Oliver's Time And is it now yea the worst part of it become such an Idol in their Eyes as that those that dwell in God must be condemned of deep Prejudice for not Consormity to it What will not that Spirit that climbs over the Door and never was sent of God to preach the Gospel say or unsay so as it can but please the present Times But Oh thou Blasphemous Bryan the Accuser of the Brethren Can those that dwell with God deny to conform to that Worship or Service which is of God And therefore it is safely and truly concluded that the Service thou pleads for is not of God because for Conscience to God with whom they dwell they cannot conform to it But Oh how the Serpent creeps upon his Belly to do mischief by seeking to perswade the Consciencious People That by their not joyning with the Parish-Worships and Assemblies they open their Mouths wide to cast a Scandal upon their Persons as Prophane and upon the strict Profession of walking precisely according to the written Word which they think says this Bryan in that P. 292. of his Book gives you no warrant for your Separation c. And then down upon his Belly he goes saying My humble and earnest Request to you is to lay aside your Prejudice and examine by the good Word whether your Separation be not sinful Answ To which I answer in the Word of the Lord Blessed for ever that we who for the Work and Word of the Lord in our Hearts and Mouths are by the sinful Priests of England and elsewhere disdained and scornfully called Quakers are not separated from them because of any Prejudice or the like against them but God who by his Everlasting Light of Truth hath shewed us the Evil of their Doings and of our own when we worshipped we knew not what amongst them he I say hath separated us from them and joyned us to himself in Christ Jesus where with him our Dwelling is indeed though Bryan think not so praised be the Name of our most Holy Lord God for evermore And so we are not yet to examine whether our Separation be sinful or nay for that is done and we do know it to be good according to the good Word from the beginning most certainly And so the Offence which the Parish-worshippers take is Offence without all Canse on our parts given and so it is no other than the Unbelievers took in all Generations against them that feared God as the Jews were offended at Christ and his Apostles yea and all Christians in those days because they could not worship with their Neighbours in their Superstitions as this Bryan would have us and not only so but they killed Christ and his Apostles and grievously persecuted the Christians for their Separation then as they do us at this day and so the Reproach of Christ is to us great Riches and the Persecutors God will examine and judge And as Moses did chuse rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy Egypt's Glory for a Season so Bâ—essed are all that with us are perswaded in their Hearts to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes not heeding what the Wicked say or judge of them but as the Apostle exhorts looking at Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the Shame and so through all the Tryals and Persecutions of this World enter into God's Glory where none can come to make afraid But if there be any who through Prejudice as this Bryan speaks and not by the Spirit of the Lord are separated from the Parish-Worship it is necessary for such to see to themselves and consider lest their Return be as Shameful as their Separation was Sinful like this Bryan and R. B who it seems all this while have been no real and true Separatists to God but have been only in the Self separation according to the Will and Force of Times For though the poor deceived Followers of such Men be at present more averse from joyning with the Superstitions of the Times than your Hearers are as R. B. says yet if you grow not out of their rotten Root into the Root Christ Jesus you will be weary and faint in your Way before the end But let all know that these Self-separatists who have not their Birth of God are not real Dwellers with God though this Bryan it 's like had an Eye especially to such in his words and to whom it 's like in a special manner he applies his fawning flattering Words and Desires But what 's the Reason may we say again that these Non-conforming Ministers by R. B's report are not so much against the Parish Way of Worship as now managed