Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	church_n	word_n	2,678	5	4.0797	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

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

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

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

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

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

spirit was a lying-spirit there tryed and made manifest to the people and his blasphemy against the Spirit of God Isa 5.20 in calling truth error and error truth and putting Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness because the God of the world hath blinded his eye and many witnessed against him for his filthy Spirit was odious to many of the hearers then afterward he again said that I was a deceiver and his proofe was that I was not obedient to the command of Christ to be baptised and I told him I was baptized but he said with water and he said that were a command of Christ to be baptised with water and I bid him show me that Scripture but he could not Acts 10.47 48 but brought a Scripture in the Acts where the Apostle commanded some to be baptised and this by his filthy logick and consequences he would have made a command of Christ but he could not decevie the Light which did him try and make him manifest to the shame of his profession but he could not bring one Scripture to prove it to be a command of Christ to baptize with water and then he shuffled to that Scripture where the Apostle said Be ye followers of us even as we are followers of Christ and then he said Christ was baptised but he confessed it was to fulfil all righteousness and I said he was also circumcised and he said that was not for example then not the Baptism for both was to fulfil all righteousness to which end he the substance came but Christ himself baptised not with water neither do they read that the Apostles was baptized with water then who is their example and how do they follow the Apostles in that seeing they are baptised and the Apostles was not then he fled from that being there routed and said they might be Disciples before they could take up the cross of Christ and I replyed with Christs words that they might take up his cross before they could be his Disciples which he denied and said that wicked men upon that account might take up the cross of Christ and that Christ required wicked men to take up his Cross and I said it was so he did them require so to do for by taking up his cross they come to deny their wickedness for they that bear his cross live not in wickedness but this Elligood said that wicked men could not take up his cross for he said reproaches and outward sufferings was the cross of Christ for his names sake but this was not the cross by which PAVL was crucified to the world and the world to him and saith PAVL where hee was speaking concerning wickedness and unrighteous ones to the Corinthians Such were some of you but you are now cleansed c. 1 Cor. 6.9.10 11. And here wicked ones and unrighteous ones tooke up his CROSS which to them was the Power of GOD unto Salvation though to the GREEKS foolishnesse and to the JEWES a stumbling Blocke amongst whom this ELLIGOOD is found who is a Stranger to the CROSS of CHRIST who saith Reproaches and outward sufferings is the CROSS of CHRIST when as the CROSS of CHRIST makes Disciples and they must bee Disciples before they can suffer Reproaches or Persecution for the Name of CHRIST and must depart from iniquity before they bee a Prey to the World for CHRISTS sake for the World loves its owne and they that take up the CROSS doe depart from iniquity which is before Reproaches or Persecution is suffered for the Name of CHRIST And here ELLIGOOD is found the Lyar who said Wicked men was not called to take up the Cross of CHRIST when as all are wicked before they take up this Cross and here ELLIGOOD is found to bee no Disciple of CHRIST who is such a Stranger to the Cross of CHRIST who is a Lyar and so are not the Disciples of CHRIST for the Lyar is of the DEVILL and therefore is ELLIGOOD Then I knowing him to be one of the Baptists Teacher I took out some queries which not long before I had sent them but no answer to them had I received and I would have read them openly that the people might have heard and also he that was one of their Teachers but as I was reading he not having power over his own wil could not bridle his tongue but disorderly run into many words so that the people could not understand and I spoke to him for it and he said he had not time to stay and further said that he was not of the society of these Baptists at Fenstanton and yet he came with them and from them and then I replyed that he owned them to be the Church of God and this he did and then if he was not of their society he was shut out of the Church and then he would have shufled off with his consequences and said he dwelt far off and then I replyed with the Apostles words though absent in body yet present in spirit and the multitude that believed was of one heart and mind and here was the Society of the Saints Acts 4.32 and he being out of this society is shut out of the Church and then he would have made it have stood by his logick which only is to make a false thing seem true but it the more laid open his deceitful heart and shame to the hearers who severally witnessed against him to speak nothing but deceit and then saith he you call the Apostles words deceit because he had often stolne the Apostles words to make his deceit seem truth by covering it with the Apostles words and this is a more subtile deceit and then in his wil he called me deceiver the which he was to prove and all the people was silent and there he uttered severall lies and laid open himself to be the deceiver as I had told h●m in going about to prove me a deceiver he would the more lay open his own deceit and prove himself to be the deceiver and the people did plainly see it so and witnessed with me against him for he did so utter forth his folly and deceit that he made himself odious to many that was there and at last he shufled away under pretence he had far to go but the judgments of God he cannot escape for his damnation slumbreth not who is an opposer of the truth of God Then there was one Phillips an old man of the Baptised Party in another Roome who in scorn and wrath stood up and said they knew the first Principle of Religion before I was born because one of my Quaeries to them was what is the first Principle of Religion so I replyed to the old man if they knew it they should have answered and then presently as he was running on in many words he swore as he lived and breathed and Christ saith Sweare not at all and here he was found not come to the first Principle of Religion

the people their intent in dispute Aprill this 17. 1655. Ioseph Doughty My reply to this was as followeth as not being willing to come under their snares Rep. This is not to me but betwixt Brother and Brother so if you two Brothers are agreed concerning this your intent towards me let me know your mind in writing now while I am in the Town for while I was abroad there was a voyce of such a thing as from you but to me you did not declare your mindes neither in word nor writing therefore now I am in the Town let me know your mindes in writing that there may be no boasting nor daring in secret for truth is bold and seeks no covers this from me to you I send and do require your answer who am called I. P. This was writ on the back-side of their note and sent back to Hindes who forthwith flew into a great rage against the messenger in the streete and said that I lyed in saying that the note was not to me which any one who can read may plainly see it so and him to be the Lyar for the Lake and his seeming Religion to be vain who is still in old Cain's nature in wrath and bitterness without a bridle to the tongue Then the next morning I received this from them as followeth Iames Parnel this is to thee my intent towards thee is this If thou art minded to dispute with me appoint time and place publike and if the Lord will I will dispute with thee and so on with his proviso's as aforesaid Then my Reply was as followeth To thee Ioseph Doughty I do reply That thou must understand the occasion of this Dispute to be sprung from thee or thy party as I did declare on the backside of thy other paper so if thou or any of you that made your boasts or darings behind my back or have any thing against me or the truth which I bear testimony unto or the way which I walke in I am ready now at all times through the power of God to stand up for and defend the same against thee or any other who shall object against oppose or gainsay it be it in the Towns-hall or as publike as you will and what I have at any time declared against you people or your profession I shall be ready to maintain and justifie by such weapons as I have which are not carnal but spiritual and here is time and place from me declared but to the end of all Disputes and Arguments I am come for before they was I am and in the Light do them comprehend and judge to be out of the Light in Babylon and the Disputer and Arguer of this World but stil I say against such I stand a Witness for the truth which I have received of God and by his power am carried abroad to declare and preach abroad to the directing and turning people minds to the true Light of the Lord Jesus and there to come into the love and unity where lives the Children of Light the end of all Disputes and Arguments and this I am ready to defend and seal with my blood but I say my weapons are not carnal but spiritual and as for these provisoes of thine they are rather for me to lay upon thee according to equity for I am the defender but these things of thee I do not require neither three dayes before hand but am ready at any time to stand to what I have here declared and as for confusion in multitude of words which is thy fourth Proviso Reply Look thou to that on thy part and if thou canst tax mee thou mayest And as for order in the discourse for which thou would have some chosen which is thy fifth proviso Reply Look thou to that on thy part for my God is a God of Order and if thou canst tax me thou mayest and let that stand against me but if there be men of power to keep the people of the world in order I am not against it And as for competent Judges which thou would have appointed Reply Is the Scripture thy rule and not thy judg but thou must flee from that to the judgment of man which is changeable or else how comes Disputes and controversies but to that judgment I shall not stand the spiritual man shal be the competent judge and the Scripture shall witness And as for censorious rash terms of judging which is thy sixth Proviso Reply Look thou to that on thy part and if my judgment thou canst finde contrary to Scripture thou mayest by Scrpture disprove it but what is that that would not be judged And as for declaring before the people the intent and purpose in disputing which is thy seventh proviso Reply If thou who art the Disputant amengst the people hast any thing to say unto the People thou mayest declare thy mind according to the freedome of thy minde I shall not bind thee neither shal I by thee be bound but as the Lord puts into my mouth I shal declare unto the people what is my minde and intent as his spirit guides me so that for that I take no thought So here I have declared my mind in Reply unto thy writing where thou may●st understand my minde if thou hast an ear to hear and an understanding open and if this do not satisfie thee and the rest of you yet nevertheless cease your boasting and daring behind the back for the time to come and let this witness for me to any honest heart whether it be not fair and equal and so I rest in the unchangeable I. P. So it seems this pleased them and so it was concluded to be of the twentieth day called Fryday of the second moneth called April so when the hour came which was appointed we was disappointed of the meeting-place which the Baptists had provided for they sent me word they had provided a place but when we came to meet it could not be had and so we was disappointed then we was in this Hind's house and the woman of the house much fumed and raged at us all the while we was in the house which manifested what spirit she was of and that water had availed her nothing for she was nothing departed from the old nature so then they would have had us to have met in the yard but there could bee no order for multitude of rude people and bruitish Schollars which was as untamed bruit beasts 1 Cor. 15.32 like the beasts at Ephesus which Paul fought with after the manner of men so I passed to a friends house hard by and there continued declaring the truth as I was moved to the people and there the idle drones followed even Babylons Children with their turbulent vain contending spirits opposing and gainsaying the truth like Iannes and Iambres their fore-fathers who must perish in the gainsaying of Core so then word came that the Baptists was in the Shire-house in the Castle-yard and had sent

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