Spirit which also may be confirmed by the Testimony of the Scriture of Truth As to those which thou sets down as our Tenents I shall answer on the Lords behalf for Truthes sake and for the rest thou may take them home to thy self First concerning the Trinity thou saith they confesse the Father Son and Holy Ghost and yet they deny the Trinity and those to bet hree distinct Persons for confutation of this thou brings Heb. First and third He is the expresse Image of his Fathers Person Thy Trinity is an old Popish term and we love to keep to sound words but by Trinity I suppose thou means three and thy own words shall confute thee thou confesseth we say there is Father Son and Holy Ghost and yet but one God or one Eternal being or substance in which they all subsist but thy word distinct is thy own and not the Spirits yet to distinguish betwixt Father Son and Spirit we deny not and as for the first of Heb it is in another Translation rendred the expresse Image of his substance for Person is too grosse a word as to expresse an Eternal and Divine being in and if thou do hold three distinct substances thou errs in thy Judgement for that were to make three Gods Secondly They deny Christ to be God and man in one Person and Christ to be a distinct Person from the Father and they acknowledge such a Christ as unchrists Christ and when they say Christ manifest in the flesh they mean not as the Scripture but falaciously Answ. We say according to the Scripture of Truth and not according to thy falacy that in the man Christ did the fulness of the Godhead dwell and God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and he saith I and my Father are one and the Father the Son and the Spirit subsist in one Eternal Power Life and Glory which thou with all thy stupid generation are Ignorant of and Christ that we acknowledge is such a Christ as is able to save to the utmost them that come unto him and receive him and believe in him and is such a Christ is as able to raise them that have been dead and such a Christ giveth Eternal life to them that believe And so that Christ that we own doth not un-christ Christ but by your Doctrine who pleads imperfection and the continuation thereof and a continuation in sin for term of life as one of thy own said sin will dwell in the house till the house be pulled down speaking of the natural body which some other of thy own Generation have called the body of sin and so it is you that hold such a Christ as unchrists the true Christ in thy own words and when didst thou enter into our thoughts and into our heart or with what dost thou search that thou sits as Judge over the heart who knowes not judgement in thy self nor of what spirit thou art of and so thy lies and deceit is turned upon thee when we say Christ manifest in the flesh we say that holy thing which was brought forth and born of a Virgin and conceived of the Holy Ghost in whom the fulness of the God-head dwells in whom the Eternal Power of the Father was manifested that he was the Christ which was manifested in the flesh and Justified in the Spirit Preached among the Gentiles seen of Angels and received up into Glory and this is according to Scripture of Truth and thy judgement must be judged Thirdly Concerning the Scripture considered as the rule of Life They deny the Scripture or written word to be the rule of life and they make the Spirit without the Scripture to be their guide they account Chyrch instituted worship and waiting upon God for the Efficacious presâ—nce and operation of the Spirit of Grace in the Ministry of the Word and Sacrament for conversion and edification to be Iâ—â—latry and the Political order of Church Officers and members they affirm to be an Image Answ. Concerning the Scripture we say they are Scriptures of Truth and words of Truth spoken from the Spirit or Truth that which gave them a being is greater then they as he that Creates is greater then they that arâ— Created which is preferred above and before and yet no Deminishing or Detracting from the Creature so the Spirit is greater above and before the words and yet this doth not Deminish neither Derogate from the Scripture these and the like sound words we have spoken to thy deaf Generation yet a spirit of slumber being upon them all they could not hear that which giveth Life and bringeth to Life and preserves in the Life is a rule and a guide to them that are enlivened the Sons of God who were quickned by the Eternal Spirit of their Father of Christ and raised from death to Life this was their rule as it is written as many as are the Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God and we say it is a sufficient rule of it self and thou may as well count the rule of the Sons of God Hetrodox and Heretical and the Apostles position who said as many as are the Sons of God are led by it and Christ promised unto believers the Spirit of Truth to lead them into all Truth and to bring things to their remembrance and to guide them in the path of Righteousness what has Envy and madness eaten all the good out of your hearts Yet the Scripture is not so excluded by us as thou Judgest though we say the Spirit may lead and direct with it or without it yet not contrary to it for the Spirit doth will and may take up what thing it pleaseth to manifest it self and its mind unto the Creature and who art thou and what art thou any thing but an Egyptian who would limit it and tie it to Paper and Ink to words and Syllables sounded and written in diverse Tongues Languages and Caracters they that appointed thee for a Minister never knew Gods Work and we know that there are several Ministrations and several operations yet the same God and the same Spirit who manifested it self and formeth and Ordaineth things according to its Heavenly will to represent its Heavenly mind to the Creature and that which Christ hath Ordained and Instituted to be worshipped in waited in and his presence seen in and the operation of the Spirit of Grace in the work of the Ministry which is for Conversion and Edification is dearly owned by us as that whereby we have found the Lord and his pure presence through this or that thing and without and beyond all Creatures or visible appearances and this is not accounted Idolatry by us as thou falsly saith which God will Judge thee for in the day when he appears to take vengeance upon his Enemies in flames of fire and thou that talkes of trying the Spirit by the Letter knowes no more of God then a Horse but what thou knowes naturally the
ignorance and darkness to say and what Rule are they under who have not the Spirit or no measure of it there is but the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of errour and they that are not ruled by the Spirit of Truth they are ruled by the spirit of errour though they may have the words to fight with and quarrel about without the life But last of all thou hast in plain words set the dead letter before the living Spirit and saith That the Spirit is no Spirit except it speak by the Scripture and if the words of Christ in the 17th of John give an uncertain sound it is but to thy deaf ear and to thy blind understanding for he spoke soundly and certainly and prayed to the Father that as the Father and he was one so they also might be one being guided by the one Spirit of the Father in the Son and that they might live in the Unity of it and have Unity one with another in it and with the Father and the Son In thy 15th page though thou hast set up the Letter for a perfect Rule of life yet here thou throws it down again and saith It is to be understood as including consequences for the greatest part of Scripture is consequences and the Scripture cannot be true without consequences for Thomas and Mary are neither commanded obedience or forbidden disobedience for we no where read thou Thomas or thou Mary are therein commanded obedience or forbidden disobedience such a one by name do this or that Answ. I told thee the Spirit of God is unlimitted and whether it speaks of degrees or measures of a greater or less thing or whether it speaks the greater first and the lesser after whether it speaks from Major to Minor or from Minor to Major or what may truly follow either from the greater to the less or from the less to the greater it is all truth but thy Consequences is no part of this the Spirit still demonstrates its own mind by what words and terms and expressions it pleaseth and will not be limitted or confined to this or that form of words and thou errs grosly neither knowing the Scripture nor the Power of God and thy Consequences are false for there are the individual persons or names of Thomas and Mary both commanded obedience and forbidden disobedience and if thou have never read this in Scripture I inform thee and instruct thee thou may read the 20th of John 16 17. where Jesus saith unto Mary she turned herself and said unto him Rabboni which is to say Master Jesus said unto her Touch me not for I am not yet ascended here is a Prohibition and forbidding that she should not touch him secondly here is a command of obedience But go unto my Brethren and say unto them I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God and in the same Chapter thou may read in the 27th where Christ spoke unto Thomas by name after his Resurrection then said he to Thomas reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side here was a Command to be obeyed and be not faithless there is a prohibition or a forbidding of unbelief and so thy foolishness is manifest and ignorance of the Scripture some of it thou sayes is an uncertain sound and the Scriptures fore-mentioned thou hast denied or else never hast read it and so art unacquainted with thy Rule which thou quarrels and fights so much about And then thou comes and sayes Thou wilt vindicate some Scriptures and cites 1 John 9. That this was the true light which lighteth every man that comes into the world hence they affirm that there is a light in every man which being followed is an Infallible guide and that this light which lighteth every man is the Rule of life and not the written word thy Answer is The sence of the Text is notoriously false and thy reason is if Christ the true light that lighteth every man be the Rule then righteousnesse should be by the Law for the light which is in every man is not Gospel light but there is a natural light or the light of Nature which is to be construed in opposition to spiritual and the light of Nature and the light of the Spirit are contradistinct and by this light of Nature there is a difference put betwixt that which is good and bad and it will teach us not to lye nor steal and it will lead to the Knowledge of one God and yet it is in opposition to one spirit and it will lead to know Eternity omnipotency and it will lead to know the Creator yet it is contradistinct to the spirit Answ. The Scripture needs none of thy Vindication for thou hast defamed it and sayes Christs words is an uncertain sound and thou hast said that neither Mary nor Thomas was commanded obedience thou may look back of thy lyes and repent of them and why is the sence of the Text utterly false that Christ was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world without exception and why is this utterly false if he be followed that he who is the true light is an Infallible guide and the Rule of life hath he not enlighted every man that comes into the world if thou make exceptions where the Spirit makes none then thou perverts the Scripture doth not he say I am the light of the world the world in the Scriptures account is set in opposition to believers for believers are not of this world but are redeemed out of it as for example God so loved the world that he sent his Son into the world that whosoever did believe in him might not perish but have Everlasting life for it is manifest that the Saints and Believers had life given already that followed Christ and were his sheep and saith Christ I put them forth and go before them and give unto them Eternal life and he said to them who had not Eternal life While you have the light believe in it that you may be the Children of it and is not Christ Gods Righteousness who is given for a Covenant of light to the blind and dead and lame to the dumb to open their eyes to quicken them to make them leap as a Hart and their tongue to sing and utter forth praise we say Righteousness is not by the Law but by Christ that lighteth every man who is the end of the Law and why is not the light which lighteth every man Gospel light seeing it is said Go Preach the Gospel in every Creature under Heaven go learn what that means and if natural light must be construed in opposition to spiritual and the light of Nature contradistinct to the light of the Spirit then it must needs be sinful for that which opposeth spiritual light is set in opposition against its leading must needs be sinful and that which is contra
or against the light of the Spirit must needs be sinful and then if it be as thou hast said and if this must be the true sence of that Scripture that it must be understood of natural light and that natural light thou construes in opposition to spiritual and saith it is contradistinct to the light of the Spirit and in opposition unto it that which is against the Spirits light or the light of the Spirit must needs be darkness sinful and evil and yet thou hast confessed it will teach that none ought to lye or steal and to know one God and the Creator and Eternity and Omnipotency and yet it must be taken in opposition to the Spirit and contradistinct from the Spirit that which leads to know the Creator and Eternity and Omnipotency is that Spirit of God through which God and the things of God are revealed and that that teaches that a man should not lye that is truth and that that leads from sin and accuses for evil-doing and convicts that is the Spirits light as it is written he shall convince the world of sin and so thou like a man who hath lost all aim rambles up and down in every by-path and like a blind man gropes but cannot enter into the Treasure-house of Wisdom thou hast called the light that every one is lighted with the Righteousness of the Law and no Gospel light and in opposition to spiritual and contradistinct to the Spirit and in a word hath made at it at the best construction but bad and evil and then when thou hast done thou confesseth that it will put a difference between good evil and shew that God is to be worshipped and Eternity is known and Omnipotency And are not these the deep things of God And so Bâ—bylon is the Land of thy nativity and thou reels and staggers up and down like a drunken man and would be a Teacher and knows not whereof thou affirms nor of what thou speaks Further thou saith That this little light there is is much miscarried and thy Reason is because it is managed by the reigning power of darkness and the judgement of man is corrupt and then thou goes on the light of nature since the fall is not to be compared saist thou with the light of the Image of God before the fall and it hath no proportion with Gospel light but is gross darkness nay is worse then gross darkness Answ. And how did the light miscarry thou blind-man and when did the Reigning power of darkness manage it seeing that there is no fellowship betwixt light and darkness and the light which every man is lighted with hath born witness against darkness and the Reigning power of it and though the judgment of man be corrupt his miscarriage is because he hath not minded the light and because he hath turned his back on it and then sin entred and then came to Reign in the power of darkness and corrupted the heart and this hath made man miscarry and though thou say that the light which lighteth every man is not compared with the light of the Image of God before the fall and hath no proportion I 'le tell thee a riddle go learn what it means the light of the Image of God before the fall is the same in it self after the fall and holds its proportion and is no whit lessned or deminished in its purity in its self although fallen man do not see it neither can behold it because sin hath entred and death by sin and that is it which obscureth the Image of God from man and its light yet the light shined in darkness but thou concludes it is darkness yea worse then grosse darkness and thou brings a proof to prove it ye were darkness the Apostle doth not say that the light which shined in darkness was darkness or worse then grosse darknesse as thou ignorantly saith but he said the Ephesians or the men of Ephesus were darkness and not the light in them which shined in darkness though the darkness comprehended it not but how now John Norton what will the General Court of Boston say when they see thy confusion laid open and the deceit made manifest to thine and their shame and ignorance thou confest in the 16. page that it would lead to know God and the worship of God and Teach not to lie and steal and so forth and to discover some of Gods Attributes as Eternity omnipotency and the like here was some good in it in thy own account but now it s become grosse darkness in the 18. page and worse then grosse darkness and so hath made as bad if not worse then any Principle that is in a Beast and it may truely be said of thee even in thy own phrase Quanta sub nocte Jacebat Nostra dies But now thou comes to a further interpretation of 1 Job 9. and thou saith the light which we are enlightned with it is either the light of nature the light of reason or the light of saving Grace and the light enlightning is either the Word considered as the second Person or Christ the Son considered as Incarnate Answ. It seems that thou knowes not which it is but gueses like a blind man and like a wild Archer shootes at random and why dost thou make such distinction betwixt the Word the Son of God and Christ the Son of God thou made but three Persons in the Trinity before but it seems by thy arguing thou would now make four And as for thy Collective and distributive light the distinctions is that which would cast a mist before People eyes and thou brings the Judgement of Calvin Besar and Piscator and others that as concerning man endued onely with the light remaining since the fall they conclude him to be darkness and unable to comprehend the light or to improve it to salvation their judgements is more sound then thine though thou would bring them to strengthen thee that the Son of God hath not enlightned every man they confesse the man in the fall is in darkness and darkness is over him and in that he is not able to comprehend the light which is in him and as to the improvement of it in the darkness man hath not power to improve it to salvation but what doth this invalidate the light which is in darkness the power of improving is in the light being turned to again and received and what if I say it is the light of Life in its self though thou deny it I know what I speak for in him was life and is life and that life is the light of men and the light of the world and so that light which every man is lighted with is of the life and from the life and so may truely be said to be the light of life in it self though man in the transgression doth not feel it so as to him but may truely say it is the light of condemnation because he feels it so
so all thy Interpretations are false and thine is the private Interpretation and not from that sure word of prophesie which the Prophets and believers took heed unto and through which they interpreted things truely according to the mind of God As for the story of false Teachers arising and prevailing among People and what the signal nature is and thou sayest they are sent as scourges and as judgements to them who have not received the Truth in the love of it and thou brings a Scripture I came in my Fathers Name and ye received me not John 5. but if another shall come in his own Name him you will receive It s manifest that thou comes not in his name nor in Christs Name and if not so in thy own name thou comes by the appointment of the General Court at Boston and so there will few believe thy fabulous stories which are not worth rehearsal which will cast a mist before the eyes of them who cannot see through thy deceit and the sum is thou sayest of all that the Doctrines of Devils audatiously deseminated pretending themselves to be sent of God are signal signs of evil times The Doctrine of Devils hath long been seminated audaciously by numerous false teachers and false Prophets as Christ foretold in Mat. 23. and 24. which John saw come 1 John 18. little Children it is the last times ye have heard that Antichrists should come and even now there are many and they have Ruled long in most parts of the Earth that John said the whole World wondred after the Beast and this hath been a sad time these 13. or 14. hundred years wherein the true Church the Woman cloathed with the Sun hath been in the wilderness in a solitary place exiled because of the Beasts power and the Dragons Power and the false Prophets Miracles and because of the Doctrines of Devils has made it a sad time and an evil time such as thou hast taught viz. that the light which every man is lightned with is grosse darkness and worse then grosse darkness and that Christ left Political Officers and that the Lords Supper is a visible Political Church Ordinance and that Baptism is a visible Political Church Ordinance and that it is blasphemy to hold perfection of degrees in this life and that none can be cleansed from sin while upon Earth these and the like Doctrines of Devils hath been sown which thou now audatiously Seminates by the appointment of the General Court at Boston but the time drawes near an end the night is far spent and the day is at hand when the Beast shall be taken alive and the old Dragon laid hold on and the Mother of Harlots burned with fire and the false Prophets which have wroughts miracles before the Beast and has cryed as thou cryest him up in New England who is able to make War with him who hath shed the blood of the Saints of the most high God which will lie as a stain upon your Political Church as thou calls it which will not easily be washed away the time of your mirth in Sodom and Egypt is near an end though you strengthen one another and make merry yet wo will come when all these before mentioned goes down alive into the pit together and when the Sea is dried up that your traffique will not go off then alas shall be the note of her Merchants who have traded with her Sorceries and witchcrafts and have made People drunk that they have reeled and staggered and have been all like a Sea unstable and have not known the Rock of Ages upon whom all that do believe aâ—â— established Thou sayes the Gospel is a constitution or effect tempered of the Grace of God and of the blood of Christ Answ. The Gospel thou knowes not but builds with thy untempered morter and unseasoned words and what is the Gospel an effect of it is not onely an effect of an operation but it is that which operates and is the Power of God which will confound all this mudd and all these muddy traditions which you mix with the Scriptures and calls them Gospel And now thou comes to the distructiveness of the Doctrine of the Quakers to Religion the Churches of Christ and Christian States because thou sayst iâ— appears in this from the nature of the object they single out to fight against as the Trinity Christ the Scriptâ—re Order both Civil and Ecclesiastical as instituted in 〈◊〉 Gospel As to thoâ—e Principles I have answered before in part but dost thou 〈◊〉 of civil order in your state or in your Political Church as thou calls it is that to be counted a civil State who destroyes the Creatures Gods workmanship and destroyes mens Estates and sells their free-born Children as bond-slaves dost thou Judge that these Rules well according to the appointment of God who is a terror to them that do well and an encourager of violence and cruelty as your late actions hath sufficiently evinced and as for the order of your Political Church we have heard of it that you are as a company of wild Beares rending and tearing and stops gloves and napkins and binds keys over their mouthes that they may not speak the Word of Truth amongst you contrary to Primitive order and as for the Doctrine of the Quakers many who knowes it better then thee knowes it to he distructive to nothing but to the Doctrine of Antichrist and such ungodly Doctrines as thou hast laid down in this Book as that that light which Christ hath enlightned every one withall is grosse darkness and worse then grosse darkness and that the Supper of the Lord is a visible Political Ordinance and such black doctrines as these our Doctrines are distructive unto And further thou goes on and tells the work against order is policy against policy the pollicy of Hell against the pollicy of Heaven It seems your order stands in pollicy both in your Church and State and in craft fraud and deceit and thou Judges that Heaven stands in policy to but he that sits in Heaven laughes you to scorn with all your deceit and pollicy And now thou comes to thy proof and saith that Doctrine that denyes obedience to Magistracy in his due Subject in effect denyes the order of Magistracy but their Doctrine denyes obedience to Magistracy in its due Subject therefore their Doctrine denyes the order of Magistracy Answ. The Major and Minor is both false for we own Magistracy in its due subject which stands in the Power of God and in the higher Power and that which leads into order and out of confusion and distruction and thou must not think to fasten Stork and Muncer upon us for thy proof what as they did stands upon their account and not upon ours and that mischievous spirit of thine is that which presseth on the Magistrate to abuse his Power and to intrude into those things which belongs not to him to keep up your confused Babel which thou