as it is made manifest in me and to declare what Faith we own and practise and what we do deny to that end that the simple may be informed and the way of truth cleered from such deceivers who are perverters of the Scriptures who would constrain people to follow their imaginations instead of truth as these men have done whose names are subscribed And now a few words in answer to that you call your first Principle First Principle That the Scripture is the rule of knowing God and living unto him which whoso doth not believe but betakes himself to any other way of discovering God instead thereof cannot be saved Answ The Scriptures are not the Saints rule of knowing God and living unto him but that which was before the Scriptures were written by which all the holy men of God knew him and here ye have made your selves manifest that ye have not the rule which Moses had which is the spirit of light by which he made himself known unto the sons of men and ye that teach people to walk in another rule are those that put light for darkness and darkness for light shewing forth the spirit of error and here ye pervert the Scripture and Moses words which prophesied of Christ Moses bad not the people walk by the Scripture neither did he tell them that living therein was the rule of knowing God but he directed them to the Life without which all their profession was abominable but ye are not come to walk in the Letter whose lips and practice doth not concord with it who are found acting those things which it declares against Matth. 23. who are called of men Master stand praying in the Synagogues which our Lord Jesus Christ cryed wo against and here your Faith and your Principle is descryed who are not so much as found acting in that which you call your rule Now lest you should boast in your glory and the simple be stumbled by your subtilty I am moved of the Lord to open and discover unto all that your Faith is no more then all the ungodly in this Nation doth profess and also that the Rule whereby the Saints are guided is that which was before the Scripture was First it is professed generally in this Nation that believing in the Scriptures is the rule of knowing God this have you preached for Doctrine among the people and yet the way of God is hidden from their eys who are found acting in the abominations of the Heathen as doth plainly appear by the sins of this people nay what sin is there that is not committed amongst this people which have professed the Scripture to be their rule and you that pretend to be their teachers are the greatest examples of their wicked practices Crying peace peace unto them when there is no peace one building a wall and another dawbing it with untempered morter but ye shall proceed no further but your folly shall be made manifest to all men Our rule is that whiâ—h Moses walked in and Abraham and David and all the Prophets which is Christ Jesus the light of the world which whosoever believeth not in him hath not God Moses walked in him Abraham believed in him and David delighted in his Law which is perfect and here we deny you who deny that rule in which the holy men of God walked in Second Principle That there is a God who is the Creator and Judge and Governor of the world and is to be known by Faith Answ The Saints God ye are ignorant of who put light for darkness and darkness for light and before him ye cannot stand in judgement who are found working wickedness making people believe that believing in a thing without them will bring them to the knowledge of God which none can know or understand but through death and if ever ye come to know this God whom the Saints worship in Spirit and Truth ye must witness a day of vengeance to pass through therefore stop your mouths ye proud and lustful ones the day of recompence is come in which ye shall receive double for all your wickedness The Lord is our Iudge our Law-giver and our King and this we witness though we had never seen the Scripture And here we deny you and your principles which is no more than that which the world professeth Therefore be ye ashamed ye wicked and ungodly ones who live in the beastly nature who knows no more of God than what ye have without in the Scriptures which they spoke forth that witnessed him before the Scriptures were written him we own and witness to be our King by him we are redeemed out of your generation glory to his name for ever who hath made himself manifest in us and hath brought us to that which was before the Scripture was Third Principle That this God who is Creator is eternally distinct from all other Creatures in his being and blessedness Ans God ye know not neither can ye see him but are found persecutors of him who would divide him from what he is by heathenish inventions which ariseth out of the corrupt sensual part which never shall inherit the Kingdom The being of God is not distinct from them that are begotten by him For as the Father and the Son are one without distinction so are they that are begotten by him and here you perverters of the truth are shut forth from God with all your distinctions and imaginations which ariseth out of the dark mind by which ye have all this while deceived the people Woe unto you ye enemies of God your foundation your compass and your end is made manifest unto the children of light who would divide God from his children whom he hath begotten unto himself through the word of faith in which we live and abide for ever And here I challenge you before the Lord to produce one Scripture which speaks of God being distinct from them that are begotten by him and if you cannot prove your words by plain Scripture let shame cover your faces and stop your mouthes for ever And for your fourth thing That God is three persons or substances this is also another of your lies never such a word is declared of in Scripture and thus have you made your folly manifest to all men and have cleared your selves from the Scriptures God is a mystery in whom the foundation of all things stands and he is but one in all though ten thousand times ten thousand Woe unto ye you perverters of the truth who blinds the eyes of the simple making them believe your imaginations and conceivings in stead of truth and this you run to the powers of the earth to propagate Ye men of sin did ever the Prophets declare of such Gospel as this or did ever the Apostles preach any such doctrine as this which ye would compel people to believe and would have the powers of the earth to propagate Here I challenge you again to prove your example
and is not that every way answerable to the justice of God but such polluted filthy beasts as thou would have another righteousness as thou speaks plainly in thy ninth query but all thy righteousness we deny and the righteousness of Jesus Christ we own and witness whose righteousness shall be revealed upon thee in flames of fire 14 Quer. Whether none be accounted righteous in Gods sight in whom there is any corruption or failing or who do not fulfil the Law and answer every demand of Justice Answ Here thou polluted beast hath made it manifest what thou hast been driving at all this while in thy queries which is that thou would have corruption and filthiness to be accounted righteous in Gods sight that so thou might lie and wallow in thy sins and filthiness but John saith that he that commits sin is of the Devil for the devil sinneth from the beginning and for this purpose the son of God was made manifest that he might destroy the works of the Devil and thou man of sin would have it to stand but those that loves God keeps his Commandments and they are not grievous and God doth not accept any where there is any failing or who do not fulfil the Law and answer every demand of Justice and he doth reserve the unjust unto the day of Judgement to be punished 2 Pet. 2. 9. and chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and there thou art 15 Quer. Whether a soul be justifyed before God by the non-imputation of sin and the imputation of the righteousness of the person of Christ to his Faith or by a righteousness wrought by Christ in the person justified or to be justified Answ Here stop thy mouth thou sorcerer which art gathering up a heap of confusion which is fit for nothing but to be turned with thee into the bottomless pit from whence it comes wherein thou talks of imputation and non-imputation and of a person justified and to be justified thy language is of Egypt and in the mysterie of iniquity thou speaks it which is condemned into the lake of perdition by the light of Christ and in the light thou and it are seen and comprehended and as I told thee before I own no righteousness but what is of Christ and wrought by thee which righteousness shall confound thee and all thy unrighteousness and conjuration and the same that justifies us shall condemn thee eternally 16 Quaer Whether Christ be in his Saints in respect of that nature wherein he suffered at Jerusalem Answ Here thou Enemy of Christ would know how the Saints enjoy Christ here the Scripture is fulfilled in thee The light shines in darkness and darkness comprehends it not When thou comes to own thy condemnation the light in thy conscience it will let thee see thy evil deeds it will lead thee up to Christ from whence it comes and then thou wilt know that nature that he suffered in but now thou art in that nature that Judas was in that betrayed him and that they were in that crucified him 17 Quaer How and after what manner Christ who in respect of his divine nature is infinite and in all places may be said to be in a Saint and not in a Reprobate Answ What hast thou to do to querie after the divine nature who art the natural man that knows nothing of God bâ—t what thou knows naturally as a bruit beast and knows not the things that be of God because they are spiritually discerned and the manner of Christs divine nature which is infinite is hid from thy eyes for of that eye which thou shouldst see that with thou art blind and his manner of being in a Saint thou knows not who art a Reprobate and thou shalt find him to be thine eternal condemnation 18 Quaer Whether doth Christ now in these dayes assume or take upon him the form of a servant and the seed of Abraham that is our flesh And whether doth not this assumption cause such a perfection of the Godhead and the manhood as that both of them are united together into one person Answ Oh thou dark beast and Conjurer who art querying with thy conjured words that which thou knows nothing of and which is out of thy reach and comprehension Thou blasphemer dost thou limit Christ to daies in taking upon him the form of a servant and the seed of Abraham Is not he the same now as ever he was And for the Union of the Godhead and the Manhood as thou calls it let thy mouth be stopt for with the God nor none of his children hath any union for God hath put an utter enmity betwixt thy seed thou Serpent and the seed of the woman and the perfect union with Christ we witness who is the same to day yesterday and for ever and therefore are we separate from thee and thy generation 19. Quaer Whether is Christ now conversant upon earth amongst men since his ascension as he was before and in those times wherein the Apostles lived Answ In thy Queries thy speech bewrays thee thy language is the language of Egypt for in it thou makes it clearly manifest that thou knows not Christ at all not in the least measure for where the first Principle of truth is made manifest it is the same that ever was and never changes And thou asks whether Christ be now conversant upon earth amongst men since his ascension as he was in the Apostles time Dost thou know what thou askes Did he not appear to the Apostles since his ascension in the most glorious manner that ever thou read and is he not the same now as he was then What would thou make of him thou dark sottish beast such a one as thy self who would be pleading for darkness and ignorance of God but praise and glory to him who hath discovered thee and all such deceivers as thou art 20. Quaer Whether did not Christ dwell among his Saints after another and more visible manner than now he dwels in his Saints Answ There again thou hast shewed thy ignorance of the Scripture and for thy word Visible he is not nor never was visible to thee nor to thy generation for those that did profess the Scriptures as thou and thy generation doth crucified him and said he was of the Devil and thou and such as thou art doth now Thou blasphemer where hast thou a Scripture that saith that Christ would dwell in his Saints after anothere manner Did he not say It is expedient for you that I goe away and I go and prepare a place for you and I will come again and receive you unto my self and where I am there you may be also and ye have heard how I have said I go away and that where I am there you may be also and that I have said I go away and come again unto you and if ye loved me ye would rejoice because I go unto the Father And Christ Iesus
faith in the 14 of John v. 12. Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me the work that I do he shall do also and greater works then these because I go to the Father But all these Scriptures be hid from thine eyes and thou art one of those that Isaiah prophesied on and that Scripture is fulfilled on thee which saith He hath blinded their eyes and hardned their heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts Now blessed be the Lord that hath discovered thee and such blind guides as thou art so we have answered thy Queries in the eternal light and life of God and we have given judgement upon thee and them which thou shalt eternally witness without roving or wandring but thou who art out of the light art roving and wandring and stumbling in darkness who hath put forth these stumbling Queries which we have answered lovingly and plainly and in the Scripture language and terms and with the eternal light and life of God set thee in thine own place which thou shalt eternally witness These are matters of great concernment and if you refuse to answer them in writing spare your tongues and spare your papers for I will henceforth neither hear the one nor read the other Ans Thou saith these are matters of great concernment we see that that which makes thee manifest and such as thou art and which laies thee open to poor ignorant people which is deceived by thee and led into the ditch and their souls kept in death by thee to make this manifest is of great concernment as these black dark stumbling Queries and thy conjured words hath done which thou hast no Scripture for as ambiguity efficacy exclusively antecede and non-imputation assume and assumption Now let all people read and consider what they do that hold such as thee up who is shut out from God and shut out from the Saints life and language and art shut out of the Scriptures though thou makes a trade of them for money and deceives poor people but thou knows nothing of the Life and Power that gave them forth So thou art to be condemned with the Light and with the Life that gave forth the Scripture Let all people read Deuteronomy 18. from the nineth verse to the fifteenth there the Priests and the Levites which was ordained of God was to have no inheritance among the people but the Lord was their inheritance and they were to have it of that which was offered up to the Lord. And this is a figure of the Everlasting Priesthood which ministers out of the Everlasting Treasure and the Lord God commanded Israel that not to do as they did when they came into the Land nor to go after their abominations as you may see But gave Israel their Land to possess that did hearken unto such as the Lord had not sent which was abomination to him And the Lord saith to Israel Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God Vers 15. The Lord thy God will raise unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy Brethren like unto me unto him shall ye hearken and so to the end of the Chapter He that hath an eye may see and the Lord is the same that he was and he will not suffer the abominations that is committed in this Land but is discovering the abominations of it A horrible and a filthy thing is committed which Jeremiah cried against Covetous men preach Drunkards preach Swearers preach Liers preach Strikers preach and Proud men preach O wonderful where is your eyes Try your Priests by the Scriptures see if they be not found in the same Generation that all the false Prophets and the Deceivers were in which the true Prophets of God cryed against and discovered and in the steps of the Scribes and Pharisees that Christ cryed wo against and see if they be not the Antichrists and the Deceivers which are entred into the world which John speaks of which cannot confess Christ come in the flesh but transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ so hath not God neither knows but preaches for sin and against perfection and denies the light which enlightens every one that cometh into the world and so keeps people in blindness and ignorance and out of the knowledge of God and never any that follows them shall ever come to the knowledge of the true and living God therefore all people see where you are and minde the light in your Consciences which is pure and which testifieth against all sin and it will let you see all your blinde guides which deceives you to be in sin and ignorant of God for they deny that which should make him manifest therefore beware what you hold up and give over going after them to that in your Consciences I speak which shall witness me eternally to speak the truth if you obey it and shall condemn you eternally if you disobey it These blinde guides that are in this Land denies the Prophets which Moses wrote of which is the substance of the Priesthood which was before and here they are found in the same generation in the Sorcery and in the Witchcraft which the Lord commanded should be put out of the Land where the children of Israel went to possess And now the other Paper I commend to thy reading is this THE Sword of the Lord Drawn and Furbish'd against the MAN OF SIN OR Something in Answer to a Paper set forth by three of the chief Priests of London whose names are THOMAS GOODWIN and one NYE and SYDRACH SYMPSON which they have put forth to the propagating of the Gospel signed by him that is the Clerk of the Parliament whose name is HENRY SCOBEL With their deceits and deceitful actings laid open and cleered from Scripture that they have no example in Scripture for their practice Therefore I was moved by the Lord God of life to lay open their deceit by the spirit of truth as it was made manifest in me from the Lord that the simple might not be deceived by them but might have the knowledg of the Truth from that which is for ever and shall not change nor fade away By one whose name in the flesh is Christopher Atkinson who am one whom the World doth scornfully call a QUAKER LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Giles Calvert c. 1654. The Sword of the Lord drawn and furbished against the Man of Sin THere coming a Paper unto my hands put forth by three of the chief Priests of London whose names are Tho. Goodwin one Nye and Sydrach Simpson called the Principles of Faith put forth to the Committee of Parliament for the propagating of the Gospel as they call it and finding them out of the Apostles rule and the Prophets rule acting those things which they have no example for therefore am I moved of the Lord to lay open their deceits and to declare the living truth of God
here 's manifest and horrid violence offered to the Majesty of the Almighty both in his nature and essence and to the doctrine of the Trinity And now in the second place I shall shew thee that they offer violence to Jesus Christ the Lord our righteousness God over all blessed for ever For as for Christ though they often mention him yet in deed and truth they make no more use of him then they doe of Moses and the Prophets I say in deed and in truth for they are meer juglers they speak one thing and mean another jesuitically equivocating So that it is a harder matter to find out their doctrines then to confute them It s usual with them to say they witness Jesus Christ and the death of the man Christ Jesus which suffered at Jerusalem they own and witness But what do they mean by these words they own and witness Is it any more in truth then what the very Devil is forc'd unto sc that there was such a Christ and that he did such and such things But as for Christ and the death of Christ and his righteousness wrought and done in his own individual person to be relied upon by faith rested in for justification of the Saints to life without any thing wrought or done in them or by them for that end this they utterly deny And whereas the Word proposes Christ the rest of souls they on the contrary say that he is not to be rested in They say that we must go through him as we go through Moses and the Prophets as thou hast seen in Foxes and Nailors book called A word from the Lord where they blame the Ranters that they never came through the Prophets nor Moses house nor Christ I have in part opened this already but if thou wouldest Reader more fully know their meaning what it is to go through Moses and the Prophets and Christ read but a passage in that book of Fox and Hubberthorne the title whereof I have formerly given thee sc Truths defence and there p. 68. l. 24. thou shalt find the meaning for he that will understand the language of Cut-purses and pick-pockets must learn it of their fellows and there thou shalt find what it is to come through the Law The Answerer to the Queries says that many do profess the Gospel and the new law of righteousness and are not come through the Law And that is as he there explains himself that the Law hath no more power over a man and that he is dead to it misapplying that which the Apostle there speaks of the law of sin or sin ruling by the Law to death and condemnation to the holy Law of God the Moral Law it self the eternal rule of righteousness as if a Christian should ever be dead to that and free from that as not to be bound to observe it And that this is his meaning the next page shews there in the beginning he says the Law and the Prophets were until John and John until Christ and bids those that can receive it that is understand him receive it and if they can they may So he says implying a mysterie something more then ordinary to be intended by him in that expression And then tels them that when they come to go through Moses and through the Prophets and through John to come to Christ then they shall see the light is but one sc the light of Moses and the light of Christ for that was the question propounded Whether there were any distinction between them as thou mayst see in that book Quer. 4. There 's just ground of exception against that too but 't would be endless to follow them to every by-path But by this thou seest their meaning what it is to go through Moses the Prophets and John scil to go beyond them and to be dead and free from them And the same say those Quakers in their short Answer to the 7 Priests who stile themselvs those Quakers who shal make all the world to quake and tremble printed by Calvert 1654. In the first page of that book they give good words of the Law viz. that it is holy just and good and perfect and pure But for these good words they presently in the next line say that it is but a Schoolmaster till faith and when faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster And this say they is witnessed amongst us And in the 8 page of that book speaking of the Moral Law they say that 's without and there it shall stand as you are the Priests in the first nature and that in their tongue is the perishing nature Why now says Naylor and Fox the Ranters failed in that though they had a pure convincement and started up to be as Gods they did not proceed they never came through the Prophets nor Moses house nor Christ All must be gone through we must not so much as rest in Christ And indeed what need is there For if we be once come to be equal with God as they say perfectly righteous in our own persons so that we can perfectly keep the Law and not sin in any thing what need Christ as a Mediator or an Intercessor and so no need of him for any thing This one desperate opinion is the very cutthroat of Christ and Christianity and makes Christ especially as to a believer of none effect and useless They are now their own Christs they have gone through him and beyond him They have now no more to do with our imagined God beyond the stars and our carnal Christ which they say those precious and godly servants of Christ would make appear through their heathenish Philosophy Nay beloved Reader do they not make Christ altogether useless to the Saints whenas they say the Elect were never defiled as they do in their answer to the 4. Querie put by Reeve and answered by Borro and Howgill And in the answer to the 5. they say again the Elect are not nor ever were defiled And surely if so no need of a Christ a Saviour and if the Elect have no Saviour none else shall and so no need of Christ at all then he came in vain and dyed in vain unless it be only to be a figure an example which is the cursed doctrine of the Socinians and which as in the brief Relation of the irreligion of the Northern Quakers p. 5. error 13. stands charged and not answered in the Lancashire Charge against them And well may this be their opinion if every man have a light within him sufficient to lead him to salvation then sure there is no absolute necessity of a Saviour Thus doe they offer violence to Jesus Christ our Saviour making him a meer shadow a type a temporary manifestation to be gone through not to be rested in and making void the chief end of his coming in the flesh and nulling his death and sufferings I might farther manifest this unto thee
by Scripture and where ever the holy men of God did divide him into three substances And if ye refuse to prove the same I proclaim as in the presence of the Lord that ye are perverters of the Scriptures and of the right way of the Lord and your propagating the Gospel and your principles are accursed from God having no example in Scripture Fifth Principle The fifth is That Christ is the Mediator between God and man without the knowledge of whom there is no salvation Answ Him we witness made manifest in us who is the Mediator but what have you to do to speak of his name or profess his words who are found in the steps of the Scribes Pharisees that put him to death who are called of men Master have uppermost rooms at feasts stand praying in the synagogues as they did that Christ cried wo against Math. 23. Thus you are separated from Christ who are not found in his doctrine and are found among the Heathen whom the condemnation is upon and the Scripture bare testimony against you that you are not in the doctrine of Christ but are found to be lyars 1 Joh. 2. â—2 and the acts of your fathers you are found acting And in the sixth you say that Christ is the true God Here you be witnesses against your selves that you divide the Father from the Son who you say is three distinct substances But the Lord will make you manifest ye that blindfold the simple by your subtilty and witchcraft making them believe lyes in stead of truth and would divide that in which there is no division for he that hath the Son hath the Father also This man Christ Jesus who was made with an oath the everlasting covenant the oath of God is not divided from him in whom the foundations stand for without this man Jesus was nothing made and as he was so he is He that hath an ear to hear let him hear And here Sottish minds your imagined God beyond the stars and your carnal Christ which you would make appear through your heathenish Philosophy is utterly denied and testisted against by the light which comes from Christ which ye resist as your forefathers have done And in your seventh Principle ye are laid open 1 Joh. 4. 2. Hereby know we the Spirit of God every spirit that confesseth Christ come in the flesh is of God and this is he that is one with the Father even Jesus Christ the man of God who was given for a covenant but him ye are enemies unto And whereas you say in the eighth that this Christ the man of God is God and Man in one person it is a lye He is not divided from what he was before the foundations of the hills were laid but him ye know not but as ye do imagine and the Heathens do and here you are shut forth from the Scriptures and from Christ and the new man which is witnessed in the sons of God Therefore stop your mouths for ever who would make people believe that believing in those words which are declared from the Life without the same spirit as they had that spoke them forth will bring them to the same knowledg of God And thus in your Ninth you have also shewed forth your ignorance and telling people that Christ hath paid a ransom for sin This is witnessed by the children of light but what have ye to do to take these words into your mouths that never yet came to repentance for sin and if ever you witness him a Redeemer you must witness the vengeance of God which is upon the man of sin But you men of sin who live in your filthiness shall receive your recompence from the hand of the Lord and this ye shall eternally witness whether you will hear or forbear And as for the eleventh that Christ being the onely God and man in one person remains for ever a distinct person from all Saints and Angels notwithstanding their union and communion with him your words are utterly denied and detested and your distinctions are abominable I challenge you from the Lord to prove such a thing in Scripture or else stop your mouths for ever for Christ Jesus is but one in all and not distinct and you that would divide him and them that are begotten by him are enemies unto him As for the twelfth That all men by nature are dead in trespasses and sins this is fulfilled in you and ye shall receive the wages of it ye men of sin whose ungodly practises are laid open and discovered to the children of light who have obtained the victory And I tell you plainly that vengeance of God hangs over your heads and the recompence of God shall be doubled upon you that live in your sins except ye repent ye shall likewise perish And whereas ye say ye are justified and saved by grace ye are they that have turned the grace of God into wantoness and holds the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons as is made manifest by you daily And in your last you say That to continue in any known sin under what pretence soever is damnable Here be you witnesses against your selves that ye are proud and that ye live in the practice of the world which is sin and seek for your gain from your quarters which is sin and the Lord sent his prophets to declare against such and the same woe from God is upon you that act the same things Isa 56. 11. And here your practice and example is found among the false prophets of Israel which the Lord sent his true prophets to declare against which received his word from his own mouth for which they were both persecuted and stoned by your generation which professed that in words which they persecuted in the Saints who witnessed the life and power of what they spake Thus have ye brought shame upon your selves ye deceitful workers who are professing that outwardly in words which ye are enemies to the life of So from the Scriptures ye are razed out and your bottom and foundation is made manifest to the children of light and your deceits are made manifest by them that walk in the light at which you are stumbling as your forefathers did though you profess the words declared from the light Thus have I returned an answer to your confused Paper lest you should boast your selves in your folly and blind the eyes of the simple by your heathenish inventions as ye have formerly done and have laid your shame open unto the simple-minded that they may discover and see your confusion And now a word unto you from whom this Paper was put forth Your spirits and your actings are contrary to the Spirit of Christ as having no example from him not his Apostles for it be ye ashamed and stop your mouthes from professing godliness who are found in the pride and in the wickedness of this world out of which the Ministers of
Christ were redeemed How can ye but deny the truth when as ye act those things which the Ministers of truth were sent to declare against therefore let shame cover you and let your mouthes be stopped in the dust for ever professing Christ or his Gospel who are found enemies to it And now ye covetous Priests who seek for your gain from your quarters ye may be ashamed of your profession How often have ye declared against the covetous practice of the world in words outwardly and yet your selves are found acting in them in covetousness and and extortion as is daily made manifest by you and is contrary to the practice of the Apostles For shame ye covetous Priests give over your wicked practices and your beastly actings lest the Lord rip off your coverings and lay you naked to all men Thus have I cleared my conscience to you and to all the world in the presence of the Lord whether you will hear or forbear There is another which is all I have read thorough of theirs that I would have inserted but because I feared it would make my Book swell too much I have omitted it only I shall give you the Title of it because I shall make use of it to discover their opinions And those who have the Book may examine my Quotations which I shall do faithfully reserving the Book by me to satisfie any that have it not and may desire to see it to that purpose The Title is thus Truths defence against the refined subtilty of the Serpent Held forth in divers Answers to several Queries made by men called Ministers in the North Given forth by the light and power of God appearing in George Fox and Richard Hubberthorn Printed for Tho. Wayte at his house in the Pavement in York 1653. And now having given you a view of these pieces of the Quakers which are their own and received from one of their Proselytes in this City I shall desire thy patience Reader to go a little further with me and thou shalt see these Quakers acted by the same spirit of delusion and doing Satans work though seemingly otherwise That deceiver of the Nations being now almost cast out of the prophane Ranters who made such foul work that I suppose the devil himself was ashamed of them And now he will appear in his white garments as an angel of light under the disguise of humility and mortification to carry on his dark design of divelism to the overthrow of all Religion And first let me tell the Reader I have very good ground to conclude as I suppose the mystery of the Quakers to be the same with the Ranters for this reason besides that it will manifestly appear afterwards when I come to lay part to part as I promised because I finde the Quakers in a book of theirs called A word from the Lord unto all the faithless generation of the world c. Printed 1654 By George Fox and James Nayler wherein they have a word among others to the Ranters I finde these Quakers giving this Testimony 13 page of the book to the Ranters in these words The word of the Lord God say they to you which are called Ranters You had a pure convincement I witness which did convince you but having fled the Cross and now to it are become enemies which turns the Grace of God into wantonness c. and then they blame them as justly they may for their abominable prophane conversation But however it seems they had a pure convincement that he witnesses So that their light their Doctrine was good however they abused it They had a convincement under the Law as they say and started up to be as Gods by that pure convincement it seems that God and they were one and not distinct but as they still say there they never came through the Prophets nor Moses house nor Christ Mark their language They never came through the Prophets nor Christ Here the Prophets Moses and Christ are all proposed not to be rested in but to be gone thorow They must go thorow Christ as they go thorow the Prophets and Moses Christ as well as Moses must cease and be gone thorow not rested in And the Ranters it seems abused their good Principles their pure convincement whereby they started up as gods but falling into prophaneness did not rightly improve their Godship And so came short of their Christ ship which these Quakers by hearkening to the light of their own Godhead within them attain unto Thus for the Ranters but now as for the Anabaptists Independents and Presbyterians they fall upon them and quarrel their very light and doctrine as living and teaching in the letter and taking up outward commands are witches c. As may be seen in that book of theirs So that the light and principles of the Ranters is more pure in these mens eys It s true the Levellers to whom they there spake also they have some indifferent esteem with these men if they had gone on for they tell them that they had a flesh in their minds I suppose some of this pure light for they add a simplicity but their minds run into the earth they say and smothered it and much of it they say is withered not all it seems So that Reader thou maist hereby plainly see what Principles and Lights these Quakers most approve of and so consequently follow sc the Ranters in the mystery of ungodliness before discovered And you will not think it strange that one and the same Principles are made use of to such seemingly differing ends as these are by the Ranters and these Quakers if you consider that even the sacred truths of God by the subtilty of the Serpent working in mans heart are abused and the Grace of God turned into wantonness by lascivious and fleshly spirits For observe Reader one of the same perswasion or opinion yea or truth works diversly as it is diversly received as they are that entertain it A Truth meeting with a sober and temperate spirit will strengthen and encrease his temperance For men naturall improve every thing that agrees with their temper and constitution and the same Truth meeting with an unsober and intemperate spirit shall finde the same entertainment sc advance his actings according to his temper either to excuse him and uphold him in his intemperancy or by irritation to provoke him to more intemperance So that let truth be what it will most men are what they were Only they know and can say more then they did before And in truth this is the Religion if I may give it that name of all men in the world except of those whose hearts the Lord changes makes suitable to spiritual truths they made new men as hath been opened in the mystery of godliness which onely makes a man a Christian whatever the Quakers Arminians and Papists say of general Light universal Grace and Free-Will to the contrary And which one truth is able and sufficient