ver. 12 13 14. which T. C. mentioneth where the Apostle saith The night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the Armor of light let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strike and envying but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ c. Doth the Apostle here charge them with walking dishonestly because he exhorts them to walk honestly Nay assuredly for he saith to them I am perswaded of you my Brethren that ye also are full of goodness fill'd with all knowledge c. Rom. 15. 14 And if they were full of goodness then there was no room for dishonesty and rioting and drunkenness chambering and wantonness strife and envying are works of the night and of darkness but he saith The night is far spent the day is at hand let us put on therefore the Armor of light Now if they had not been come to the day how could they put on the Armor of light And if they were come to the day then the night was past and the works of darkness put off this exhortation he gave unto them to stir up their pure minds by way of remembrance as the Apostle Peter did likewise who said Wherefore I will not be negligent to put ye alwayes in remembrance of these things though ye know them and are established in the present truth 2 Pet. 1. 12. And so this proves nothing at all for T. C. that the church of the Romans were guiltie of the same or as great sins and abominations as is mentioned in the Tiverton Writing And as touching the church at Corinth although the Apostle did write to them concerning Fornication yet he doth not say that such Fornicators were of the church of Christ neither doth he tollerate them though T. C. saith that Fornication was tollerated amongst them but doth exhort the church of Christ when they were gathered together in the spirit and power of the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such to Satan and bids them to have no fellowship with such nay not to companie with such nor to eat with such especially if any such were called a Brother that was a Fornicator or covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner but they were to put away from among them that wicked person 1 Cor. 5. chap. And surely this was not to tollerate them as T. C. hath affirmed For although such might creep in amongst them as Jude saith in his Epistle ver. 4. That there were certain men crept in unawares who were before ordained to this condemnation ungodly men turning the Grace of God into laciviousness yet these ungodly men were none of the church of Christ for though they might creep in amongst them yet they were not of them and such Iohn saw and said of them They went out from us Mark They went out Therefore they had been in or had crept in They went out from us that they might be made manifest that they were not of us 1 Ioh. 2. 19. And the Apostle did say to the church of Christ at Corinth That neither Fornicators nor Idolators nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God And if they shall not inherit the Kingdom of God then assuredly they are not the church of Christ and this would be but small advantage to T. C. and his Brethren in iniquitie if they could shelter themselves under such Fornicators Idolaters Railers Drunkards Revilers c. and cover themselves with the Name of the church of Christ whilst as wicked and as abominable in the sight of God as the worst of them I say This covering would be of small advantage to them seeing the portion of such is to be shut out of God's Kingdom And the Apostle makes a noted distinction between the church of Christ and such wicked persons saying And such were some of you mark They had been such but saith he Ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. And this shews your blindness that you cannot make a distinction between such ungodlie sinners here spoken of and the church of Christ you may trulie say that you live short of the true sight and sence of God's Majestie in his churches and among his Saints who are thus blind that you cannot distinguish between a member of the church of Christ and a Fornicator especiallie where the Scripture hath made such a noted distinction Might not T. C. as well have instanced Iudas for a Member of the church of Christ as these Fornicators and unclean persons Yea rather for the Disciples were not for bid to keep him companie nor forbid to eat with him nor bid to excommunicate him as the church of Christ was those before-mentioned and therefore his being tollerated amongst the Disciples might better have served for your purpose from his example to endeavour to perswade people that you are and may be accounted a church of Christ notwithstanding your great abominations confess'd in your Tiverton Epistle trulie your blindness may even be felt and if you were not quite insensible you might blush and be ashamed of your gross ignorance But T. C. saith The Apostle did not unchurch them as the Enemies of Christ do in these dayes Take notice Reader Did not he unchurch those whom he delivered to Satan and those whom he commanded the church of Christ to have no fellowship with or not to company with them nor to eat with them but were commanded to put away from amongst themselves such wicked persons Is not this to unchurch them according to T. C. his own expressions What doth he call unchurching if this be not to unchurch them He saith The Churches of Galatia were so deeply corrupted that the Apostle wondered they were so soon removed to another Gospel c. yet notwithstanding saith he he owns them to be the churches of Galatia and wisheth Grace and Peace to them c. To which I say If the churches of Galatia were removed from the Gospel of Christ which is the power of God then the churches of Galatia were not the churches of Christ no more then the churches of the Anabaptists in whom such abomination reigns are the churches of Christ neither doth his owning them to be the churches of Galatia prove them to be the churches of Christ any more then T. S. his calling you the churches of the Anabaptists proves you to be the churches of Christ And whereas he saith he wisheth Grace and Peace to them and endeavours their reformation I say Your reformation likewise hath been endeavoured by the servants and messengers of the Lord whose counsel ye have rejected and Grace hath been tendered and hath appeared
spirit and in the truth I say The Spiritual Man with his Ordinances and Administrations which are spiritual stands over the man of sin and over these his carnal weak unprofitable Ordinances beggarlie rudiments vain ceremonies and traditional imitations which although you call them the Ordinances of Christ yet they are but your own fancies and imaginations And thus by a just and a lawful Trial it plainly and evidently appears that you are neither Churches nor Ministers of Jesus Christ but in all the particulars before-mentioned you are found very much to differ from them and because you are not the church of Christ and that his Spirit doth not lead you to and guide you in the practise or performance of those things which you plead for and follow therefore those things by you pleaded for are not the Ordinances of Christ but the Ordinances of the man of sin and so the Spiritual Man with his Ordinances and Administrations are exalted above the man of sin with the weak and unprofitable Ordinances that doth not make the comers thereunto perfect according to the truth asserted by Thomas Salthouse which is hereby vindicated and fully confirmed And now I shall return to speak to some particulars in thy Paper wherein thou saist Because in the Tiverton Epistle there is a complaint against the sins that are remaining in the Churches T. S from hence suggesteth that they are no Churches of Christ I answer T. S. had sufficient ground from your own confession in the said Epistle to conclude that you are no churches of Christ as was by him fully proved and is now again more at large confirmed For the church of Christ which is his bodie is in all things answerable and proportionable to him who is the Head Now you will all confess that the Head is holie harmless undefiled seperate from sin and sinners and if the Bodie be unholie full of abomination and defiled with sin and iniquitie then is Christ the Head of a defiled polluted unclean sinful Body and this is not proportionable for as is the Head such are the members and they said As he is so are we in this present world 1 Joh. 4. 17. But in that Epistle you do not onely complain against those sins that are yet remaining in the churches but you there say that abominations are reigning in your churches and in your souls Now these expressions in thy Paper where thou speakest of sins remaining c. might seem very much to alter the case and to lessen the crime in the judgement of those that have not seen your Consession in the said Epistle and such might begin to think that T. S. had dealt something uncharitably with you to exhort all that fear God to seperate from you and to come out from among you because some sins were yet remaining amongst you for to speak of sins yet remaining might seem to imply that some sins were mortified and put off and as if you were warring against and waiting to receive power to overcome those that remain and such a condition as this we could own though we cannot own those for a church of Christ who live in sin for we own and witness a spiritual warfare which all must know before they can be Members of the church of Christ and had you been found in such a condition as this to be armed with the power of God and so to stand in the war against sin and Satan we could have owned you in such a state as a people whom the Lord was purging and cleanslng and sanctifying for himself sitting and preparing you to be a habitation for the Lord to dwell in that your bodies might become the Temples of the Holy Ghost and so you might be married to the Lord in righteousness become the Spouse of Christ which is his Church but it is far otherwise with you for sin is not onely remaining in you but reigning in you and apparently written upon you and where sin and abomination reigns it hath the sole dominion power and preheminence and as a strong man armed keeps the house and is at peace and the stronger is not come that should dis-possess him and make the keepers of the House to tremble and the strong to bow that should enter in and break his peace and spoile his goods neither are you in a condition to war against sin for you confess that all weapons are wrested from you with which you should maintain war against it so that sin abomination hath quiet peaceable possession in you hath got both strength weapons to defend it self upon all occasions And so you are altogether servants to sin slaves to Satan under Aegyptian darkness this is much more then to say Sins yet remaining in you and as I have said doth very much alter your case from what these expressions of thine might seem to render it And saist thou that which T. C. saith is That the true churches of Christ have had the same or as great sins and abominations in them as are mentioned in that Epistle and yet were the true churches of Christ owned of God as is fully proved c. to which Scriptures thou saist T. S. gives no answer To this I say It is a very light thing with T. C. to lay sin to the charge of Gods elect and to condemn the generation of the Just and also to plead Justification for those in whom abomination reigns and in whose fore-heads iniquitie is apparentlie written but T. C. will one day know that he which justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are abomination to the Lord Yet by all that T. C. hath said though he hath quoted so many Scriptures perverting them and even wresting them to his own destruction it doth not appear that ever the church of Christ was guilty of these or the like abominations as in the Tiverton Epistle is exprest neither doth any one of those Scriptures at all prove any such thing therefore it was needless for T. S to give any answer thereunto but forasmuch as thou seems to vaunt thy self because T. S. hath not spoken particularly in answer to those Scriptures which thou call'st T. C. his Cloud of Witnesses and that both in thy Paper and also in T. C. his Answer to T. S. his Epistle the perverting of the Scriptures especially what is written to the church of Corinth is made use of as a Stirrup whereby you may mount you selves upon the Throne of Iniquitie taking occasion from what the Apostle writes to them concerning such as had sinned to boast your selves to be the church of Christ notwithstanding your great abominations and apparent iniquities confest and exprest in Tiverton Writing I shall therefore speak something briefly to some of those Scriptures thereby to discover thy blindness and ignorance of the things of God of which the Scriptures of truth declares And first concerning the Church of the Romans chap. 13.
to you but ye have turned from it and despised it and except the churches of Galatia did and the churches of the Anabaptists do return to that Gospel from which they were removed the Peace of God neither did nor doth belong to them nor you neither could they or can you be accounted the churches of Christ He saith So likewise the church of the Philippians many so walked of whom the Apostle saith I have often told you and now tell you weeping that they are enemies to the cross of Christ Phil. 3. 18. Yet saith he they were owned to be a Church with their Officers To which I say That those who are enemies to the cross of Christ are not the church of Christ for the church of Christ did glory in the cross of Christ and were not enemies to it Gal. 6. 14. and the preaching of it was to them and it is to as many as believe the power of God 1 Cor. 1. 13. And the Apostle tells what is the end of such who are enemies to the cross of Christ he saith their end is destruction and that is not the end of the church of Christ But though the Apostle writes to the church of the Philippians of such who were enemies to the cross of Christ yet he doth not say that the church of the Philippians were enemies to the cross of Christ nor that any of them in particular were so He also bids them beware of dogs and of evil workers c. Doth he therefore say that the church of the Philippians are dogs and evil-workers But this is some of those Scriptures which are called T. C. his cloud of Witnesses to prove that the true churches of Christ have had the same or as great sins and abominations in them as is confess'd in the Tiverton Epistle Now though T. C. be a noted lyar yet the Scriptures are true and cannot be broken And although by perverting and wresting the true sence thereof thereby endeavouring to make the Scriptures speak what he would have them to abuse the simple minded and deceive ignorant people he hath drawn this wicked conclusion from the whole That they are may be owned to be the churches of Christ notwithstanding their great abominations confess'd in their Tiverton Epistle Yet now these Witnesses being honestly examined without wresting or perverting they are found to witness against T. C. and the same Witness which he brings to prove his assertions doth witness against him and proves himself to be the lyar and this is usual that if the Witnesses which T. C. offers for proof of any thing be the Scriptures of truth they surely testifie against him and prove him to be the lyar and instead of witnessing for him they witness against him And when he affirms a thing that is so notoriously false and wicked as that he cannot any way wrest the Scriptures to make them seem to prove what he asserts he useth to say That this is true Is so evident that it needs no proof or That this is true is so evident that he that runs may read and such like words witness his Looking-glass as is at large discovered in a Book call'd Truth vindicated by John Pitman and Jasper Batt Some other Scriptures are by him mentioned whereby he hath endeavoured to prove the churches of Christ in former ages to be sinful thereby to make way for themselves to be owned as a church of Christ but all that he saith is to no more purpose then that which hath been already answered could as easily be answered his folly thereby made manifest as it hath been sufficiently by what hath been answered to those Scriptures by him quoted But he saith of those before mentioned that they were called to repentance What were they then a church of Christ or the churches of Christ before repentance that he makes use of this to prove them churches of Christ because they were call'd to repentance Simon Magus was call'd to repentance was he therefore a member of the church of Christ And the Apostle said that God commanded all men every where to repent Are therefore all men every where the church of Christ Oh gross darkness and ignorance to use that as an argument to prove them to be the church of Christ because they were call'd to repentance And so are you call'd to repentance and to repentance you must come before you can be owned as a church of Christ for we say Christ came to call sinners to repentance and his Ministers were sent to turn people from the darkness to the light and to bring them from under Satan's power unto God but though you have been call'd to return from your wickedness and live and have been invited to come to him who is the way to the Father who gives eternal life to all that come unto him yet you have refused to return and have rebell'd against the light Neither is it onely the calling to repentance that makes them or you the churches of Christ but it is them who answers that holy call and comes to repentance even to that repentance which is never to be repented of that is to repent and forsake it is such shall find mercy and acceptance with the Lord and they shall be his and accounted members of his church in the day when he makes up his Jewels but as for such as have been call'd to repentance and have not answered that holy call by obedience to him that hath called them his call and his loving invitation shall stand as a witness against such for ever and because the Lord hath called and they would not hear therefore when they call and cry there shall be none to deliver them Thou saist That T. S hath manifested abominable hypocrisie and deceit in that he saith that T. C. instanceth the Saints infirmities in former ages to encourage in a state of sin c. when its evident saist thou that he instanceth those examples to stop the mouths of lyars and deceivers c. and to discover the simple and vain notions of those who would suggest that the churches of Christ are none of his because there is sin in them To which I say I have answered some of those Scriptures call'd T. C. his Cloud of Witnesses which may also serve for answer to all the rest thereby to discover the folly and ignorance sottishness and blindness of those who would suggest that Fornicators and unclean persons Drunkards Railers Revilers Extortioners Thieves covetous persons Idolaters and such like are Members of the church of Christ and also to stop the mouths of such lyars and deceivers who say the true churches of Christ have had the same or as great sins and abominations in them as are mentioned in Tiverton Epistle and yet were the true churches of Christ notwithstanding And although according to thy wonted manner thou railest at T. S. accusing him with hypocrisie and deceit because he saith T. C. doth encourage in a state of
you call it by Faith in another which you say you own and press after but the perfection which the people of God in all ages did press after it seems you are against Thou railest at T. S. extreamly charging him with hypocrisie wretched perverting and to be a forger of lyes for saying T. C. hath contradicted himself in directing his Epistle from Tiverton to them that are called to be Saints through the immortal Seed that dwelleth in them and yet saith It is language beside the Scripture to mention the oppressed seed For thou saist He doth not say it is language beside the Scripture to mention the seed within but for the oppressed seed he knows no such Gospel expression c. Novv to this I say If the immortal Seed be in them to whom that Epistle vvas directed and that abominations reigns in them as in the same Epistle is confess'd I query Whether the Seed in them be not opprâ—st If yea then T. C. is found in confusion and contradiction and knows nothing of the immortal Seed of vvhich he speaks Now where enmity is put between tvvo if the one bears rule then the other doth suffer oppression and I suppose you will grant that there is no concord or agreement fellowship or union betwixt the immortal seed and abomination for that which worketh abomination is of the Serpents seed betvveen vvhich and the seed immortal enmity isput and vvhilst abomination reigns in you and that iniquity is apparently vvritten upon you and you are dravving thereof vvith cords of vanity the Serpent's seed is head in you and the seed immortal is oppressed and thus the blind guide is fallen into the pit vvhich for another he had digged vvho streins at a Gnat and vvould seem to make a man an offender for a vvord notvvithstanding the substance of the matter by him declared be clear and evident Thou art much offended vvith T. S. because he saith It seems they have refused to return from their wickedness and great abominations if T. C. may be credited but saith he trusts they shall be found so more if this be to be vile we shal yet be more vile for which thou utterest many bitter railing expressions against him saying that T C. saith If to deal faithfully with sins and sinners if to arraign abominations c If this be to be vile we shall yet be more vile c. To which I say That you have refused to return from your wickedness and great abominations is a truth clear and apparent for T. C. hath endeavoured to prove you to be a church of Christ notvvithstanding your great abominations and saith the true churches of Christ have had the same or as great sins and abominations in them as is confest in Tiverton Epistle and that Christ never had a church in the World free from sin and vvhether this doth not strengthen the hands of the vvicked so that they cannot return from their vvickedness and give encouragement to such to live in sin let all who are spiritually minded judge And vvhilit you are endeavouring to vindicate your selves in such a condition and such practises there is small hopes or little likelyhood of your returning from that condition And whereas he saith If to deal faithfully c. be to be vile c. I say Hovv can such a deceitful hypocrite deal faithfully with sin or sinners in whose own soul by confession such abominations reigns on whose own Fore-head such iniquities are so apparently written and out of vvhose hands sin hath wrested all Weapons wherewith he should deal with it should not the hypocrite first pull the beam out of his own eye and deal faithfully with his own soul in arraigning and casting out his own abominations by the power of the Lord before he go about to pull the mote out of his brothers eye or to deal with his sins or to arraign his abominations I am sure for T. C. to tell of arraigning abominations in others whilst abominations are reigning in his own soul or for him to talk of dealing faithfully with sin and sinners whilst by his own confession he is manifested to be as bad as the worst of them if not the worst of all and hath more need to be taken under dealing then any of those with whom he speaks of dealing with this renders him to be so much the more vile as T. S. hath truly said Some other false accusations thou bringst agaist T. S. in particular and against the people called Quakers in general as That he pleads up their own righteousness beyond all bonds not onely of Religion but of modesty and civillity too and that no people upon earth are so great enemies to Christ according to the Scriptures as they that none are more obedient to their own fancies imaginations then they c. And thou tells the old lye over again saying He calls the Ordinances of Christ the Ordinances of the man of sin To all which I say Thou hast made it thy work to slander and falsly accuse and for as much as thou hast been so often proved a lyar I shall not spend time to answer every impertinency and false accusation especially where no proof is offered by thee for what thou affirmest but let it lie and rot as the foame and filth of a Tlanderous spirit which cannot touch the innocent nor gain credit or acceptance with any people of understanding Thou goest on with thy work propounding queries and answering thy self lying and perverting slandering and falsly accusing the innocent digging a pit and spreading a net for them but into the pit which thou hast digged for others art thou fallen and in the Gin which thou hast laid is thy own feet snared And because T. S. saith Without boasting we can speak it to the praise of his grace who hath wrought all our works for us and in us that we are of God though the whole world lieth in wickedness and that Christ hath had and yet hath a Church without sin in this mortal Estate Thou therefore queriest Whether this Church without sin be not the Quakers And thou answerest thy self Yea doubtless if they onely are of God and the whole world lyeth in wickedness it must needs be them And here thou hast proved T. C. a lyar For if it be an undoubted truth that they who are of God are a church without sin then undoubtedly T. C. is a notorious lyar for affirming that Christ never had a church without sin in this mortal estate For John saith We know that we are of God and the whole world lyeth in wickedness 1 John 5. 9. And because they were of God they were without sin according to thy own reasoning Then thou queriest Whether the Quakers have not dealt notoriously wicked with T. C. in denying their owning themselves to be perfect and calling T. C. a lyar for affirming it and now T. S. so openly and publikely not onely to confess it but to
to the church of Christ and the Doctrine which such do preach is the Doctrine of Devils and not the Doctrine of Christ as T. S. hath truly said And because T. S. saith You follow cunning devised fables Thou saist He calls Gospel Ordinances cunning devised fables and that in sum he saith our Lord Christ and his Apostles were cunning devisers of Fables To which I say Deceit and Falshood hath summed up the matter and by the falseness of the account the wickedness of the Accountant is discovered and he is thereby manifested to be a notorious lyar and a false accuser but if honesty had cast up the sum the account would have appeared otherwise And I have already proved That whilst you remain in that state where you stand at present as appears by your confession in your Tiverton Epistle that all that you do or perform in imitation of others whilst you are not thereunto led by the Spirit of God but your rule is without you abomination reigns within you though you may call it the ordinances of Christ or great Gospel-Ordinances yet it is but Fables and Fancies of your own devisings and such things as Christ nor his Apostles did ever ordain or devise for you to follow or practise and you might as well charge all the rest of your abominations and apparent iniquities upon Christ and his Apostles and say they were the devisers of them as to say that Christ or his Apostles did devise those Fables Fancies and imaginations which you follow plead for practise and call Ordinances of Christ For that which you account the best of all your doings is as great an abomination in the sight of the Lord if not greater then the very worst action or most apparent iniquity which you confess your selves to be guilty of For the very prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord and nothing will sooner or more certainly bring desolation upon you then the setting up of those abominations in the stead of the Worship of God and the Ordinances of Christ and those Exorcists who adjured the unclean spirits in the Name of Jesus whom Paul preached might as well say that our Lord Christ had devised those Exorcismes which they used because he had commanded unclean spirits to come out of people as you to say that Christ and his Apostles devised those Fables which you follow and plead for and call Gospel-Ordinances because you imagine that such things were practised in the church of Christ for it 's possible that those Exorcists were as much in the words of Christ and Paul as you are and I am sure you are as great Enemies to the iife and power of Christ as they were And after thou hast thus wickedly and salsly accused T. S and so impudently and grosly belyed him Thou saist Thou must have done with Salthouse at present and thou thinkest for ever unless there were more truth and honesty appearing in him Oh wonderful that such a notorious lyar and such a vile dishonest person as thou hast manifested thy self to be partly by thy own confession and fully and largely proved both by thy practise and by thy principles should be so impudent as to accuse another for want of truth and honesty But although thou mightest have hopes to shelter thy self and to escape undiscovered by accusing the innocent of the same crimes whereof thy self art guilty yet know that thy covering is too narrow for thy skirts are discovered and thy shame and nakedness doth appear and thy refuge of lyes cannot hide thee and it had been much better for thee if thou hadst ended sooner or that thou hadst never begun this work of darkness and wickedness wherein thou hast so desperately hazarded the loss of thy precious soul to satisfie thy cruel envious blood-thirsty desires against the innocent Lambs of Christ Onely thou saist take this Interpreter with you and T. C. his Answer to his Epistle and this together and you will find them to be a choice pair of Spectacles to help you to see into and understand what you read in T. S. his Books To which I answer The truth as asserted by T. S. in his Books are so plain and clear as they stand that whoever looks on them with a single eye and a mind not stuft with prejudice may easily read them and understand them without an interpreter and all who are not quite blind and given up to believe lyes may easily see and discover thy hypocrisie and deceit thy railing and false accusing thy lyes and thy confusion without the help of a pair of Spectacles But although thou hast done with T. S. I have not yet done wth thee for I have yet to question thee concerning a most horrible false accusation twice charged in thysheet of Paper where thou saist Would not these men as truly judge and condemn Saints and Churches in former ages that were subject to the like failings and passions were it not because they know it will not be born Else what meant the Answer of a Preaching-quaker in a publike meeting of them in Bristol one presenting something concerning the Scripture to him he answers I came not to tell you of Paul and Barnabas and Timothy the serpents of old but we were sent to direct them to look to the light within c. And thou saist The same person at the same time spake the same language of Samuel and the Prophets and this thou saist thou hadst from credible testimony who was present and heard him and proposed to query to him Whether he did own the Scriptures to be a rule for Christians to walk by Now to this I say The righteous Lord God of Heaven and Earth is witness for us against thee in this thing that we the Servants of the Most High God who are in scorn call'd Quakers do from our hearts abhor and detest any such words or thoughts concerning the holy men of God either Prophets or Apostles as thou most falsly from thy envious heart and slanderous tongue hast cast upon us and we do likewise utterly disown any such to be of us or to have any fellowship with us or to be permitted to speak amongst us without reproof who should declare or hold forth any such wicked damnable unsound unsavoury words as to say that either Paul or Barnabas or Timothy or Samuel or any other of the holy Prophets or Apostles were the Serpents of old for of them and of their words we have a more high and honorable esteem we being made partakers of the same eternal life and have obtained like precious Faith in which they lived and by which they obtained a good report and have received a measure of the same spirit by which they spoke and from which the Scriptures of truth were given forth and so we have the witness in our selves of the truth of what they declared and I do with confidence affirm That it cannot be proved that ever any person who is
distinguished from other people by the name of Quaker did ever either in Bristol or elsewhere either publikely or privately speak utter or declare these or any such like words and therefore be it hereby known unto thee who art our accuser and to all that own thee and to all people wheresoever this shall come that thou art hereby charged and required to bring forth the Author or Authors of this false accusation which thou call'st credible testimony that so the whole sum of this matter may be found out to the end that those who are guilty may be discovered and their wickedness disclosed that to shame they may be brought and from them and their wickedness all that fear God may turn away and of them beware and also that the innocent may be cleared and the truth vindicated and for this cause chiefly it was that publike inquiry was made after thy Name to the end the truth of this matter may be known and therefore if thou shalt refuse thus to do then in the presence of the Lord God upon thy own head shall this false accusation be charged to stand for ever and all that either own thee or believe what thou hast said and shall not endeavour to bring this matter to a just tryal are not onely willing to be deceived by thee but also guilty of thy most abominable wickedness therefore until thou hast done according to what I have said this also shall be numbred amongst the rest of thy lyes and false accusations But it seems though thou hast done with T. S. thou haft not emptyed out all the abominable broth out of thy boiling pot or unclean vessel under which the fire of Envy doth continually burn but John Collins must also have a part of it something to asswage thy malice and allay thy burning heat and although thou canst not touch him concerning any thing which he hath written yet thou wilt assault him with a company of lyes and false accusations which thou hast mustered up against him which should they be severed from the rest of that wch thou hast written there would remain very little to be answered unto But I shal not need to trace thee in all thy crooked waies and by-pathes I having alreadie sufficientlie laid thee open and discovered thy follie and wicked lying spirit to all who have an eie open to see thee therefore I shall speak brieflie to some particulars and so conclude Thou saist He confesseth he was one with you in the form of Truth But where is that confession I am sure he doth not say any such thing in that Book to which this sheet of thine is a pretended Answer nor I think no where else For it is a very easie matter to prove that you are neither in the form nor power of Truth but out of both But this he confesseth That he was owned a Brother by you whilst running into the same excess of riot but since in mercie visited he hath been hated and despitefullie used by some of you which is not the Form of Truth to use any one despitefullie Thou saist A day will come that John Collins and others shall not boast of their gain in leaving you when they shall know it to be the saddest seperation that ever they made And yet thou saist in the same Paper over and besides all the great wickednesses reigning abominations and apparent iniquities whereof you confess your selves to be guiltie in your Tiverton-Epistle Thou knowest that you are bad and that you need purging and more of the sence of the evil of your own hearts and that you need a lamentation c. And wouldst thou perswade J. C. or any other that ever they shall repent their leaving you or repent that the Lord hath seperated them from such a companie Verilie when ever they look back upon you and remember the deliverance that the Lord hath wrought for them in seperating them from amongst you they have as much cause to rejoice if not more then Lot had when he escaped out of Sodom or the Israelites when delivered from Aegyptian darkness and bondage Thou saist They have seperated themsslves from the Law and Word of Truth I say They are seperated from a companie of hypocrites who have cast the Law of Truth behind their backs and have hated instruction and rebelled against the light following their vain imaginations which they call Ordinances of Christ who confess they have delighted to confess and to word it out with the Lord and presently forget what manner of men and women they were and think no more on their prayers and so have mocked God often it is from such they are seperated But to the Word of Truth which is Christ the light of the World are they turned and his Law which is light which is written in the heart have they received and the Word at which you stumble is a lanthorn to their feet and a light unto their pathes who in times past did wander with you in dark and sollitarie places and in the valley of the shadow of death stumbling upon the dark and barren Mountains wandering from Mountain to Hill after those who cryed Lo here and lo there and where you are yet wandering in your vain imaginations who knows not the Law nor Word of Truth Thou saist If you could or dare to lye as fast as they you could quickly be as perfect and as free from sin as they c. I say Witness T. Colliers Writings and this Sheet of thine whether you dare to lie or no I verilie believe more impudent Liars did never appear in Print and you have attained to as great a measure of perfection in that part of your Fathers Work who was a Liar from the beginning and the Father of it as any people that ever I heard of who pretend they plead for and follow Ordinances of Christ But this is not our waie of perfection or freedom from sin it is Christ the Truth and the Light that is our waie of perfection and by him alone it is that we have freedom and remission of sins not through lying though you make use of that waie to cover your selves in your sins but the light hath discovered you your bed is too short and your covering too narrow Your iniquities are apparent and your abominations and transgressions cannot be hid and the day is come wherein your refuge of lyes unto which you have leaned and into which you have fled for shelter from the stroke of truth must be swept away Thou saist Heaven and Earth and our own consciences doth witness that what T. C. hath written concerning our principles is truth To which I say That both Heaven and Earth and the Witness of Truth in our own consciences doth testifie against thee that thou art a most abominable Lyar and a false Accuser and were not thy conscience seared thou wouldst tremble to utter such damnable lyes but know assuredlie that the righteous God will bring thee