present world and rejoyce evermore and they sung Hallelujah and the kingdom of God stands in righteousness joy and peace in the Holy Ghost Here I charge you in the Spirit of the living God to be lyers And you say That the children of God are found groaning all their life long under the burthen of sin Now I take all the children of the light to judge you and may see the Scripture to witness against you and see that your experience is contrary to the Saints in Scripture and as touching the second coming of Christ as you speak silence flesh who stumbles at his light for you that stumbles at his light stumbles at him But blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath given us an understanding with his light which you stumble at You Priests have been looked on to be the props and pillars of the truth but now the truth hath discovered you to be the props of Antichrists kingdom having the form as the Pharisees had And again you are speaking of the Apostles faith and the seed and the promises and of Abraham Isaac and Jacob All these are our witnesses who witness the promise of God to the seed but as for you that stumble at the light you have but the form as the Pharisees had who saith you are found all your life time groaning under the burthen of sin Here you shew your selves to be them that lead silly women captive led away with divers lusts ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth that the Apostle spoke of but lies groaning under your sins who said They haâ— put off the body of sin and was made free from sin Here your experiences are tried again to be contrary to the Scriptures and the Saints lives so we have weighed you to be contrary to the Scriptures and the Apostles you that say you lay groaning under the burthen of sin bound under the temptations and snares of the divel who are without God in the world And whereas you say That whosoever bids man take heed to the light within which the eternal Word hath enlightned which enlightens him which enlightneth every one that cometh into the world in attendance thereto puts man besides the way of life and saith This assertion puts men quite besides the way of salvation to attend upon that light which comes from the eternal word If this put men aside from the way of life and put men quite beside the way of salvation to wait upon the light which comes from the eternal Word Here again I take all the children of light to record how you are confused and are beside the way of life and salvation for none knows the way of salvation life peace and righteousness but who owns this eternal light which is in the eternal Word and so here all may see it is you that bring men quite besides the way of life and eternal salvation and terms the light of Christ to be the light of nature and not pure And so there you blasphemers are discovered to be the foxes that spoil the vineyards And you say What shall we think of Paul who found the law in his members warring Here you shew you are stangers to Pauls condition when you have learned it you shall know it but them that stumbles at the light stumbles at his condition and here your experiences are tried again to be contrary to the Scriptures You say You grant to walk up to the law or light of nature shall have the light of Grace or Gospel revealed to him and yet you say You never knew the Gospel bestowed upon any such person and say You more then doubt whether ever they stood before the throne of glory Here you are confused let the Reader take notice was not the light of Moses the light of the Gospel who wrote of Christ shall they receive Light Grace Gospel and not stand before the throne of glory you grant they may receive it then here they may fall from the throne of glory which you was accusing them of you call Quakers before they that fall from the light fall from the eternal salvation And so O man thus thy condemnation ariseth of thy self Whereas you say Men taking heed to the light which Christ hath enlightned them withal takes away the ministration of the Gospel and shuts the kingdom of God from men Here you have manifested your selves to be in the generation of the Pharisees who hath the letter to talk of as they had but the light wherewith Christ hath enlightned shuts not the kingdom of heaven from men but you that denies the light shuts the kingdom of God from men and so denies the Gospel and them that hate this light preaches not the Gospel but their own inventions and takes away the authority of the Scriptures who are in the same nature of your fathers that murthered the Prophets Christ and the Apostles and you the children of them now where the life and power is made manifest among the Quakers you act the same part of your fathers which all the righteous blood was shed by Whereas you say Your chief contention is for the Gospel administred by man Here you contend for that the Apostle denied not by man had he received it neither was he made an Apostle by man And here your Spirit is tried to be contrary to the Apostles and the Scripture Whereas you say You know not how any should believe unless they hear the testimony of the Apostles or their words Here you shew you to be in the generation of them who hoards the Apostles words as your fathers read the Prophets and Apostles words but persecuted Christ Blessed is he that believes and sees not And you say You cannot tell how men should believe unless they saw the Apostles conditions Here you shew your selves to be in the Jews doting condition who are Ministers of the letter and your faith is theirs and both is dead he that believes is born of God without Scripture and yet witnessed in Scripture And whereas you slander and say Them you call Quakers aimes to beguile you of Scripture themselves they say this Light or Gospel within you it is the sure word of prophesie Here let all see you to be lyers whether we do not set the Scriptures in the heart of every one for every one having the light within which shews his evil deeds which light is his condemnation that hates it this is Scripture within Here we do not take it from them but that every one might possess it within as it was given forth from within from the life and that they might take heed to the sure word of prophesie till the day-star arise in their hearts as the Apostles exhorts the Saints and that was within And so here again we do not take Scripture from you but it is that you might be seen to be lyers who seek to draw people from the light within from the
the works of the devil and his servants ye are to whom ye obey and this light must be owned before he be owned Wherein ye cry out Ye cannot hold your peace for the deceit we seem to lay upon Christ and his Spirit which is but the light of nature not the light of Christ as a mediator Ye blasphemers who calls the light of Christ the light of nature which Jesus Christ is the light that enlightneth every man and is the Mediatour wherein ye are found to be them that draw back to perdition and not to the saving the Soul in drawing from the obedience of the light which is the light of Christ in man which shews him his natural condition which the Apostle exhorteth to take heed unto until the day dawned and the day-star did arise and such experienced ones as you are lives in jealousies which are as strong as death who stumbles at the light of Christ and calls it natural O high blasphemers You shew along that you are them that hates the light and hate them that walk in it who are troubled at them you call Quakes who saith That the light of Christ doth discover their thoughts and sin and yielding to it power is given from God to stand against thoughts and sin And this you call free will And as it is written They that waited upon the Lord their strength was renewed and here let all the children of light which be in the light contrary to their own wills and contrary to the will of man you judge and therefore it makes you stumble at it and here in this you have denied all the waiting upon God in the light and watchings with the light which hath declared that all your watchings and waitings is without the light an imitation which is to be condemned with the light and many derisions and reproaches have you given forth in your book but these we wave because they do not touch us And whereas you say While you change the Name and call the light Christ Here you have declared you are not Ministers of the letter Christ saith He is the light of the world so say we so it is you cannot own his name but stumbles at the light stumbles at the Mediator so if the babes of Christ should be silent the stones in the walls would cry out against you And whereas you say Reformation reaches not the work of regeneration O ye blinde Hypocrits and corrupt Judges doth not the same that reforms regenerate but you are without both And whereas you say By his disobedience not obeying the light he may fall from that eternal salvation which began to work in him by the power of light And this is your implies and so you interpret our words as you do the Scriptures you that oppose the light you oppose your eternal salvation and as touching eternal salvation you that stumble at the light are for eternal destruction and condemnation with the light which you stumble at and who turnes from the light turns from the salvation and draws back into perdition And whereas you say There is no mention made in any of your papers of eternal salvation from the wrath to come or condemnation of hell by any atonement or price of blood or sacrifice from the dominion of evil by Jesus Christ Eternal salvation from the wrath to come and condemnation of hell I witness by the price of blood of Jesus Christ which is without you and from the dominion of evil by Jesus Christ which your fathers crucified you their children seek to crucifie him where he is made manifest which stumbles at the light and thou ands do begin to confess That they are made free from the wrath to come the dominion of evil by Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday to day and for ever which witness the price of blood by which they are redeemed which makes them clean from your generation which hate the light Priest And now you come to declare your own belief you speak of the promise of the power of the Father and the Gospel and the lost sheep and Faith But to you I answer which stumble at the light you stumble at the promise at the power of the Father at the Gospel and at the Spirit as you plainly make it appear which scorns them you call Quakers which in the Scripture there is a cloud of witnesses against you And whereas you say If they can tell how the bones grow in the womb of her that is with child they may come neer to trace out this work of God We who are in the second birth know the first and how things genders and works and so with it we discern where you are And whereas you say You are children born not of blood nor of the will of man nor after the will of the flesh but of his own will hath he begotten us by the word of truth O ye thieves and robbers I charge in the presence of the living God to be so for these are John's and James's words who speaks of being born not of blood nor of the will of man but of his own will hath he begotten us what have you to do with these things that stumble at the light so you stumble at the truth and how can you glorifie God the Maker who stumbles at the light and so it 's you that deny the resurrection for we do witness the worst sort of men turned to God with his light so we witness the Scriptures fulfill'd Publicans and Harlots enter in before you Priest 2. You are speaking of waiting on Christ for renewing of strength morning by morning Ye enemies of God how can ye wait upon Christ who stumble at the light and writes against it for if you waited upon Christ according to the Scriptures you would own the light and there would be unity in the light but this light which ye stumble at shall condemn you to be no waiters upon the Father nor Christ And whereas you are speaking of the Saints assemblies Reply You that stumble at this light stumbles at the Saints assemblies as you make it appear in this book and the Sons of God and the children of Faith and as you say You are tied to all means so you would tie all to your means and the Lord is tied to none Here you shew you are not of the Lord for who are of the Lord are freed from ties and from the Ordinances of men and outward means which you finde your spirit is tied to contrary to the Spirit of God for where the Spirit of God is there is liberty And whereas you say The children of God all their life-time are found groaning under the burthen of sin Here your Spirit and experiences are tried again to be contrary to the Scriptures and all the Saints for the children of God born of God doth not commit sin and he that is born of God overcomes the world and as he is so are we in this
this you speak to the world Here you have shewed your selves to be as the Pharisees which looked for the kingdom of God to come by observations Christ said Behold the kingdom of God is within you to the Pharisees and they were of the world and if those words be spoken to your generations they are not believed with you as they were not with your fathers And as touching John's baptism and the Gospel silence flesh for you are far off that who stumbles at the light and you are sons of formality You say You hold a visible order of the Church in the body and is not of the substance of the kingdom that cannot be shaken and yet in the Church We that ye call Quakers do believe ye and tread that ye call a visible Regiment and Church under our feet as natural for natural is visible and your Church is a Steeplehouse and for denying it we suffer persecution as Stephen did for denying the temple who saw the substance so do we with that which cannot be shaken which is the substance and therefore deny your Steeplehouse which can be shaken and your Sacrament and your standing forms and your sprinkling Infants there is not a word in the Scripture that speaks of a Sacrament and sprinkling Ye heathens that live altogether in formality And as touching Pastors and Elders and the Saints practice you know nothing of who stumble at the light who are in your elementary things Elders and Members Pharisee-like who sets themselves against Christ this is to comprehend you all under what form soever which stumbles at the light which shall condemn you all To that in your conscience I speak And whereas you say You do abominate Babylons confusion Then you must abominate your Mother which hath been and is your Nurse for in Babylon you are and all your prayers abomination and out of the doctrine of Christ who denies the light and calls it natural and not pure who are in the state of Popery and Episcopacie and you are Familists which you have mentioned in your book which turns upon your selves for in the nature of all those things you are who are in the sects with the light which Christ hath enlightned are you judged to be not in the unity for the society is visible and that joynes not to the body of Christ for what joynes to the body of Christ is invisible and in the light we have unity in which all the Saints had and see you to be in the whole body and bulk of iniquity which is raised from Christ You say You must not expect them your Ministers Deacons and Elders to be sent forth as the Apostles were immediately It 's manifest they are not Here you have raced your selves from all the Prophets and Apostles from all the Elders and Deacons and all the Teachers and Ministers of the Gospel and the effect of all your Ministery hath shewed you to be the body of all the sects Heresies Schismes and Errors and to be the doctrine of devils for you say you are not sent forth immediately as the Apostles were then let all take notice who sent you And here you shew forth God never sent you for whom he sends he sends forth immediately and this you deny to be sent forth immediately as the Apostles were And here I charge you in the presence of the living God to be them he never sent 2. To use your tongues 3. Such as Christ cried wo against which have the chiefest place in the assemblies and such as make a prey upon the people which the Lord sent Ezekiel to cry against and Jeremiah and the rest of the Prophets and to be such as Jude speaks of which went in the way of Cain after the error of Balaam which perished in the gainsaying of Core which the wo is to and what you know you know naturally as bruite beasts in these things you corrupt your selves speaking high things in hypocrisie having mens persons in admiration because of advantage which Peter spoke of and Jude who saith you are not sent forth immediately as the Apostles were And here you declare you were never sent of God and your Spirit contrary to the Apostles and in the doctrine of men for in Babylon you are who saith you are not sent forth immediately as the Apostles were for the Apostles said The holy Ghost hath made them overseers and that is immediate and invisible And you say Your society is visible We know it is so and so is your Communion too in outward elementary things and your bread and wine in your Steeplehouse-Church and your Sacrament sprinkling Infants so all this is visible and mediate and imitation out of the doctrine of the Apostles and the doctrine of Christ we own every tittle of it in the same Spirit that gave it forth and so all your casting out in your assemblies and your taking in which you say is not immediate is contrary to the doctrine of the Apostles for with the power and life they cast forth and with the power and life they took in which was immediate And you which say You are not sent forth immediately as the Apostles were have cleared your selves from the Church of Christ the pillar and ground of Truth which is immediate and so all your overseeing is natural and carnal and the natural man perceives not the things of the Spirit of God And here you have cleared your selves openly to all the children of light to be the spirit of error the beast the false Prophet which is not sent forth from God immediately as the Apostles were as ye confess so you are them which the Apostle John in the Revelation spoke of which was sent forth immediately from God to cry against such as you which was not sent forth immediately from God which Spirit is made manifest now which sees you now as they saw them then whom God sends forth immediately to cry against you now as they did then who are in the state of Paganisme who stumble at the light and confess you are not sent forth immediately with the immediate you are judged Whereas you say Them you call Quakers bids you speak no more then you can experience and live in And such you call for their pains painted Sepulchres which those words shall stand for your selves for Christ gave them to your fathers who had the Prophets words as you have the Apostles who spoke that they did not live in as you do as Mat. 23. but them that spoke forth the Scriptures and spoke what they lived in which you have declared your selves from who hath got the outside of the letter and makes a scorn and derision of them who would have you to live in what you speak as they did that gave forth the Scriptures and there you have shewed again what spirit you are of that would not live in what you speak and have cleared your selves from the Faith for Abraham possessed and you have manifested
lusts you shew where your hearts is without pitty or compassion who wilt not cover thy own flesh but it is that you may be made manifest and you have shewed that you are out of the doctrine of Christ you have been pleading for your interest in the earth there is your God and with the doctrine of Christ you are judged and your community we abhorre but the communion of the Saints we own and servants in their places diligent serving the Lord and children obeying their Parents in the Lord and forsaking all for the Lord and he that doth not is not worthy of him This we witness Whereas you are slandering and saying We are breaking marriage bonds and wedlock because we question what Scripture the Priests have to marry people and take money for it O ye enemies of God where do you read in all the Scriptures that the Priests are to take money for marrying of people such trades we deny if you call that wedlock Marriage is honourable in all things where the the bed is undefiled and that we own but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge and such we deny and all the Priests practises which they have no Scripture for and therefore we question them with authority and deny them both Whereas you are speaking of some that are not free to be Tenants Is the Lord drawing his people from under you taskmasters as from under Pharaoh which are proud and oppressors which you Priests have been examples of and taught the people And this torments you now you Priests because you are against it who have been the oppressors of the creation and are but the Lord is gathering his people from under you now as he did from under Pharaoh and doth proud Pharaoh begin to rage if this torment you you shall see more come with everlasting songs upon their heads singing over Pharaoh and his host The song of Moses and Lamb is begun to be heard in our land and the children of Israel which had their land-marks What 's that to you Egyptians proud and covetous who are for destruction as your father Pharaoh was who was an oppressor proud and a taskmaster Therefore wo to you bloody Cains which are compast under the wo you are of the stock of them that build Babel who are Babylon harlotted from the living God and your Mother hath sit as a Queen deckt with her colours but now the time of her widowhood is come and loss of children and she hath lost many children and that many Kings and Merchants of the earth laments crying Alas alas Whereas you are speaking of tumults and attempts put this not far from you for this may be seen in some of your generation this shall stand for your selves as it is made manifest what tumults are in your congregations And your boasting as giving up your bodies and estates But let these words return upon your selves again and see where your bodies are where your lives and estates are for many lies in prison because they will not pay Priests Tythes which is contrary to the Lord Jesus Christ and his doctrine which the Apostles ever lived in for he never sent you for you confess you are not sent immediately as the Apostles were You say There is not a prophesie in all the Scriptures that takes away all outward teachers Here I am full of the Spirit and power of the Lord to declare against you for in John he saith Ye need not any man téach you There is mans teaching outwardly denied and in Heb. 8. he saith Ye shall not teach every man his neighbour saying Know the Lord for all shall know him All who are in the new Covenant witnesseth this and who witness the new Covenant witness the Son of man and Jeremiah prophesied That they shall no more teach every man his neighbour saying Know the Lord And here you enemies of the God are raced out of the Covenant and are ignorant of the Lord And Ezekiel saith Thus saith the Lord I will deliver my sheep from their mouthes that hath devoured them such as you that have sought for the fleece and for the wool and I will search out my sheep and finde them out and feed them upon the top of the mountaines saith the Lord of hosts he that hath an ear to hear let him for he feeds upon the top of the mountains of Israel And Isaiah saith All the children of the Lord shall be taught of the Lord and much peace shall they have and in righteousness shall they be established And here let this prophesie judge you to be out of the new Covenant and contrary to the Prophets and Apostles which say You are not sent immediately as the Apostles were so how can you witness their conditions so here you have brought your selves under the chain And Jeremiah saith The Lord speaks in him Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a new covenant not according to the covenant I made with their fathers but this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those daies saith the Lord I will put my laws in their inward parts and in their hearts will I write them and I will be their God and they shall be my people And all these Scriptures I charge you all ye Priests of England to have laid waste and have brought none into the new Covenant neither are you there your selves who stumble at the light and denies the first principle They that need no man to teach them such you write against and speak against and so deny the new Covenant and bring the conditions of those that were not come to the Covenant to oppose the new Covenant them that are in it And for quoting many Scriptures of the Epistles and bringing the conditions of the Saints written in the Epistles and not knowing what condition they were written to let the readers of the book examine the Scriptures which you bring in your book and then they will see how you wrest the Scriptures to oppose the truth and how ignorant you are of the Scriptures You are bringing the Apostles which said If we minister unto you spiritual things it is least if you minister unto us carnal things This was spoken to them that denied the Priests the Saints and would not hold up such Priests as you Priests of England which seek for your gain from your quarter and have Balaams wages which is a horrible filthy thing and which the wo is upon and seeks for the fleece and makes a prey upon the people and if they will not give it you sue men at the law did ever the Apostles so Here O England let thy teachers who are in their whoredom from the life be witnessed against by all the Prophets and Apostles life and let all thy whoredoms testifie against thee in thy face for with the eternal life of them all thou art judged eternally You are speaking of Christs sending forth his and say
was made manifest but you are made manifest what generation you are of the day is come that declares it You say Why may not Satan help on mortification for such an end as to take away the death of Christ without you For Christ is without you we witness but your mortification that the devil helps on we deny and the plain Scriptures without any private interpretation we own and all your sences meanings interpretations and disputes we deny and you to be in Babylon in the state of the Pharisees Sorcerers and among dogs swine some in the lust and some in the mire are not some drunk and some as proud as they can go let you conversation witness it and all your arguments and consequences we do deny for you say You are not sent immediately as the Apostles were therefore ye are to be declared against that leads people with the mediate into the earth the lust and mire envious proud and covetous like your selves and the plagues of God is to come upon you all who live not in the doctrine of Christ Priest And whereas you slander and say That many writings of the the Papists are applauded and used by them of this way Reply Your writings and theirs we abhor which are contrary to the doctrine of Christ And whereas you were speaking of Jesuits books we put you all together Jesuits and Priests for you Priests have had their Law to maintain your Ministery and guard your Pulpit for with one Law of men have and are you Priests of England and Jesuits upheld so we that cry against Popery doth and must against you all and with the Spirit of the living God for it was before her Law was for where some have spoken in their time have been imprisoned and many lyes in prison now so he that sits in heaven laugheth at you the Lord hath you in derision and them that dwell in the light are on the watch have seen what your books have brought forth your folly and that the truth is exalted above all your lyes and slanders And they are at the battering of error who are in the commandment of the everlasting God who witness the everlasting Gospel the revelation of Jesus and the life of the Prophets and are in the obedience of the Faith who doth warn all to take heed of all seducing Spirits which draws from the light within which enlightens every one which comes into the world there is every one of your teachers in particular there is every one of your condemnation that hates it whose deeds are evil Priest Whereas you slander and say That some of them you call Quakers do expose themselves to be persecuted to sufferings Reply O ye persecuters and slanderers would you justifie your selves in destroying the innocent and make this your cloak and say They expose themselves to it when many are almost murthered in your steeple-houses but God is the strength of his people Priest And whereas you say That they put no difference between the Papists and the Protestants Reply Are they not both in a nature which are not in the power of God and who hath one law of Queen Maries for your protection for you have had that Popish Law of Queen Maries to defend you and doth not the Scripture say Every one that cometh into the world is enlightned with Christ which light is your condemnation that hate it which light searches the secrets of every mans heart Priest You say God who commanded light to shine out of darkness Reply This is not your condition it hath not shined forth of you which stumble at the light which hath enlightned every one that comes into the world Priest While you have been in your sinful silence you say Some privily have brought in damnable heresies denying the Lord that bought them Relpy This shall stand for your selves who saith You are found all your life time groaning under the burthen of sin Here I take all people in the light to record by whom I see you deny the Lord Jesus who came to save his people from their sins and to destroy the works of the devil which you say They must all their life time groan under and the Apostles said They were made free from sin and here your doctrine is contrary to theirs as in p. 15. and I take all people to record and let them read 2 Pet. 2. if you be not those Peter spoke of Which denies the Lord Jesus that bought them and hath brought upon your selves swift destruction many doth follow your pernicious wayes by whom the way of truth is evil spoken of and through covetousness and fained words you have made merchandize of the people who have gone in the way of Cain after the error of Balaam as you now have made it appear to the children of light who beguiles unstable soules eyes full of adultery sporting your selves in the day time evil beasts made to be destroyed speaking great swelling words of vanity through the lusts of the flesh promising your selves liberty but the mean while your selves are the servants of corruption and they that are escaped from you through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ comes to be entangled again among you their latter end is worse then the first and they had better never have known the way of truth but it is happened to such as the old proverb is The dog to vomit and the sow to the wallowing in the mire Therefore a warning to all you brethren that are in the light and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ that you may be kept unspotted from the world and to reign over all such who are in the lusts of the flesh and out of the doctrine of Christ that serves not the Lord Jesus Christ but your own bellies Queries 1. And whether the Gospel you speak of be the four books Matthew Mark Luke and John and if those be the Gospel then every one that hath these books hath the power of God to salvation and then that Gospel is preached and printed and that Gospel may be carried under their arms or in their pockets the Gospel we know and are established in it and we do not aske you this question because we would know it for your knowledge we deny but answer it to them you call your brethren 2. Whether that light that gave forth the Scriptures which enlightens every one that cometh into the world shall be every ones condemnation that hates it or the words of the Scriptures declared from it or this light which Christ hath enlightned withal when Christ saith This is the condemnation the light And whether there is any condemnation but this 3. And whether ye do own and believe in that one offering which hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified 4. And whether they are not in unbelief and not believe in this offering which say Men shall never be free from sin while they are upon earth and say They shall never come to perfection upon earth 5. And whether they that say so be not in the state of the Pharisees which brought no fruit to perfection though these professed a Christ to come yet they would not own this offering 6. And whether they that say Man shall not be sanctified throughout and shall not be made clean from sin while he is upon earth be not them that trample the blood of the new Covenant under foot and make the blood of Christ of none effect and denies Iesus Christ that bought them 7. And whether Christ Jesus doth not save his people from all their sins and set them free to reign as Kings upon the earth all these things we know and witness but to you Priests about Beverley and thou Priest Feak and the rest that subscribe to this book that saith They must lie groaning all their life long under it These queries are for you to answer that gave forth this book so here it is manifest that this everlasting offering that perfects for ever them that aresanctified is not owned amongst you Priests but onely to talk on as the Pharisees did of Christ From them whom the world scornfully calls Quakers who is in the power of God which shall make all the world to quake and tremble FINIS