for the World where thou undertakest the part of an Advocate for Flesh not only pleading for the Honour that is below but also for the Manner of it Thy Doctrine is very pleasant to the fall'n Man and the World cannot hate such Preachers as thee for ye are not only of the World but chief Master-Builders of the old House of the fall'n Adam who loves the Earthly Honour But now that Chrst the second Adam is come the Lord from Heaven above the Earthly Man let all Flesh bow before him and give up his Honour to him otherwise this shall be fitly applied unto you that Christ said unto the Jews How can you believe that not only receive but also seek and plead for Honour one of and from another John 5. 44. For Christ received not Honour from Men Verse 41. So that tho' there was a time that Angels were bowed unto which were greater than Flesh Gen. 19. 1. yet a time came that Angels denied that Honour Rev. 22. 9. For now the Son himself was Glorified of whom it was said And let all the Angels of God Worship him Heb. 1. 6. And at his Name shall every Knee bow Phil. 2. 10. And Christ said to the Devil who was like his Children that would now be Worshipped Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve The Devil and Haman would be bowed unto but the true Jew will bow only to God But thou queriest and say'st Qu. Whether did the Saints in Scripture-times Sin in giving Honour that is say'st thou A Civil or Inferiour Honour unto Men and upon occasion Testifying the same by Honorary Words or Deeds Answ. To which I answer and say 1626 All that the Saints before the coming of Christ did is not to be an Example to us now but we must all now that would be approved to Christ take him for our Example and to follow no Man for our Example further than they followed or do follow him and when the Apostles speak of Honouring all it must be understood as in some place is mentioned in the Lord and that is not with Cap and Knee and false Flattering Titles and Gestures as the World useth but in Heart and Truth as the Spirit of God moveth So that a Man must first be in the Lord out of the first fall'n false Mind otherwise he knows not at all how to Honour either God or Man but is a Dissembling Wretch making fair Shews outwardly of Love where nothing but War and Self-love is in the Heart See 2 Sam. 20. 9 10. Jude 16. Thus Children being in the Lord do through the Lord Honour Parents aright thus Servants in the Lord Honour their Masters after the Flesh aright and so Church-members the Elders Wives their Husbands the Ruled the Rulers Yea thus they Honour their Faithful Brethren aright and in a Word all Men and so the Scripture is fulfilled in them But what Honour do these Faithful Ones look for from Men Nay nay believe and seek for that Honour that comes from God only and so the Scripture will not help the fall'n Man now to his Honour which is his Life but as the Scripture saith He that would save his Life must loose it And so all you Hypocrites of the World who are giving Honour to Proud Flesh and receiving Honour from it cease your Work and let Christ have his due or verily he will break you all in pieces with his Iron Rod. But in the end of thy Query thy Conscience a little checking thee for this vain Work thou wouldst daub over the matter by telling People the Honour from below which thou hast been pleading for must not be in Opposition to but in Subordination to God's Honour Nay nay I say the true Christ the Son of God is come and all Power in Heaven and Earth is given to him and so all Honour and Glory and Worship is his due and the due of none else to whom be it given of all his Angels and Servants both now and for evermore So all People hearken and hear a word for your good would ye be Honoured Then Honour the Lord by obeying his Voice and he will Honour you in due time though for doing his Will you loose the Worlds Honour as assuredly ye will if once ye be Faithful Qu. 12. The next Query Consisteth of a great Boast of the Ministry as though it were Unrebukeable And thou queriest whether that Ministry can be lawfully Condemned as Antichristian which the Lord hath owned and sealed with the Conversion of many Souls Answ. To which I say if your Ministry were such as this thou speakest of then indeed it were not safe to condemn it But where are these Converts thou speakest of to be a Convert is to be turned from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God bring forth the Man that can witness thee to be a Minister of the Gospel this way that he may give us an Account of the true Hope if he have it in him But Men cannot gather Grapes of Thorns nor Figs of Thistles so thou being such an Evil Tree as thou hast manifested thy self in these Queries to be how can a true Convert be expected from such a Ministry But thou say'st it s in Power c. and that many stubborn Sinners have been brought down unto their Faces and to confess that God is in you of a Truth But I say it will be hard for thee to bring forth such a Man for when I use to come amongst you to declare Truth against your Deceit as the Lord ordered me I found a heap of hard-hearted Sinners more like to destroy the Creature than to be Witnesses of Truth O shameless Men that bring forth such bad Fruit And yet with a Whores Fore-head dare take the Scripture which speaks of Prophets in God's Church in God's Power and apply it to your selves who deny the sufficiency of Christ's Light in Man and know nothing but meerly by the Letter without as thou for thy own particular hast made manifest and so are sensual not having the Spirit as was noted in the third Query I observe also in this present Twelfth Query the Ignorance of the Grace of God for when thou hast falsly Boasted of your Ministry what is hath done thou say'st is not this the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation Tit. 2. 11 12. I say no your Ministry not being the true is far from being the Grace of God there spoken of But if it were the true Ministry it were not that Grace there spoken of for the true Ministry is but a service to that Grace not the Grace it self for the Grace of God is that which hath appeared unto all Men and that which brought Salvation to Jew and Gentile as God's Gift without Words or Works and which was the Teacher of the Apostles themselves as well as others And so when People would have been setting up Paul for his Ministry's sake he
of such People as we before the last twenty Years or so who placed Religion in Thouing and Theeing and refusing to put off their Hats and wear Decent Ornaments in their Apparel and it is such frothy stuff that it Shames thee and thy Profession but thou may'st know that though you may do what you will that are without Law to God yet we are taught to fear the Lord and whatsoever is pure to mind that and so our Religion stands in Christ not in outward Appearances though the outward be all thou canst see and so stumbles at the meanness of it but what are those Decent Ornaments in Apparel thou tell'st on Is needless Points and Laces and Ribonds and such filth Then surely all Saints are one with us here but for that thou say'st we Rail against Priests Tythes Idols Temples and Idols Worship being such as yours I say though Railing we deny yet we can easily prove by Scripture that Holy Men Cried Vehemently against false Worships and Worshipers who were guided as you are in all Ages but as for that thou say'st We Rail against Baptism and the Lord's Supper and Singing of Psalms thou art found a great and false Slanderer in this for to let pass the word Railing we deny that we so much as speak against Christ's Baptism or Supper or his Singing or that we take upon our selves to condemn any to Hell but this we say That no Vnrighteous One or Hypocrite hath any Inheritance in the Kingdom of God or of Christ and he that is not with us is against us which Words will-be hard and heavy for many to bear and as for Christ's Baptism and Supper and Singing in and with the Spirit we dearly own but the Hypocrite and their Leaven we deny Qu. 6. The next Query is something to the former purpose and so that which is said may serve for that but thou addest a great and wicked Lie and Slander in saying we condemn the most Eminent Saints and Martyrs for thou say'st they were not of our Minds and thou seemest much Troubled that thy self also whom thou hast so high an esteem of could not pass the Censure of those thou scornfully calls Quakers have any of them called thee Deceiver and the like I say see if it be not true that might be thus spoken unto thee for it is no Derogation to the Honour of Truth to say the Truth it self may call a Deceiver false Accuser and Reproacher by their proper names For in Matt. 23. and John 8. see Christs Language to the Hypocrites of those Days so the Error was not in Christ his calling them so that were so but in those Pharisees there calling Christ a Deceiver and Devil when he was not so nor could be and for the most Holy and Zealous Christians amongst you that thou say'st had the like Names from us I answer if any under the Name Quaker called thee or any of thy Company otherwise than they in the Light saw true or could make good they were to blame but if any in Truth have declared your Inward Condition to you though under such Tearms you ought rather to repent than to kick and spurn at it in your hard Hearts for it will be hard for you to kick against the Pricks and for Spewing you may take that to your selves whose Throat is an open Sepulchre wide opened against all that are Holy and Zealous in Christ to separate from you and witness against your Deceit And so if those thou callest Holy and Zealous Christians amongst you together with thy self be weighed in the Ballance of Truth it will appear you are as far from that State as the East is from the West But I demand how thou knowest the Saints and Martyrs were not of our Perswasion and Practice for thou dost not judge with the Light that is Pure and Spiritual as is manifest nor see with a single Eye but only judgeth with thy Evil Thoughts and False Imaginations for we say in a few words that our Mind and Practice is to believe on the Name of the Son of God that true Light that Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and to love one another and to labour to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and all Men And I Read that the Saints and Martyrs were of this Perswasion and Practice with us and so we have a Cloud of Witnesses both Ancient and Modern of the Truth of this our way and so if thou hast Books that tell of other manner of Saints or Martyrs I deny both them and thee in calling them Saints who are not for the Saints of God and Martyrs of Jesus are one Body in all Ages not loving their Lives to death that so they might always keep to God's manifest Truth in them without denying it before Men and this is that which the Lord God hath wrought in us poor Despised People to the Glory of his Grace in this his day that no Flesh might Glory but as it is written Let him that Gloreth Glory in the Lord who alone is worthy Qu. 7. But in thy seventh and next Query thou thinkest thou hast gotten something against us because say'st thou we use to cry against you as Hirelings and that you would Preach no longer than People put into your Mouths but now say'st thou it 's manifest that many of these are ready to lose all for the Testimony of Jesus and to Preach the Gospel freely though it be in danger of Imprisonment Answ. To which I answer and say That the Testimony of those thou scornfully callest Quakers against you stands firm and true for all these thy high swelling Words of Vanity for we know none of you Preaching freely as yet and the reason why you talk in the form you do it because you cannot keep your fat Benefices O Hypocrites What Whining and Complaining is there by you in these days for your Belly But for Preaching the Gospel you have manifested your selves to be Ignorant both of Christ and of the Gospel by denying the sufficiency of the Light which Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World John 1. 9. and then put the Letter for the Light and so sight and strive with your Brethren about your form and several Imaginations of the Letter one cries up a Bishop another a Presbyter and both of you Ignorant of the true Bishop and Elder But John Reynolds would'st not thou and thy Brethren be at the Gain from your Quarter again if Common-Prayer could be dispensed withal Oh if you be brought into such a suffering Frame How is it that we have no more of your Company in Prison Nay nay your old Heart is in you yet and ye would be sucking Lambs Blood still if you had Power and that the God of Heaven sees and will take Vengeance on you for it and that which you cannot do with your Hands you are doing with your Tongues and Pens as is manifest But I have often said
draws this and the rest of thy stumbling Consequences from thy own Imaginations not from our Words for we do not Exclude the Preaching of the Gospel from the Light nor the Light from it but say That is the true Light that Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World one loves the Light believes it and follows it and is led to God and so saved by it sufficiently the other hates it and it is his Condemnation And this is the Gospel Preaching and this Light of Christ in every Man is the Light of the Glorious Gospel whether it be declared of to the outward Ear in Words or not but he that Preaches not this True Light Preaches another Gospel though there be not another Gospel And I say unto you all People if a seeming Angel Preach not this Gospel of Light this Grace of God which brings Salvation which hath appeared to all Men and is the Saints Teacher and Keeper he is to be accursed But whereas thou cell'st of Heathen Answer All are Heathens now and Ignorant of the True God who know nothing of the sufficiency of the Light that Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World but thou askest in the end of that Query two very Childish Questions The first Why we exhort all Men to follow the Light within if that be sufficient I answer Because it is sufficient therefore do we Exhort all Men to follow it for that which is not sufficient is not safe to follow And so you that are so full of words and ignorant of the Sufficiency beat the Air and deceive the People keeping silly Women ever Learning and never able to bring them to the knowledge of the Truth which perfects to God all the commers thereunto Thy second Query there How could the Word of God be called a Mystery hid from Ages and Generations but now is made manifest if the Light within be sufficient And then quotes Eph. 3. 9. Col. 1. 25 26. Mat. 11. 25. I answer That it was within and sufficient when it lay hid as a Mystery till God's full time came of revealing it and therefore Christ compares it to many Powerful and Precious though hidden things and of little account to the outward view as to a Grain of Mustard-seed in the Earth to a little Leaven within much Flower to Treasure hid in the Field and Christ said to the Pharisees that God's Kingdom was to be found in Man he excludes none and those Scriptures thou sett'st down prove for this Truth and against thy roving Mind which is in the outward observings thinking to find the Kingdom there when Christ saith it cometh not that way see Luke 17. 20 21. What wilt thou conclude it was not because it lay hid What Logick is this Doth not Paul there say that the Mystery which was so hid and which he by the Spirit now Preached which was Christ in the Gentiles the Hope of Glory And Christ was Light and to this Light he warned every Man to take heed but the little Children not the Masters obey the Voice and so are led into the Understanding of the Mystery Qu. 2. In the next general Query thou askest Are not the Scriptures the Words of the Lord whose Words are they And why is the Scripture so often called the Word of God and the Word of the Lord And for this thou brings many Scriptures as Exod. 24. 4. 2. Kings 20. 26 27 28 29. Psal. 12. 6. Jer. 36. 4 6 8 11. Acts 19. 10. 2 Cor. 2. 17. 1. Thes. 1. 8. Answ. To this I say First That the Holy Scriptures were given forth by Holy Men of God as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and so they may be called the Words of God or of the Lord not that Spirit and Living Word but that those Scriptures prove what thou bringest them for to wit that the Scriptures or Writings without is there called the Word of God is not true it is said indeed in that of 2 Kings 20. 16. That Isaiah said unto Hezekiah Hear the Word of the Lord and Hezekiah said Good is the Word of the Lord and in other places of Scriptures that the Word of the Lord came to the Prophets and that in the fore-mentioned place of Acts and Corinthians and Thessalonians mention is made of the Apostles Preaching the Word of God all this is true but of Exodus and Psalms and Jeremiah mention is made of Words but what doth all this prove but only that the Word came to Holy Men this Word was God and as this Word moved in them and gave them Wisdom and Utterance they writ or spoke forth Words as a Declaration of what was in the Mind or Word of God or what God was and what though the Scriptures may be thus called The Words of the Lord or his Prophets or Apostles Acted by his Power which we never denied this is nothing to the Hypocrites who use their Tongues to say The Lord saith when he never spoke by them but make a Trade of the Scriptures for filthy Lucre and by their much pressing the Declaration to be the Word of God have quite clouded the Word if self Christ from whence true Words come from the Peoples Minds so that scarce any have any true Living Feeling after God in his Word Christ for in the beginning was the Word before all Declarations and shall be after all the Peaceable Life of all that Believe for ever So that the Lord saw it good to stir up a People in these days to be True and Living Witnesses of the Word for the stopping of the Mouths of all such as have gotten the Words as Thieves from others and so kept People in the form with themselves always Professing but never Possessing the Power which the Scripture Witness unto and so the Letter and empty Words kill'd and do kill but now the Living Spirit and Living Word being Witnessed the Scriptures is owned in its place and Resurrection to Life being felt the Crown is set upon the King's Head whose Name is called The Word of God who was and is and is to come over all God Blessed for evermore and it is considerable that the Ministers of Christ are never called Ministers of the Letter or Words but of the Word and Spirit 2 Cor. 3. and that Christ and his Apostles mentioning the Prophets Words usually called them Scripture and not The Word of God as the custom of Hypocrites is now All Flesh is Grass and all outward Sounds and Signs vanish but the Word of the Lord that endures for ever and this is that Word which by the Gospel the Power of God is Preached and by nothing else savingly which when understood People are One but not before for it is the weakness which is like the Womans speaking makes Dissention so let the Scripture have its due and the Word of God its due and all is Beautiful in its place Query 3. In thy third thou askest How shall we know whether
ordain Elders in every City with Fasting Prayer and Imposition of Hands if every Person that will may run and ordinarily Preach without any such Ordination And thou say'st you may see how Persons were sent forth to Preach in Scripture Acts. 13. 23. and 14. 23 1 Tim. 4. 14. Answ. To which I say that the purpose of God in ordaining Elders in every City as is mentioned in that Acts. 14. 23. was not that proud and covetous Men who have a little Worldly Wisdom only to talk of the Letter and wrest Scripture by should perk up and set up themselves in the place of God's Elders in God's Church But that in this Church by his Spirit in those Elders the Body might be Edified and all kept in good order amongst them through Love Mind this was the Church of God which was in God 1 Thess. 1. 1. the Body of Christ of his Flesh and of his Bone Eph. 5. 23 24. Not a Worldly People gathered in the Will of Man into a vain Form without the power not I say the Synagogue of Satan who denies Perfection and the Sufficiency of Christ's Light And that there is none knows any thing aright but by the Letter as this John Reynolds pretends is not true for the Church of God was taught of God and the Elders in this Church were not brought up at the Worlds Schools of Learning nor called of Men Master nor Hirelings nor Persecutors of the Innocent as the Presbyters of these days are but they were Holy Men of God of mean account in the World raised up meerly by God's Power out of the Heathenish and Jewish Worships to know Christs Spirit and his Anointing in them which taught them all things and they were not such as got the Magistrate to help them to great Livings and fat Benefices and compel all by his Iron Sword to come in to them but they were Sufferers under the Powers of the World as we are at this day But whereas thou speakest of every Man that is not so ordained running in his own will ordinarily to Preach thou may'st take that to thy self and your selves who never were ordained by the Holy Ghost as they were for when did the Holy Ghost in your Assemblies say as in Acts. 13. 2. Separate such and such for the work I have appointed them unto Nay nay you have run and God never sent you for you never heard his Holy Voice at any time and therefore you profit not the People at all but make them more Cunning to Dispute against the Truth than they were before they followed you But what Ordination of Man had Paul at his first going out to Preach See Gal. 1. he received not the Gospel by Man and went not to Man no not to the Apostles themselves for Ordination and Commission to Preach but immediately Preached Christ as many have done and do at this Day who go under the Reproach of the name Quaker And so God is Restoring his Church to us Primitive Purity and Power to the stopping of the Mouth and confounding the Wisdom of all Flesh whether called Pope Cardinals Bishops or Presbyters that the true Eldership and Body of Christ to God's Glory may again appear And what Rules and Orders are and shall be in this true Church is known to God and by him Manifested and to be Manifested to the Body it self and not to the World for the World must neither have the right Understanding nor Management of those things no more than they had in those Days when it was said I stand not to Mans Judgment for the Holy Anointing must be all in the Church of God for ever Qu. 10. Thy Tenth and next Query is a plain discovery of thy Folly and of thy manifest Enmity against the simple Appearance of Truth in any discovery and though thou say the Scripture is thy Rule yet by it thou canst not endure to be Ruled but plain Language it self is thy Burthen and therefore thou askest how it can be said that ever Christ or his Apostles or Patriarchs or Prophets used the words Thou and Thee when they never spake English And how can it be unlawful for us to use the word You to each other since the same words in Hebrew Greek and Latin that signifie Thou signifie You in the Singular Number also and may be Translated You as well as Thou and so it seems thou say'st 2 Sam. 15. 27. Answ John Reynolds Didst thou Read this Query twice over Or didst thou at all Consider what thou said'st in it Was either the Fear of God or Care of thy own Credit before thy Eyes when thou writest it Surely neither But thou hast judged in thy self with thy vain Thought that because thou hast used to blind thy poor Hearers and make them believe any thing for Truth thou speakest or writest therefore it will be so with others Nay nay the Day is dawned the Lord hath given his People an Eye whereby all Covers are seen through and to this Light thou hast manifested as much Nakedness and Blindness to be in thee as in the grossest of them that say Mass at Rome or read Common-Prayer in English Nay I do believe many of them would be ashamed to argue thus as thou dost to wit because Christ his Apostles Patriarchs and Prophets did not speak in the English Tongue that therefore they used not the words Thou and Thee How came the Translators to Translate their Words when they speak to a particular Person Thou and Thee and never You as may all over Scripture be easily found thou may'st as well say Christ his Apostles Patriarchs and Prophets said nothing at all that is Recorded in Scripture in the English Tongue because they spoke not English so the Lord hath catched the Wise in his own Craftiness but thou goest on and say'st the same words in Hebrew Greek and Latin that signifie Thou signifie You in the Singular Number also and may be Translated You as well as Thou which I say is altogether false for You is not at all Singular but Plural altogether and so the Translators of the Bible knew and therefore never Translated their Singular Term in the forraign Language to you in English but Thou and Thee as is before mentioned and for that place in 2 Sam. 15. 27 thou set'st down and says it seems that You is used to a singular there it shames thee for if envy to the Truth had not Blinded thee thou mightest 〈…〉 that the King speaking to Zadock and saying Your Sons and you speaks not of Zadock and his Son but of Zadock and Abiathar and their Sons as the very words next after and in Verse 29. plainly shew and so here thou hast committed that great Error thy self that thy Generation use to Charge falsly upon us to wit in taking a piece of a Verse that seems to make for thy purpose and leaves out the rest that shews fully the Sense Qu. 11. Thy Eleventh and next Query is
upon thee to be Teacher of others but to set down thy Queries themselves or so much of them as is the substance of the whole Qu. 14. And thy fourteenth Query is Had not the Saints in Scripture-times their set places for publick Worship as well as we Had they not their Temple 1 Chron. 6. which Christ calls his Fathers House of Prayer and whips the Buyers and Sellers out of it c. Answ. To which I answer You have indeed an outward Temple or House made with Hands to Worship in of your own devizeing the Old Popish Mass-house and so cannot be called the Fathers House of Prayer so well as the Jews was for the Temple at Jerusalem was made by God's Appointment for the outward Circumcission to Worship in during the Law as a Figure of Christ's Body to be Magnified and therefore he whipt Buyers and Sellers then out of the Figure as he doth now out of the Substance but you have not only the Enemies Nature in you but you have brought forth his Work into open view in your outward Temples also which were never Built by God's Command and so there is Buying and Selling amongst you as was amongst them as every Eye seeth For there you Men made Priests sell Words the Words out of dead Books to the People and they give you their Money Glebe-land and Tythes for them O filthy Merchandize The Lord hath shaken his Hand at your dishonest Gain and is whipping out such Merchants by his Powerful Truth out of his House and your dead Works which you sell at so dear a Rate in your Stone-houses which you call Churches shall no Child of Light ever buy of you For the true Bread of God his free Gift is now witnessed Praises for ever One sort of Merchant Priests sell their Sermons and Mass to the People for Money another sort their Common-Prayer and Sermons and the third their Sermons and Directory And thou John Reynolds pleadest also for Synagogues and Pulpits and when thou hast set down Scriptures that tell of the Jewish Temple Synagogues and Pulpit thou askest if Christ and his Apostles did not report to these places to instruct the People To which I answer First That whilst the Jewish People stood Christ and his Apostles did sometimes go into their Temple and Synagogues to Preach the Gospel of the Kingdom and so an end of those things and to bring them out of these things which they and you so much dote on and plead for but they did never Command Christians to Build such amongst them but told them Their Bodies were the Temples of God 1 Cor. 3. and that those that abide in the Faith were the House of God Heb. 2. And these Christians never so confined themselves or others to any such place for the Exercise of their Conscience in the Worship of God but met as the Lord Jesus and his Apostles did much less did they stir up the Magistrate and drive the Jews out of their Temple and Synagogues and the Gentiles out of theirs that so they might creep into their Houses and under another Form of Worship live upon the Jewish Priests Tythes Offerings c. nor upon the Maintenance of the Idolatrous Priests of Diana and the like Idols as you Priests to the shame of your Profession have done and do at this day What have you driven the Papists out of their Mass-houses and do live upon their Priests Maintenance of Tythes Glebe-lands Smoke-mony Garden-pence Handmony and the rest of their Foolish things What cannot a Man be Born Marry Live nor Die but you must have Mony for it O Horrible and Filthy thing stop your Mouths for ever for your Folly is manifest to all and you can proceed no further And so you Priests of the last Order called Presbyters did not you drive out the Prelates out of their Houses which they had gotten from the Papists and there you sate down Feeding upon the Spoil of the People as your Fathers had done and now think much that you are driven out again And thus you fight with and drive out one another like wild Beasts striving each of you to get Power of others to be great in the Earth and do what you will in your fat Pastures But as I said the Lord is arisen to whip you all out and to pull down your Nests and to restore all things to their Primitive Purity as in the beginning before the Temples Tythes Pulpits and such things were Secondly I consider that though I read that Christ and his Apostles went amongst the People in their Temple and Synagogues as we do at this day to Preach the end of these things and so to bring People to the Word that was in the Beginning before all things that the Worship might be in Spirit and Truth as it ought to be John 4. Yet I never read that either Christ or his Apostles got up into their Pulpit nor ever Commanded his to perk up into a Pulpit of Wood over the People as a Master of a Synagogue to tell his Thoughts of the Letter as you do For though Ezra a Priest of the Law had his Pulpit or Tower of Wood to Read or Expound the Letter in in those days before the Life was manifest yet now the Life Christ Jesus is arisen whose Voice in the Heart and in all places is to be heard without a Pulpit and without Mony and without Price and the Apostles Preached this Gospel in Towns and Countries where neither Temple Synagogue nor Pulpit was but Tumults rather and so the Gospel is not a thing that will set up its Servants in Worldly Honour but indeed the contrary which he that hath an Ear may hear but the Wicked is so Proud in Heart that neither Preacher nor Professor amongst them will stoop to the simplicity of it The next thing Considerable in this Query is thy twisting and striving to keep up the Honour of the old Mass-house however if it be but a Name though it want the Nature yet if thou canst save that thou thinkest better that than nothing and say'st What though the Saints of God are called the Church yet that cannot hinder the House where the Church meets from being called a Church A Profound Reasoning What is this the Fruit of your cried up Vniversities What must every Place where any People meet be called by the Name of that People What Logick is this Surely the Wisdom of the World makes haste into its Nothing again God is utterly Confounding it Do you call the place where the Parliament or Privy Council sit the Parliament or Privy Council Do you call a Barn or such a moon place where the Saints of God now a-days often meet by the Name of a Church If we should Reason for the places where we meet as you do for yours surely you would Laugh at us and might then well call us filly Women and Seducers indeed But to go on thou bringest a Scripture as though
thou would'st prove the thing and it is Acts 19. 37. but the place being well weighed shames thee the more for the words in that place are the words of a Town-Clark a Worshipper of Idols and they are these For you have brought hither these Men which are neither Robbers of Churches as K. James's Translators of the Bible have it but in the Translation of the Bible by Beza it is You have brought hither these Men which have neither committed Sacriledge nor c. if Paul had spoken to him or others and called a Stone-house a Church as ye do it had been something to the purpose but the Heathen speaking there of Sacriledge improperly Translated Robbing of Churches can neither be understood to speak of a Christian Assembly nor the place where they Assemble for the Covetous and Idolatrous Copper-smith and his Rude Fellows matterr'd little what Paul had done to these but this Sacriledge whatever it was it must needs respect something that the Heathen had in great Esteem But thou bringing this to prove that a House may be called a Church because of the Church that may meet in it is nothing at all to the purpose for thou wilt not say it 's like that the Worshippers of Diana were the Church for he that runs without Light must needs stumble if not fall often So J. R. walk more soberly and take some Light along with thee when thou hast to do in such things Then the last thing in this thy Query is a secret Confession of a weakness of thy own Arguments in this matter and thou say'st What tho' the Worship of God be not so tyed to any place as formerly yet there should be convenient places for the Church to meet in Answ. I answer The Worship of God now is not tyed to any set place at all and so all your set places that you plead for are in the will of Man and the true Church God both hath and will order it and provide convenient places for it to meet in though the World cannot hardly afford it on Earth a place to meet in at all And for that thou concludest and sayest What though our Churches have been formerly Abused to Idolatry So were the Temples and Synagogues abused to Idolatrous and Superstitious Worship yet nevertheless did Christ and his Apostles make use of them I answer What use Christ and his Apostles made of Temple and Synagogue of the Jews is in part before declared To which this may be added As for Christ he was according to the Flesh of the Jews made under the Law and so he was to cleanse the Temple a Figure of his Body and fulfil the rest of the Laws Shadows and Customs and so end them all and through the Gospel bring Life and Immorrality to Light and to Consecrate the New and Living Way through the death of all old things for he Nailed them all to his Cross and they died with him but he arose from the Dead and not to bring up the old Dead things again as thou J. R. and thy Generation would have but to make all things New for saith he that sitteth on the Throne Behold I make all things New Rev. 21. 5. Glory to his Name for ever but none can see God in his Throne but in the Light that comes immediately from him which Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World which the Worlds Builders did always deny and reject as they do at this day And for the use the Apostles made of the Temple or Synagogues of the Jews it was as is formerly set down to reason with them there of things pertaining to the Kingdom of God the Jews not the Christians being Assembled there as the Servants of God called by the World Quakers do at this day to bring People both then and now from the Shadows unto the Substance Christ Jesus who hath said of his Body Destroy this Temple and I will build it again in three days and so the three days being come and finished the Temple that is Holy was built again and God Worshipped and Glorified in it but nothing that is defiled or loves a Lie can enter into or be joyned unto it But the Jews were more reasonable in one thing than you Priests of England are for they suffered Paul it seems to Reason with them several of their Sabbath-days in their Assemblies quietly but now if any come amongst you upon the like account that Paul did it 's hard for such to escape your Furious Hands or a Prison in these days Whereby it appears your time is but short you are so unreasonable and full of rage But the use that those Gospel-Ministers the Apostles made of the Jewish Synagogues will not serve your turns O Parish-Masters for unless you may have them in your own dispose to bring the World into them to call you Master and put into your Mouths it will not answer your lustful Mind And so indeed with you that have put the Name of Church and Saints upon the Wild World a great Stone-house Fashioned to Solomon's Temple with an addition of an high Steeple Babel-like with Bells in it seems most convenient though it was not only acused too but even built for Idolatry so much But for the little Flock of Christ in Cities Towns and Villages a less House when they they need one will be as much if not more convenient And to conclude whereas thou intimatest that your great Stone-houses which thou callest Churches though formerly used to Idolatry yet now they are free I say thou wilt want proof for this so long as you continue in the Worshipping and Serving of Creatures and Paul's Doctrine continues true which saith Covetousness is Idolatory unless you repent and bring cleaner Vessels into your Temple than you do Qu. 15. Thy Fourteenth Query was for Set-places now this the Fifteenth is for Set-times and thou askest Had not the Saints in Scripture their Set-times for Publick Worship as well we Answ. Yea I say the Saints amongst the Jews had their Set-times for their Worship better than you for they were under the Law and that was their Warrant but you are neither under Law nor Gospel in Truth but ony Carnal lmitators in your Will sometimes of the one Customs and sometimes of the other as your Self-willed and Self-ended Hearts in your blindness Prompts you unto and so for this I say Love the Light which Christ hath lighted you withal and it will lead you to Repentance from all your vain Observings and in the Light wait that God's good Spirit you may know and receive to Teach you and lead you into all Truth according to the Promise and so wait in the Light that lets you see your wants that 's the Holy Place and wait there for him in his Fear that comes in his own not Man's time and be not as the Heathens that think to be heard for their much wording of it nor spread abroad the Sails of your vain