be considered what the Law and the Testimony is and that he further saith The Law is in the heart the Light is in the heart the testimony of Jesus the sure Word of Prophesie is in the heart the Word of Faith in the heart And now come to the matter to which thou scoffingly and wickedly saist Now he is fit for the work out with the Scriptures of truth and follow the Law of his own heart of his own imagination and be sure Salthouse will prevail and carry all before him Thou hypocrite Is this outing of the Scriptures of truth to speak truth in the very Scripture-language Hath not T. S. quoted the Scriptures for proof of what he asserts concerning the Law in the heart the Light in the heart the Word of Faith nigh in the heart the sure Word of Prophesie in the heart And yet thou art so impudent as to say Out with the Scriiptures of truth and follow the Law of his own heart Is the Law of God in the heart Or the Light of Christ in the heart Or the Word of Faith in the heart Or the sure Word of Prophesie which is the Testimony of Jesus in the heart Is this the Law or the imagination of his own heart Thou hast no cover for thy wickedness here but hast manifestly published thy folly and thy envy in charging T. S. for outing the Scriptures of truth when he hath cited the Scriptures of truth for proof of what he hath spoken therefore because thy wickedness is so plainly and openly discovered in setting thy self through envy to oppose gain-say and resist the truth the less needs be spoken in answer to it if any wil believe thee or be deceived by thee herein it is such who are willingly ignorant and are given up to believe lyes and their blood will be upon their own heads But although T. C. hath cited the Law and Testimony for a Rule yet when T. S had proved by the Scriptures of Truth that this Law and Testimony is within in the heart it 's like T. C. had no mind to join Issue or plead with him for he well knows that should he speak no more of the Law of God or of the Testimony of Jesus then what is manifest in him and written in his heart his mouth and the mouths of many of his Brethren would soon be stopt for though that which may be known of God is manifest within according to the Scripture yet they that believe not in that which doth make manifest but are enemies to it they know little of God or of his Law or Testimony neither is it their rule Now that which doth make manifest is light Eph. 5. 13. But T. C. saith Your faith is not in a light within therefore your Faith is not in that which doth make manifest and how then should you know the things of God or his Law and Testimony of which the Scriptures of truth declares And thus though in words you profess God and talk of his Law and Testimony to be your rule yet in works you deny him and his Law of righteousness is cast behind your backs and the Testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophesie you have denyed and despised neither is his Law your Rule or his Light your Guide witness your own confession in Tiverton Epistle Therefore I say Should T. C. plead onely from what of God is manifest in him he would have very little to say and so no marvel if he refufe to joyn Issue with T. S. upon those terms Thou saist T. S. hath said That T. C. is against the Saints attaining to perfection and freedom from sin whilst in this mortal state And thou saist He is not against perfection by faith in Christ their perfection to be in another nor is he against pressing after perfection but such a perfection as the Quakers boast of he is against c. To which I say The perfection which the people call'd Quakers own and press after is the same which the Saints and Servants of God in all ages did press after of which the Scriptures of truth makes mention which is to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord and to know him to work all their works for them and in them whose works are perfect in the sight of God whereby all boasters and boasting is excluded and this perfection thou saist T. C. is against and indeed I believe it and herein the truth of T. S. his words are verified But what perfection or freedom from sin such do own or press after who are drawing iniquity with cords of vanity and in whose souls such abominations reigns and out of whose hands all weapons are wrested with which they should make war against sin I leave to the wise in heart to judge It seems the perfection which you own is at a great distance from you and not holyness perfected in you but in another and so you imagine it shall be imputed yours hereafter when you are dead though you are perfecting wickedness and ungodliness all your life long and this imagination you call Faith in Christ But though we own no other perfection then that which is by Faith in Christ who is the perfection of his people and is all in all to them yet except you know him to live in you and know him to work in you both the will and the deed even he of whom its said That he came to do the will of God and so to know perfection and freedom from sin in your selves wrought by another it will avail you nothing to say you own perfection in another for what the better are you to tell of perfection and freedom from sin in another whilst you are imperfect and are servants unto sin And what pressing after perfection or freedom from sin is there like to be with such who affirm that God never had yet a church in the World without sin and that who ever affirm the contrary are Hypocrites Would any that believes this press after that which none yet could ever attain Or is not this to press after an impossibility And if by pressing after it they should attain to it and make confession of it it seems they must be accounted hypocrites this is small encouragement to any to press after perfection or freedom from sin But we are not ignorant what that imagined perfection is of which you speak and which you say you press after for although abominations reigns in your souls and iniquity apparently written on your foreheads heads and that you are even drawing it as with Cart-Ropes yet because you can sometimes make a hypocritical confession of this condition and therewith mock God as you confess you have done often this is call'd a pressing after perfection And because you have read in the Scriptures of the Righteousness of Christ you imagine that his Righteousness shall be imputed yours and serve to cover your unrighteousness and this is your perfection as
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 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