you have said if it were not reproved Again you exhort your Congregations that they manifest sincerity not only by hatred of error but by a love of the truth c. Answ. Sincerity of heart is indeed precious especially where the Spirit of the Lord is the rule of Judgement and doth mannage that sincerity but where a false spirit rules in the judgement the sincerity is often betrayed into a zeal against the truth and against the wayes of the Lord rather than otherwise and thus it was with the Iewes whose sincerity through their error of judgement was turned into zeal and bitternesse against Christ And thus it is to be feared it is with many in your Congregations who may have a zeal without knowledge and be short of true discerning between what is truth and what is error I speak not this of all but of some for it s no small thing to discern between truth and error especially in this day wherein there are so many wayes and professions of Church-Ministry and Worship and yet all professing the Scriptures are their Rule of Faith worship and practise and seeing that all Sects do professe proof from Scripture for what they hold forth what ground have the people to believe you more than others or others more than you for where people receives Doctrine or Religion by report from others without the evidence of the Spirit of God in their own hearts this is not receiving of the truth unto eternal life wherefore I exhort your Congregations that every one amongst them may wait upon the Lord to have a feeling and discerning in their own hearts and that each one may be led and taught of the Spirit of God which leads into all truth that they may deny all false Ministers and false worships and may worship God in Spirit and Truth through the ministration of his own Spirit in their hearts and consciences and thereby will they discern between truth and error and will love the one and hate the other Thirdly You exhort That they keep themselves unspotted from the prevailing corruptions of these back-sliding times c. Answ. Concerning the times many are ignorant but this is certain at the present time wherein we are is the Lord disquieting of men and its the latter daies of Antichrists Reign and Government that hath been in full power and authority for many generations and Babylon that great City her ruine is threatned because of her abominations that have been many and great for the whole earth hath been corrupted as it s written and now the Call of the Lord is that every man come out of Babylon and deliver himself that he may not partake of their plagues and happy are they that are made clean and unspotted from her sins that they may not be found covered with her garments for the day of the Lord is come and coming upon Babilon and all back-sliders from God and his wayes Now Babilon is that great City which hath ruled over the Kings of the earth and in her hath the blood of Souls and of all just men been found Fourthly You exhort to endeavour a healing of those sad breaches and divisions which have been amongst you c. Answ. Now the sad breaches and divisions which is indeed at present in this Nation cannot be healed but as the cause and ground thereof be removed which is the sins of Rulers Teachers and People and this is the cause wherefore the Lord hath brought distraction amongst them Oh what ambition and self-seeking hath been among the Rulers What judging for gifts and rewards what neglect of Mercy and Judgement amongst them And oh how have they oppressed the poor and trodden down the needy and because hereof is the righteous God vexed And oh what covetousness and greediness of gaine are the teachers guilty of How do they preach for hire and divine for money How have they unreasonably caused men to be imprisoned and their goods to be spoiled for wages and tythes and hire Oh how hath covetousnesse and idolatry and superstition abounded amongst the Teachers in this Nation Oh abominable hath been their sins their oppressions and self-seekings and because of these things hath the Lord brought distractions amongst people and the sins of Rulers and People cries for vengeance from the Lord and till these iniquities be removed by repentance and forsaken the fruit and effect thereof shall never cease but breach upon breach will the Lord make till the Rulers and Priests repent them of their iniquities Gods hand will be upon them both in Judgement and for their sakes that divine for money and preach for hire and judge for rewards Will the Lord make the Nation as heaps and as a ploughed field Therefore let all people repent of their iniquities and return to the light of Christ in their own consciences and become followers of the Lamb and this is the perfect way of healing of all breaches inwardly and outwardly Fifthly You exhort to be diligent in the spiritual and conscientious performances of family duties c. Answ. Men must first be awakened and enlivened unto God before they can act for God in holy duties and as for duties performed in pretence unto God traditionally and without the teachings of the the Spirit of God is but idolatry and the Nation is weary of such a Religion which they have received and held traditionally for thereby the Soul immortal cannot be nourished unto eternal life and while you teach duties towards God by that rule while you teach praying singing repeating catechising by tradition and imitation without the leadings of the Spirit of Christ in them you do but teach idolatry as long hath been taught in the Christian Nations the doing and performing such and such things as Christian duties and practises and the forcing and compelling of doing such things upon people in the unregenerate state and unconverted nature this Religion and such performances of duties have been of Babilon and of Antichrist and a cheat upon peoples Souls whereby many have been murdered and slain in that great City and the form of Godlinesse without the Power hath been practised while duties have been performed unto God without the teachings of the Spirit of God and such their consciences are blinded and the Lord abhors their Sacrifices and people must first come to feel the Word of God in their hearts to regenerate them before they can perform any acceptable thing to God and therefore do not teach people to be hypocrites do not teach them such and such performances in the corrupt nature without the teachings of the Spirit of God in their own particulars for if you do you make them but two fold more the children of the devil and such duties performed in that nature shall not cover nor hide from the Wrath of the Lord which is comming upon all hypocrites Sixthly You exhort that they would cause their children and servants to submit to Catechisings and train them up in there verence
have better preserved your flocks Should not you have fed them with living food Should not you have been examples of righteousness and truth unto them And should not you have nourished them with knowledge and understanding But because the Shepherds have been lazy and idle and fed themselves and not their flocks but the Shepherds have ruled over their flocks with force and cruelty and their Ministry and Preaching hath been a very burden and oppression upon the people and therefore it is that their flocks are divided into many Sects and separations and great confusions is in your Assemblies and among you even the sin of the people in some measure will be charged upon you their Teachers whole flocks are run into errors and Atheisme and despise wholesome doctrine and are out of true order and Church-discipline even in the traditions of men Therefore oh that you Ministers would consider and that you would learn more wisdome and that your people would come to receive the Spirit of the Lord into their hearts whereby they may be led into all truth and into the Covenant of God where there is no unbelief ignorance prophanenesse no confusion but peace love and unity altogether and if you and they did come into this you might be happy and the judgments of the Lord would be removed Now I come to some particulars which you do promise for your selves First That you will use all holy endeavours to keep God and his Truth among you Secondly That you will be more diligent in watching over your flocks Thirdly That you shall endeavour the establishment of your Congregations against Popish delusions To all which I answer You must first make clean your own hearts and you must first repent of your own iniquities before you can heal others and you must first learn obedience to God in your own hearts before you can truly instruct others therein And indeed there is need enough for you to mourn before the Lord and to fast and to confess your sins as you say for the Lord has been long departed from you and his presence from your Assemblies and that is the cause of deadnesse and drinesse and barrennesse among the people because Gods presence is wanting among you and you had indeed need to be more diligent in watching over your flocks for you have been negligent therein and have fed your selves and not them and you have sought theirs and not them it s partly evident and it is time for you now to amend and to put away the evil of your doings but first before you dispence the word to others you must feel the word in your own hearts to be as a fire and as a hammer in you and you must know another Foundation for Ministers than you have long stood upon even the Lord Iesus Christ must be your Foundation and you must cease to preach for hire and to divine for money and then should it be better with you and your flocks would have comfort in you if you had received freely from the Lord and ministred freely to them but while you do it for ends to your selves they can have no good hopes nor confidence in you And whereas you exhort your Congregations in divers particulars First to take heed of false teachers trying their spirits and holding fast that which is good especially to beware of Popish insinuations say you c. Answ. Your Exhortation is good in it self but you should have demonstrated more plainly how false teachers should be known conparing their fruits now with what they were in the daies of old when the Scriptures were written and that had been a good way to have discovered false teachers that sixteenth of Matthew mentioned by you bids them beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Christ said they were such as was called of men Master stood praying in the Synagogues loved uppermost rooms at feasts went in long robes and of such Christ bids beware and of such now the people in London are to beware where ever they are for such as do these things are in the steps of the Scribes and Pharisees which Christ cried Woe against and the true Prophets cried against such in their daies as preached for hire and that sought for their gain from their quarter and such you ought to cry against now as seek for their gain from their quarter except the guilt of these things in your selves stops your mouths from crying against them in others and the Apostles cried against such as went for gifts and rewards such as taught for filthy lucre and such as made merchandize of people for gain for themselves such the Apostles and Christ declared against and such you ought to declare against but the people of your Congregations may say who are such now and where are they that I leave to their consciences to judge who it is and where they are now and whether there be any of them in this City now and in the Nation that are called of men Master and love uppermost rooms at feasts and that preacheth for hire and money for gifts and rewards seeks for their gain from their quarter teacheth for filthy lucre and gain who are found in these things now such are false teachers who ought to be taken heed of I shall not now say it is any of you but I shall leave it to you and to your peoples consciences to whom your Exhortation is and as I have said before let all Popish inventions and Popery be first cast out of this Nation and then if you joyn with us against it through the Spirit of the Lord we will endeavour the keeping of it out and that it shall no more enter in amongst us into this Nation And you say that your knowledge here and all other graces here are imperfect to which I say then you are imperfect Saints imperfect Ministers But what do you mean by here I suppose that you mean upon earth now there are none of the Graces of God that are imperfect but the Grace of God is perfect in it self and the Spirit of God is perfect and every gift of God is perfect as saith the Scriptures Now that you should say the Graces of God are imperfect this is error even abominable error and you shew unsoundnesse in Judgement even in the things of God and hath belied the Graces and Gifts of God which in their least measure are perfect And thus I have looked over your Exhortation and thus I have returned to you again not but that I know it is the duty of Christs Ministers to exhort their flocks and that exhortation in it self is good but when I find where lies and false accusations are against the Quakers whom I dearly love and own upon that account and not otherwise have I engaged with you and what I have done it is not rendering evil for evil but rather to reprove your evil and to undeceive your Congregations who might otherwise take all for true that
and learn the fear of the Lord Oh that every one of them would consider and turn from their iniquities and become followers of Iesus Christ then should the glory of the Lord be revealed unto them and peace and truth and righteousnesse should be unto them and their Families and their City if they would come into Covenant with God and he taught of him and be exercised by his Law in their hearts then should the countenance of the Lord be upon them and then should they discern between truth and error between the Ministers of Christ and Deceivers Oh! there is a pity for many poor people which are zealous in their way of Religion without knowledge and they think they do God good service while yet their consciences are not exercised by the Spirit of the Lord but a false spirit that rules and leads and many holds the truth in unrighteousnesse and they know not but they do well Oh that such would consider and not be hasty in any thing to performe or professe Religion in their degenerate estate but that they would come to know the Regeneration and the renewing of their minds by the Holy Spirit and that the Immortal Birth might be born in them even the Birth of the Spirit which is Heir of God Oh that that might live and rule in them then should they be Heirs of God and Citizens of the New Ierusalem And oh ye people of London lay it to heart you must be born again or else you can never enter into Gods Kingdome you must be changed in nature and must be crucified to this world that you may live unto God this must you come unto or else you have no part nor portion in eternal life all your duties and performances in your forms of Religion they cannot save you nor justifie you all your preaching praying singing and all your duties whatsoever they are all nothing till you come to know changing and renewing inwardly and do witness the Seed of God raised up in you and the head of the Serpent bruised in you by the Seed of the Woman this must you come to witnesse that your souls may live Oh that you would consider be not so zealous against that which you may call Heresie and Schism for while you erre in judgement you may soon speak evil of truth and persecute it under the name of error many have wofully fallen into that snare and brought sorrow upon themselves thereby The wise Iewes even the chief Priests Scribes and Pharisees they were confident in their way as you can be and yet they erred in judgement and would not receive Christ but persecuted him under the very name of a Deceiver and thus it is possible for many to do in this age What though you have Christs words and the Apostles words yet if you have not the Spirit of Christ that was in the Apostles you know nothing rightly of the Scriptures neither can you understand them nor have Salvation by them for you must know Christ in you your hope of glory else you are reprobates and shut out of the Kingdome of God And search the Scriptures and see if they do not witnesse this Do not they say Christ is in you except you be Reprobates and do not they say The Law of God is written in the heart and the Spirit of God is put in the inward part And do not they say That Christ hath lightened every man that comes into the world with the true light And do not they say that the Apostle exhorts people to hearken to the Word of God in their hearts and to be followers of the Spirit of God that was in their hearts And do not the Scriptures say That it was the light that shined in the heart that gave the knowledge of God unto the Saints Search the Scriptures and see whether these things be so and must not men be born again of the immortal seed Oh consider and let not these doctrines seem new unto you neither reject them though they come unto you in weak appearance not with words of mens wisdome but in simplicity and in sincerity and in the Power of God And search the Scriptures whether these things be so were not they false Prophets that preached for hire and divined for money and sought for their gain from their quarter Were not such deceivers in the true Prophets time and them that preached for filthy lucre and for money and for gifts and rewards were not such false Brethren and false Apostles Search the Scriptures whether these things be so for the day of tryal is now come wherein all must be searched and that Religion and Worship and Ministry which is not according to the Scriptures which was given forth by the Spirit of God let that Religion Worship Church and Ministry be utterly condemned of the Lord and all his people and let such Ministers as cannot prove their call their maintenance and practises to be according to the Scriptures let such Ministers be confounded and silenced for ever and come to try this matter when you will For whereas you cry out against us as if we were deniers of Scriptures as if we were enemies to Church and godly Ministry and Religion and as if we were Deceivers Hereticks Papists c. But I say unto you these things have you never yet justly proved against us but rather accused us behind our backs to make us odious among people and though for divers years together we have been publike yet when did ever any of you Ministers seek by lawful means to convert us or shew us our errors if we were as you say of us oh it had been your time to have sought our conversion and not to have persecuted to have sent to prisons houses of correction and by such weapons of an outward force and cruelty have you dealt with us and not in meeknesse and by the Spirit of the Lord as Ministers of Christ ought to do but hath cried to the Magistrates to defend you and your Church and worship being unable as it were by the Authority of Gods Spirit to defend your selves Therefore I say unto you now lay down your carnal weapons and come out in in the spirit of meeknesse and come out in the Authority of Gods Spirit if you have it convince us thereby if we be in an evil way as you say let us hear your soundest arguments by the Spirit of God and according to the Scriptures to prove those things which you say of us prove it by evident arguments that we deny Scriptures and that we are Hereticks and that we are Papists I challenge you all in the Name of the Lord even all your Ministers of London let us hear your sound reasons openly in the spirit of meeknesse and do not back-bite nor slander in the dark neither let us be bawled against by your rude members as often we have been even in the spirit of wickednesse but come out you Ministers we are willing to be tryed according to the Scriptures and by the Spirit of God in our Religion and in every part of it and if you be the same then come forth in the spirit of meeknesse like Ministers of Christ and lay down your carnal weapons and let us have fair dealing openly that truth may be manifested publikely and errour may be discovered and let us not envy one anothers persons seek to destroy one anothers lives but let us seek to destroy the evil in one another that men might be saved and this would be a Christian-like way we would hear what you have to charge against our Religion by sound arguments in meeknesse that we may answer it and then we will charge something upon your Ministry Church Religion and Worship and we will prove what we say against you according to the Scriptures and we will not impose our Religion upon you by the force of outward Powers and outward Lawes neither would we have you force your Religion Ministry and Church upon us by such means but we will leave the effect of all things to the Spirit of God and come out when you will in such a way as this and this would satisfie thousands and let meeknesse and the fear of God be amongst you and this is the way to exalt Religion and we would think it a happinesse more then otherwise to be joyned in sober debate and dispute against you that you and we in your Religion Church and Ministry and in ours also might be tryed according to the Scriptures that all may be satisfied who are doubtful and may hear your principles and our principles discussed in the presence of the people who may judge by the light and witnesse in their own consciences for to that in all we do appeal and in such a proceeding come forth when you will lay down your carnal weapons and take the weapons of the Spirit and come to the tryal for the day of the Lord is approaching upon all the world THE END