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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93646	The guilty-covered clergy-man unvailed; in a plain and candid reply unto two bundles of wrath and confusion, wrapt up in one and twenty sheets of paper. The one written by Christopher Fowler and Simon Ford of Reading; the other by William Thomas of Ubley in Somersetshire. Wherein all their malicious slanders and false accusations, which they cast upon the truth, are clean wash'd off; their weapons with which they war against the Lamb, broken over their own heads; and they, with the rest of the tyth-exacting teachers, proved to be the great incendaries, and mis-leaders of these nations. In which also there is made a brief and sober application, to the magistrates, and other inhabitants, within the city of Bristol. / By Thomas Speed, a friend to all that tremble at the Word of the Lord; but an irreconcileable enemy to the mysterious deceit, and monstrous hypocrisie of those that do teach for hire, and divine for money.	Speed, Thomas, b. 1622 or 3.	1657 (1657)	Wing S4905; Thomason E893_1; ESTC R203614	61,807	87

and false accusations where are those lazie Lurdens or Drones as you call them who eat the fat and drink the sweet For mine own part I know none such but the Priests who yet are wiser for themselves then those you accuse of walking up and down the Land for that instead of travelling through heat and cold drouth and wet they love to keep close in one parish to eat the fat and drink the sweet But where are those that do eat their wives and families out of doors name any man that 's called a Quaker that hath done so and if you can were recrimination any excuse I doubt not but for every such one to name you twenty Priests that are deeply guilty of the same crime SECT 36. In your 36th Section you accuse me of setting up the revelation of the Spirit in opposition to all humane studies and why Because my Twelfth Article said That the mind of God is not to be known by study in a Vniversity but by revelation of the Spirit who alone knoweth his mind 1 Cor. 2.11 12 And is not this plain truth SECT 37. Why is it then that you make such a great noise about Vniversity learning endeavouring to make Paul and Peter to be Advocates for you in the case The first of whom viz Paul did with all his learning fight against Christ and drew his blood as you and many others at this day do that pretend highly to it And although he came afterwards to know and receive that Jesus whom he before persecuted yet I deny it was at all by the power of his humane learning but by the revelation of the Spirit of life And as for Peter how could you but blush were you not past all shame to abuse and belie him as you do in bringing him for testimony to the usefulness of Vniversity learning in this way making him to say that in the reading of the Scriptures it may keep a man from wresting them to destruction doth not the Scripture bear witness of Peter that he himself was unlearned and will you make Peter to condemn Peter Act 4.13 and implicitly conclude that he himself was a wrester of Scripture having not that learning which you say will keep men from wresting them Moreover do not the Pope his Cardinals the Jesuits and the rest of your Romish fraternity abound in Vniversity learning notwithstanding which do not you and the rest in England accuse all those learned ones for wresting the Scriptures to their own destruction SECT 38. In what confusion do your next Section shew you to live in which you begin with as full an acknowledgment of the impotency of humane learning to give the knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom as I my self have at any time or could have made Your words are these We acknowledge that all the learning of the world will not bring saving truth effectually home to the understanding and consciences of men nay carnal reason back'd with LEARNING will dispute the light of the most glorious doctrinal truths of the Gospel out of mens judgements and the most glorious practical truths of of the Gospel out of mens consciences as appears daily in those whose learning Satan makes use of as he doth of yours and others to defend and patronize their lusts So that there needs another kind of learning to settle these truths savingly in the minds and hearts of men which the Scripture calls the revelation and demonstration of the Spirit Thus are you constrained in words whatever your hearts are to give testimony to the insufficiency of your Idol Vniversity learning and to the efficacy of the revelation and demonstration of the Spirit And yet in the close of the same Section you cannot but call Schools of learning no small props of Christian Religion Are not they very sure props of Christian Religion in which men learn that which joyned with carnal reason will dispute the most glorious truths of the Gospel out of mens judgements and consciences Here is just the image of Babel As your brethren do use to preach so do you print who oftentimes in their Sermons do very zealously assert a thing for truth and before they close their discourse do cross the same thing and contradict it I could tell the Reader at large what precious Plants the Vniversities and Schools of learning do oftentimes nurse up but I shall reserve that untill another season Onely for close of this you being now crying Hosanna to your Universities let me ask you this question How came it to pass that Simon Ford was a very few years since expelled the University of Oxford Simon Ford turned out of the University of Oxford Was the Mother unrighteous or was the Son wicked If for a good deed he was driven thence then that prop of Christian Religion was a persecuter of the innocent if for evil-doing then let the Reader judge how well this man behaved himself there that the University which I am sure heretofore did rarely administer expulsion to any but for a very great crime thought good to vomit him up as a corrupt member SECT 40 41 42 43. In the next place I cannot but take notice how much stir both you and William Thomas do make about that expression of mine in the Twelfth Article viz. that Paul and Peter preach'd that Gospel which Christ by his Spirit revealed in them 1 Cor. 2 10. Gal. 1.16 And here you follow your old trade of making meanings upon my plain words And you doubt another Snake in the grass of this fair expression Rep. Are you Ministers of Jesus Christ and know not to this day what it is to preach the Gospel which he hath revealed in you Are there two Gospels or did Paul and Peter preach two viz. one revealed in them and another without them 〈◊〉 there any other way of knowing the glorious mysteries of the Gospel but by revelation made by the Spirit of Iesus within William Thomas confesseth that Paul and Peter were instructed by immediate revelation Page 44. which saith he We are not so presumptuous as to expect Rep. Poor blind man The Lord is my witness that my bea rt was moved with pitty towards him at the reading of this expession and could even weep over him thus drowned in ignorance What hath he been preaching these thirty and nine years for so long it seems he hath been a Teacher who is so far from having received Pag. 8. confessed that he never expected instruction by immediate revelation Hath he only taught the history of that which others did and spake If so what hath he done more then the Devils and many now damned spirits can do and have done Cannot those soul spirits talk of what others have said and done in the Scriptures nay Mark 5.7 do we not find an unclean spirit preaching Christ in words to be the Son of the most high God Have not the Pope his Cardinals and Jesuites the

will it then avail you to offer this for your Apology viz. That you were told by your Teachers that you ought to punish Hereticks and that you should do God service in killing them whom they represented to you as Deceivers Out of his own mouth will Priest-ridden Pilat be then condemned who was not onely fore-warned that he should have nothing to do with that just man but also had a witness for Christ in his own conscience That he had committed nothing worthy either of bonds or of death A few words more to all To the Inhabitants of Bristol in general as well people as Magistrates within that great City and I shall close this 1. In the fear of the Lord live and abide And to that of God in all your consciences take heed which is your day and night-companion which followeth you to your Beds your Tables your Fields your Shops your Closets your Counting-houses and will also to your Death-beds and your Graves secretly checking you for those miscarriages to which no eye is privy but the Lords which doth often smite you when in your dealing you do either lie flatter defraud or over-reach your neighbour I say to this take heed for it is the candle of the Lord to search you give ear to it when it convinceth you of sin and crieth to you for amendment turn not your backs upon it when it calleth upon you to repent ere it be too late and to turn from lying vanities to serve the living God 2. Resign not up your precious souls to the miserable guidance of those your Teachers who say and do not that you should condemn what they condemn and approve what they approve But be as wise for the eternal concernments of your souls as you are for your outward man see with your own eyes hear with your own ears and walk with your own feet Pass not away the few days of your pilgrimage in listning to their strong delusions suffering your selves to be lull'd asleep by those pleasing Dreamers even upon the brink of eternity 3. Awake awake ere the King of terrors seize upon you and consider whether you are able to stand in judgment before the Lord at his coming Suppose with your selves every hour That that impartial executioner stood at your doors ready to pull down your earthly Tabernacles and strip you naked of all this worlds glory the husks on which you do now so contentedly feed and seriously think whether your foundation be sure and your building upon the Rock that the violence of storms and winds you can abide and not be removed 4. Remember oh remember that through the gates of death must you pass for your selves and to the Lord must you render an account for your selves and not another for you Therefore lean not upon your blind guides those Egyptian reeds whose pleasing songs of perishing glory may satisfie your souls for a season but neither shall they die for you nor give up your account for you in the great and terrible day of the Lord. Let not their fury drive you nor their perswasions allure you to any thing for which the the witness of God in your own consciences will condemn you Do not at their instigation cry out for Jesus to be crucified But first ask what evil hath he done neither be ye hasty at their request to take the blood of those upon your selves and your children whom they do decree as Hereticks and Blasphemers The Jews had as high an esteem of their Leaders the Scribes Pharisees and High-priest for wisdom and godliness as you can have of yours and yet the blood of Christ which they so confidently begged might be put upon their score being condemned for a BLASPHEMER hath proved a grievous burden under which their posterities backs have bowed for these Sixteen hundred years past 5. Stumble not at the meaness of Christs coming because not attended with worldly pomp and glory The Jews of old did split themselves against this rock They expected their Messiah to be some outwardly illustrious Potentate that should be admired for his earthly greatness and splendor that should rather advance then decry the glory of their Temple their Worships and Sacrifices c. But when they saw him come as a root out of a dry ground having no higher discent that they knew then from Joseph a Carpenter and Mary a mean woman his Wife having for his followers Fishermen and Publicans c. they were offended at him and saw no form nor comliness in him wherefore they might desire him If you ask your Teachers at this day where Christ is to be found They will tell you among the wise and the learned the Rulers and the great men And where he is spiritually worshipped They will tell you in the populous conventions and their gay Steeple-houses where it must be religion for poor hearts to sir and hear their railings and contradictions instead of Divine Oracles But alas how different are the waies and works of the great God from the waies and works of vain man He chuseth not many wise 1 Cor. 1.27.28 not many mighty not many noble but on the contrary the foolish the weak the base the despised peeces of the Creation doth he chuse to manifest himself in Therefore when your Teachers cry out unto you Lo here is Christ lo there believe them not He is near that saveth you Look not for him in the Palace he is persecuted thence in the Inn there is no room for him but in the Manger you may find him The contrite heart is the place of his habitation and the broken and humble spirit are the throne of his glory In truth of love to your precious souls have I written these things to you which howsoever you shall interpret yet herein have I peace that my conscience have I faithfully discharged towards you as in the presence of the Lord. Oh that my fellow-Citizens of Bristol would in the cool of the day sit down and seriously consider what I have said and the God of all grace and mercy grant to you all that in this your day you may know the things that do belong to your peace before they be hid from your eyes I shall now pass from the Two Epistles to the Two Books principally applying my self as I have before said to you two Christopher Fowler and Simon Ford. And first The Preamble to C. Fow. and S. Ford's book examined Of the Preamble to your book Which is a mixture made up of the old Babylonish stuff viz. falshood flattery and gross hypocrisie The first you manifest in charging me with the maintaining of absurd paradoxes in Civility and blasphemous heresies in Religion Wheras I am content to appeal to any sober reader which shall read my Epistle and your Answer whether there be any such thing to be found under my hand in the first or proved upon me by you in the later But you say So you dare call the

THE GVILTY-COVERED CLERGY-MAN VNVAILED IN A plain and candid REPLY unto Two Bundles of Wrath and Confusion wrapt up in One and twenty sheets of Paper THE ONE Written by Christopher Fowler and Simon Ford of Reading The other by William Thomas of Ubley in Somersetshire Wherein all their malicious Slanders and false Accusations which they cast upon the Truth are clean wash'd off Their weapons with which they war against the Lamb broken over their own heads and they with the rest of the Tyth-exacting Teachers proved to be the great Incendaries and Mis-leaders of these Nations In which also there is made a brief and sober Application to the Magistrates and other Inhabitants within the City of Bristol By THOMAS SPEED a Friend to all that tremble at the Word of the Lord But an irreconcileable Enemy to the mysterious Deceit and monstrous Hypocrisie of those that do Teach for Hire and Divine for Money Jer. 10.21 The Pastors are become BRVTISH and have not sought the Lord therefore they shall not prosper and all their Flock shall be SCATTERED Sence Tragoed Sequitur superbos ulter à tergo Deus Juven Sat. 6. nihilest audacius illis Deprensis iram atquè animos à Crimine sumunt LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the black Spread-Eagle at the west end of Pauls 16●● To the Parliament of England now assembled at Westminster SIRS ALthough I dare not give you flattering Titles with the pen of a Sycophant yet I can truly say that I love you as you abide in the fear of the Lord with the heart of a plain-dealing friend Job 32.22 It s recorded in the Scriptures of truth that imperious Haman flush'd with his advance to his short-lived honor did strenuously endeavor to have cut off the necks of thousands of innocent Jews upon Mordecaies stiff knee The murderous design being laid the subtle old serpent that ruled in this man of blood was not to seek of an expedient to bring it into execution Let but the Kings approbation and Decree be obtained and then this proud Courtier maketh sure of satisfying that lust upon the Jews throats which he could by no means effect upon Mordecaies knee To this end Ahasuerus his ears must be filled with suggestions as full of falshood as malice These harmles people are slanderously represented to him to be very evil members of his body politick Est 3.8 both by reason of the diversity of their Laws from all other people and also their disobedience to the Kings Laws And therefore it could not well consist with the Kings profit to indulge to such a heterodox generation within any of his Provinces the benefit of breathing in the common air Although Haman be dead yet that foul spirit by which he was acted survived him throughout all generations unto this very day When Christ the Sun of righteousness began to rise in the brightness of his glory and so out shine the faint glory of all the Jewish Rites Worships Services the Rulers Mat. 26.4 Priests Scribes Pharisees and the people also by the Chief-Priests perswasion conspire his death The life appeareth but the letter would destroy it the power is brought forth but the form standeth ready to devour it But Christ is innocent 1 Pet. 2.22 there being no guile found in his mouth And therefore since he cannot be impeach'd as an evil doer for matter of fact he must for matter of Opinion Judgement Principles Although he hath done no evil being in his conversation holy Heb. 7.26 Mat. 26 61. harmless undefiled and separate from sinners yet it is by them presumed that he thinketh evil because they judge him to have spoken evil viz. dangerous words about their Temple Vers 65. nay blasphemous words against God and therefore by the consent of Priest-ridden Pilat he is hurried to the cross to suffer as a Deceiver Eccles 1.9 Is there any new thing under the Sun Is not the same spirit of pride and persecution clothed in the garb of seeming zeal found walking openly in the streets of our Cities Towns and Villages at this day Are not the innocent now as of old traduced to you both by Press and Pulpit under the notions of Quakers Hereticks Blasphemers and Deceivers And where malice cannot reach them as transgressors of the Civil Law being thereunto obedient for conscience sake are they not with Daniel ensnared concerning the law of their God Dan. 6.5 Have not the impetuous instigations of the Pulpit of late had that destructive influence upon many in authority that contrary to the righteous law of this Nation it hath been made matter of crime unto many peaceably to travel upon the high ways Nay have not several persons One and twenty in a few days taken up by armed guards and sent to Exon Goal of which one died there that have been constantly faithful to the States interest been violently surprised as they were travelling about their lawful occasions and cast into bonds among Rogues and Felons for no other transgression but this that they did own but the name or the person of one that is called a Quaker An unheard of inrode upon the liberties of English men and a practice rarely to be parallel'd in the times of the forest persecutions that history maketh mention of It 's storied of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Euseb Hist a Roman Emperor that in the time of the fourth persecution of the Christians being reduced to a great exigent both because he and his Army were streightly environed by their enemies in the midst of Germany and had also wanted fresh water for the space of five daies And having called but in vain upon his Country Gods for relief he sendeth for a number of Christians against whom at their first approach he was not a little enraged for that they came saith Antoninus himself without either Weapon Munition Armor or Trumpets as men abhorring such preparation and furniture but only satisfied in trust of their God whom they carry about with them in their CONSCIENCES These falling prostrate upon the ground prayed to a God saith he VNKNOWN of me upon which there fell pleasant showres upon Antoninus his host but a storm of hail mixed with much lightning upon the host of his enemies by which means it came to pass that he and his were refreshed and his adversaries discomfited Whereupon he writeth an express to the Senate and people of Rome in these words If any shall apprehend one that is a Christian only for that cause I will that he being apprehended may without punishment have leave to confess the same so that there be none other cause objected against him but that he is a Christian but let his accuser be burned alive I write not this the Lord is my witness as desiring fire from heaven upon those that thirst after mine own and the blood of thousands in this Nation because we cannot worship the image which they would set up but only to

mind you that even among the heathens it was deemed unreasonable that where mens conversations were otherwise honest being compared with the just laws of men they should notwithstanding suffer for what they did beleeve and practice concerning the law of their God Nor is it my design to blunt the edge of the sword against the transgressor The righteous law was made for the unrighteous person 1 Tim. 1.9 and upon him doth the stroak thereof justly fall Whilst your sword is born against the evil doer it s the sword of the Lord But beware of turning the edge thereof against the innocent for then it s no longer the sword of God but the executioner of your own lusts I do well know how passionatly ye are invocated by those that long to be in the Chair to enact Laws to establish Church Government as they call it and punish Hereticks that is in plain English to make every Parish Teacher a Bishop to give Laws to yours and other mens consciences Neither am I ignorant with what longing expectation many that call themselves Ministers of Christ though none of his Ministers ever persecuted any man do wait to receive Commission from you to exercise the matchless cruelty of that villanous Tyrant in stretching all that are too short to the just length of their bed and cutting all those shorter who in length do exceed it But however they may incessantly urge you pretending a vision from the Lord to establish laws to bind the conscience yet know that it 's Christs prerogative to give laws to that and you will be in his esteem but Vsurpers whilst you undertake to rule there O. P. In his Speech to the Parl. in the painted Chamber Sept. 12. 1654. where he is of right sole King and Law giver He spake truth who said That liberty of conscience is a NATVRAL right So that he that maketh an intrenchment upon that doth what in him lieth bereave me of my birth right Sirs Deceive not your selves nor let the lips of any false Prophet deceive you Page 30. for I say plainly to you and you shall one day witness what I say to be true that it will neither be for your honor or your peace in the great day of your account that any Act shall be found enrolled among the Laws of your establishing whereby the holy one of Israel hath been sought to be limited Which of you can mean sure the waters of the great deep in the hollow of his hand Isa 40.12 13. or mete out heaven with his span or comprehend the dust of the earth in a measure or weigh the mountains in scales and the hills in a ballance Or which of you hath at any time directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his counsellor hath taught him O how then is it that you should but once think to pale and limit within the scant circumference of mans cloudy reason that Sovereign WIND which bloweth when and where and how it listeth Gen. 17.14 There is a time when circumcision is commanded upon pain of death there is a season when the same thing maketh Christ unprofitable to the user Gal. 5.2 There is a time when swearing by the name of the Lord is commanded Deut. 6.13 and there is a time when the great Law-giver whom under penalty of being destroyed we are commanded to hear cuteth off all exceptions and saith swear not at all Act. 3.23 Matth. 5.34 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ΟΛΩΣ Take heed of forbidding where Christ commandeth and of commanding where he forbiddeth In the counsel of the Lord stand and you will find direction near you The hand of grace doth hold the candle of the Lord a measure of the light of Christ which you have received in all your Consciences Joh. 8.12 being guided by which you will be safely led on to enact laws according to that Royal law written in the heart for God and not against him At this Oracle the spiritual light of Christ so despised by the wise among men you may take counsel in your greatest streights and find certain resolution You shall neither stagger nor err for its conduct is in the sure and clean paths of peace not contrary but according to the Scriptures of truth which were given forth by the holy men of God who dwelt in the same light of Jesus Take heed of acting that thing for which the witness of God in your consciences do condemn you for if that condemn you God is greater then the conscience Finally Remember that whilst you abide faithful with the Lord he will be with you but if you forsake him 1 Chron. 28 9. Isa 59.10 he will forsake you and then you will be left to grope as in the dark at noon day and stagger in your counsels as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit And know Isa 19.14 that as all powers in this nation have stood firm whilst they stood for God so it hath been and will be the certain fore-runner of their sudden ruine when once they begin to clash or contend with the Lord or his people The Lord God Almighty be your sun and your shield I am Yours in the love and service of the Lamb against the Dragon THOMAS SPEED To the honest Reader READER I Have now through the croud of my other necessary imployments brought forth this ensuing Reply to Two large and fiery Pamphlets both written in Answer to a short Epistle directed to the publick Teachers of this Nation The after part of one of which written by Christopher Fowler and Simon Ford concerneth not the said Epistle but the Book to which it was prefixed and therefore to that I have not now made my Reply In the Epistle to his Reader being threatned with a sudden Answer to the whole Book by William Thomas and then I shall Reply upon them both together Or in case of William Thomas his silence I shall then undertake them singly nothing doubting but that in the strength of truth by the power of the Lord I shall be made able to repel all the furious assaults which they therein make upon the Lamb's followers In the mean while having once cast thine eye upon this ensuing Reply be at the expence of so much pains as to read it through lest by a cursory or partial view thereof thou shouldest wrong me or mine Adversaries Whilst thou art reading shut prejudice out of doors and set singleness and sobriety as Watchmen at the door-posts of thy heart to keep it out so wilt thou be kept from passing rash or unrighteous judgment upon the truth or me The God of Wisdom give thee understanding in all things Farewel THOMAS SPEED THE Guilty-covered Clergy-man Vnvail'd In a Reply to two Pamphlets The One Written by Christopher Fowler and Simon Ford of Redding The Other By William Thomas of Ubley in Somersetshire Christopher Fowler and Simon Ford UPon the sixteenth day of the moneth past

command But you say the Ministers of Christ then had not the same legal right back'd with the power of a Christan Magistrate Rep. To which I reply two things 1 Could they not have made demand without a Magistrate and have laid it as a sin upon those that refused payment 2. But this is of no weight for neither had the Tribe of Levi any law to enforce payment at all which maketh your practice the more wicked who supposing Tythes to be as due to you as to Levi do notwithstanding horribly transgress their pattern in extorting that by Law from the people of which they onely made demand by vertue of Gods appointment I shall close this of Tythes with these four things 1. I do demand of you and William Thomas and of every Tyth-gathering Teacher in England but one example throughout the Scripture either of a Priest under the Law or of any Minister of the Gospel since Christ that did ever force his maintenance from the people nay even that maintenance which was given them by Gods or Christ 2. Whereas there was but a tenth appointed payable to the Tribe of Levi and a tenth given to Melchisedeck how cometh it to pass that you who are not of that Tribe do demand and receive a seventh of the people viz. a seventh Calf a seventh Lamb a seventh Pig c. 3. I would demand of William Thomas whether he did not some years since receive of his Parishoners the sixth part of all their encrease for one year and whether he did not urge them to have continued the same for one year more which they refused if this be true in the matter of fact for which I can produce testimony out of his own neighbourhood then I demand what shadow of a rule in Scripture he had for this and whether supposing the tenth to be his due it be not extortion to receive the sixth 4. Lastly There is no clearer demonstration that neither you nor he are Ministers of Christ then this that you express such clamour about your maintenance What fears What distrusts what out-crys Christ is no hard Master for where he sendeth out although it be without purse or scrip c. there is no want Never any that were faithful in his work but had enough and were you his servants you would trust more and fear and complain less SECT 29. To the contents of your twenty ninth Section treating about your not trusting your Master as his Ministers in Scripture did but indenting for a maintenance I have already made reply in my seventh Section to which I refer the Reader SECT 30. In this Section you charge me with bold censures because I charge it as hypocrisie on such as preach against pride and yet live in it against covetousness and yet are greedy of filthy lucre c. And you do passionately deny that matter of fact Whereas should I charge you two in particular to be a couple of proud imperious domineering persons I could soon produce many scores of witnesses out of the Town of Reading and the County of Berks to give testimony thereunto And as to the most of your Brethren abroad who but he that shutteth his eyes at noon day doth not see that whilst they preach against pride and covetousness they themselves are both proud and covetous who more haughty who more greedy of filthy lucre I do further charge it as gross hypocrisie for men to come in the face of a congregation pretending to pray with a great deal of zeal that God would teach them what to say when as they are resolved before hand what they will say And I do further ask you where you read of any of the Ministers of Jesus Christ in Scripture that carried about Sermon-notes in their pockets to the several places where they preached the Gospel and putting them in a book did now and then read and now and then speak a few sentences to the people without them Or whether did they not occasionally where they came speak as the Spirit of the Lord gave them utterance Surely were they now upon the earth William Thomas would damn them for extemporary Teachers Page 40. and Enthusiasts as in the heighth of his rage he doth those that have not Sermon-notes c SECT 31. You charge me in your following Section with bringing an Indictment of felony against poor Ministers as you call them for QVOTING of the Fathers and Expositers of Scripture Rep But that you are accustomed to tell your Reader that I say this and that which never proceeded out of my lips thereby hoping to enervate the force of that truth which I did indeed speak one would wonder that you should so imprudently assert so manifest a lye touching me Let the honest Reader peruse my whole Epistle and see if there be such a word as quote or quoting to be found therein And yet I must needs be made to charge your poor Ministers with that which I never said And having laid a lye for your foundation you proceed to erect thereon a rotten building proposing several lofty interrogatories to me touching Christ quoting Moses and the Prophets Peter quoting Paul and Paul quoting Aratus Menander and Epimenides and all this while do but fight against a lye of your own creating for I never gain-said any of these things You know well enough that my tenth Article did express the complaint made by your generation against the people called Quakers for that they called those men Thieves and Robbers who did spend six days in the week to gather together the words of other men and then come forth on the seventh day and bid the people hearken to the word of the Lord c. And did Christ or the Apostles thus they spake from the Spirit and preach'd by the Spirit and as they were by that directed they did where they saw occasion urge the words of the Prophets against those that talked of them but dwelt in that Spirit that slew them as your generation do at this day preach Christ in words but yet crucifie him where he appeareth in power And this practice of Christ and the Apostles I never condemned William Thomas soming out his rage about this Article Page 42. is as foul and false in his slanderous accusations as you He confesseth that he doth spend his time to gather together the words of the Prophets and Apostles with their right meanings and then say Hearken unto the word of the Lord. Where by the way we must observe that the meanings that the Priests do put upon the words of the Prophets and Apostles are by this man esteemed the word of the Lord. And then demandeth whether they be theeves because they receive that from the Lord which they deliver to his people Rep. He is not in the account of truth a Thief that receiveth that from the Lord that he delivereth to the people But must he that maketh it his trade to gather together the Saints

words and thereunto add his own imaginations and then come forth and bid the people hearken to the word of the Lord I say must this man presently be said to receive this from the Lord when as whilst he talketh of the Saints words he is a stranger to the Saints conditions and an enemy to those that witness them may not the worst of men nay the fowlest of Devils gather together the Saints words and the meanings of men imposed upon them and then talk of them to the people and will he allow that these Brats of darkness do therein speak what they receive from the Lord or that the word of the Lord cometh unto them Grant but his irrational premises and this dismal conclusion will unavoidably follow SECT 32. In this Section you shufflle off your Reader according to your usual manner of answering with a few scoffs and Queries and such also which are not at all to the thing in hand My Article spake of the people called Quakers their confident advising the Publick Teachers to preach no more to the people then the Lord hath spoken to them In answer to which you fall to querying about Prophetesses and womens teaching and others coming into your Congregations and Christs and the Apostles disputing in the Synagogues c. All which were subjects that my Article spake not of But wanting matter of just quarrel or accusation against me the Article being plain you would seek to create some To all which your filty scoffs and impertinent Queries I shall only say Three things 1. Gal. 3.28 The Spirit of the Lord is not confined to one Sex neither is there male or female in Christ Jesus but all are one Had learned Apollos been such a stubborn opinionist as you scorners are he would have disdained as you do to have received instruction from the lips of a poor Priscilla 2. Although Christ and the Apostles did preach down the whole pedagogy of the Jews and all their Temple-worship for which they were so exceeding zealous yet when they came into their Synagogues to dispute with them they found even at their hands a thousand times sairer quarter then many poor hearts finde from your Wolfish flocks in your Steeple-houses for speaking but six words among whom they are oftentimes in danger of life or limb 3. Whereas you speak of the Quakers violating that Article of the Government which alloweth liberty to all such as profess Faith in God by Jesus Christ I say that this is monstrous hypocrisie in you when as that Article of the Government is not more broken upon any order of men at this day in the Nation then upon that suffering people called Quakers and that by the hands of the Priests Disciples and their persecuting companions by coming into their peacable meetings and there railing and reviling them nay oftentimes laying violent hands on them of which there is scarce a day but doth afford an instance in some part of this Nation or other and do you as the most guilty begin to complain first SECT 33. Your Three and thirtieth Section is such a Linsy woolsey peece such a medly of confusion that there is neither head not tail in it The advice given you viz. to preach no more to the people then the Lord hath spoken to you you say were it delivered to you in a sober private Christian way I do well know you love to be honored before the people you would take well at my hands and practice accordingly Rep. Then you approve of the advice as good And why is it then that you endeavour in the remaining part of your Section to contradict it and go about to perswade your Reader that I bad mal-advised you in meaning what I did not speak It 's a strange law that when no fault can be found with a mans words being wholesom he must then be reviled and beaten for his supposed meanings You further demand of me to what purpose the Scripture is avouched to be profitable for doctrine if you may raise no doctrines from it Answ With what reason or on what ground this impertinent Query is proposed more then to spend your spare time I profess I cannot conceive for that there is nothing spoken in my Article that concerneth any such thing However since you will needs know my mind in the case I say That the holy Scriptures were given by inspiration of God 2 Tim. 3.16 and are profitable for doctrine reproof and correction is true but doth it therefore follow that the Scriptures were given forth for you by the strength of your imaginations to raise Doctrines Reasons and Vses from them and then take them sell them to the people for mony The Scriptures of truth as they were spoken forth by the holy men of God are pure but you and your Brethren to gain a livelihood thereby do spend your time to fasten your own corrupt glosses and interpretations upon them in which you are so full of confusion and contradictions each to other that that which hath in it self a sweet harmony you make to be a monstrous heap of jars and discord Your after discourse about Christs and the Apostles speaking the words of Moses and the Prophets is vain and frivolous being that which I never denied or condemned And therefore you have done but as peevish persons in a deep fit of melancholly viz. create images in your own fancies and then fight with them SECT 34. In this Section you study how to pick matter of wrangling about that advice given you To preach no more to the people then you your selves witness the life and power of within your selves But finding my expressions plain you fall according to your wonted ingenuous way to suppose meanings upon my naked expressions And my meaning must needs be supposed to be that which never came out of my lips The ground of this is because you say others of my brethren do so and so How is that proved by a discourse had you say betwixt two Quakers related by John Toldervy Rep. You appeal to Col Sidenham in your fawning Epistle touching your candor and integrity in the managery a very hard word as you term it of your answer to my Epistle And is this one of the demonstrations of your candor and integrity to charge such and such things upon the people called Quakers and then offer John Toldervy for proof this is just as if a man should have come to the Chief-Priests and Rulers of old and asked them is Christ an evil-doer and worthy to be given over to be crucified yea would they say how is that proved Why Judas saith so And then ask the people of the Jews what is this Jesus of Nazareth why would they say he is a deceiver and a blasphemer how is that proved Our Rulers and Chief-Priests say so And so betwixt you and John Toldervy the innocent shall no way escape condemnation SECT 35. Your 35th is made up of malicious slanders