not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdome of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolators nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Theeves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdome of God and of Christ For there shall in no wise inherit there any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie Therefore Christ who hath purchas'd his Church doth also purifie it and cleanse it that he might present it unto himself a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy without blemish For they are redeemed from their vaine Conversation which they learned from their Fathers and do not after they have once learned Christ and have heard him and are taught by him in truth and as the truth is in him they do not walk as other people walking in the vanities of their darkned minds being through the ignorance that is in them strangers from the life of God But being renewed in the spirits of their mind and the Image of God being restored in them by the power of their new creation in and by Christ Jesus they put off as to their former conversation and manner of life the old man which is corrupt by deceitfull lusts formerly mentioned But they now also put off all this lying and defrauding and stealing and bitternesse and wrath anger clamor evill-speaking foolish talking and unfitting jesting And putting on the new man they now use such language that do edifie and built up others in holinesse and such as ministers grace to the hearers Their conversation being now without Covetousnesse and such as becomes the Gospel And according to their hopes and expectation as knowing that though God of free grace chose them from the beginning to salvation yet the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ must be by and through the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth and saithfull obedience And now acknowledging no other Soveraigne but Christ and acted by a spirit of love as sons they live to him who died for them being contented to be or to be accounted any thing so Christ may be glorified in them and by them whether by life or by death And having no confidence in the fesh or fleshy priviledges they worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus Counting all things losse and dung in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord that they might obtaine him and be sound in him not having their own righteousness which is of the law or by the law of working but that righteousnesse which is by believing in Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith And although they know that whiles they are in the flesh they shall not be in all things perfect yet forgetting that which is behind that to which they have already attained as not answerable to their longings they presse forwards more and more toward perfection grieving under their imperfections and longing to be disburthened until they reach the mark they ayme at the price of their high calling whereunto God hath called them in by Christ Jesus desiring in the meane time so to know him by an operative and effectuall knowledge and the power of his resurrection and to have communion and fellowship with him in his sufferings that being conformed to him in his death they might by all or any attaine their part and portion in the blessed resurrection And to this duty of holy walking a believer holds himself bound by his very profession for having by baptisme put on Christ and Christian profession he thereby engages himself as the Jew by circumcision to keepe the whole law so he by baptisme to believe observe and keepe the whole Gospel That very ordinance in its intent purport and signification directing him and pointing out unto him his duty as one specially interested in the ends and benefits of Christs death thereby sealed and signified So that he doth and must conlude that where sin had abounded and reigned in him before even unto death that there now grace and favour through Christs righteousnes doth reign much more to eternall life yet he dares not he may not still continue in his sin that grace might stil abound Nay he concludes as it is indeed it is impossible For how shall they that are dead to sin and so have no more to do with it live any longer therein for they know if they know any thing that as many as are baptized into Jesus Christ thereby baptized into his death buriall and resurrection are baptized and thereby engaged not only to the name profession and calling of Christ and Christianity and to own him in these particular actings But also if they expect to finde reall benefit by the worth and merit of them that they finde the reall and efficacious fruit of all these powerfully by the spirit working in them So that he concludes the death of Christ to be the death of sin And the resurrection of Christ the resurrection of the life of his grace holines Reckoning himself now no longer debtor to live unto the flesh and its corruption but debtor to live unto the spirit and its holy motions And having alwaies an eye to the great love of Christ who by his death and blood shedding hath thus redeemed him He cannot but often thinke upon him and thankefully remember him in and by that ordinance which he appointed in an especiall manner a little before his death for that very purpose wherein he publikely owns him and makes profession to the world of his faith and hope and rejoycing in him And thus Reader thou hast a little of much more that might be written of this great mysterie of godlinesse in which thou hast a rude delineation of Gods method in restoring fallen man into his favour through the whole progresse whereof as is easily perceiveable there runs a continued line and cord of free grace and mercy thus contrived and ordered by him for a threefold reason The first reason respects God himself who hath ordered it in this manner is that he alone might have all the praise the glory If salvation had been attainable by the law of working man might have had somewhat whereof to have boasted and gloried in himself For although that working had come infinitely short in proportion to the reward proposed And although that reward therefore was but upon a free promise And so only to be claimed Not through the worthinesse of the work or worker And although that work had been performed but by strength received from him by whom the reward was promised yet if man had performed the condition on his part required the Lord would
Christ were redeemed How can ye but deny the truth when as ye act those things which the Ministers of truth were sent to declare against therefore let shame cover you and let your mouthes be stopped in the dust for ever professing Christ or his Gospel who are found enemies to it And now ye covetous Priests who seek for your gain from your quarters ye may be ashamed of your profession How often have ye declared against the covetous practice of the world in words outwardly and yet your selves are found acting in them in covetousness and and extortion as is daily made manifest by you and is contrary to the practice of the Apostles For shame ye covetous Priests give over your wicked practices and your beastly actings lest the Lord rip off your coverings and lay you naked to all men Thus have I cleared my conscience to you and to all the world in the presence of the Lord whether you will hear or forbear There is another which is all I have read thorough of theirs that I would have inserted but because I feared it would make my Book swell too much I have omitted it only I shall give you the Title of it because I shall make use of it to discover their opinions And those who have the Book may examine my Quotations which I shall do faithfully reserving the Book by me to satisfie any that have it not and may desire to see it to that purpose The Title is thus Truths defence against the refined subtilty of the Serpent Held forth in divers Answers to several Queries made by men called Ministers in the North Given forth by the light and power of God appearing in George Fox and Richard Hubberthorn Printed for Tho. Wayte at his house in the Pavement in York 1653. And now having given you a view of these pieces of the Quakers which are their own and received from one of their Proselytes in this City I shall desire thy patience Reader to go a little further with me and thou shalt see these Quakers acted by the same spirit of delusion and doing Satans work though seemingly otherwise That deceiver of the Nations being now almost cast out of the prophane Ranters who made such foul work that I suppose the devil himself was ashamed of them And now he will appear in his white garments as an angel of light under the disguise of humility and mortification to carry on his dark design of divelism to the overthrow of all Religion And first let me tell the Reader I have very good ground to conclude as I suppose the mystery of the Quakers to be the same with the Ranters for this reason besides that it will manifestly appear afterwards when I come to lay part to part as I promised because I finde the Quakers in a book of theirs called A word from the Lord unto all the faithless generation of the world c. Printed 1654 By George Fox and James Nayler wherein they have a word among others to the Ranters I finde these Quakers giving this Testimony 13 page of the book to the Ranters in these words The word of the Lord God say they to you which are called Ranters You had a pure convincement I witness which did convince you but having fled the Cross and now to it are become enemies which turns the Grace of God into wantonness c. and then they blame them as justly they may for their abominable prophane conversation But however it seems they had a pure convincement that he witnesses So that their light their Doctrine was good however they abused it They had a convincement under the Law as they say and started up to be as Gods by that pure convincement it seems that God and they were one and not distinct but as they still say there they never came through the Prophets nor Moses house nor Christ Mark their language They never came through the Prophets nor Christ Here the Prophets Moses and Christ are all proposed not to be rested in but to be gone thorow They must go thorow Christ as they go thorow the Prophets and Moses Christ as well as Moses must cease and be gone thorow not rested in And the Ranters it seems abused their good Principles their pure convincement whereby they started up as gods but falling into prophaneness did not rightly improve their Godship And so came short of their Christ ship which these Quakers by hearkening to the light of their own Godhead within them attain unto Thus for the Ranters but now as for the Anabaptists Independents and Presbyterians they fall upon them and quarrel their very light and doctrine as living and teaching in the letter and taking up outward commands are witches c. As may be seen in that book of theirs So that the light and principles of the Ranters is more pure in these mens eys It s true the Levellers to whom they there spake also they have some indifferent esteem with these men if they had gone on for they tell them that they had a flesh in their minds I suppose some of this pure light for they add a simplicity but their minds run into the earth they say and smothered it and much of it they say is withered not all it seems So that Reader thou maist hereby plainly see what Principles and Lights these Quakers most approve of and so consequently follow sc the Ranters in the mystery of ungodliness before discovered And you will not think it strange that one and the same Principles are made use of to such seemingly differing ends as these are by the Ranters and these Quakers if you consider that even the sacred truths of God by the subtilty of the Serpent working in mans heart are abused and the Grace of God turned into wantonness by lascivious and fleshly spirits For observe Reader one of the same perswasion or opinion yea or truth works diversly as it is diversly received as they are that entertain it A Truth meeting with a sober and temperate spirit will strengthen and encrease his temperance For men naturall improve every thing that agrees with their temper and constitution and the same Truth meeting with an unsober and intemperate spirit shall finde the same entertainment sc advance his actings according to his temper either to excuse him and uphold him in his intemperancy or by irritation to provoke him to more intemperance So that let truth be what it will most men are what they were Only they know and can say more then they did before And in truth this is the Religion if I may give it that name of all men in the world except of those whose hearts the Lord changes makes suitable to spiritual truths they made new men as hath been opened in the mystery of godliness which onely makes a man a Christian whatever the Quakers Arminians and Papists say of general Light universal Grace and Free-Will to the contrary And which one truth is able and sufficient
And pag 43. by way of reproach Thou saist it because the Scripture saith it Nay do they not in page 90 of the same book answer to the second querie call the letter of the Scripture dust And calls him Serpent for asserting the word preacht as the means of Faith Serpent like saith he thou feedest upon dust And in the next page Answer to the fourth query All thy hearing and all thy pratling of that which thou callest the word by it thou shalt never get Faith which is the gift of God but it is all the Serpents meat which feeds thee thou serpent which art curst above all the beasts of the field And do not they say page 104 of that book Answer to querie the thirtieth That their giving forth of papers or printed books it is from the immediate eternal Spirit of God And then what difference between their stinking rotten blasphemous papers and the sacred Scriptures Yea to make up the measure of their blasphemie do they not say the same spirit which gave forth the Scriptures which gives forth now is as true as the Scriptures and not contrary to the Scriptures The charge being against them for magnifying papers equal to the holy Scriptures what damnable hypocrites are these to say they establish the Scriptures If we take their words in every honest mans sense But what mean these hypocrites then in saying they establish and they confirm and they witness the Scriptures Why forsooth it pleaseth their Godship and Christship or rather devilship to speak from their eternal spirit in the Scripture language and so add their Authority to it as the Papists The Scriptures are but as Aesops Fables with them if not allowed of and confirmed by the authority of their Church Or else they establish it by asserting it to be within them in the power of it For I would allow them all fair interpretation But I pray are not the Scriptures truth and the written and sacred Word of God in themselves whether man doth believe or entertain them yea or no Doth mans believing them make them the Word of God more then they were before It s true as to his comfort or advantage that receives them not to him they are not as the Word of God But in themselves they are and will be though all men in the world reject them They speak lies therefore in hypocrisie in saying they establish the word But further to discover their lying hypocrisie they speak not forsooth from the letter of the Scripture i. not as taught by or from the letter i. what they get by reading of the Scripture in the letter No though the Scripture had never been written they could have spoken as they do from and by the eternal and immediate and infallible spirit But oh ye hypocrites I 'le ask you a question did our English Translators of the Scriptures teach the eternal Spirit to speak English Or if you would speak without lying Did you never read the Scripture in our English translation that you speak the very words for the most part except your canting language from Jacob Behmen as the straying of Eves minde and lust into the visibles and being redeemed out of the perishing nature and such like stuffe will any man believe that the spirit which gives the gift of utterance and expression could not have spoken the same truths in other English As every one knows may be done and yet keep the same sense and truth But it must pedantically teach you like school-boys to speak so by rote Fye for shame It smels leave your hypocritical lying and do not so poorly and basely belye the spirit and speak against that light which is within you But once more and a little further to this what leads your Holiness forth to speak in Scripture language Is it not hypocrite-like that thereby you might catch poor simple plain-hearted people in your snares who having a due and reverent esteem of the Scriptures you allure by pretences of establishing the Scripture to insinuate those poisonous doctrines which I have before discovered you to be guilty of As for Antichrists other two Doctrines of forbidding to marry and abstaining from meats I shall not now prosecute I may speak of that when I shall a little open the effects of their teachings But before I speak to that I shall but suggest my apprehensions of the end these men may have in their undertakings and on whose errand they are come I will present them and leave them to thy judgement They may come in their own Anti-christs or the Devils errand First they may come in their own to cheat the people of the money and this hypocritical lying too For though they raile upon Ministers as Preaching for hire which who so doth let him answer for himself yet they themselves do teach That where they have planted and sown there they may reap Which in plain English is this Those whom they have seduced they may take money of and whether they do or no time will discover Sure I am they have necessary supplies for nature which some able Ministers have not and no doubt a large Diocess which these ramble over will yield more then any particular Parish And they plead hard for Community for in their Answer to the seven Priests page 22. whereas it seems they had charged them with reading for it The Quakers there answer and say Here you are against the Spirit of life For say they they that did believe were of one heart and they that do believe are born of God and amongst such there was no oppressor no taskmaster and it s said all things were common and no man said this is my own And conclude thus You who are not come to Christs Doctrine who is not come to give your coat yet who hath two you we deny So that though they come not for money before-hand they can take it afterwards and though with the Fryars they may not touch money they have a poak in their sleeve into which if you put it some can take it out and know what to doe with it So that this may be one end of their coming Secondly they may come upon Anti-Christs errand and not much improbable for Lancashire and those parts is as famous for Papists as Witches and on good grounds we may conceive them to be Anti-Christs factors if we consider their doctrins For any intelligent Reader may easily discover the doctrines of Vniversal grace Free-will Satisfaction by our own sufferings Justification by inherent holiness Ability to keep the Law Perfection Nulling the Doctrine of Original sin and the Popish real presence All which with some other things I intended particularly to evidence from their writings but I fear being too large There are many other wretched opinions of theirs worse then the Papists which others have discovered from other of their writings which I have not seen and I leave it to others who have more strength and leisure if they
THE GREAT MYSTERIES OF GODLINESSE AND UNGODLINESSE The one opened from that eternall truth of the un-erring Scripture of the ever-blessed JESUS The other discovered from the writings and speakings of a generation of deceivers called QVAKRRS Wherein their Sathanicall depths and Diabolicall delusions not hitherto so fully known are laid open And that which as they often say they have to deliver to the world which it is not yet able to receive is most probably manifested a little before their time To the rendring them and their way abhorred to all true Christians Unfolding also the delusive manner of their arguings answerings and discoursings In all which their chief endevour is to conceale themselves and their opinions from being known and discovered Published for the reduching of such as are seduced And the establishing such as yet stand from being seduced by them By RA FARMER a Servant of that Jesus Christ that was crucified at Jerusalem above sixteen hundred years ago 2 Pet. 21. 2. But there were false prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction And many shall follow their pernicious waies by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evill spoken of 2 Tim. 3. 8 9. Now as Janues and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt mindes reprobate concerning the faith But they shall proceed further For their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was London Printed by S. G. for William Ballara Book-seller in Corn-street at the Sign of the Bible in Bristoll and Joshua Kirton in Pauls Church-yard 1655. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE John Thurloe Esquire SECRET ARIE OF STATE Honourable and Honoured ALthough I dare not presume to reach so high as his Highnesse yet I can come very near under your shadow which to me is very substantial And I may speak so loud that if you please he may hear Awhile agoe there came to this City of Bristol certain Morice-dancers from the North. By two and two two and two with an intent here to exercise some spiritual cheats or as may well be suspected to carry on some levelling design And our souldiers here having nothing else to do unlesse work of their own making that they might seem to be necessary struck in with them in their quaking And my selfe with some other of my brethren in the Ministry here being by the Magistrates call'd to conference with them ingaged to inquire into their opinions I found it a harder matter to discover then to confute them They being the most egregious prevaricators that ever men met with Upon this account my Geni is led me on that way to pull off their vizor which is the principal intent of these following papers wherein is discovered their Mystery of ungodlinesse as to spiritual matters And my thoughts having been a little before upon the Great Mystery of Godlinesse In a publick discourse I spake something to both which gave some satisfaction and was perswaded might be useful if made publick Both which is here done under the Title of the Mystery of Godlinesse and of ungodlinesse And when I had done I needed no long time to deliberate to whose name to inscribe it My heart readily told me whom I honoured And I had a desire the world should know it For besides our old and familiar acquaintance The observation of your ingenuity when I was last with you whereby I perceived that your Honours and high imployments have not transported you hath laid strong ingagments upon me And I gladly took the very first opportunity to bear testimony to it Sir I was coming to you with a supplicatory Epistle But his Highnesse by breath from his mouth hath driven away these Northern locusts from us And given a command for the remove of their abetters favorites And now my supplicatory is by this good hand of providence turned into a gratulatory Epistle And I beseech you let the thanks be bestowed where you know 't is due for I am sure you know And surely Sir his Highnesse hath gained much upon the hearts of our Citizens by this act of grace and duty We were made believe these men had countenance from him which upon my knowledge made our Magistrates here so backward to be quick with them and to deal so severely and justly with them as they have been dealt with in other places And therefore I rejoyce that you breath so good an ayre at Court. And oh that the same salutiferous ayre might blow and continue to blow through all the quarters of our English Elements But Sir will you give me leave to speak my mind this once and we were wont to speak freely one to another And I 'le speak for his Highnesse 't is not for his honour nor saftety that every petty Captain should dally with his Commands and ride away from their obedience to them Some men know not how to bear an even sail to that condition which these late troublous times have rais'd them They could live in warre but now know not how to live in peace if it make not for their profit Hence many places and persons are rendered malignant by those who in themselves are not better no and I am sure of it nor so well affected And I beseech you let not selfish insinuates finde too much countenance to the publick grievance Sir I write not this to loosen the reigns of Government either in it self or its necessary supports my soul abhorrs such thoughts But it pains me to the very heart that a people that may easily be mannaged should be over-ridden by such who seek not what ever they pretend by their suggestions of some friends the publick weale so much as their own advantage If people be refractory or stubborn 't is fit they should know their Rider But if they goe readily why should they be spur-gald I know not where ever I shall have the like occasion because I love and honour you and would have you be truly everlastingly honourable I 'le beg one thing of you Improve you the high advantage of ground you have gotten for God his truth and the common welfare I need not mention his Highnesse 't is eminently included And to this end let order and establisht Government have a high place in your thoughts And that in Church as well as State But why do I divide them are they not Hippocrates twins do they not live and die together how true did that saying prove No Bishop no King And will it not hold No Minister no Magistrate And every one a Minister every one a Magistrate I hate persecution 'T is a judgement and is not want of Government so too When there was no King in Israel every man did what seemed good in his own eyes And then they made Priests but yet they made them of the
reverence be it spoken must acquit the man though in himself ungodly for payment being made satisfaction given by the surety it is but just that the debtor be acquitted and discharged shall not the judge of all the world do right yea God is just and will declare his righteousnesse by justifying him that believeth in Jesus Now God the Father having thus reconciled the world unto himself by Christ for the farther carrying on of this work commits the ministery and service of this reconciliation to his Apostles and Ministers in their successive generations who as Heralds and Ambassadors authorized and commissionated by him should publish and in his na e preach the glad tydings of salvation this everlasting Gospell And to let all men even the Gentiles see what hope there is of their fellowship and participation of the blessings and benefits of this mysterie of godlinesse which from the begining of the world have bin hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ no nation people or person being now excluded or shut out the partition wall of Jewish ordinances being broken down and both Jew Gentile bond and free male and female all may come drink freely of that well of salvation which Christ hath opened for all persons that will come unto him whereof for his part he is so free being no niggard of his blood and merits that he intreats all to come and partake of And by his servants making a full tender of himself as Priest Prophet and King to all that will receive him And to as many as thus receive him giving them right power and just claime to become the sons of God and heires of the kingdome which he had purchased But now man by his fall being dead in the dark yea darknesse it self and so in his natural state and blindness unable to receive and comprehend this glorious and gracious mysterie of being righteous by anothers righteousness and of being saved by anothers sufferings all men Jewes and Gentiles doting and being fruitlesly set upon seeking life and happiness by their own doings and performances Therefore together with the revelation of this mysterie by the ministry of his servants sent for that purpose Christ over and above that common work of the Spirit by which he enlightens every man that comes into the world gives unto those who are given him of the Father and who are to be called according to the eternal decree and purpose which he purposed in himself and whereby he surely knowes those that are and shal be his to them he gives a mind and understanding to know him and to receive him and to be in him and to be one with him who is the true God and eternal life And now a believer having Christ who is eternal life hath eternal life in and by Christ whereas those who thus have him not sc by believing have not eternal life because what in them lies they make God a liar not entertaining and closing with that testimony and record that he gave of his son which was that in him he was well pleased not onely with him for so he could not but be in justice forhe had never offended him But in him he was well pleased being in mercy and loving kindnes satisfied for the sins of all those who come unto God by him who therefore are received as sons and daughters by free grace and adoption And now that those who thus believe in Christ might have the witness in themselvs of their Sonship because they are sons God sends forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts whereby they are imboldned to call upon God as Sons crying Abba Father being thereunto the more imboldned because by the same Spirit they are sealed and marked out unto the day of redemption And which is given to them as a pledge and earnest in hand for an assurance to them of their full inheritance when their adoption and son-ship shall be compleated by the redemption of their bodies from the power of Corruption as now their soules are from the reign and power of sin The same spirit also in the meane time leading them into all saving truth comforting them in all their troubles and helping them in all their infirmities And thus hath a Believer in himself the testimony both of blood and of the spirit witnessing to and with his spirit that he is a son and child of God But then as there are three in Heaven that bear record and give testimony to this great mysterie of godliness sc The Father the word the holy Ghost So there are must be three witnesses on earth i. The heart of a true believer before the work can be compleated which are three the Spirit Blood and Water For Christ came not by blood alone for justification nor by water onely for sanctification but by water and blood both which Sacramentally flowed forth from his precious body when he hung upon the Crosse a Sacrifice for our redemption thereby shewing forth the end of his suffering viz. both the justification sanctification of his people And therefore he that hath not the witness testim within himself of all three hath not the witness of either he whose heart conscience cannot witnes to him his faith believing in that blood of Christ shed for his justification cannot have the witness of this blood as water for cleanâ—ing and sanctification For Christ sanctifies none but whome he justifies he whose heart cannot witnes to him his faith operating on the blood of Christ as water for sanctification canot have the testimony of blood and his interest in it for justification For Christ justifies none but he also sanctifies the n. And he that hath not the testimony and witnesse in himself of his intrest in blood and water for justification sanctification cannot have the testimony and witnesse of the spirit sealing for these three agree in one all beare witness to one the same truth sc Christs comming dying to redeeme us from sin and all iniquity both in the guilt and in the filth of it both from the condemnation and from the domination of sin For the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teacheth us that denying ungodlinesse and world y lusts we shâ—ud live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar and choice people zealous of good works And for asmuch as no uncleane person can enter into the Kingdome of Heaven where the inheritance is For know ye
make us all able wise vigilant faithfull and succesfull So prayes he who is The furtherer of thy faith and the helper of thy joy RA FARMER And now Reader having laid before thee this great mysterie of Godlinesse from the un-erring truth of the eternall word revealed in the scriptures I shall discover unto thee a great mysterie of ungodlinesse a mysteric of iniquity and of abhomination even that abhomination which maketh desolate destroyeth all Christian Religion from the writings and speakings in a generation of men called Quakers And here in â—he first place I shall communicate unto thee that which I confesse was the first ground of the discovere of this my sterie unto me and that you shall finde in a beok intitl'ed A Confession of Faith of the several Congregations or Churches of Christ in London which are commonly though unjustly as they say called Anabaptists Vnto which is added Hearts-bleedings for Professors abominations Or a faithfull generall Epistle from the same Churches Presented to all who have known the way of truth forewarning them to flee security and carelesse walking under the profession of the same discovering some of Satans wiles whereby also wanton persons and their ungodly wayes are disclaimed The fifth impression Which Book is signed in the name and by the appointment of the aforesaid severall Churches meeting in London By William Kiffen John Spilsberry and twelve more of them And these men I look upon as competent for this discovery for several reasons first in respect of their residence and habitations sc London a place where if any where all Religions Opinions Professions are to be found secondly the parties themselves sc the Anabaptists a sort of men in many things many of them neer of kin I charge no man in particular but generally they have bin a sort of people much given to Enthusiasmes and immediate Calls Revelations and apt to entertain fantastick dreams and fancies And concerning them I fully concurre with that precious Servant of Christ now in heaven Mr. Cuthbert Sidenham in an Epistle of his before his excellent Book concerning Infant-Baptism and singing of Psalms where speaking of the Opinion of Anabaptists denying Infants Baptism An opinion saith he which hath been alwayes ominous and of a powerfull strange influence accompanied with the most dangerous retinue of errors since the first Embryo of it was brought forth whether by a judgement of God or from its naturall or secret connexion with other principles of darknesse I will not determin Only God hath shewed some black Characters on it in every Nation where it hath prevailed though we cannot but say many Saints are innocently under the power of it Thus farre he Now these men therefore both in respect of the conveniency of the place but especially in the likelyhood of acquaintance and familiarity with this kind of people who mostly have been Members of their Congregations and have departed from them which may be one of the black works before spoken of these Anabaptists may have probablie plowed with their heyfer and so may best unfold their riddle and discover their ungodly Mysterie within their generall Epistle before mentioned after some little Preface they do in these words To all the Churches os God sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place professe the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours Beloved Brethren HAving these many years through the grace and free-mercy of our God been kept in the profession of the Name of Christ contained in the holy Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles and findding the exceeding benefit and comfort of walking with God in some measure suitable to what he hath made known unto us and well knowing that we are called to live in the last ages of the world wherein iniquity abounds and the love of many waxeth cold as likewise considering those peculiar times spoken of in 2 Tim. 3. 1. c. are come upon us wherein men who sometimes have made a large profession of God and godliness are turned aside to commit all manner of uncleanness with greedines having turned the grace of our Lord Jesus into lasciviousness calling darkness light and light darkness by meanes of whom the way of truth is evill spoken of and many poor souls through temptations ready to quit their professions and to be taken with their snares We thought it our duty to declare our utter dislike abhorring and detestation of all such evill persons and wayes who shall under pretence whatsoever plead for or practise any way of ungodlinesse And having been through the goodness of our God inabled to discern the secret and subtill designs and snares of Satan which he hath laid to entrap poor souls in by carrying them from step to step untill they have bin wholly captivated in his snares and fitted by him to do him service We could doe no lesse then according to that measure of light we have received from the Lord to discover his wiles and stratagems and to caution all that professe the feare of the Lord to watch over their own hearts and ways and to take heed lest they fall into the same condemnation For this we have found that that way which God in his infinite wisedome taketh to bring souls unto himself by viz. the presenting unto men his great love in giving Jesus Christ to suffer death and his great salvation to all that believe in his name Satan that old serpent through his instruments under the specious pretences of beating men off from all false rests endeavours with all his strength to oppose and make void perswading the sonnes and daughters of men that what is declared concerning the death of Christ at Jerusalem and his bearing our iniquities in his own body upon the Crosse is but a meer History and shadow the Scriptures are but a letter and the Ordinances of God but fleshly forms thereby labouring to beget in the peoples mindes a contempt and sleight esteem of Christ his Word and Ordinances and that he might cheat them to purpose tells them of a God within and a Christ within and a Word within and that God and Christ and they are one without any true distinct knowledge of the true meaning of that which is expressed whereby poor souls with great and swelling words of vanity triumph in a great mysterie of meer nothing but emptiness and confusion speaking things whereof they know not and many poor souls knowing such expressions to be Scripture phrases do greedily embrace them without a true distinct and clear understanding the sense of what is spoken having the persons of those who speak such language in great admiration as the chief tender charitable knowing high and spiritual Christians Whereas indeed although the words spoken by them are many of them true in themselves without which Satan could not so effectually deceive as that God and Christ and the Spirit dwell in us and that God and Christ and the Saints are
charge to the Pastors of the Church at Ephesus and let me give thee it here in his owne words what hee gave forth to his Sonne Timothy and then I shall proceed to out businesse intended I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing and his Kingdome preach the Word not immediate revelations be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and Doctrine for the time will come and it is now when they shall not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables immediate revelations contrary to and divers from the Word which he was to Preach but watch thou in all things endure afflictions do the work of an Evangelist or a Gospel-Preacher make full proof of thy Ministry And now having thus discovered to thee the head body and tail of this mysterie of ungodlinesse I shall lay the same part by part member by member and limb by limb upon the Quakers and make them as the image of the first Beast appear acting in and by the same power I â—peak in their own Dialect And to this purpose I shall give you in two papers of the Quakers own publishing which I caused herewith to be Printed which I rather do because their Books do mostly come to the hands of their own parties and are not therefore so common to all especially these two which I have taken most notice of and would have well considered that you may know these men and their spirit when it shall be tried For we will try their spirits whether they will or no And by the written word even in the letter which for all their sleightings of it hath light enough to discover their darknesse and hypocrisie and by it we will judge them and they shall be judged and if they repent not for all their pretensions to perfection they shall be condemned for God and his Word his written Word shall be true when all opposers shall be found liars Possibly other of their Books are as base as these for the truth is I have not read many of them as not thinking it worth the while but one of these the largest I took more notice of because penn'd or published in the name of two of those that were here in this City and did seduce the people These two which my self with others of my brethren in the Ministry had conference with before the Maior and Aldermen of which conference I hear they bray highly to their disciples But I find it observed by others that have had to doe with these kind of men that 't is their usual practise and as holy and perfect as they seem to be they can brag and lie abominably say and unsay affirm and deny even presently as some of good credit can witnesse And as for that Conference I leave it to be judged and censured by most that were present and shall proceed to the thing intended But before I present these papers to thee let me intreat thee take some directions for thy more profitable reading of them First consider whether the Queries opposed to these Quakers be not of highest concernment in Religion and so whether they deserve not a sober and serious answer Secondly observe whether they be answered to at all any of them yea or no. Thirdly do but take notice how in stead of answering they doe evade and avoid answering not so much as in shew doing it Fourthly do but take notice of the spirit of the men whether they speak from the Spirit of the holy God when in stead of giving a sober and solid answer they rail upon and revile the Querist with hellish and opprobrious speech Lastly do but observe their Heretical opinions which for thy better and more ready observation I have directed to be Printed in a differing character ANSWERS TO SEVERAL QVERIES Put forth to the despised People called QVAKERS By Philip Bennett who calls himself a Minister of Christ but is found to be a Deceiver Answered by them to whom they were directed ALSO ANSWERS To several other subtil QUERIES c. Answered by Edward Burrough and Francis Howgil who are Witnesses unto the Truth against this subtil serpent-like generation LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the black spread-Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1654. ANSVVERS To severall Queries put forth to the despised people called QVAKERS We having received a paper which was directed to Rich. Roper and to his Quaking friend which words comes from the dark carnal mind quaking and trembling which the Saints and holy men of God witnessed we own and witnesse therefore do we deny thee and all thy dark divinations WHereas thou Philip Bennet in thy note which thou hast written to Roper in answer to a Letter which he wrote to thee wherein he charges thee to be a liar and a false accuser and charges thee to bring any man to witness what thou hast spoken by them whom thou sayes denied that Christ that died at Jerusalem and who they were that denied that Christ that suffered at Jerusalem or else acknowledge thy self to be a slanderer and in thy paper thou gives no answer at all to these words but says thou called the Congregation to witness but doth not mention one in all the Congregation that will witnesse it whereupon the lie rests upon thy head and thou found to be the liar and the slanderer and the false accuser And whereas thou says thou hast sent Queries concerning that matter thy Queries makes thee manifest what thou art many of thy own tribe and generation if they saw thy Queries would be ashamed both of thee and of thy Queries for hundreds there are in the world that knows nothing of the true and living God and yet would see thee and thy Queries not to be worth answering yet lest thou should boast in thy filthy ignorance and darknesse and for clearing of the truth to the simple something in answer to them I. Quer. Whether was the Word made flesh or the Son of God made of a woman more or oftner then once Answ In this first Querie thou hast manifested what thou art to all the children of Light and where thou art and what spirit thou art of a reprobate a child of darkness thou art thou might have spared the other nineteen Queries for in this Query thy spirit is tried and in the eternal Light seen and known Thou askes whether the Word was made flesh any more or oftner then once which makes it plainly manifest that thou knows not what thou askest and that thou doest not know nor cannot witnesse the Word to be made flesh once but art one of the Antichrists and deceivers which John speaks of that are entred into the world which cannot confesse Jesus Christ come in the flesh and therefore thou Queries
and is not that every way answerable to the justice of God but such polluted filthy beasts as thou would have another righteousness as thou speaks plainly in thy ninth query but all thy righteousness we deny and the righteousness of Jesus Christ we own and witness whose righteousness shall be revealed upon thee in flames of fire 14 Quer. Whether none be accounted righteous in Gods sight in whom there is any corruption or failing or who do not fulfil the Law and answer every demand of Justice Answ Here thou polluted beast hath made it manifest what thou hast been driving at all this while in thy queries which is that thou would have corruption and filthiness to be accounted righteous in Gods sight that so thou might lie and wallow in thy sins and filthiness but John saith that he that commits sin is of the Devil for the devil sinneth from the beginning and for this purpose the son of God was made manifest that he might destroy the works of the Devil and thou man of sin would have it to stand but those that loves God keeps his Commandments and they are not grievous and God doth not accept any where there is any failing or who do not fulfil the Law and answer every demand of Justice and he doth reserve the unjust unto the day of Judgement to be punished 2 Pet. 2. 9. and chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and there thou art 15 Quer. Whether a soul be justifyed before God by the non-imputation of sin and the imputation of the righteousness of the person of Christ to his Faith or by a righteousness wrought by Christ in the person justified or to be justified Answ Here stop thy mouth thou sorcerer which art gathering up a heap of confusion which is fit for nothing but to be turned with thee into the bottomless pit from whence it comes wherein thou talks of imputation and non-imputation and of a person justified and to be justified thy language is of Egypt and in the mysterie of iniquity thou speaks it which is condemned into the lake of perdition by the light of Christ and in the light thou and it are seen and comprehended and as I told thee before I own no righteousness but what is of Christ and wrought by thee which righteousness shall confound thee and all thy unrighteousness and conjuration and the same that justifies us shall condemn thee eternally 16 Quaer Whether Christ be in his Saints in respect of that nature wherein he suffered at Jerusalem Answ Here thou Enemy of Christ would know how the Saints enjoy Christ here the Scripture is fulfilled in thee The light shines in darkness and darkness comprehends it not When thou comes to own thy condemnation the light in thy conscience it will let thee see thy evil deeds it will lead thee up to Christ from whence it comes and then thou wilt know that nature that he suffered in but now thou art in that nature that Judas was in that betrayed him and that they were in that crucified him 17 Quaer How and after what manner Christ who in respect of his divine nature is infinite and in all places may be said to be in a Saint and not in a Reprobate Answ What hast thou to do to querie after the divine nature who art the natural man that knows nothing of God bâ—t what thou knows naturally as a bruit beast and knows not the things that be of God because they are spiritually discerned and the manner of Christs divine nature which is infinite is hid from thy eyes for of that eye which thou shouldst see that with thou art blind and his manner of being in a Saint thou knows not who art a Reprobate and thou shalt find him to be thine eternal condemnation 18 Quaer Whether doth Christ now in these dayes assume or take upon him the form of a servant and the seed of Abraham that is our flesh And whether doth not this assumption cause such a perfection of the Godhead and the manhood as that both of them are united together into one person Answ Oh thou dark beast and Conjurer who art querying with thy conjured words that which thou knows nothing of and which is out of thy reach and comprehension Thou blasphemer dost thou limit Christ to daies in taking upon him the form of a servant and the seed of Abraham Is not he the same now as ever he was And for the Union of the Godhead and the Manhood as thou calls it let thy mouth be stopt for with the God nor none of his children hath any union for God hath put an utter enmity betwixt thy seed thou Serpent and the seed of the woman and the perfect union with Christ we witness who is the same to day yesterday and for ever and therefore are we separate from thee and thy generation 19. Quaer Whether is Christ now conversant upon earth amongst men since his ascension as he was before and in those times wherein the Apostles lived Answ In thy Queries thy speech bewrays thee thy language is the language of Egypt for in it thou makes it clearly manifest that thou knows not Christ at all not in the least measure for where the first Principle of truth is made manifest it is the same that ever was and never changes And thou asks whether Christ be now conversant upon earth amongst men since his ascension as he was in the Apostles time Dost thou know what thou askes Did he not appear to the Apostles since his ascension in the most glorious manner that ever thou read and is he not the same now as he was then What would thou make of him thou dark sottish beast such a one as thy self who would be pleading for darkness and ignorance of God but praise and glory to him who hath discovered thee and all such deceivers as thou art 20. Quaer Whether did not Christ dwell among his Saints after another and more visible manner than now he dwels in his Saints Answ There again thou hast shewed thy ignorance of the Scripture and for thy word Visible he is not nor never was visible to thee nor to thy generation for those that did profess the Scriptures as thou and thy generation doth crucified him and said he was of the Devil and thou and such as thou art doth now Thou blasphemer where hast thou a Scripture that saith that Christ would dwell in his Saints after anothere manner Did he not say It is expedient for you that I goe away and I go and prepare a place for you and I will come again and receive you unto my self and where I am there you may be also and ye have heard how I have said I go away and that where I am there you may be also and that I have said I go away and come again unto you and if ye loved me ye would rejoice because I go unto the Father And Christ Iesus
as it is made manifest in me and to declare what Faith we own and practise and what we do deny to that end that the simple may be informed and the way of truth cleered from such deceivers who are perverters of the Scriptures who would constrain people to follow their imaginations instead of truth as these men have done whose names are subscribed And now a few words in answer to that you call your first Principle First Principle That the Scripture is the rule of knowing God and living unto him which whoso doth not believe but betakes himself to any other way of discovering God instead thereof cannot be saved Answ The Scriptures are not the Saints rule of knowing God and living unto him but that which was before the Scriptures were written by which all the holy men of God knew him and here ye have made your selves manifest that ye have not the rule which Moses had which is the spirit of light by which he made himself known unto the sons of men and ye that teach people to walk in another rule are those that put light for darkness and darkness for light shewing forth the spirit of error and here ye pervert the Scripture and Moses words which prophesied of Christ Moses bad not the people walk by the Scripture neither did he tell them that living therein was the rule of knowing God but he directed them to the Life without which all their profession was abominable but ye are not come to walk in the Letter whose lips and practice doth not concord with it who are found acting those things which it declares against Matth. 23. who are called of men Master stand praying in the Synagogues which our Lord Jesus Christ cryed wo against and here your Faith and your Principle is descryed who are not so much as found acting in that which you call your rule Now lest you should boast in your glory and the simple be stumbled by your subtilty I am moved of the Lord to open and discover unto all that your Faith is no more then all the ungodly in this Nation doth profess and also that the Rule whereby the Saints are guided is that which was before the Scripture was First it is professed generally in this Nation that believing in the Scriptures is the rule of knowing God this have you preached for Doctrine among the people and yet the way of God is hidden from their eys who are found acting in the abominations of the Heathen as doth plainly appear by the sins of this people nay what sin is there that is not committed amongst this people which have professed the Scripture to be their rule and you that pretend to be their teachers are the greatest examples of their wicked practices Crying peace peace unto them when there is no peace one building a wall and another dawbing it with untempered morter but ye shall proceed no further but your folly shall be made manifest to all men Our rule is that whiâ—h Moses walked in and Abraham and David and all the Prophets which is Christ Jesus the light of the world which whosoever believeth not in him hath not God Moses walked in him Abraham believed in him and David delighted in his Law which is perfect and here we deny you who deny that rule in which the holy men of God walked in Second Principle That there is a God who is the Creator and Judge and Governor of the world and is to be known by Faith Answ The Saints God ye are ignorant of who put light for darkness and darkness for light and before him ye cannot stand in judgement who are found working wickedness making people believe that believing in a thing without them will bring them to the knowledge of God which none can know or understand but through death and if ever ye come to know this God whom the Saints worship in Spirit and Truth ye must witness a day of vengeance to pass through therefore stop your mouths ye proud and lustful ones the day of recompence is come in which ye shall receive double for all your wickedness The Lord is our Iudge our Law-giver and our King and this we witness though we had never seen the Scripture And here we deny you and your principles which is no more than that which the world professeth Therefore be ye ashamed ye wicked and ungodly ones who live in the beastly nature who knows no more of God than what ye have without in the Scriptures which they spoke forth that witnessed him before the Scriptures were written him we own and witness to be our King by him we are redeemed out of your generation glory to his name for ever who hath made himself manifest in us and hath brought us to that which was before the Scripture was Third Principle That this God who is Creator is eternally distinct from all other Creatures in his being and blessedness Ans God ye know not neither can ye see him but are found persecutors of him who would divide him from what he is by heathenish inventions which ariseth out of the corrupt sensual part which never shall inherit the Kingdom The being of God is not distinct from them that are begotten by him For as the Father and the Son are one without distinction so are they that are begotten by him and here you perverters of the truth are shut forth from God with all your distinctions and imaginations which ariseth out of the dark mind by which ye have all this while deceived the people Woe unto you ye enemies of God your foundation your compass and your end is made manifest unto the children of light who would divide God from his children whom he hath begotten unto himself through the word of faith in which we live and abide for ever And here I challenge you before the Lord to produce one Scripture which speaks of God being distinct from them that are begotten by him and if you cannot prove your words by plain Scripture let shame cover your faces and stop your mouthes for ever And for your fourth thing That God is three persons or substances this is also another of your lies never such a word is declared of in Scripture and thus have you made your folly manifest to all men and have cleared your selves from the Scriptures God is a mystery in whom the foundation of all things stands and he is but one in all though ten thousand times ten thousand Woe unto ye you perverters of the truth who blinds the eyes of the simple making them believe your imaginations and conceivings in stead of truth and this you run to the powers of the earth to propagate Ye men of sin did ever the Prophets declare of such Gospel as this or did ever the Apostles preach any such doctrine as this which ye would compel people to believe and would have the powers of the earth to propagate Here I challenge you again to prove your example
here 's manifest and horrid violence offered to the Majesty of the Almighty both in his nature and essence and to the doctrine of the Trinity And now in the second place I shall shew thee that they offer violence to Jesus Christ the Lord our righteousness God over all blessed for ever For as for Christ though they often mention him yet in deed and truth they make no more use of him then they doe of Moses and the Prophets I say in deed and in truth for they are meer juglers they speak one thing and mean another jesuitically equivocating So that it is a harder matter to find out their doctrines then to confute them It s usual with them to say they witness Jesus Christ and the death of the man Christ Jesus which suffered at Jerusalem they own and witness But what do they mean by these words they own and witness Is it any more in truth then what the very Devil is forc'd unto sc that there was such a Christ and that he did such and such things But as for Christ and the death of Christ and his righteousness wrought and done in his own individual person to be relied upon by faith rested in for justification of the Saints to life without any thing wrought or done in them or by them for that end this they utterly deny And whereas the Word proposes Christ the rest of souls they on the contrary say that he is not to be rested in They say that we must go through him as we go through Moses and the Prophets as thou hast seen in Foxes and Nailors book called A word from the Lord where they blame the Ranters that they never came through the Prophets nor Moses house nor Christ I have in part opened this already but if thou wouldest Reader more fully know their meaning what it is to go through Moses and the Prophets and Christ read but a passage in that book of Fox and Hubberthorne the title whereof I have formerly given thee sc Truths defence and there p. 68. l. 24. thou shalt find the meaning for he that will understand the language of Cut-purses and pick-pockets must learn it of their fellows and there thou shalt find what it is to come through the Law The Answerer to the Queries says that many do profess the Gospel and the new law of righteousness and are not come through the Law And that is as he there explains himself that the Law hath no more power over a man and that he is dead to it misapplying that which the Apostle there speaks of the law of sin or sin ruling by the Law to death and condemnation to the holy Law of God the Moral Law it self the eternal rule of righteousness as if a Christian should ever be dead to that and free from that as not to be bound to observe it And that this is his meaning the next page shews there in the beginning he says the Law and the Prophets were until John and John until Christ and bids those that can receive it that is understand him receive it and if they can they may So he says implying a mysterie something more then ordinary to be intended by him in that expression And then tels them that when they come to go through Moses and through the Prophets and through John to come to Christ then they shall see the light is but one sc the light of Moses and the light of Christ for that was the question propounded Whether there were any distinction between them as thou mayst see in that book Quer. 4. There 's just ground of exception against that too but 't would be endless to follow them to every by-path But by this thou seest their meaning what it is to go through Moses the Prophets and John scil to go beyond them and to be dead and free from them And the same say those Quakers in their short Answer to the 7 Priests who stile themselvs those Quakers who shal make all the world to quake and tremble printed by Calvert 1654. In the first page of that book they give good words of the Law viz. that it is holy just and good and perfect and pure But for these good words they presently in the next line say that it is but a Schoolmaster till faith and when faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster And this say they is witnessed amongst us And in the 8 page of that book speaking of the Moral Law they say that 's without and there it shall stand as you are the Priests in the first nature and that in their tongue is the perishing nature Why now says Naylor and Fox the Ranters failed in that though they had a pure convincement and started up to be as Gods they did not proceed they never came through the Prophets nor Moses house nor Christ All must be gone through we must not so much as rest in Christ And indeed what need is there For if we be once come to be equal with God as they say perfectly righteous in our own persons so that we can perfectly keep the Law and not sin in any thing what need Christ as a Mediator or an Intercessor and so no need of him for any thing This one desperate opinion is the very cutthroat of Christ and Christianity and makes Christ especially as to a believer of none effect and useless They are now their own Christs they have gone through him and beyond him They have now no more to do with our imagined God beyond the stars and our carnal Christ which they say those precious and godly servants of Christ would make appear through their heathenish Philosophy Nay beloved Reader do they not make Christ altogether useless to the Saints whenas they say the Elect were never defiled as they do in their answer to the 4. Querie put by Reeve and answered by Borro and Howgill And in the answer to the 5. they say again the Elect are not nor ever were defiled And surely if so no need of a Christ a Saviour and if the Elect have no Saviour none else shall and so no need of Christ at all then he came in vain and dyed in vain unless it be only to be a figure an example which is the cursed doctrine of the Socinians and which as in the brief Relation of the irreligion of the Northern Quakers p. 5. error 13. stands charged and not answered in the Lancashire Charge against them And well may this be their opinion if every man have a light within him sufficient to lead him to salvation then sure there is no absolute necessity of a Saviour Thus doe they offer violence to Jesus Christ our Saviour making him a meer shadow a type a temporary manifestation to be gone through not to be rested in and making void the chief end of his coming in the flesh and nulling his death and sufferings I might farther manifest this unto thee
Reader how they offer violence to him by their suspitious expressions sometimes concerning his Divinity sometimes his Humanity sc the truth of his humane nature calling him the Man of God urging the words as of the Article whereas they say God and Man as in the 8. Article following where thou shalt have them timely exprest But I am not willing to deal upon suspitions although there be ground enough to charge them And I profess I am weary with raking in the stinking puddle of their blasphemous writings Only I desire thee Reader to remind one blasphemous position of these men exprest in the last mentioned peece viz. The sword drawn In the answer to the 7. Principle the Quaker says that whereas they in the Article say that Christ the man of God is God and man in one person it is says the Quaker a lye And I cannot omit what I had almost forgot to tell thee what account they make of Jesus Christ by an expression of one of their eminent Proselytes given out to an Inhabitant of this City one of credit who will make it good upon oath at any time when lawfully required Art thou such a fool said he as to hope to be saved by that Jesus Christ that died at Jerusalem sixteen hundred years ago And to contract that they do deny salvation by that Jesus Christ for they cant they juggle and equivocate when they speak of Christ I say that they do deny salvation by that Jesus Christ that died at Jerusalem in that way and whole manner and progress as is and hath been taught and professed in England ever since the Reformation from Popery is most manifest not only by what I have here declared but also by shuffling avoiding and not answering those plain questions in these things by several who well know their opinions proposed unto them And by quarrelling with and snarling at those solid Principles of Christian religion set forth by these godly learned and able Divines Dr. Goodwin Mr. Nye and Mr. Sidrach Simpson Yea and which doth most manifestly discover them to be wicked and ungodly liars and impostors by their mangling of their words and rendring them falsly as thou maist Reader perceive by comparing them when I shall presently give them unto thee And not only so but leaving out whole Articles of most eminent concernment and not so much as mentioning them because they durst not answer them for fear of being discovered 1. THat the holy Scripture is that rule of knowing God and living unto him which whoso doth not believe but betakes himself to any other way of discovering truth and the mind of God in stead thereof cannot be saved 2. That there is a God who is the Creator Governor and Judge of the world which is to be received by faith and every other way of the knowledge of him is insufficient Heb. 11. 3. 3. That this God who is the Creator is eternally distinct from all the creatures in his being and blessedness 4. That this God is one in three persons or subsistences 5. That Jesus Christ is the onely Mediator between God and man without the knowledg of whom there is no salvation 6. That this Jesus Christ is the true God 7. That this Jesus Christ is also true man 8. That this Jesus Christ is God and man in one person 9. That this Jesus Christ is our Redeemer who by paying a ransom and bearing our sins hath made satisfaction for them 10. That this same Lord Jesus Christ is he that was crucified at Jerusalem and rose again and ascended into heaven 11. That this same Jesus Christ being the onely God and man in one person remains for ever a distinct Person from all Saints and Angels notwithstanding their union and communion with him 12. That all men by nature are dead in trespasses and sins and no man can be saved unless he be born again repent and believe 13. That we are justified and saved by grace and faith in Jesus Christ and not by works 14. That to continue in any known sin upon what pretence or principle soever is damnable 15. That God is to be worshipped according to his own will and whosoever shall forsake and despise all the duties of his worship cannot be saved 16. That the dead shall rise and that there is a day of Judgment wherein all shall appear some to go into everlasting life and some into everlasting condemnation And now Reader observe besides as I said the mangling of their words and so perverting the sense as I could clearly make appear but that I dare not thrust my dull sickle into the harvest of those worthy and expert Labourers whose names shall live when their opposers shall rot in oblivion Observe that this Wretch besides his not answering to any one but evading and railing hath wholly left out the tenth and two last Look upon them again Reader and seriously consider them and then tell me what religion these men are of are they Christians And that thou maist not think this the judgment of this wretch alone thou shalt observe such dealings from his fellows when they come to questions of the like nature say nothing or evade them Good Reader I must again intreat thee to read those three omitted Articles and satisfie me or thy self why they are left out but that they are not willing to own and witness that the same Lord Jesus Christ God and man in one person which as thou hast seen before they said was a lier is he that was crucified at Jerusalem and rose again and ascended into heaven as the â—rticle expresses it and so of the other two And to add a little to this do but take notice of thâ—â—â— judgement concerning this Christ for they have another 〈…〉 hemselves take notice I say what they are charged with in that notable piece before quoted viz. The Perfect Pharisee Their seventh position there charged is That Christ in the flesh with all he did and suffered therein was but a figure and nothing but an example Which the Authors of that book thus assert by way of proof this meaning the last mentioned position is expresly found in their book called Sauls Errand to Damascus also this was written in that Letter which Naylor wrote to one in Lancashire which was objected against him by Dâ— Marshal upon account of another principle in it viz. That he that expected to be saved by him that died at Jerusalem should be deceived And this Mr. Jaques Minister at Bolton in Lancashire sent his testimony under his hand that he would make appear when sent for And they may well be thus bold with him that is a meer nullity a nothing if their opinion of him were true for they question if not deny and destroy his natures both divine and humane for which I will appeal to their expressions For as for his divine nature his absolute Godhead when as the eight Article proposed as before by Mr. Goodwin c. saies
p. 68. That when the life of Jesus is made manifest the substance of all figures is come there is no more observing them And two lines after they say Who are here in their state denies all the carnal outward observances and traditions And in the 32 page of that book they say speaking of the Ministry that they bewitch men in telling them of carnal meanes and call Ordinances a graven image and an Idol and as for Baptism in particular they say Christ did not send forth his Disciples to sprinkle a little dirty water upon childrens faces as your filthy dreamers do and they say Christ did not mention any water to his Disciples when he sent them forth So that here is no baptism with water at all neither for one nor other and thereupon call it a beastical tradition which was never commanded Truths Defence p. 98. And in the next page being demanded whether Christ did not institute his last supper with bread and wine For answer they tell the Querist The cup which thou drinkest we deny 〈…〉 or thy cup is the cup of devils and thy table is a table of devils which is an idol and an imitation and thy sacrifice is to devils and not to God And as for Prayer I suppose Reader if thou wouldst pray to God for any thing thou wouldst pray to him for Grace but that they say is a tempting of God because the grace of God hath appeared to all men freely Truths Defence pag. 65. Indeed they speak it there of all means in generall And many can witness their expressions in this kind Reader I have done with this and I suppose in these few lines it appears that they offer violence also to all the Ordinances of the Gospel And now what sayst thou to the whole matter Are not these thinkest thou these Locusts that are come forth upon the opening of the bottomles pit mentioned Rev. 9. with whom comes forth a smoak by which the sun and the air are darkned Read there their description Certainly the King that rules in them and over them is no other then that Abaddon Apollyon mentioned there v. 11. Vastator that destroyer that dissolver as the word signifies of all religion and duty And surely were I perswaded that the Book of the Revelation were written for the Meridian of England I should be also perswaded that these were the Beast mentioned v. 13. to whom was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies who opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle and all that dwell therein Never men spake higher blasphemies with more or so much confidence and impudence against God and Christ and Gospel then these wretches do except those that are profest enemies to Christ and Christianity And therefore so much the more abominable in that under the name and vizor and disguise of Christian religion they dissolve and destroy all Which is that which makes it a mysterie of iniquity and is indeed the very name and title of that great Deceiver The Antichrist Rev. 17. 5. Upon her forehead was writen a name Mysterie Babylon the great The mother of harlots and abomination of the earth And though he hath horns like the lamb yet he speaks as a dragon Rev. 13. 11. And he doth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men and deceives them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles v. 13 14. But Reader there is one mark of the Beast upon these wretches which I must needs mind thee of before I leave them which I find in the first of Tim. 4. beginning which because it so fully sets them forth I 'le give thee in the words Now the Spirit speaks expresly and therfore you may expect it that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrins of Devils speaking lyes in hypocrisie having their Consciences seared with a hot iron forbiding to marry and to abstain from meats c. They speak lies in hypocrisie and what 's this But to dissemble and to deceive to jugle and play the cheater speaking one thing and meaning another to speak plain words that other men use But with a reserved sense to themselves of their own coyning So that no man knows how in an ordinary way to understand them they pretend to speak and approve of the truth but they lie and play the deceivers not using words in that sense they are usually taken and commonly understood And if ever men were guilty of this kinde of hypocrisie these Quakers are It would be endless to trace them all along I 'le instance in one or two by which thou maist judge of them in other things they speak It s usual with them to say they own the Scriptures yea we confirm we establish the Scriptures c. Yea that they do And they witness the Scripture Now an honest man that means plainly would think that they held forth nothing but what is in and agreeable to the Scriptures and that they did believe the Scriptures which we call our Bible to be the written Word of God And the rule of a Christian to walk by in things to be believed and practised And that whoso walks accordingly shall be saved And that whoso doth not cannot be saved Thus I dare say honest plain hearted men would think by those words to be their meaning But these wretches speak lies in hypocrisie they mean otherwise they say in express words elsewhere The Scriptures are not the Saints rule of knowing God and living unto him Answer to the first Principle in their sword drawn here before Printed I will not quarrel them as I might for mangling the Principle and so altering the sense But what sayst thou Reader to their own words do these men establish the Scripture in thy sense and the usual sense of that word do not they presently say that to affirm the Scriptures to be the Rule is to put darkness for light and light for darkness What mean they then by the Scripture Not the written word without But that word that light that is within and which every man hath that comes into the world but that some stiflle it This is the Rule This is the Scripture The Scripture in its right place The Scriptures are not laid aside say they but witnessed every Scripture in its place i. e. within So they pag. 13 14. Let all see say they you to be lyars whether we do no set the Scriptures in the heart of every one How they tell you in the next words For say they every one having the light within which shews his evil deeds which light is his condemnation that hates it And brings up to salvation where followed as elsewhere often And this say they is Scripture within The Scripture without is not their Scripture We believe his Doctrine say they not an outward testimony
see cause to discover to the world And truely it is not improbable that some of these fellows themselves may be of the Popish tribe and Schollers though professing themselves mechanick for is it not usual And there is a notable story to this purpose lately printed alled The false Jew wherein is expressed his designe and his discovery from his own acknowledgment how that he was sent over from Rome by a special order from the Jesuits and with personal unction and benediction from the Pope and how one while he was to have come over under the notion of a Tailor with direction to joyn with the Anabaptists and to preach Notions But now he came over under the pretext of being a Converted Jew being an excellent Hebritian and circumcised at Rome for this purpose To what and whither will not a deluded spirit lead a man And in that relation you shall find how he joyned with the Anabaptists at Wrexham and was rebaptized by them where he preached notions among them Amongst others this was one That that place Luke 17. 21. where it is said The Kingdom of God is within you he gave this as the most proper sence of the Original sc The Kingdom of God is so within you as that it is not without you in Forms and Ordinances with which interpretation he said Lieutenant Col. Paul Hobson a Teacher among the Anabaptists was mightily taken How many flies may the blind man swallow Another design of this deceiver was to bring the authority of our Translation of the Scripture into question And prevailed so far that some of them entertained scruples about it But now the design is new moulded And now not translations onely but all outward Scriptures must be denyed and rejected And these men can from their infallible spirit make new ones Witness the daring boldness and impudence of these Quakers and their hypocritical lying and belying the Scriptures For Fox and Hubberthorn in their book bring in these words Take heed to the light of God within you And not onely produce them in another character the same with their Scripture quotations But also urge them as the Apostles words thus sc As the Apostle said Take heed to the light of God within you Neither citing what Apostle or where As indeed 't is no where in all the Scripture And Farnworth in his late piece of womens speaking in the Church Printed by Calvert 1654. In the head of his discourse where usually in printed books the Text is placed He hath these words in a distinct character as his Authority for his following discourse But the spirit of truth may declare through the Temple and dwell in it which the world cannot receive And then quotes 1 Cor. 6. 19. Joh. 14. 16 17. Now what man in the world can finde any such words as the former part in all the Scriptures Should we add to and mangle the Scriptures thus how should we be curst and raild at as well we might by every true Christian but not by these men Indeed Reader 't is manifest these mens intents are to fetch people off from the Scripture altogether That so the Authority thereof being rejected they may be the better prepared upon a new assault in another disguise to entertain the infallible Authority of the Romish Chair For the same course the Papists take to render them of small esteem do these men run For the learnedst of them pick out all such places as seem contrary one unto another and urge them to the people denying to any a power of reconciliation referving that to their own un-erring spirit And from thence assume a power to make the whole Authentical or otherwise And do not these men the same It may therefore be very probable all forewritten considered they come of Antichrists errand And thirdly and lastly They may come of the devils errand He hath many messengers and servants and some serve him more eminently and immediately then others And they are Hereticks False Teachers and Seducers I shall take this for the present granted And that these men are sent by him in a more especial manner is extremely probable If you consider the manner of their coming and their matter Their matter you have seen sc reviling railing reproaching lying falsifying blaspheming c. And for the manner entitling the Eternal Holy most pure and unerring Lord God to all these horrid abominations Being seconded with preternatural obsessions possessions operations upon the bodies and spirits of men women and children by violent impulsions motions and actions The parties being so carryed on without confederacies and fore-contrived designes And meerly patients in the business and not able to withstand them And being for confirmation of such diabolical doctrines must needs be the devils operations For this is a sure Conclusion The blessed spirit of Truth will never give testimony to lies And indeed the very nastiness and beastliness of their quakings purging upwards and downwards with most distorted gestures may easily perswade they come from that unclean spirit And that they are swinish possessions not divine raptures I shall not enter upon discourse of these things It hath been done by others I shall therefore give the Reader in two stories from the North which may give some satisfaction in this particular Both stories I have taken out of the Mirrour for Saints and Sinners written by that industrious servant of Christ Mr Samuel Clark Pastor of Benet-Finck London the second Edition The second story is by him contracted and I was the more willing to to take it so to save labour I had the story it self at large in print but having lent it forth could never recover it The first is this ANno Christi 1653. about the month of October came some Quakers out of the North into Wales about Wrexham endeavouring to win some professors to their party Their principal design was to disgrace the Ministry and all publike Ordinances They held Universal redemption Free-will and falling from grace They published that all men have the pure seed of God in them boasting that themselves were perfect and without sin that they knew at the first sight sincere Christians from hypocrites At meetings after long silence sometimes one sometimes more fell into a great and dreadfull shaking and trembling in their whole bodies and all their joynts with such risings and swellings in their bellies and bowels sending forth such shreekings yellings howlings and roarings as not only affrighted the spectaters but caused the dogs to bark the swine to cry and the cattel to run about to the astonishment of all that heard them By these artifices one William Spencer was drawn to leave the Church and to follow them whereupon at several times he fell into the same quaking fits and lying with one of them three several nights the last night being much troubled and not able to sleep upon a sudden he heard something buzzing and humming about the Quakers head like an humble-bee