be considered what the Law and the Testimony is and that he further saith The Law is in the heart the Light is in the heart the testimony of Jesus the sure Word of Prophesie is in the heart the Word of Faith in the heart And now come to the matter to which thou scoffingly and wickedly saist Now he is fit for the work out with the Scriptures of truth and follow the Law of his own heart of his own imagination and be sure Salthouse will prevail and carry all before him Thou hypocrite Is this outing of the Scriptures of truth to speak truth in the very Scripture-language Hath not T. S. quoted the Scriptures for proof of what he asserts concerning the Law in the heart the Light in the heart the Word of Faith nigh in the heart the sure Word of Prophesie in the heart And yet thou art so impudent as to say Out with the Scriiptures of truth and follow the Law of his own heart Is the Law of God in the heart Or the Light of Christ in the heart Or the Word of Faith in the heart Or the sure Word of Prophesie which is the Testimony of Jesus in the heart Is this the Law or the imagination of his own heart Thou hast no cover for thy wickedness here but hast manifestly published thy folly and thy envy in charging T. S. for outing the Scriptures of truth when he hath cited the Scriptures of truth for proof of what he hath spoken therefore because thy wickedness is so plainly and openly discovered in setting thy self through envy to oppose gain-say and resist the truth the less needs be spoken in answer to it if any wil believe thee or be deceived by thee herein it is such who are willingly ignorant and are given up to believe lyes and their blood will be upon their own heads But although T. C. hath cited the Law and Testimony for a Rule yet when T. S had proved by the Scriptures of Truth that this Law and Testimony is within in the heart it 's like T. C. had no mind to join Issue or plead with him for he well knows that should he speak no more of the Law of God or of the Testimony of Jesus then what is manifest in him and written in his heart his mouth and the mouths of many of his Brethren would soon be stopt for though that which may be known of God is manifest within according to the Scripture yet they that believe not in that which doth make manifest but are enemies to it they know little of God or of his Law or Testimony neither is it their rule Now that which doth make manifest is light Eph. 5. 13. But T. C. saith Your faith is not in a light within therefore your Faith is not in that which doth make manifest and how then should you know the things of God or his Law and Testimony of which the Scriptures of truth declares And thus though in words you profess God and talk of his Law and Testimony to be your rule yet in works you deny him and his Law of righteousness is cast behind your backs and the Testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophesie you have denyed and despised neither is his Law your Rule or his Light your Guide witness your own confession in Tiverton Epistle Therefore I say Should T. C. plead onely from what of God is manifest in him he would have very little to say and so no marvel if he refufe to joyn Issue with T. S. upon those terms Thou saist T. S. hath said That T. C. is against the Saints attaining to perfection and freedom from sin whilst in this mortal state And thou saist He is not against perfection by faith in Christ their perfection to be in another nor is he against pressing after perfection but such a perfection as the Quakers boast of he is against c. To which I say The perfection which the people call'd Quakers own and press after is the same which the Saints and Servants of God in all ages did press after of which the Scriptures of truth makes mention which is to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord and to know him to work all their works for them and in them whose works are perfect in the sight of God whereby all boasters and boasting is excluded and this perfection thou saist T. C. is against and indeed I believe it and herein the truth of T. S. his words are verified But what perfection or freedom from sin such do own or press after who are drawing iniquity with cords of vanity and in whose souls such abominations reigns and out of whose hands all weapons are wrested with which they should make war against sin I leave to the wise in heart to judge It seems the perfection which you own is at a great distance from you and not holyness perfected in you but in another and so you imagine it shall be imputed yours hereafter when you are dead though you are perfecting wickedness and ungodliness all your life long and this imagination you call Faith in Christ But though we own no other perfection then that which is by Faith in Christ who is the perfection of his people and is all in all to them yet except you know him to live in you and know him to work in you both the will and the deed even he of whom its said That he came to do the will of God and so to know perfection and freedom from sin in your selves wrought by another it will avail you nothing to say you own perfection in another for what the better are you to tell of perfection and freedom from sin in another whilst you are imperfect and are servants unto sin And what pressing after perfection or freedom from sin is there like to be with such who affirm that God never had yet a church in the World without sin and that who ever affirm the contrary are Hypocrites Would any that believes this press after that which none yet could ever attain Or is not this to press after an impossibility And if by pressing after it they should attain to it and make confession of it it seems they must be accounted hypocrites this is small encouragement to any to press after perfection or freedom from sin But we are not ignorant what that imagined perfection is of which you speak and which you say you press after for although abominations reigns in your souls and iniquity apparently written on your foreheads heads and that you are even drawing it as with Cart-Ropes yet because you can sometimes make a hypocritical confession of this condition and therewith mock God as you confess you have done often this is call'd a pressing after perfection And because you have read in the Scriptures of the Righteousness of Christ you imagine that his Righteousness shall be imputed yours and serve to cover your unrighteousness and this is your perfection as
spirit and in the truth I say The Spiritual Man with his Ordinances and Administrations which are spiritual stands over the man of sin and over these his carnal weak unprofitable Ordinances beggarlie rudiments vain ceremonies and traditional imitations which although you call them the Ordinances of Christ yet they are but your own fancies and imaginations And thus by a just and a lawful Trial it plainly and evidently appears that you are neither Churches nor Ministers of Jesus Christ but in all the particulars before-mentioned you are found very much to differ from them and because you are not the church of Christ and that his Spirit doth not lead you to and guide you in the practise or performance of those things which you plead for and follow therefore those things by you pleaded for are not the Ordinances of Christ but the Ordinances of the man of sin and so the Spiritual Man with his Ordinances and Administrations are exalted above the man of sin with the weak and unprofitable Ordinances that doth not make the comers thereunto perfect according to the truth asserted by Thomas Salthouse which is hereby vindicated and fully confirmed And now I shall return to speak to some particulars in thy Paper wherein thou saist Because in the Tiverton Epistle there is a complaint against the sins that are remaining in the Churches T. S from hence suggesteth that they are no Churches of Christ I answer T. S. had sufficient ground from your own confession in the said Epistle to conclude that you are no churches of Christ as was by him fully proved and is now again more at large confirmed For the church of Christ which is his bodie is in all things answerable and proportionable to him who is the Head Now you will all confess that the Head is holie harmless undefiled seperate from sin and sinners and if the Bodie be unholie full of abomination and defiled with sin and iniquitie then is Christ the Head of a defiled polluted unclean sinful Body and this is not proportionable for as is the Head such are the members and they said As he is so are we in this present world 1 Joh. 4. 17. But in that Epistle you do not onely complain against those sins that are yet remaining in the churches but you there say that abominations are reigning in your churches and in your souls Now these expressions in thy Paper where thou speakest of sins remaining c. might seem very much to alter the case and to lessen the crime in the judgement of those that have not seen your Consession in the said Epistle and such might begin to think that T. S. had dealt something uncharitably with you to exhort all that fear God to seperate from you and to come out from among you because some sins were yet remaining amongst you for to speak of sins yet remaining might seem to imply that some sins were mortified and put off and as if you were warring against and waiting to receive power to overcome those that remain and such a condition as this we could own though we cannot own those for a church of Christ who live in sin for we own and witness a spiritual warfare which all must know before they can be Members of the church of Christ and had you been found in such a condition as this to be armed with the power of God and so to stand in the war against sin and Satan we could have owned you in such a state as a people whom the Lord was purging and cleanslng and sanctifying for himself sitting and preparing you to be a habitation for the Lord to dwell in that your bodies might become the Temples of the Holy Ghost and so you might be married to the Lord in righteousness become the Spouse of Christ which is his Church but it is far otherwise with you for sin is not onely remaining in you but reigning in you and apparently written upon you and where sin and abomination reigns it hath the sole dominion power and preheminence and as a strong man armed keeps the house and is at peace and the stronger is not come that should dis-possess him and make the keepers of the House to tremble and the strong to bow that should enter in and break his peace and spoile his goods neither are you in a condition to war against sin for you confess that all weapons are wrested from you with which you should maintain war against it so that sin abomination hath quiet peaceable possession in you hath got both strength weapons to defend it self upon all occasions And so you are altogether servants to sin slaves to Satan under Aegyptian darkness this is much more then to say Sins yet remaining in you and as I have said doth very much alter your case from what these expressions of thine might seem to render it And saist thou that which T. C. saith is That the true churches of Christ have had the same or as great sins and abominations in them as are mentioned in that Epistle and yet were the true churches of Christ owned of God as is fully proved c. to which Scriptures thou saist T. S. gives no answer To this I say It is a very light thing with T. C. to lay sin to the charge of Gods elect and to condemn the generation of the Just and also to plead Justification for those in whom abomination reigns and in whose fore-heads iniquitie is apparentlie written but T. C. will one day know that he which justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just even they both are abomination to the Lord Yet by all that T. C. hath said though he hath quoted so many Scriptures perverting them and even wresting them to his own destruction it doth not appear that ever the church of Christ was guilty of these or the like abominations as in the Tiverton Epistle is exprest neither doth any one of those Scriptures at all prove any such thing therefore it was needless for T. S to give any answer thereunto but forasmuch as thou seems to vaunt thy self because T. S. hath not spoken particularly in answer to those Scriptures which thou call'st T. C. his Cloud of Witnesses and that both in thy Paper and also in T. C. his Answer to T. S. his Epistle the perverting of the Scriptures especially what is written to the church of Corinth is made use of as a Stirrup whereby you may mount you selves upon the Throne of Iniquitie taking occasion from what the Apostle writes to them concerning such as had sinned to boast your selves to be the church of Christ notwithstanding your great abominations and apparent iniquities confest and exprest in Tiverton Writing I shall therefore speak something briefly to some of those Scriptures thereby to discover thy blindness and ignorance of the things of God of which the Scriptures of truth declares And first concerning the Church of the Romans chap. 13.
to the church of Christ and the Doctrine which such do preach is the Doctrine of Devils and not the Doctrine of Christ as T. S. hath truly said And because T. S. saith You follow cunning devised fables Thou saist He calls Gospel Ordinances cunning devised fables and that in sum he saith our Lord Christ and his Apostles were cunning devisers of Fables To which I say Deceit and Falshood hath summed up the matter and by the falseness of the account the wickedness of the Accountant is discovered and he is thereby manifested to be a notorious lyar and a false accuser but if honesty had cast up the sum the account would have appeared otherwise And I have already proved That whilst you remain in that state where you stand at present as appears by your confession in your Tiverton Epistle that all that you do or perform in imitation of others whilst you are not thereunto led by the Spirit of God but your rule is without you abomination reigns within you though you may call it the ordinances of Christ or great Gospel-Ordinances yet it is but Fables and Fancies of your own devisings and such things as Christ nor his Apostles did ever ordain or devise for you to follow or practise and you might as well charge all the rest of your abominations and apparent iniquities upon Christ and his Apostles and say they were the devisers of them as to say that Christ or his Apostles did devise those Fables Fancies and imaginations which you follow plead for practise and call Ordinances of Christ For that which you account the best of all your doings is as great an abomination in the sight of the Lord if not greater then the very worst action or most apparent iniquity which you confess your selves to be guilty of For the very prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord and nothing will sooner or more certainly bring desolation upon you then the setting up of those abominations in the stead of the Worship of God and the Ordinances of Christ and those Exorcists who adjured the unclean spirits in the Name of Jesus whom Paul preached might as well say that our Lord Christ had devised those Exorcismes which they used because he had commanded unclean spirits to come out of people as you to say that Christ and his Apostles devised those Fables which you follow and plead for and call Gospel-Ordinances because you imagine that such things were practised in the church of Christ for it 's possible that those Exorcists were as much in the words of Christ and Paul as you are and I am sure you are as great Enemies to the iife and power of Christ as they were And after thou hast thus wickedly and salsly accused T. S and so impudently and grosly belyed him Thou saist Thou must have done with Salthouse at present and thou thinkest for ever unless there were more truth and honesty appearing in him Oh wonderful that such a notorious lyar and such a vile dishonest person as thou hast manifested thy self to be partly by thy own confession and fully and largely proved both by thy practise and by thy principles should be so impudent as to accuse another for want of truth and honesty But although thou mightest have hopes to shelter thy self and to escape undiscovered by accusing the innocent of the same crimes whereof thy self art guilty yet know that thy covering is too narrow for thy skirts are discovered and thy shame and nakedness doth appear and thy refuge of lyes cannot hide thee and it had been much better for thee if thou hadst ended sooner or that thou hadst never begun this work of darkness and wickedness wherein thou hast so desperately hazarded the loss of thy precious soul to satisfie thy cruel envious blood-thirsty desires against the innocent Lambs of Christ Onely thou saist take this Interpreter with you and T. C. his Answer to his Epistle and this together and you will find them to be a choice pair of Spectacles to help you to see into and understand what you read in T. S. his Books To which I answer The truth as asserted by T. S. in his Books are so plain and clear as they stand that whoever looks on them with a single eye and a mind not stuft with prejudice may easily read them and understand them without an interpreter and all who are not quite blind and given up to believe lyes may easily see and discover thy hypocrisie and deceit thy railing and false accusing thy lyes and thy confusion without the help of a pair of Spectacles But although thou hast done with T. S. I have not yet done wth thee for I have yet to question thee concerning a most horrible false accusation twice charged in thysheet of Paper where thou saist Would not these men as truly judge and condemn Saints and Churches in former ages that were subject to the like failings and passions were it not because they know it will not be born Else what meant the Answer of a Preaching-quaker in a publike meeting of them in Bristol one presenting something concerning the Scripture to him he answers I came not to tell you of Paul and Barnabas and Timothy the serpents of old but we were sent to direct them to look to the light within c. And thou saist The same person at the same time spake the same language of Samuel and the Prophets and this thou saist thou hadst from credible testimony who was present and heard him and proposed to query to him Whether he did own the Scriptures to be a rule for Christians to walk by Now to this I say The righteous Lord God of Heaven and Earth is witness for us against thee in this thing that we the Servants of the Most High God who are in scorn call'd Quakers do from our hearts abhor and detest any such words or thoughts concerning the holy men of God either Prophets or Apostles as thou most falsly from thy envious heart and slanderous tongue hast cast upon us and we do likewise utterly disown any such to be of us or to have any fellowship with us or to be permitted to speak amongst us without reproof who should declare or hold forth any such wicked damnable unsound unsavoury words as to say that either Paul or Barnabas or Timothy or Samuel or any other of the holy Prophets or Apostles were the Serpents of old for of them and of their words we have a more high and honorable esteem we being made partakers of the same eternal life and have obtained like precious Faith in which they lived and by which they obtained a good report and have received a measure of the same spirit by which they spoke and from which the Scriptures of truth were given forth and so we have the witness in our selves of the truth of what they declared and I do with confidence affirm That it cannot be proved that ever any person who is
distinguished from other people by the name of Quaker did ever either in Bristol or elsewhere either publikely or privately speak utter or declare these or any such like words and therefore be it hereby known unto thee who art our accuser and to all that own thee and to all people wheresoever this shall come that thou art hereby charged and required to bring forth the Author or Authors of this false accusation which thou call'st credible testimony that so the whole sum of this matter may be found out to the end that those who are guilty may be discovered and their wickedness disclosed that to shame they may be brought and from them and their wickedness all that fear God may turn away and of them beware and also that the innocent may be cleared and the truth vindicated and for this cause chiefly it was that publike inquiry was made after thy Name to the end the truth of this matter may be known and therefore if thou shalt refuse thus to do then in the presence of the Lord God upon thy own head shall this false accusation be charged to stand for ever and all that either own thee or believe what thou hast said and shall not endeavour to bring this matter to a just tryal are not onely willing to be deceived by thee but also guilty of thy most abominable wickedness therefore until thou hast done according to what I have said this also shall be numbred amongst the rest of thy lyes and false accusations But it seems though thou hast done with T. S. thou haft not emptyed out all the abominable broth out of thy boiling pot or unclean vessel under which the fire of Envy doth continually burn but John Collins must also have a part of it something to asswage thy malice and allay thy burning heat and although thou canst not touch him concerning any thing which he hath written yet thou wilt assault him with a company of lyes and false accusations which thou hast mustered up against him which should they be severed from the rest of that wch thou hast written there would remain very little to be answered unto But I shal not need to trace thee in all thy crooked waies and by-pathes I having alreadie sufficientlie laid thee open and discovered thy follie and wicked lying spirit to all who have an eie open to see thee therefore I shall speak brieflie to some particulars and so conclude Thou saist He confesseth he was one with you in the form of Truth But where is that confession I am sure he doth not say any such thing in that Book to which this sheet of thine is a pretended Answer nor I think no where else For it is a very easie matter to prove that you are neither in the form nor power of Truth but out of both But this he confesseth That he was owned a Brother by you whilst running into the same excess of riot but since in mercie visited he hath been hated and despitefullie used by some of you which is not the Form of Truth to use any one despitefullie Thou saist A day will come that John Collins and others shall not boast of their gain in leaving you when they shall know it to be the saddest seperation that ever they made And yet thou saist in the same Paper over and besides all the great wickednesses reigning abominations and apparent iniquities whereof you confess your selves to be guiltie in your Tiverton-Epistle Thou knowest that you are bad and that you need purging and more of the sence of the evil of your own hearts and that you need a lamentation c. And wouldst thou perswade J. C. or any other that ever they shall repent their leaving you or repent that the Lord hath seperated them from such a companie Verilie when ever they look back upon you and remember the deliverance that the Lord hath wrought for them in seperating them from amongst you they have as much cause to rejoice if not more then Lot had when he escaped out of Sodom or the Israelites when delivered from Aegyptian darkness and bondage Thou saist They have seperated themsslves from the Law and Word of Truth I say They are seperated from a companie of hypocrites who have cast the Law of Truth behind their backs and have hated instruction and rebelled against the light following their vain imaginations which they call Ordinances of Christ who confess they have delighted to confess and to word it out with the Lord and presently forget what manner of men and women they were and think no more on their prayers and so have mocked God often it is from such they are seperated But to the Word of Truth which is Christ the light of the World are they turned and his Law which is light which is written in the heart have they received and the Word at which you stumble is a lanthorn to their feet and a light unto their pathes who in times past did wander with you in dark and sollitarie places and in the valley of the shadow of death stumbling upon the dark and barren Mountains wandering from Mountain to Hill after those who cryed Lo here and lo there and where you are yet wandering in your vain imaginations who knows not the Law nor Word of Truth Thou saist If you could or dare to lye as fast as they you could quickly be as perfect and as free from sin as they c. I say Witness T. Colliers Writings and this Sheet of thine whether you dare to lie or no I verilie believe more impudent Liars did never appear in Print and you have attained to as great a measure of perfection in that part of your Fathers Work who was a Liar from the beginning and the Father of it as any people that ever I heard of who pretend they plead for and follow Ordinances of Christ But this is not our waie of perfection or freedom from sin it is Christ the Truth and the Light that is our waie of perfection and by him alone it is that we have freedom and remission of sins not through lying though you make use of that waie to cover your selves in your sins but the light hath discovered you your bed is too short and your covering too narrow Your iniquities are apparent and your abominations and transgressions cannot be hid and the day is come wherein your refuge of lyes unto which you have leaned and into which you have fled for shelter from the stroke of truth must be swept away Thou saist Heaven and Earth and our own consciences doth witness that what T. C. hath written concerning our principles is truth To which I say That both Heaven and Earth and the Witness of Truth in our own consciences doth testifie against thee that thou art a most abominable Lyar and a false Accuser and were not thy conscience seared thou wouldst tremble to utter such damnable lyes but know assuredlie that the righteous God will bring thee
pretended Line of true Judgement occasioned thee to let it lye for some time by thee c. I say Thou speakest great swelling words of vanity thereby to allure those who live with thee in Error crying out of the hypocrisie falshood of T. S. but is it not strange to hear one in whom abomination reigns to cry out of abomination in others And to hear a Hypocrite cry out of Hyocrisie and a lyar to cry out of falshood But by so doing he that is indeed the notorious lyar and the abominable hypocrite may have hopes to pass undiscovered Thou sayest Yet for Truth's sake and for the sakes of poor souls thou wilt give a very brief touch in a sheet of Paper c. To which I say It is not thy pretences will hide thee the light hath discovered thee and thy unclean spirit and thy fruits doth manifest thee to all who have an eye open to see thee and though thou pretend a care for truth poor souls yet thou art found to be one of Truth's greatest Enemies and one that labours to keep souls in blindness and ignorance and by this Work of wickedness thou haft endeavoured to touch the Lord 's Annointed and to harm his Prophets for which the Lord will reprove thee in the day of account which is near at hand Thou recitest some of T. S. his words in the Title Page of his Book where he saith The exaltation of the Spiritual Man with his Ordinances and Administrations above the Man of Sin with the weak and unprofitable Ordinances that doth not make the comers there unto perfect Which sound wholsome Words of his thou goest about most wickedly to pervert and his plain and honest intention most falsly and hypocritically to interpret saying The Spiritual Man must be the light within their own fancy and imagination which they perswade all to follow and Jesus Christ crucified raised and ascended and made Lord and Christ he must be the man of sin Truly if thou hadst not as it were a brow of Brass thou wouldst blush and even tremble to utter such blasphemous words as these Didst thou never think to give an account for these with other thy hard ungodly speeches which in the pride of thy heart thou hast uttered forth Thou accusest T. S. in thy Paper for Hypocrisie and wretched perverting Now let all sober-minded people judge whether thou be not manifestly guilty of that evil which thou falsly chargest upon him But because there is some words of truth mixed with thy unclean filthy language though it comes out of a polluted Vessel I shall separate it from the rest and when the Jewel is taken out of the Swine's snout the remainder may be bundled up for the fire Thou saist The Spiritual Man must be the light within To which I say The Spiritual Man is light and the light of Christ is spiritual and the Spiritual Man is within even the hidden man of the heart and he that knows not this Spiritual Man living in him is not a Member of the Church of Christ and he in whom the Spiritual Man lives doth thereby mortifie the deeds of the flesh and his mortal body comes to be quickened by the Spirit which dwelleth in him and hereby he is made a member of the Church of Christ and no otherwise and comes to partake of his Ordinances and knows his Administrations and so comes to be exalted above the Man of Sin and stands over all the beggarly rudiments and traditional invented Will-Worships set up in the imagination which doth not purifie the heart nor purge the conscience from dead works nor give victory over the World and so makes not the comers thereunto or practisers of them perfect but perisheth with the using and this is not fancy nor imagination but sound and wholesome Doctrine according to the Scripture of truth neither do we at any time perswade any to follow their own fancies imaginations as thou most wickedly and falsly chargest us but it is Christ the true light the Spiritual Man who leads out of darkness all that follow him and from every vain imagination it is him alone that we exhort all men to obey and follow And the reason that thou givest why Jesus Christ crucisied raised and ascended c. must be the Man of Sin is Because thou sayest it is his Ordinances you follow and plead for according to the Scriptures Thou sayest You own Jesus Christ crucified and justification by Faith in his blood which Faith purifies the heart though you confess that abomination reigns in your souls and that iniquity is apparently written on your fore-heads and that you are drawing it with cords of vanity and Baptism with Water after believing and Church-fellowship in breaking of Bread and Prayer c. and this thou sayest T. S. calls the Ordinances of the Man of Sin which is another most abominable falshood charged upon him When Or where did he ever call Justification by Faith in the blood of Christ Baptism breaking of Bread and Prayer c. which are Ordinances of Christ the Ordinances of the Man of Sin Thou hast made a great outcry of the hypocrisie and falshood of T. S. doubling it over to four times in thy title page and yet before thou concludest the same page how manifestly and publikely dost thou play the hypocrite with him in drawing such a damnable Conclusion from his Words and most wickedly and falsly to accuse him saying He calls the Ordinances of Christ the Ordinances of the man of sin when at the utmost it is but the deceit of thy own wicked heart and not his words nor intentions as may evidently appear to any who have but the least measure of honesty to judge But what though you in a hypocritical manner according to the vain and foolish imaginations of your dark hearts have fancied to your selves a Worship in your Wills and practise things in imitation of others which you say you plead for and follow and call Ordinances of Christ because the Scripture declares that such things were practised by those who were thereto led by the Spirit of God though you from that Spirit are erred and saith the Scripture is your Rule must it therefore follow that T S. doth account Jesus Christ crucified c. to be the Man of Sin and his Ordinances the Ordinances of the Man of Sin Oh wicked and damnable Conclusion drawn from such an Argument Thou tells of the Quaker's Logick surely this may truly be call'd the Devil's Logick for greater Wickedness and more horrible iniquity I believe never dropped from the Pen of any one that pretends to plead for and follow Ordinances of Christ but it is not your professing the Name of Christ or professing Justification by Faith in his Blood or practising things by imitation and calling it the Ordinances of Christ that will avail you any thing whilest the Man of Sin bears rule and is exalted in you for notwithstanding your profession
whilst sin doth reign in you all that you practise is but the Ordinances of the Man of Sin and those Ordinances are weak and unprofitable and can never make the comers thereunto or the practisers of them perfect and in this state the Spiritual Man which is Christ you know not neither of his Ordinances which are spiritual can you partake for this I affirm That the Ordinances of Christ which are spiritual are onely used and practised in the Church of Christ and amongst the Saints and not elsevvhere and for any other to say that they either follovv them or plead for them I say they are intruders into those things vvhich they have not seen and are talking of those things vvhich belongs not to them neither vvere they ever intended or ordained for such to practise and it vvill be said to all such Who hath required these things at your hands And therefore notvvithstanding your profession and your great boasting of the Ordinances of Christ except it may appear that you are the Church of Christ and that his Spirit leads you to and guides you in the practise of those things they are not the Ordinances of Christ to you but a Worship set up in your wils in imitation of others who were thereunto led by the spirit of God for he that hath not the spirit of Christ to lead him and guide him is none of his and then no member of his Church such cannot partake of his Ordinances And he that hath received that spirit is thereby made a Member of the Church of Christ and by it led and guided into all truth and so into the practise of those Ordinances of Christ that are spiritual and this is agreeable with and according to the Scriptures of truth and therefore I say except it may appear that you are Members of the church of Christ and led and guided by his spirit in the exercise performance of those things which you practise which you call Ordinances of Christ all that you do is but imitation at the most and not withstanding your boasting of the Ordinances of Christ and that it is his Ordinances you plead for and follow yet it will appear to be but will-worship and voluntary humility and the foolish inventions and imaginations of your own hearts which wil never make the comers thereunto perfect and so your Faith of which you speak will appear to be vain and as by your own confession it appeats it hath not so it will not purifie your hearts nor give you victory over the world but you will stil remain in your sins and the Law stil have dominion over you if you are not Members of that church whereof Christ is the Head and so Members of his body and that his spirit leads you to and guides you in your Worship and your Practise then you are of the Synagogue of Satan and so the man of sin is exalted in you above all that is called God and his voice you obey and his servants you are and his Ordinances you practise and him you worship and of the true God and his Worship and the true Christ and his Ordinances you are ignorant and therefore you shall be tryed whether you are the church of Christ or not or wherein you differ from them and thereby it will appear what those Ordinances are and whose they are which you say you follow and plead for herein you shall have just measure for you shall be tried by your own confession and the Scriptures of truth shall be witness which said Confession is recorded in a printed Paper directed to all the Churches of Jesus Christ as you call them from a meeting of the Messengers of the Churches in Tiverton the 18. day of the 7. Month 1657. Signed in their Names and by their appointment as the Subscribers say who write themselves Thomas Collier Nathaniel Strange Thomas Glass And so this Author with all the rest of the people called Anabaptists are concerned in it which said Tiverton-Writing or printed Paper was the occasion of T. S. his directing his Epistle to you called An Epistle to the Churches of the Anabaptists so câ—lled Which ought rather to have been received by you in love then for any of you thus to reward him evil for good but his reward is with the Lord and whether you hear or forbear whether you believe or perish in your gain-saying he will be clear of your blood and be a good savour to the Lord And amongst many other particulars contained in your said Epistle you say You have made confession of those reigning abominations in your own souls and in the Churches To wch I say Hereby you appear to be neither Ministers nor Churches of Jesus Christ but very much to differ from them for if abomination reigns in your Churches then abomination is the Head of your Church for that which reigns in the church is the head of the church and if abomination be the head of your church then is not Christ your head but the church of Christ did witness Christ to be their head and not abomination and they were exhorted to grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ who is both the Head and the Saviour of his church which is his body according to the Scriptures Eph. 4. 15. Eph. 5. 23. Coll. 1. 18. and thus it 's evident that you are not the church of Christ which is his Body because Christ is not your Head Again that which reigns in your churches hath dominion over your churches and you say abomination reigns in your churches in your souls therefore abomination hath dominion over your churches and over your souls and this proves you to be no Church of Christ because you are subjects to another Prince and other Lords hath the Dominion over you and you are not subjects of Christs Kingdom but the Church of Christ were in subject on to Christ and he did reign over them and had the dominion over them as the Scriptures declares which saith He shall reign over the house of David for ever and of his Kingdome there shall be no end who is set far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named c. to whom they ascribed praise and dominion for ever and ever Luke 1 33. Eph. 1. 21. 1 Pet 4. 11. Again Abo nination is that which God hates and his wrath and displeasure is against such in whom abomination reigns for the fearful and unbelieving and abominable c. must have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone but the Church of Christ are beloved of God and have their part and their inheritance and fellowship with the Father and with the Son and with the Saints in light as the Scriptures doth witness which saith For the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and the love of God was shed abroad in their hearts and
nothing was able to seperate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus And they had known and believed the love that God had to them John 16. 27. Rom. 5. 5. Rom. 8. 39. 1 John 1. 3. 1 John 4. 16. And thus you in whom abomination reigns are proved to be no church of Christ for where abomination doth reign there Christ doth not reign but such were they who sent a Message after him saying We will not have this man to reign over us who must be brought and slain before his face And where Christ doth not reign there his Statutes and his Ordinances are not known but every one walketh and worshippeth according to the imagination of his own heart and every one doth that which is right in his own eyes even as they did when there vvas no King in Israel and the Statutes and Ordinances vvhich you follow and plead for are the dictates of the man of sin vvhich bears rule in you yea even from the abomination vvhich is set up where it ought not to stand vvhich makes desolate do you receive them and not from Christ vvho is the Head King and Law-giver to his Church and People and in this state vvhilst abomination reigns and is head in you vvhat ever you profess or vvhat ever you practise it is all abomination to the Lord For the prayers of the wicked or those in vvhom abomination reigns are abomination to the Lord and vvhilest that vvhich is abominable in the sight of the Lord rules and is head in you all that proceeds from you yea even your best performances though they may in outward appearance seem to be the same vvith the people of God or Church of Christ and like that vvhich the people of God and Church of Christ did practise according to Scripture-Testimony yet it all stinks in the nostrils of the Lord and is an abomination in his sight for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one And surely you in whom abomination reigns are unclean in the eyes of our God for he is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity And therefore vvhilst abomination reigns in your Churches and in your souls call not your selves Ministers of Christ nor Churches of Christ nor do not say you plead for and follow his Ordinances for the Church of Christ hath an Altar whereof you have no right to eat neither can you taste of the Supper of the Lord neither have you any part or lot in this matter for your hearts are not upright before the Lord neither into the City of our Solemnity may you enter for into that City can in no wise enter any thing that defiles or worketh abomination or loves or makes a lye You complain in your Epistle of a light Spirit living short of the true sight and sence of Gods Majesty in his Churches and among his Saints By vvhich also it appears you are not the Church of Christ neither is that light Spirit of vvhich you complain the Spirit of God but it was otherwise vvith the Church of Christ of vvhich the Scriptures declares for they had received the Spirit of Truth vvhich vvas not a light spirit by which they were led into all truth and had the true sight and sence of Gods Majesty amongst them and did not live short thereof but beheld his glory and were made glad with the favor of his countenance which was lifted up upon them Psal. 89 15. Psal 21. 6 Acts 2. 28. John 14. 16 17. 1 Cor. 2 12. Gal. 4. 6. 1 Ioh. 3. 24. your spirit is a spirit of blindnes by your own confession so that you cannot perceive the things that pertain to the Kingdom of God but you are without the true sight sence thereof so you are walking in the dark paths and going on in the broad way which leadeth to destruction but the church of Christ did walk in the light of the Lord the spirit by which they were led and guided led them out of darkness into the marvelous light of the Lord and guided their feet into the paths of peace as the Scriptures doth witness 2 Cor. 4. 6. Ephes. 5 8. 1 Thess. 5. 4 5. 1 Pet. 2 9. And thus you who are led and guided by a light spirit that lives short of the true sight and sence of Gods Majesty in his Churches and among his Saints are not the Church of Christ but are under chains of darkness and the god of this world hath blinded your eyes Now you seem to confess that Gods Majesty is to be seen in his Churches and his presence to be enjoyed by his people and among his Saints and if so then you who live short of the true sight and sence of his Majesty which is seen in his Church and do not behold the glory of his presence which his Saints doth see and behold and which is amongst them I say Then you are not of that number who are indeed his Church and Saints but you live short of the true sight and sence of that glory and excellency which they behold and are made partakers of and in this state of ignorance and blindness you are groping but cannot find the door and you call evil good and good evil you put darkness for light and light for darkness you call your own fancies and imaginations Ordinances of Christ and the light of Christ which is spiritual and shines in the hearts of his people by which they have the true sight and sence of Gods Majesty amongst them this you call fancy and imagination and your own inventions you set up as an Altar to the unknown God and you worship you know not what but of the true God and his Worship you are ignorant for his voice at any time you have not heard nor his shape you have not seen and of the true Christ and his Ordinances you are unsensible and his body which is spiritual you cannot discern and therefore though you boast that it is the Ordinances of Christ you plead for and follow as Church-fellowship in breaking of Bread and Prayers c. yet you are discovered to be of that number that are unworthy to partake of the Supper of the Lord and of the Ordinances of Christ for you being out of the true sight and sence of Gods Majesty in his Churches and amongst his Saints you are out of the discerning of the Lords body which is spiritual and therefore instead of partaking of the Ordinances of Christ you eat and drink to your selves damnation not discerning the Lords body Again you complain in the said Epistle of a wretched worâ—â—y spirit which plucks the Saints down from their excellency and leaves blackness upon you which renders you uncomely c. Which doth also manifest you to be no Church of Christ for the spirit which is in them doth build them up and not pluck them down and doth beautifie them and not render them uncomely and it causeth them to excel
all other people doth not pluck them down from their excellency it is not a wretched wordly spirit but the spirit of God by which they overcome the world and this spirit was in the Saints and Church of Christ of which the Scriptures of truth doth witness and they had received that Grace which taught them to deny ungodliness worldly lusts and had escaped the pollutions which are in the world through lusts they did witness that Faith which overcomes the world and knew him to live in them by whom the world is overcome and were directed and commended to that Grace which was able to build them up and they were built up together and became a habitation of God through the Spirit even a spiritual House an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God 1 Cor. 2. 12. Gal. 6. 14. Tit 2. 12. 2 Pet 1. 4. 1 Ioh. 5. 4. Acts 20. 32. Eph. 2. 20 21 22. Iude 20. 1 Pet. 2 5. Isa. 28. 5 6. Isa. 61. 3. By all which it appears how much you differ from the Church of Christ insomuch that the absolute contrary marks fruits and effects doth appear in you and amongst you as was in them and amongst them but you are of those who turn again with the dog to the vomit and with the Sow that was washed to the wallowing in the mire who were indeed once more excellent while you were little in your own eyes before you were thus setled on your Lees there was a time when there was breathings in some of you after the Lord and something which did hunger and thirst after righteousness and there was then some tenderness amongst you and a sensibleness of something that was oppressed and held captive as under the power of a strange King and then there was some groanings for deliverance and some desires raised in you after the Lord and after purity and holiness which did render you comely whilst you abode in that state but you have lost that condition and the cry of the oppressed is not regarded by you but you are joyned and become one wiâ—â—â—he oppressor and that which oncâ— breathed to be delivered from the bondage of corruption you have even choaked strangled and so you never knew that born or brought forth which is heir of Gods Kingdom but an untimely birth is brought forth and you are sate down by the way in an empty form wanting the life and power and have taken up a false rest but the true rest you have not known And thus a wretchedworldly spirit hath overcome you accompanied with many other evils of the like nature by your own confession and hath pluckt you from that excellency which you once had and hath defaced that comeliness which was once upon you and hath left blackness and deformity upon you and those desires which once appeared amongst you are forgotten and the tenderness quite lost and hardness of heart got up and nothing remains but deadness and dryness and emptiness amongst you according to your confession and thus the seed even rots under the clods and you dwell in a Land of darkness where the presence of the Lord is not found to refresh you nor the dew of the lasting Hills falls not on you but you remain dry and barren bringing forth no fruit to God but deceit and abomination rules in your hearts and the man of sin is exalted in you above all that is called God and great clusters of the sowre Grapes of Sodom appear amongst you and is plentifully brought forth by you to the dishonor of God So your latter end is worse then your beginning Again you say in your said Epistle You have been as in a great measure without the sence of the work so without the true travel of soul which this work should have pat you into So hereby you utterly exclude your selves from being a Church of Christ and are manifested in a great measure to differ from them for if you are insensible of the work of God amoâ—â—sâ— you and in you and if it be not he that worketh the will and the deed and that works all your works for you and in you then you are doing your own works and your righteousness is your own and not the Lords so your righteousness is the same with that of the Scribes Pharisees who were not the Church of Christ but those who crucified him But the Church of Christ were sensible of the work of God in them and amongst them as the Scriptures of truth doth witness and they gave a particular relation thereof how it wrought in them saying That patience worketh experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed and these were the works of God in them of which they were sensible they said Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou hast wrought all our works in us So they were sensible of the work and of him that worketh and they knew that they were of God and that the Son of God was come who had given them an understanding to know him that was true and they were in him that is true and they testified that this was the true God and eternal life and those were not insensible but had their sences exercised in the knowledge of the Work of God and they had known the terrors of the Lord and therefore did perswade men and so were not insensible of the Work as the Scriptures witnesseth Rom. 5. 4 5. Isa. 26. 12. 1 Ioh. 5. 19 20. 2 Cor. 5. 11. Again the Church of Christ had known the true travel of soul and witnessed the birth which is born of the Spirit which inherits the Kingdom of God of which travel it seems you are ignorant and therefore never came to the birth which is immortal but they had cryed as a Woman in travel and felt the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child and every man was seen with his hands upon his loins as a Woman in travel and they have also known the deliverance and forgotten the anguish and the pain for joy that a Man-child is born and the Minister of Christ said That he travelled in pain until Christ was formed in them And they were born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever as the Scriptures doth witness Ier. 4. 31. Mic. 4. 10. Gal. 4. 19. 1 Pet. 1. 23. But you who are without the sence of the Work and have not known the souls travel are not born of the seed which is incorruptible and so not heirs of Gods promise for the promise is to the Seed in which all the Nations of the earth are blessed and those who are not born of the Seed wch is incorruptible they are under the curse in the transgression alienated from the life of God strangers from the Common-Wealth of Israel out of Gods Covenant with whom the Church of Christ can have
to you but ye have turned from it and despised it and except the churches of Galatia did and the churches of the Anabaptists do return to that Gospel from which they were removed the Peace of God neither did nor doth belong to them nor you neither could they or can you be accounted the churches of Christ He saith So likewise the church of the Philippians many so walked of whom the Apostle saith I have often told you and now tell you weeping that they are enemies to the cross of Christ Phil. 3. 18. Yet saith he they were owned to be a Church with their Officers To which I say That those who are enemies to the cross of Christ are not the church of Christ for the church of Christ did glory in the cross of Christ and were not enemies to it Gal. 6. 14. and the preaching of it was to them and it is to as many as believe the power of God 1 Cor. 1. 13. And the Apostle tells what is the end of such who are enemies to the cross of Christ he saith their end is destruction and that is not the end of the church of Christ But though the Apostle writes to the church of the Philippians of such who were enemies to the cross of Christ yet he doth not say that the church of the Philippians were enemies to the cross of Christ nor that any of them in particular were so He also bids them beware of dogs and of evil workers c. Doth he therefore say that the church of the Philippians are dogs and evil-workers But this is some of those Scriptures which are called T. C. his cloud of Witnesses to prove that the true churches of Christ have had the same or as great sins and abominations in them as is confess'd in the Tiverton Epistle Now though T. C. be a noted lyar yet the Scriptures are true and cannot be broken And although by perverting and wresting the true sence thereof thereby endeavouring to make the Scriptures speak what he would have them to abuse the simple minded and deceive ignorant people he hath drawn this wicked conclusion from the whole That they are may be owned to be the churches of Christ notwithstanding their great abominations confess'd in their Tiverton Epistle Yet now these Witnesses being honestly examined without wresting or perverting they are found to witness against T. C. and the same Witness which he brings to prove his assertions doth witness against him and proves himself to be the lyar and this is usual that if the Witnesses which T. C. offers for proof of any thing be the Scriptures of truth they surely testifie against him and prove him to be the lyar and instead of witnessing for him they witness against him And when he affirms a thing that is so notoriously false and wicked as that he cannot any way wrest the Scriptures to make them seem to prove what he asserts he useth to say That this is true Is so evident that it needs no proof or That this is true is so evident that he that runs may read and such like words witness his Looking-glass as is at large discovered in a Book call'd Truth vindicated by John Pitman and Jasper Batt Some other Scriptures are by him mentioned whereby he hath endeavoured to prove the churches of Christ in former ages to be sinful thereby to make way for themselves to be owned as a church of Christ but all that he saith is to no more purpose then that which hath been already answered could as easily be answered his folly thereby made manifest as it hath been sufficiently by what hath been answered to those Scriptures by him quoted But he saith of those before mentioned that they were called to repentance What were they then a church of Christ or the churches of Christ before repentance that he makes use of this to prove them churches of Christ because they were call'd to repentance Simon Magus was call'd to repentance was he therefore a member of the church of Christ And the Apostle said that God commanded all men every where to repent Are therefore all men every where the church of Christ Oh gross darkness and ignorance to use that as an argument to prove them to be the church of Christ because they were call'd to repentance And so are you call'd to repentance and to repentance you must come before you can be owned as a church of Christ for we say Christ came to call sinners to repentance and his Ministers were sent to turn people from the darkness to the light and to bring them from under Satan's power unto God but though you have been call'd to return from your wickedness and live and have been invited to come to him who is the way to the Father who gives eternal life to all that come unto him yet you have refused to return and have rebell'd against the light Neither is it onely the calling to repentance that makes them or you the churches of Christ but it is them who answers that holy call and comes to repentance even to that repentance which is never to be repented of that is to repent and forsake it is such shall find mercy and acceptance with the Lord and they shall be his and accounted members of his church in the day when he makes up his Jewels but as for such as have been call'd to repentance and have not answered that holy call by obedience to him that hath called them his call and his loving invitation shall stand as a witness against such for ever and because the Lord hath called and they would not hear therefore when they call and cry there shall be none to deliver them Thou saist That T. S hath manifested abominable hypocrisie and deceit in that he saith that T. C. instanceth the Saints infirmities in former ages to encourage in a state of sin c. when its evident saist thou that he instanceth those examples to stop the mouths of lyars and deceivers c. and to discover the simple and vain notions of those who would suggest that the churches of Christ are none of his because there is sin in them To which I say I have answered some of those Scriptures call'd T. C. his Cloud of Witnesses which may also serve for answer to all the rest thereby to discover the folly and ignorance sottishness and blindness of those who would suggest that Fornicators and unclean persons Drunkards Railers Revilers Extortioners Thieves covetous persons Idolaters and such like are Members of the church of Christ and also to stop the mouths of such lyars and deceivers who say the true churches of Christ have had the same or as great sins and abominations in them as are mentioned in Tiverton Epistle and yet were the true churches of Christ notwithstanding And although according to thy wonted manner thou railest at T. S. accusing him with hypocrisie and deceit because he saith T. C. doth encourage in a state of