right in all Points essential to Christianity and in the certain Way of Life he may easily conclude that to be unwarrantable separation which goeth from such But then I say How will the Protestants warrant their first separation from Popery or how did this Baxter with his Presbyterians in Oliver's time with their Directory excuse their separating from the Bishops and their Comon-prayer and how will be salve his old Non-conforming Brethren's flight into New-England where since they have shed the Blood of the Martyrs of Christ from the former Bishops But now his false Ground and Foundation being overturned it is most manifest that that separation is most lawfull which is from such who call good evil and evil good put Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light as Baxter and all the Wicked do from whom the People of God in these Days separate And so in obeying the Voice of our God who saith Come out of Mystery Babylon my People lest ye pertake of her Sins and so of her Plagues we are justified for the sins of the Wicked who in words profess God and Christ but in deeds deny all is reached Heaven at this day And doth not the Apostle say If any man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolator and Covetousness by the Apostle's Doctrine is Idolatry or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such not to keep company no not as to eat with them 1. Cor. 5.11 And doth he not say in an other Place Have no Fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness nor with the unfruitful Workers in Darkness as before but rather reprove them Ephes. 5.11 must we not yet separate from them yea yea in their very Worship Actions as well as others and when even the greater number are so far defiled and tainted with the Leprosie of Unrighteousness that they are so far from amending that they persecute all that will not be as bad as themselves Surely when the Lord hath spued out a People as he threatned to do luke-warm Laodicea Revel 3.16 yea and cast them off for their resisting of his good Spirit as he did the Jews 't is no time for his People to stay amongst them then and to continue with them in their Worship-Actions as he calls them but every one to deliver his own Soul by coming out of such Babylonish Worships whose Prayers are Abomination to God as all sinful Prayers are and neither this Baxter nor any one that he knows upon the Earth prayeth without sin as himself before hath confessed and so all of them together do daily and continually that which they should not do and leave undone what the Lord Commands them and so have no health in them and so now that the True Light shines so clear again from under the long Cloud of Antichristian Apostacy it is the wisdom of all that love God and their own Souls to joyn to the Lord in the Covenant of his Light and Spirit where no Committers of sin can joyn for Darkness and the Workers thereof can never joyn with the Light and the Workers thereof So now that the Trumpet hath sounded all ought to come to the holy Worship of God amongst the holy Worshippers that Worship in the Spirit of Holiness and Truth where no Worker of Iniquity nor Hypocrite can come out of all the Defiled Worship of the World whatsoever or under what Name soever in the Fall But this Baxter is in such love of hypocrisie that he makes a necessity of the Hypocrites being amongst the true Members of Christ as though they knew not how to do without them as if the good Corn could not grow so well if the Weeds were wanting saying Pag. 56. It is more for the sake of the truely Faithfull then for themselves that the Hypocrites have their Station and Priviledges in the Church God makes use of their Gifts and Profession for his Elect to many great Services of the Church To which I answer That this Language berayes thee further to be of Babylon and not of Zion what R. Baxter with all his seeming Zeal for Reformation in Oliver's dayes become now a-Pleader for the Hypocrites and their great Service in the Church But this is but like his Doctrine of his graceless Ministers which he pleads for Pag. 114. of his Book so R. Baxter and his Hypocrites and graceless Brethren with their Gifts or rather Thefts void of Grace have been so far from being serviceable to the Elect True Church that they have done it and ever did all the Injury that ever they can by their wicked Doctrines Ungodly lives and heaps of Lyes and false Accusations and cruel Persecutions in somuch that the growth of the heavenly Seed the Lillies of God the true Heirs of the Kingdom hath been and is as a Lilly among Thorns But Christ and Richard Baxter are directly contrary in their Judgment one to the other for Christ would not suffer the Devil in the man to preach him but commanded him to come out and hold his peace because Christ never had need of Devils or wicked men or Hypocrites to preach him but saith to such What hast thou to do to take my Laws and Covenant in thy Mouth and hatest to be reformed Psal. 50.16 c. and so far are graceless Priests and Hypocrites from being serviceable in this matter to his Church that he saith My Sheep hear my Voyce and they follow me but the graceless Minister and Hypocrite who is a Stranger to me they will not hear for such come but to rob and destroy read John 10. and see if ever R. Baxrter understood Scripture who talks so contrary to it As did those Pharisees of old whom Christ cried out so many times Wo against Mat. 23. Who would neither enter into the Kingdom of Heaven themselves nor suffer others And those in Ezekiel who sowed Pillows under mens Elbows making glad the Hearts of the Wicked Hirelings by perswading People that they must not disown them from being Ministers though they be totally void of all saving Grace and that Hypocrites have a Station in the Church for great services with their graceless Gifts to the Elect and by pleading for Games and Fashions of Apparel yea and the Opinions in Religion of bad People yea to such a measure that he is not ashamed to say That many an Error is taken up by going too far from other mens faults as is to be seen in Pag. 224. of his Book with many such like heathenish sayings up and down his Book a few whereof I only touch here and there as they come to mind that by those the Reader may see the nature of that wretched spirit that hath long lurked in him under a cloak of zeal for Reformation when the World pretended to such things but now that the World is for a manifest establishing of their old dark Stuff he turns about and is all for them as it were and against Zeal against
know the Truth the Truth shall set you free indeed But this Baxter and all such teach it for Doctrine That they are so far from being free from sin that their very prayers and best performances are not free from sin but sin is in them all Oh sad that ever they should dare to pretend to the Ministry of the Gospel who preach such a Doctrine as make nothing perfect but leaves them in sin all their lives long And no wonder that they and their Doctrine should be void of all good Fruit for saith God They have run and I have not sent them therefore they shall not profit the People at all And yet they would gladly have People know them and learn of them though they can do them no good at all and this is that sorry and bad Proof that the Hirelings make of their great knowledge they pretend unto which they have gotten with their natural Parts and hard Studies and so thy own words shall witness against thee Oh Baxter and thy Brethren who have given no good proof of your knowledge to this day nor have thereby preserved Peace and Concord amongst Believers but done what you can to break it for that Doctrine that makes not men free from sin leaves all the seeds of Discord and Dissention still in Peoples Minds for as sin separated man from God at first so doth it to this day keep them asunder and so keeps them from Love for God is Love and none live or dwell in Love but such as live and dwell in God But such as live in sin and never pray without it are out of God as the Apostle said of People in unbelief They were without God in the World It is not any outward Conformity that will or can make them to be at peace with or love one another for if it were possible to bring Papist Athist and Carnal Protestants and Professors of all sorts into one Form of outward Worship as for Time Place Words or the like Yet there would be neither Love Peace nor Concord amongst them for want of Unity with God and his good Spirit the onely true Ground and Foundation of all true Love Peace and Concord And so Oh R. Baxter we have known thee this many years to be a great Enemy of God and therefore we may not learn of thee nor any such but of Christ do we learn ever praised be his Name who teaches his People to profit and so it s onely the poor deluded Multitude that knowâ— thee not who learn of thee and suck in such poysoned Doctrine as makes them most uncapable of the pure Word of Life and Doctrine of Salvation so that Publicans and Harlots who make little or no Profession enter into the Kingdom of God before you And as for making a stir with thy knowledg and striving to set up thy own Name thereby though thou set the whole World on fire by it who more notorious then thy self in this R. Baxter as witness all thy lying frothy words Books and Pamphlets which thou hast spoken and written against the appearance of Christ and his Truth in these late years but thy Studies and thy Works God hath cursed for no Child of Light will ever buy any of thy Merchandize nor the deceitfull Wares of any other Merchants of Babylon for evermore Blessed be God for his unspeakable Gift Amen But the end of these words of setting the World on fire set down here by this Baxter is easily seen to be this to wit to perswade People that those who are zealous for God in these days in publishing his everlasting Gospel upon the Earth in a cross to the World are such as set up themselves and would set the World on fire And so he is manifest to be one of the old evil Generation of Priests who accused Christ for a mover of Sedition and Paul for a pestilent Fellow Oh it was that good stirring Spirit of the Lord Jesus in himself and his Followers which did so trouble the World the combustible World in all Ages that made and doth make the Hrieling Priests and their deluded Followers so rage and cry out but as for setting the World on fire in a goodsence Christ Jesus saith That he came to set Fire in the Earth But for setting the World on fire in Baxter's sence that is sowing discord and dissention amongst People this is the work and ever was the work of the Hireling Priests who loved to be called of men Masters as this R Baxter is as is said before witness not onely our own Age but the holy Scripture and the Histories of all Times and Ages as those that read may understand And yet these proud Masterly and false Teachers were ever the first and for wardst that cryed against Christ and his Followers for disturbing the World's Peace when as this Doctrine of Christ's Spirit though it did alwayes disturb the Devil's yet it did alwayes tend to the working of the hearts and Souls of the People into God's Peace and did ever and doth at this day work this glorious and blessed Effect in all that believe Whereof we are Witnesses praised be God though for the Testimony of Christ we are troubled on every side by the wicked World So that even now when the Wicked have no peace for there is no peace to the Wicked we whom the World mock stone and persecute under the Nick-Name of Quakers or so have peace in all our Dwellings And within Egypt is full of Darkness that one may feel it yet in our Goshen is plenty of Light ever praised be God And when the World of false Christians are learning War and preparing Weapons we are ceasing from War and not to learn it any more as the Lord hath said And therefore Oh ye Inhabitants of the Earth if ye knew us ye would not hate us and persecute us but love us with your Hearts because of the good will of our Hearts towards you for our Weapons are not Carnal but Spiritual Not for pulling down or Destroying of you but your Enemies your sins which wars against your Souls And the Reason why we cannot joyn with you in your Liturgyes and Worship-actions is not because we hate you but because we Love God and your Souls for if we should joyn with you in your defiled Worship as your selves confess they are we should strengthen you in an evil Way But by our separating from you because of the unholiness of your Sacrifices occasion may be ministred to you to question your State and so some of you in time may come out of your Darkness into the marvellous Light of the Lord Jesus with us and praise the Lord in the Land of the Living so be it Another of this Baxter's Follies and false Doctrines I may here mention as one may read it in that Book of his that I have under hand to wit in Pag. 114. are these words It may be unlawfull saith he in a Ruler to command
warned from following such any more for who would have thought that ever him called Doctor Bryan of Coventry and Richard called Mr. Baxter of Kidderminster who were so promoted in Oliver's time for conformity to Oliver's Laws and Religion in opposition to the Prelates and their Common-Prayers should now with a little blast of mens Breath be silenced as Baxter's Epistle to his Book saith for a time and so shattered and confounded with the fall that when they awaked and got a litle Breath that they should for fear of men be so transformed into other shapes as not to be ashamed to get into their Mouthes blasphemous words of making People Members of Christ Children of God and Heirs of his Kingdom by having a little Water sprinkled on their Faces by a manmade-Priest when they were Infants and understood nothing then which passage there is not any passage in the Liturgy or Common-Service-Book nay nor in any Book in the World whatsoever more contrary to the Scriptures of Truth as all sober Minded People well understand yea and this Bryan himself knows in his own Conscience that they are not sound words though he most notoriously and falsely say to please the present Evil World with all that the holy Scriptures warrant them in a sacramental Sence But I desire that all People who fear the Lord would take heed of such dangerous Heresies for the Scriptures of Truth do not allow of Falshood in any Sence at all for its absolutely false in the sight of God and to all good Men that Infants by any such outward sprinkling or doing as they call Baptism are made the Children of God Members of Christ Heirs of his Kingdom seeing the Scripture no where commands any such thing but saith That except People be born from above they cannot see the Kingdom of God But the Day is dawned that makes all things manifest praises to God And therefore People consider what a wretchedness those are under who follow such blind Guides as turn and change with every Time and can be any thing or nothing in appearance so that they can but keep up their Name amongst men What was the Common-Prayers and such things so odious and damnable a thing in the Eyes of these Priests in Oliver's Time And is it now yea the worst part of it became such an Idol in their Eyes as that those that dwell in God must be condemned of deep prejudice for not conformity to it What will not that spirit that climbs over the Door and never was sent of God to preach the Gospel say or unsay so as it can but please the present Times But Oh thou blasphemous Bryan the Accuser of the Brethren can those that dwell with God deny to conform to that Worship or Service which is of God And therefore it is safely and truely concluded that the Parish-Service thou pleads for is not of God because for conscience to God with whom they dwell they cannot conform to it but Oh how the Serpent creeps upon his Belly to do mischief by seeking to perswade the consciencious People That by their not joyning with the Parish Worships and Assemblies they open their Mouthes wide to cast a Scandal upon their Persons as prophane and upon the strict Profession of walking precisely according to the written Word which they think sayes this Bryan in that pag. 292. of his Book gives you no warrant for your Separation c. And then down upon his Belly he goes saying My humble and earnest request to you is to lay aside your prejudice and examine by the good Word whether your separation be not sinful Answ. To which I answer in the Word of the Lord Blessed for ever that we who for the Work and Word of the Lord in our Hearts and Mouthes are by the sinful Parishes of England and elsewhere disdained and scornfully called Quakers are not separated from them because of any prejudice or the like against them but God who by his Everlasting Light of Truth hath shewed us the Evil of their Doings and of our own when we worshipped we knew not what amongst them he I say hath separated us from them and joyned us to himself in Christ Jesus where with him our Dwelling is indeed though Bryan think not so praised be the Name of our most holy Lord God for evermore And so we are not yet to examine whether our separation be sinful or nay for that is done and we do know it to be good according to the good Word from the beginning most certainly And so the offence which the Parish-worshippers take is offence without all cause on our parts given and so it is no other then the Unbelievers took in all Generations against them that feared God as the Jews were offended at Christ and his Apostles yea and all Christians in those dayes because they could not worship with their Neigbours in their Superstitions as this Bryan would have us and not onely so but they killed Christ and his Apostles and grievously persecuted the Christians for their separation then as they do us at this day and so the reproach of Christ is to us great Riches and the Persecutors God will examine and judge And as Moses did chuse rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God then to enjoy Egypt's Glory for a Season so blessed are all that with us are perswaded in their Hearts to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes not heeding what the Wicked say or judge of them but as the Apostle exhorts looking at Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him endured the Cross and despised the Shame and so through all the Tryals and Persecutions of this World enter into God's Glory where none can come to make afraid But if there be any who through prejudice as this Bryan speaks and not by the Spirit of the Lord are separated from the Parish-Worship it is necessary for such to see to themselves and consider lest their return be as shameful as their separation was sinful like this Bryan and Baxter who it seems all this while have been no real and true Separatists to God but have been onely in the self-separation according to the will and force of Times For though the poor deceived Followers of such men be at present more averse from joyning with the Superstitions of the Times then your Hearers are as Baxter sayes yet if you grow not out of their rotten Root into the Root Christ Jesus you will be weary and faint in your Way before the end but let all know that these self-separatists who have not their Birth of God are no real Dwellers with God though this Bryan its like had an Eye especially to such in his words and to whom its like in a special manner he applies his fawning flattering words and desires But what 's the Reason may we say again that these non-conforming Ministers by Baxter's report are not so much against the
God and which Things we Preach or Speak not in the words which man 's or Humane Wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual 1 Cor. 2. But this R.B. comparing Spiritual things with Carnal is not wise who because old men and long Students in Arts and worldly Sciences are most Wise or likely to be so therefore they that labour and study most in Books of Divinity so call'd get most of the Spirit 's teaching O sad That ever the minds of the Children of Men should be so cover'd with darkness and yet read the Scripture of Truth which witnesses to no one thing more then to the Free Teachings of the Spirit of God without humane Helps For all the Help that is humane or that man who is ab humo that is from the Earth can afford is but natural and of this World which comes to nought therefore is it said That none of the Princes that is the chief men of this World knew the Mystery of Christ and his Kingdom then which made them so band against him see the 2d Psalm And the Natural Man with all his natural means discerns not the things of the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discern'd So every one that would know the Mind of the Spirit of God must come to feel through the Most Holy Faith a measure of it in themselves For after ye believ'd ye were seal'd with the Spirit of Promise saith Paul And the Word is nigh thee even in thy Heart and Mouth O thou that hast an Ear to hear hear what the Spirit speaks even the Word of Faith which we Preach Therefore go not forth from the Anointing of God in thy Heart to hear the frothy and false Doctrine of such as R.B. who have run and set up themselves by their humane Helps in the place of Teachers and God never sent them and therefore they cannot profit the People at all but lead them about like silly Women laden with divers Sins and Lusts yea in their Prayers and best Performances as is manifest and so not being sent and enabled by God's Spirit they can never lead you to it but from it as is manifest Also R. B. in pag. 6. before mention'd saith The Objection hath much Confusion in it and how proves he that but by saying 1. It confoundeth the Spirit 's teaching us by inditing the Scripture with the Spirit 's teaching us the meaning of the Scriptures 2. And it confoundeth the common Knowledge of Divinity with the saving Knowledge of it No man cometh to a common Knowledge fit for a Teacher of others without the Spirit 's teaching by the Scriptures for that was the first part of the Spirits teaching us to inspire the Prophets and Apostles to deliver a Teaching Word to the Churches by which we might all be taught of God through all Generations But many men have excellent common Knowledge by this Word and by the common help of the Spirit without that special Help which begetteth saving Knowledg And all Knowledge requireth Time and Labour to obtain it though the Spirit giveth it and though it may be sanctified to us in a little time but that may be a means of saving others which saveth not the man that hath it And in pag. 114. farther saith Take them not for no Ministers that want Grace totally and marvel not that Gifts are more necessary to the validity of Ministration then Grace is he may perform the Office of a Minister to the benefit of the Church that hath no Saving Grace at all Thus for Rich Baxter O! What Sorcery and Egyptian-Darkness is here to make void the New Covenant and Free Gratious Teachings of the Spirit of God in these dayes and to establish the Letter in the room and stead thereof which only witnesses to it and is a Declaration concerning what the Spirit of God did in them and in the World before Christ's coming in the Flesh and what was done during his being in it and what the Spirit would do in the Believing Souls and in the World after that time But this the Hirelings do that they by their trading with and giving their false meanings upon the Scriptures they may keep the people in Blindness and so from the Anointing and Teaching and Enjoyment of that Spirit that was in them that gave forth Scriptures that they may not see their deceitful Doctrines and Merchandizes lest they should buy no more of them For no man that knows the Badness of Babylon will buy them any more and then will the Merchants of Souls Mourn For they that know the Lord and his Spirit 's Teaching in them which is the Good Old Way yea and the ever New Fresh Profitable and Living WAY will follow no more such men as would bring in and establish a Graceless Ministry as this Baxter doth here to his everlasting Shame But such Graceless Priests the Lord will have none of nor his People neither For my Sheep hear my Voice saith Christ and a Stranger they will not hear Surely a Graceless Man is this Stranger They to wit graceless men saith John 1 Epist. 4. are of the World and the World hear them we are of God Stewards of the manifold Grace of God 1 Pet 4 10 And they that are of God hear us And so ever Bless'd and Prais'd be the Great and Glorious Name of the Lord Jesus who hath restor'd to them that obey him the Glorious Doctrine of the Spirit 's Teaching as was in the Apostles dayes according to his true Promise where all in the Truth of which we the People of God in scorn call'd Quakers are Members where all I say is done in and by the Holy Spirit prais'd be God and nothing own'd among'st us but what is so done Here is Praying in and by the Spirit and Preaching in and by the Spirit and Singing in and by the Spirit of our Holy Lord God and so the Head being Spiritual and the Members of the Body every one Spiritual for we are all Baptiz'd by one Holy Spirit into the one Heavenly Body our Food is also Spiritual Heavenly Bread and Heavenly Wine and the Water Spiritual that Sanctifies us and makes us clean to God in all our Sacrifices and Services for Christ gave himself for his Church which is his Body that he might wash it and present it spotless to himself and without all Deformity by the washing of Water even the Water of Life in the Word of Life the creating Word of the everlasting Father which is Spirit and Life the Resurrection and the Life in every believing Soul for we are redeemed from Death thereby that we might forever hereafter serve God in the newness of his own Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter as all such do as know no other teaching Word but the Letter as this Baxter doth and so they having gotten a little Brain-knowledge by their humane helps and not by the Spirit of Truth
never taught by man Oh happy therefore are they who are come to the Everlasting Covenant of God and to know the inward Teachings and Leadings of his Holy Spirit in their Heart to Lead them into all Truth according to Promise Joh. 16. without being beholding to Vain Man's Help for whereof is he to be accounted as is manifest even as a Thing of naught is the best of them out of the Truth For O! How Ignorant of the Ministry of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit 's Inspiration sufficient Teaching is this Baxter who is not content to sit among the Parish Teachers as a Fellow but even takes upon him to be a Teacher of the Teachers Yea so Ignorant and Unbelieving is he concerning the Spirit 's Power and Sufficiency in these dayes that without an outward Miracle he will not believe any such Thing Nay he would not have People believe for themselves that God teacheth their own Hearts unless it come in man's Way and by Humane study Labour and natural Means Therefore the Lord saw good for his own Glory and for the Vindication of his own Honourable and Everlasting Truth which the Hirelings had made void by their Traditions and for the absolute necessity of his own beloved Seed to restore unto us the Ancient Doctrine of the Holy Spirit 's Sufficiency in all the Work of bringing man out of the Fall to God that the Lord the Spirit might be the first and the last yea all in all in their Salvation without man's Help for he is worthy who as he created all things by his own alone Power and according to his Good Will so he restores all things according to the Counsel of his own Will and not of Flesh nor of Blood nor of the Will of Man as the Apostle also speaks Joh. 1.13 but Oh How unlike is this Doctrine of the Apostle's to Baxter's for when the Apostle had said To them that received Christ to them he gave Power to become the Sons of God left any should think as this Baxter doth that it was either by man's Labour or Study or Humane endeavour or Art or Parts or any natural Abilities or Helps whatsoever he saith It was not of Flesh nor of Blood nor of the Will of Man but of God And of his own Will begat he us by the Word of Truth saith that other Apostle Jam. 1.17 18. and he bids not err as this Baxter doth to set up another Fountain or Root and that this Word of Truth is not any outward Writing Voice or any Creature John in his first Chapter tells us That in the beginning was this Word and the Word was with God and is God and his Name is called the Word of God Revel 19.13 so this Word though it works according to the witness of the Scripture which it gave forth freely and as it self pleaseth in the Children of men yet it is not the Scripture For search the Scriptures or ye do search the Scriptures saith Christ That witness of me but you will not come to me that you may have Life and these were they that Paul said He bore them record that they had a Zeal for God and Scripture but not according to knowledge for they being Ignorant of God's Righteousness went about to Establish their own Righteousness and submitted not to God's And so even so this Baxter and many such like have a blind Zeal and a great Talk of the Scriptures without and of the Spirit 's Teaching by the Letter and Humane Helps and the like but will not come to Christ to know him in them that they may have Life and Wisdom and Righteousness But would Establish their own which is meer Emptiness and Vanity in the sight of God and all truly Spiritual men 2 Cor. 13.5 Rom. 10.3 And how far this Baxter's Language in those other words where he saith That if any will pretend to a good Understanding of the Scriptures without learning the Languages which they are written in and the Customs of those Times Countries or without much reading and long study of the scriptures themselves and the Writings of them that 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 them had need of some Miracle or sounding 〈…〉 to perswade themselves or others that they are not deceived How far I say is this Doctrine and language in this 〈◊〉 from the Language of the holy men of God that writ Scripture let the Spiritual Man who best understands all things judge for the holy Apostles Magnified the free Grace and the free Teachings of the Spirit of Grace and debased man and all Humane Helps as is said before and as the Scripture every where witnesseth But this Baxter tyeth the Wait and main stress of all upon Humane Learning natural Parts knowledge of Customs and Countries much reading long study and the like insomuch that without them man must not look that any should believe him Nay nor he must not own God's Teaching in his own Heart without these unlest seconded by some Miracle or the like But Oh the Misery therefore of such poor Souls as follow such wretched Teachers and their damnable Doctrine as I may well And Oh forever Blessed are they who are brought from off such Barren Mountains into the good Fold where all the Lambs of Christ lie down in the good Pasture of the Spirit 's fulness and walk up and down in the Light of the Lord under the hand of the good Shepherd Christ Jesus where none can come to make afraid nor deceive for in the Light of our God we see all these false Teachers and their devouring Doctrines and by the holy Power of God are delivered from them and made able in the overcoming Spirit of Truth to declare against them Glory to God forever Amen Again Let us revew and consider in particular a little of those words of his before set down where he saith as an Argument to perswade his young Ones and Dissenters to his falsly called Humility Especially saith he If you know your advantages for knowledge have been less then other mens that you are younger or that it is but a few Years since you entred upon the Study of the Scripture or that you have not any stronger natural Parts then other men or that you have not had that Measure of learning which might further your knowledge of the holy Scripture But that others that differ from you have had much more of all these Helps and Means then you and have Prayed more and Meditated more c. To which I Answer That by these words it is easily seen what manner of knowledge it is that this Baxter trades in and would have all Slaves unto and what are his Means for obtaining it to wit a meer natural Knowledge which by meer Worldly Helps and Advantages may be attained for a meer Heathen accompanied with many Years and much Humane Learning and strong Natural Parts that can but talk much of the Scripture especially having on him a Form of Prayer and the
Reformation Separation Revelation or any thing that may manifest People to have a care of their Souls But Oh the misery the misery the unspeakable misery of such as are not yet redeemed from under the slavery and Egyptian Bondage of such men But the Lord will break the Rod of the Oppressor as in times of old as in the days of Midian and Egypt where both Jannes and Jambres who withstood the Lord's Servant Moses in his calling Israel out of Egypt were made manifest and their Folly by all clearly seen as this Baxter's is by every open Eye Praised be the Lord for his Infinite Love in all things But the Hearts of the Righteous whom God delights to comfort he doth all he can to make sad by perswading the dark cruel World that the cause of all the miseries of the late years yea and at present in these Islands is much what if not mostly occasioned by those who in tenderness of Conscience to God could not nor cannot joyn with nor uphold the Popish Customs and Antichristian imposition in Matters relating to Religion and the Soul which is more pretious to them that know it then all the World And in the Truth we may say that if we should come amongst the Steeple-house Worshippers or any other Company who are only separated from them in form and not in Life and Power and their exercise or Gift and heavenly holy Worship and Service to the Lord Jesus Christ our God we should even sacrifice the Abomination of the Egyptians before their Eyes and would you not Stone us or Imprison us or otherwise evil intreat us even as you do and ever have done yea yea and as they dealt with the Prophet Isaiah for saying Chap. 66.3 He that killeth an Ox is as if he flew a man he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs Neck c. and Chap. 1.11 c. To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of them and who hath required it at your hands to tread my Courts bring no more vain Oblations c. for which it is said they slew him so they would deal with us And what measure have the dear Servants of God in New-England met withal not long since for the like witness against those Hypocrites but Death and cruel Whippings and Banishment and in old England lately but most savage and cruel usage And would this Baxter yet have us yea and those he counts his Brethren and of his Flock who have any tenderness in them to communicate with such whose Hands are full of Blood if he were as the mouth of God he would put a difference between the Clean and Unclean But he being of an other spirit is for leading People back again into Egypt not for bringing them out of Egypt into the Promised Land and so his Work and endeavour is accursed of God and abhorred of all that know God who are escaped out of Sodom and Egypt and Babylon spiritual where our Lord was crucified And to us the Lord hath said Let them return to you ye saved People but return not you to them for their Pastors are become bruitish and have not sought the Lord therefore they shall not prosper and all their Flocks shall be scattered Jer. 10.21 He that hath Ears let him hear and he that readeth let him understand for the time is at hand for the Lord is arisen to plead with all the false Worshippers upon Earth and with him is no respect of persons And now is the Lord God of ever blessed Power and love appeared in the Earth after the long Night of Apostacy to restore all things and now are the Virgins called upon through the whole World to trim their Lamps for behold the Bridegroom is come and coming and now the foollish Virgins who have been long sleeping and slumbering in a dead Profession of Christ and the Scriptures are found wanting in their Faith Holiness Love and all other Christian Vertues and so in their Unholiness shut out yea and though they run to the Hirelings that set all things to sale to buy yet still before they come the Door is shut for whilst the Lord stood waiting upon them with his pure free and full Grace and Spirit they would have none of it but rather chosed to go their own Ways of Carnal endeavours and man commanded Religion and so like the Jewes of old going about to Establish their own Righteousness have not submitted to the Righteousness of God which is by Faith in Christ Jesus But the wise Virgins who are of an honest Heart to fear God and wait for the Lord Jesus Christ to appear in their spirits to set up his heavenly and everlasting Kingdom in them they receive daily of his fulness which filleth all in all where the true Oyl of the Kingdom is found in their holy Lamps to the praise of the Glory of the unspeakable Love and free Grace of the Almighty Father so be it Again to that part of this Baxter's former Answer where he saith That in all Ages God giveth to some few men more excellent natural Parts then others and he engageth some in deeper and more laborious Studies and he blesseth some mens Studies more then other and therefore there are still some few who know more then the rest of the Country or Mankind and it were well for the rest if they knew these and would learn of them Quer. But how may one know these hard and laborious Studiers as he calls them Oh saith this Baxter They are such as give proof of their knowledge they pretend to and they are such to imploy their knowledge to the preserving of the Peace and Concord of Believers and do not proudly make a stir with it to set up their own Names though thereby they set the World on fire To which I answer and say it is still more and more manifest that this Baxter layes all the weight and stress upon natural Parts and hard Studies as though the Kingdom of God were not at all come nor the Promise of God concerning the free Gifts and plentifull pouring forth of the Spirit not yet fulfilled and so a necessity of learning at the feet of Gamaliel and earthly Doctors still But now that the Spirit of Truth according to God's blessed Promise is come and witnessed amongst us that believe praised be God we cannot go to such as this Baxter with all their natural Parts and hard Studies for the Spirit of Truth leads us and all that obey it into all Truth but this Baxter and such as he leads are in all Error as is manifest for they are of those that lead about a Company of poor Souls silly as Women leaden with divers Sins and Lusts ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth which sets free from sin for that and nothing else is the Truth which sets free from sin for saith Christ If ye
a thing that will do no good because it is a vain Command and maketh men spend that time in vain and yet be the Subject's duty to do it Answ. This is just such Doctrine as Paul's Enemies taught who said Men might do evil that good might come of it whose Condemnation was just So to avoid Sufferings from men he would have us to obey Unlawfull Commands which will do no good but rather a great Evil to wit make People spend pretious Time in vain Away with such Antichristian stuff amongst the Heathen for all true Christians abhor it in their Hearts as the Lord the good Shepheard hath commanded them And now R. Baxter to that part of thy feigned Prayer Pag. 252. where in words thou seemest to desire That God would stir up some faithful Friend to tell thee with convincing Evidence where it is that thou hast miscarried that contrition may prepare thee for the Peace of Remission Here the Lord hath contrary to thy will and desire stirred up one in faithfulness and love to thy Soul and the Souls of the poor deluded People whom thou hast deceived to tell thee plainly of thy faults and grievous miscarriages as by what is convincingly in these Lines set down doth appear and might be more abundantly if all the miscarrages in this Book onely to let pass all thy other were answered unto in particular but these in this Answer of mine being as it were least of what the rest are may satisfie at present And Oh that the Righteous Judgments of God may come upon thy Heart and the Hearts of all them who are in the same false fleshly confidence with thy self whose very Prayers are not without sin that you may never have peace day nor night until you humble your selves before the Lord and repent of all your hard Speeches and evil Deeds that you have spoken and done against him and his Servants for his Truth 's sake that if it be possible you may be saved from the wrath that will certainly come upon you if you Repent not for that old wicked Paper full of Lyes as I made manifest before thee and some of thy Company in thy Study to thy shame at Kidderminster which thou writst in the pride of thy Heart against us in Oliver's dayes when thou wast lifted up Entituled Reasons to perswade why no reasonable Man can be a Quaker amongst the rest of that kind which thou art not humbled for to this day as I perceive by this Book do all stand upon Record before the Lord the Righteous Judge against thee for in those thy doings and all of that kind against the manifest and manifold Appearances of Christ in his People of every degree thou hast plainly declared thy self to be of Rabshekaie's spirit who raised against the Living God and his dispised Israel and of that spirit that Jannes and Jambres who withstood Moses in his work under God of calling Israel out of Egypt and as the Lord pleaded the Cause of his People in those dayes so will he as he hath for ever plead our Innocent Cause against thee and all his Enemies for of a truth the Lord God blessed for ever hath raised us up to be his Servants Sons and Daughters to bear his Name in Righteousness before the Children of men in a pure holy Witness against all the false Ways and Worships of false man so be it and so it will be as hard for thee and all to kick against the Pricks as it was in persecuting Saul Acts 9. read and consider lest the day pass over you as it did from the unbelieving Jewes who would not receive God come and manifest in flesh in those days to whom Christ said Ye will not come to me that ye might have Life but they would seek it in the killing Letter and as it were by the works of the Law until midnight darkness and utter Desolation came upon them For Oh how the Earth is filled with Violence because of such Doctrines and Teachings as this Baxter and such men brings forth for behold how the Field of his Followers and Admirers are all over-grown with Briers and Thorns and noysom Weeds as the proper Fruit of their accursed Doctrines as this Baxter himself sets down in his 48th Direction Pag. 236. of his Book in these words that is to say Oh Friends how bad are we our selves What pride is in our Hearts What Ignorance in our Minds So wanting are we even in the lowest Grace Humility that we have scarce enough to make us take patiently as now we are giving out upon others So selfish as dishonoureth our Profession with the brand of contradictedness and partiallity So weak that our Duties are lyable to greater censures then we can bear And our inward Graces weaker then our outward Duties This must needs be so in the Duties of the graceless Minister thou pleads for of such ungoverned thoughts that Confusion and Tumult instead of Order and fruitfull Improvement are the daily temper and imployment of our Immaginations This must needs be so in you that live in such opposition to the Life of God manifest in his Children at this day So passionate impatient and corrupt that we are a trouble to our selves and others This must needs proceed from such a corrupt Fountain and a dishonour to the Gospel it is so and a hinderance to the conversion of those whom our holy examplary lives should win to God So strange to Heaven as if we had never well believed it that is so and therefore the Sheep of Christ deny your voyce you who are such Strangers to him And to say all in one so empty of love to our dear Redeemer and to the God of love that our Hearts lie vacant to entertain the love of worldly Vanities ye Hypocrites what have you to do to name Christ who are thus unbelieving and unredeemed and to fly back from the serious thoughts of God which should be our daily work and pleasure and fly from the face of Death as if we should be the worst when neerest to our God Oh Hypocrites how can you for shame call God yours when you are thus beyond measure bad when Scripture saith He that saith he knows God and keeps not his Commandments is a Lyar and the Truth is not in him see 1 Joh. 2.4 and repent lest ye all perish together Priests and People for the Lord is arisen to Judgment and none can stand before him which hath unclean and filthy Garments as you are covered with whom Baxter here puts on to be Teachers of others and yet remain your selves with him under such woful sins and condemnation as is here spoken of But surely if you did believe and feel inwardly that it were so bad with you as here in words is signified you could not go away so lightly with your burdens as you seem to do but it would stop your mouthes and cause all your Pride and Glory to cease For consider but the
out of the Church as prophane c. And so for this thy suming up and concluding God hath concluded thee with the wicked Persecutors for the Judgement of his great Day O Baxter But hold Baxter thou that art thus hot and without all fear in pleading for the Devil's Kingdom I say when the Lord bids us and we obey him in separating from the Wicked is this all one with the Sin of Persecution Oh thou unjust man the Lord will be terrible to thee in the day of his Wrath which is nigh at hand to come upon thee for all thy Villany against him and for all thy daubing deceitful words in the beginning and end of this Direction the Lord sees thee to be a Fighter against him and thy Reward will be according to thy Works as he hath said and all the Rocks and Mountains of the wicked World for whom thou pleadest shall not hide thee from his strook As testifies the good Spirit of the Lord Jesus in his Servant Some more of the bad and strange sayings of this Baxter in his Book Pag. 219. GOdly men are much liker to be in the right then Ungodly men Answ. This shows what a Stranger he is to the certainty of Godliness Pag. 220. Sometimes the worser sort of men may hold fast the Truth Answ. This is a gross Lye for the bad cannot hold fast the good unless in Prison or so If any better Persons deny Infant Baptism the worser Sort of People would be all against them and yet be in the right Answ. Thus sprinkling of Infants for which there is no Scripture must needs be wrong whosoever hold it and the corruption of it appears so much the more because the worser Sort are so much for it Many do take a Form of Prayer or Liturgy to be unlawful meerly because the most of the worser Sort are for it Answ. What deceit is this If thy Hearers so badly taught by thee do such things yet those that are taught of God deny things because they know them to be evil in themselves but what Form or Liturgy is that which the most of the worser Sort of the People are for even that which speaks peace to the Wicked by telling them they were Regenerated by sprinkling a little Water on their Faces or the like when Infants And that they shall be saved though they continue in sin all their lives long but the Hour cometh and now is that neither in the invented Forms of the Hypocrite's long Prayers nor in the short invented Forms and Liturgies of the Prophane but in Spirit and Truth as the Lord Jesus enables them will God be worshipped and served by his People for the Day is dawned and Shaddows 〈◊〉 and as the Day doth more and more arise in its Glory with all the things of vain Men pass away so be it Pag. 221. The some of his 44. Direction by his own setting down runs thus Ye take the Examples of religious Men to be one of your most perilous Temptations and therefore labour to discover especially what are the sins of Professors in the Age that you live in that you may especially watch and fortifie your Souls against them And adds That sometimes the strictest Sort run in a Gang after one Opinion and sometimes after another Answ. Here I appeal to that of God in all that fear his Name and are alive to Truth whether this do not wholly tend to the hardening of Pharaoh's Heart against the People of God in these dayes who are in the Truth it self and not in Opinions as the Hypocrites are for though such as are begotten into Forms of Religion without the Truth by the Hirelings do never cease from erring yet the truely Religious who are begotten to God by Christ walk in the Way undefiled which the Fools who are upright in Heart cannot err in But this his telling of running in a gang is a filthy and reproachful Speech wholly of Ashdod and the Lord will judge thee O Enemy for thy work R. B. and therefore let all that fear God take heed of this Baxter's Soul-defiling and Heart-hardning Doctrine for out of the dark and wicked Kingdom wherein he and all such live is the Lord calling his People And to conclude If any would see this Harlot in its fine dress and the crooked Serpent in its glittering colour on the Head which must be bruised and yet with his Sting in his Tail which is full of Venom let them consider that 44. Direction which runs thus Desire the highest Degree of Holiness and to be free from the corruptions of the Times but affect not to be odd and singular from ordinary Christians in lawful things for instance If it were to go in a meaner Garb then others and as the Quakers not to put off the Hat or with the Friars to go bare Foot or in a distinguishing Habit that all men may see and say This is a singular Person in Religion it is easie to see how this gratifieth Pride Answ. But now that the Lord is arisen according to his Promise Isa. 27.1 which saith In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong Sword shall punish Leviathan the peircing Serpent even Leviathan that crooked Serpent and he shall slay the Dragon that is in the Sea Therefore I say it is that the Dragon is so wrathful to pour forth his Floods of Persecution after the heavenly Woman and her Man-child and therefore it is that the crooked Serpent in such men as this Baxter is is so at work every way seeking with their cunning and crafty deceitful Doctrines to peirce the Heart the Life of Truth by their Darts and so with their fair colourable words as the Apostle speaks To deceive the hearts of the Simple and Ignorant People but the Lord taketh the Wily in their own craftiness and the Pit they digg for others themselves fall into and the Lord 's Spiritual Sword of Truth pierces through all their lives and dead in the great Sea and Puddle of their own Iniquities before the Lord and his Saints this day they lie Glory to his Name the mighty God over all who is worthy For what more glistering and fair seeming words can the Serpent give then to say Desire the highest Degree of Holiness and to be free from the corruptions of the Time But that this Baxter intends no such thing no nor believes that any shall ever attain to any such thing whilst on the Earth is most manifest by the whole current of his Doctrine for not onely in his former Books where he hath publickly declared That sinless Perfecttion is the Doctrine of the Devil hatch'd in Hell c. But even in this very Book it fully appears what an Enemy he is not onely to the highest Degree but even to Holiness it self where amongst his other Unholy Doctrines he saith as is before mentioned from pag. 195. That there is no man alive that worshippeth God without some sin and
them by consenting to any of their proved Corruptions Then I say If we may not have Fellowship with them in their Corruptions no not so much as by consent then we must not have Fellowship with them at all for they and their Corruptions are one for saith Christ Ye are of your Father the Devil for his Works ye will do But saith Bryan Christ was a Member of this Church as he calls it of those wicked Jews because he was circumcised and frequented the Temple and eat the Passover or so then which saying of this Bryan nothing can be more false and blasphemous for what though Christ was circumcised and went sometimes into the Temple and eat the Passover or so which had been Ordinances of God for their time and were Shaddows of good Things to come what is that to prove Christ a Member of that Body whose House was left unto them desolate and who were headed by the Devil which at length put them on to murder him O sad that ever People in their love of the World should be so blind but what is Christ's conforming to the Shaddows of the Law which God gave for that time and by him to be fulfilled and so ended to your requiring us to conform to you in that or those Things which God never ordained as sprinkling of Infants and not onely so but teaching for Doctrine that you make them thereby the Children of God Members of Christ and Heirs of his Kingdom and also your giving David's Psalms in Rhime and Meeter to the wicked World to sing to God's dishonour And to hear a proud Man and covetous man who is an Idolator preach and pray whom God never sent yea and to maintain him in his sins contrary to all Reason and Religion also how can we conform to you in your corruptions of respecting Persons and of having mens Persons in admiration because of advantage contrary to the express Doctrine of the Apostle which saith Jam. 2.1 c. Have not the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory with respect of Persons yea and plead for their Transgressions yea how can we conform to such as under the Name of Christians do live manifestly in the sins of the Heathen as Fornication Covetousness Idolatry Drunkeness and are Railers and Extortioners and lovers of Pleasures more then lovers of God from whom the Apostle bids us turn away 2 Tim. 3. and 1 Cor. 5.11 c. with whom he forbids us to eat and yet with such both Baxter and Bryan for all their former seeming hypocritical zeal would now have us to communicate yet not so much as consent to their Corruptions neither as their daubing contradicting Doctrine seems willing to have then I say we must neither have fellowship with them in their Worship-Actions as Baxter calls them nor in their ordinary Conversation for all is corrupt for what greater assent or consent can we give then by joyning with them or practising such things openly but its better to obey God then Man both in this and all things and as the Lord said to Jeremiah so in this case hath he said to us Let them return to thee but return not thou to them for what fellowship hath Light with Darkness or the Temple of God with Idols And now I come a little to set before you poor People who have been deceived by such men as this Baxter and Bryan are something of the answer they give to the Arguments of the zealous People of old called Brownists or so who could not for Conscience sake conform to their Common-Prayer c. Their Objection saith Bryan in page 297. of his Book was this to wit That the People of England were never rightly called for in the beginning of the Queens to wit Elizabeths Reign they were by her Command and Proclamation compelled to embrace the Protestant Religion and to conform to God's Worship whereas in the new Testament we have no Example of People compelled to the Service of God Christ commanding Fisher-Men to convert Souls by preaching not Princes to make Disciples by compulsion therefore the Church of Christ England he should have said for who ever denyed the Church of Christ had no right constitution But now see the wretched Answer of this Bryan to the said Objection of the old Non-conformists If we speak saith he of a Church first planted the People of such a Nation are first called by the Word before they come to be a Church but it is not so saith he of a Country where for a long time true Religion hath been professed which is our case and as to that part of the Objection that there is no such Example in the New-Testament First The Magistrates were then Enemies to the Christian Religion Secondly saith he It sufficeth that we have Examples in the Old-Testament 2 Kings 23.21.2 Chron. 15.13 and 33.16 and 34.33 nor have saith he Christian Princes less Power in their Dominion to abolish Idolatry and by Laws and Penalties to compel their Subjects where there is a parity of Reason And after this Bryan having wearied himself with setting down several words to and against both what the Conformists said for and the Non-conformists said against these Things he takes breath and sayes he returns to satisfie the Objection to wit the Objection before mentioned about Separation with such words as these It is not necessary and generally true saith he of all the Members of the Visible Church that they be called by the Word Answ. To which I answer on behalf of Truth That it is the great Love and tender Mercy of God to our Souls that he hath delivered us from under such men as this Bryan and Baxter are who know nothing as they ought to know but professing themselves to be wise are become most foolish and bruitish in their minds and words by such false and soul-destroying Doctrines as these affirming that People may be called into the visible Church without the Word and if one ask him if not by the Word by what then His answer is by sprinkling when Infants or for fear of Man But what are these Calls into the visible Church A strange Church must that needs be for certain where People are called into it without God's Word for certain it s none of God's Church into which People are called without his Word It s the visible Company of such as know not God thou shouldst have said for God's Church are the Faithful and their Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and not without it But oh the Desolation that such Doctrine as this of Bryan and Baxter hath made amongst the poor People whose Eyes are not fully opened to see their deceits Also this Antichristian Doctrine being laid as a Foundation in their House it is no wonder to hear this Bryan say pag. 301. That Ignorant and Prophane Persons have alwayes been in the Church and ever will be at lest till Christ comes the second