if you could Preach freely that is without a set or forced maintenance in the state where you are that would not at all commend you to God or his People For you have run and God never sent you and therefore you remain so ignorant of him and profit not them that follow you for when did Christ bid you go to the Universities of the World to learn him there And when did he bid you go to such a place and such a place and there sit down and Eat the Fat and Cloath with the Wooll and Preach the Thoughts of your vain Hearts as you have done and would do and be guarded by the Magistrates Power that none should speak to you in your high Places nor going nor coming from thence O call to mind the day of your fulness and of your Pride the same measme you mete to others is God measuring to you you must be broken to pieces because you turn not to the Lord for all this And to the despised thing the Light in your Conscience you must come and how before it as others have done before you be healed and if it give you a word to speak you may speak it otherwise you must be silent or you perish The Lord is arisen and so if indeed you can kiss his Rod you may find Mercy but if you still go on justifying your selves in his sight you shall certainly moulder to nothing the Lord hath said it who is daily gathering his Lambs out of the Mouths of all Devourers Glory to his Name for ever But what Testimony of Jesus can you either give or suffer for who have so Vilified and Reproached the Spirit of Prophesie in Sons and Daughters in Servants and Handmaids in these Days For the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophesie And now all People I shall lay before you a little more the Condition of this John Reynolds and such like boasting Men who now thus cry up themselves for suffering Ministers of Christ as to this particular thing In the former times before the Wars when the Bishops had Rule there were some such that could not conform to all the Fooleries of those Days and so could not enjoy their fat Benefices though they loved them well enough and so instead of suffering in Old-England fled into New-England to avoid the Cross and so in process of time it came to pass that they got the Magistrates on their side there and then their Old Wolfish Hearts being still in them they fell on Persecuting the Servants of God that came amongst them to witness to Truth insomuch that of late years they have sucked the Blood of several of our Dear Members in Christ Three they hanged on a Tree cut the Ears of others Tortur'd the Bodies of many with cruel Whippings spoiled the Goods of many and Banished others for no other thing but for owning the Truth as it is in Jesus and meeting to wait upon him Qu. 8. The Eighth and next Query is such a vain and empty one that the very setting of it down will be in great measure an answer to it and it is this If there be no honest Men in the World that are not Quakers then is it not certain that no honest Men ever turned Quakers Then is it not certain that none but the Wicked ever turned from us and then where is our shame Again if all are Graceless Persons that are not Quakers then how can any Man turn Quaker if he will not first acknowledge himself a Wicked and Graceless Wretch Answ. O Crooked Twining Twisting Serpent How Cunning and Crafty wouldst thou here appear in thy vain Philosophy and false Science to cast a Mist before the Eyes of the Simple Yet Praised be the Lord the least Child of Light sees thee well and the Seed of the Woman shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt not proceed far but thy Folly shall be manifest to all as the Sorceries of Jannes and Jambres thy Fathers were for the Lord is already at work the second time to deliver his Israel out of Egypt and no Weapon formed against his Seed shall ever prosper but the Horse and his Rider shall fall and the Beast and False Prophet shall be taken alive and cast into the Pit and Everlasting praises shall be Sung to the Lord God Almighty by the Lambs of his Holy Fold as it is in Zion this day But let us see how this reaoning of thine would have helped the Jews and the Gentiles in the first times of the Gospel against the Christians and so setting down thy words for them only instead of Quaker putting in the word Christian thus If there are no honest Men in the World that are not Christians then is it not certain that no honest Man ever turned Christian and if so where is their Glorying And if all are wicked that are not Christians then is it not certain that none but the Wicked did ever turn from us and where is our Shame Again If all are Graceless persons that are not Christians then is it not certain that none but the Wicked did ever turn from us then where is our Shame Would this have been good Reasoning either to have disproved the Christians Doctrine withal or to have kept the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles in a safe Condition where they stood Nay all must bow to the Son of God in his rising and going forth for his going forth is prepared as the Sun in the Morning who rejoyceth as a Gyant to run his Course and to this Just One must every Knee bow and Tongue confess for his Way is in his Light Shining more and more until it be high Noon and perfect Day And the Gentiles though as honest as Cornelius Acts 10. and the Jew though as blameless concerning the Law as Paul in his first state was Phil. 3. must bow to him Yea further Let all the Angels of God Worship him But as for the Worlds Inhabitants both Honest and Wicked we know that the whole World lieth in Wickedness And so before you turn such Christians as quake and tremble at God's Word and work out their Salvation in Fear and Trembling you must be content to own your selves to be little less than Dishonest Wicked and Graceless Wretches though into the Truth Sinful Flesh and Blood cannot enter and though you will not now own the Grace of God to be your Teacher and so in that respect may be called Graceless yet you will one day know that the Grace of God which brings Salvation and would have taught you did appear unto you all and so God will be clear of all your Blood and your Destruction will be of your selves and so because you have not received this manifest Truth the Grace of God to be your Teacher therefore me you given up to believe Lies as is manifest Qu. 9. Thy Ninth and next Question is about Ordination and then Queries To what purpose did the Apostles Evangelists and Presbyters
that have Eyes may see thee to be an outward Jew only But if thou say with us it is the Light of Christ that shineth in Darkness John 1. which at the Commandment of God shineth out of Darkness 2 Cor. 4. to give the knowledge of Gods Glory to Man in the Face of Christ then the business about Sufficiency of the Light between us is at an end and the Truth stands over the from thy own words The next is when thou hearest the Scripture mentioned thy Windy Slightly Crafty Doctrine of Deceivers Ephes 4. 14. then thou shoots thy Sting at the Innocent and would'st have People believe that is to be applyed to us who Preach Christ and his all-sufficiency in and for every one that can Receive Him who is near every Man and by his Light shineth to Conviction and Judgment in every Man who would have all Men to be saved and come to the knowledge of his Truth which is nigh in the Heart and in the Mouth but this was the Apostles Doctrine and so not to be condemned in us but thou goest on telling of two ways of Deceiving the one thou namest the upper way which thou say'st is by Philosophy the Traditions of Men Rudiments of the World and Sciences falsly so called And Praised be God thou art as it were forced by the Light in thy Conscience to acquit us from being of this Number but truly the Light in our conscience tells us expresly that thou John Reynolds art one of them that are â—n this upper way as thou callest it of deceit for of Philosophy Traditions of Men Worldly Rudiments and false Sciences is the Body of thy Divinity made up as well as other of thy Brethren the Hirelings thou would'st condemn for the difference is not in the nature of your Doctrine but in the form And so though an Idol of Gold appear more beautiful than one of baser mettle yet it is an Idol still and so you are both in the Fighting and Persecuting nature as all Idolaters are Ephraim against Manasseh and Manasseb against Ephraim but both against Judah one for the Common-Prayer another for the Directory but neither will own the Lambs Light in you to Teach and Guide you and so though you may have a Form of Godliness more Painted than they yet denying the Power Christ in man you are all alike to be turned away from And so John Finch and John Payton in turning from thee as well as the other Formalists are excuseable and though thou goest about to perswade them from the Truth by telling them of a lower way of deceiving by a voluntary Humility and neglecting of the Body and wearing a rough Garment to deceive which thou would'st intimate to be our condition yet this will not deceive their minds if they keep to the true Light of Christ in them for in that they feel our Garment to be smooth and sweet through the Fathers Love not rough or hairy as the Hypocrites is who kill one another about their ways of Worship but for voluntary Humility in the will offered up by heaps which is no better than filthy smoke in the nostrils of a pure God in this day and Praised be God that hath brought us from this into the true Humility but how thy words of accusing us here of neglecting the Body and afterwards of Drunkenness can agree let the wise in Heart consider but all in thy changeable nature and unstable must needs be Self-contradictors and so who be the Thieves that Christ in this day is Crucified between is thus far in part and will afterwards God willing more appear Also it is observable from that Preface of thine further where it is said that this latter viz. Namely the lower way of deceiving may possibly prevail though not with the present Multitude yet some unstable Souls that have been none enlightned and have tasted the good Word of God and the Power of the World to come but are not yet rooted and settled in the Truth and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ then I say thou need'st not fear any of thy followers to be deceived on this manner for none can be savingly enlightned who denies the sufficiency of Christs Light the Grace of God which hath appeared to all Men yea in their Darkness shineth though the Darkness comprehend it not as thou dost not and none can say in Truth they have tasted the Good Word of God who puts the Letter for it and denies the sufficiency of Christs Light which is his Word nigh in the Heart and Mouth as thou dost nor none can truly be said to taste the Powers of the World to come who deny to bow their Hearts to the least Measure of Christs Light in them accounting it insufficient as thou dost And so it is the real Believers that had need to take heed of being Deceived with fair Shews and rough Garments for the Hypocrites are deceived already But what Doctrine John Reynolds doth judge in these he calls silly Seducers and Quakers to be amiss and by these two men he writes unto to be taken heed of may gathered out of these Queries to instance some 1. Because they say Christ Lighteth every man with a sufficient Light that cometh into the World 2. Because they say That the Measure of the Spirit of God in man is the true and certain trier of all Spirits 3. Because they say Christ himself and not the empty declaration without is the Word of God 4. Because they say Christ the better hope being come sinless perfection thorough him is attainable here 5. Because they say Judgment is commited to the Saints even whilst they are in the Body and therefore such may Judge and yet say they it is not flesh but Spirit that Judgeth all things 6. Because they make Conscience of saying Thou and Thee to a particular which is the plain Language 7. Because they say that all Honour and Glory and Worship is to be given to God alone and not to any Creature 8. Because they say The true Church is in God and so no Unrighteous One in it or of it and so can neither call the Wicked God's Church nor a House of Wood and Stone his Church 9. Because they cannot own the Worlds Sprinkling of Infants with a little outward Water for Christ's Baptism and because they cannot own that for a right Communion which is in Sin and who eat Bread and drink Wine in Remembrance of a Coming of Christ which they say shall never be while they are here and the like But now something the Lord assisting may be spoken particularly in Answer to the Queries themselves and the first of them is this Query 1. First Question If that Light which is within every Man that cometh into the World be sufficient without the Preaching of the Gospel how is it that Heathens know little or nothing of the True God Answ. To this I answer That thou run'st here upon a false Ground and so
draws this and the rest of thy stumbling Consequences from thy own Imaginations not from our Words for we do not Exclude the Preaching of the Gospel from the Light nor the Light from it but say That is the true Light that Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World one loves the Light believes it and follows it and is led to God and so saved by it sufficiently the other hates it and it is his Condemnation And this is the Gospel Preaching and this Light of Christ in every Man is the Light of the Glorious Gospel whether it be declared of to the outward Ear in Words or not but he that Preaches not this True Light Preaches another Gospel though there be not another Gospel And I say unto you all People if a seeming Angel Preach not this Gospel of Light this Grace of God which brings Salvation which hath appeared to all Men and is the Saints Teacher and Keeper he is to be accursed But whereas thou cell'st of Heathen Answer All are Heathens now and Ignorant of the True God who know nothing of the sufficiency of the Light that Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World but thou askest in the end of that Query two very Childish Questions The first Why we exhort all Men to follow the Light within if that be sufficient I answer Because it is sufficient therefore do we Exhort all Men to follow it for that which is not sufficient is not safe to follow And so you that are so full of words and ignorant of the Sufficiency beat the Air and deceive the People keeping silly Women ever Learning and never able to bring them to the knowledge of the Truth which perfects to God all the commers thereunto Thy second Query there How could the Word of God be called a Mystery hid from Ages and Generations but now is made manifest if the Light within be sufficient And then quotes Eph. 3. 9. Col. 1. 25 26. Mat. 11. 25. I answer That it was within and sufficient when it lay hid as a Mystery till God's full time came of revealing it and therefore Christ compares it to many Powerful and Precious though hidden things and of little account to the outward view as to a Grain of Mustard-seed in the Earth to a little Leaven within much Flower to Treasure hid in the Field and Christ said to the Pharisees that God's Kingdom was to be found in Man he excludes none and those Scriptures thou sett'st down prove for this Truth and against thy roving Mind which is in the outward observings thinking to find the Kingdom there when Christ saith it cometh not that way see Luke 17. 20 21. What wilt thou conclude it was not because it lay hid What Logick is this Doth not Paul there say that the Mystery which was so hid and which he by the Spirit now Preached which was Christ in the Gentiles the Hope of Glory And Christ was Light and to this Light he warned every Man to take heed but the little Children not the Masters obey the Voice and so are led into the Understanding of the Mystery Qu. 2. In the next general Query thou askest Are not the Scriptures the Words of the Lord whose Words are they And why is the Scripture so often called the Word of God and the Word of the Lord And for this thou brings many Scriptures as Exod. 24. 4. 2. Kings 20. 26 27 28 29. Psal. 12. 6. Jer. 36. 4 6 8 11. Acts 19. 10. 2 Cor. 2. 17. 1. Thes. 1. 8. Answ. To this I say First That the Holy Scriptures were given forth by Holy Men of God as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and so they may be called the Words of God or of the Lord not that Spirit and Living Word but that those Scriptures prove what thou bringest them for to wit that the Scriptures or Writings without is there called the Word of God is not true it is said indeed in that of 2 Kings 20. 16. That Isaiah said unto Hezekiah Hear the Word of the Lord and Hezekiah said Good is the Word of the Lord and in other places of Scriptures that the Word of the Lord came to the Prophets and that in the fore-mentioned place of Acts and Corinthians and Thessalonians mention is made of the Apostles Preaching the Word of God all this is true but of Exodus and Psalms and Jeremiah mention is made of Words but what doth all this prove but only that the Word came to Holy Men this Word was God and as this Word moved in them and gave them Wisdom and Utterance they writ or spoke forth Words as a Declaration of what was in the Mind or Word of God or what God was and what though the Scriptures may be thus called The Words of the Lord or his Prophets or Apostles Acted by his Power which we never denied this is nothing to the Hypocrites who use their Tongues to say The Lord saith when he never spoke by them but make a Trade of the Scriptures for filthy Lucre and by their much pressing the Declaration to be the Word of God have quite clouded the Word if self Christ from whence true Words come from the Peoples Minds so that scarce any have any true Living Feeling after God in his Word Christ for in the beginning was the Word before all Declarations and shall be after all the Peaceable Life of all that Believe for ever So that the Lord saw it good to stir up a People in these days to be True and Living Witnesses of the Word for the stopping of the Mouths of all such as have gotten the Words as Thieves from others and so kept People in the form with themselves always Professing but never Possessing the Power which the Scripture Witness unto and so the Letter and empty Words kill'd and do kill but now the Living Spirit and Living Word being Witnessed the Scriptures is owned in its place and Resurrection to Life being felt the Crown is set upon the King's Head whose Name is called The Word of God who was and is and is to come over all God Blessed for evermore and it is considerable that the Ministers of Christ are never called Ministers of the Letter or Words but of the Word and Spirit 2 Cor. 3. and that Christ and his Apostles mentioning the Prophets Words usually called them Scripture and not The Word of God as the custom of Hypocrites is now All Flesh is Grass and all outward Sounds and Signs vanish but the Word of the Lord that endures for ever and this is that Word which by the Gospel the Power of God is Preached and by nothing else savingly which when understood People are One but not before for it is the weakness which is like the Womans speaking makes Dissention so let the Scripture have its due and the Word of God its due and all is Beautiful in its place Query 3. In thy third thou askest How shall we know whether
for the World where thou undertakest the part of an Advocate for Flesh not only pleading for the Honour that is below but also for the Manner of it Thy Doctrine is very pleasant to the fall'n Man and the World cannot hate such Preachers as thee for ye are not only of the World but chief Master-Builders of the old House of the fall'n Adam who loves the Earthly Honour But now that Chrst the second Adam is come the Lord from Heaven above the Earthly Man let all Flesh bow before him and give up his Honour to him otherwise this shall be fitly applied unto you that Christ said unto the Jews How can you believe that not only receive but also seek and plead for Honour one of and from another John 5. 44. For Christ received not Honour from Men Verse 41. So that tho' there was a time that Angels were bowed unto which were greater than Flesh Gen. 19. 1. yet a time came that Angels denied that Honour Rev. 22. 9. For now the Son himself was Glorified of whom it was said And let all the Angels of God Worship him Heb. 1. 6. And at his Name shall every Knee bow Phil. 2. 10. And Christ said to the Devil who was like his Children that would now be Worshipped Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve The Devil and Haman would be bowed unto but the true Jew will bow only to God But thou queriest and say'st Qu. Whether did the Saints in Scripture-times Sin in giving Honour that is say'st thou A Civil or Inferiour Honour unto Men and upon occasion Testifying the same by Honorary Words or Deeds Answ. To which I answer and say 1626 All that the Saints before the coming of Christ did is not to be an Example to us now but we must all now that would be approved to Christ take him for our Example and to follow no Man for our Example further than they followed or do follow him and when the Apostles speak of Honouring all it must be understood as in some place is mentioned in the Lord and that is not with Cap and Knee and false Flattering Titles and Gestures as the World useth but in Heart and Truth as the Spirit of God moveth So that a Man must first be in the Lord out of the first fall'n false Mind otherwise he knows not at all how to Honour either God or Man but is a Dissembling Wretch making fair Shews outwardly of Love where nothing but War and Self-love is in the Heart See 2 Sam. 20. 9 10. Jude 16. Thus Children being in the Lord do through the Lord Honour Parents aright thus Servants in the Lord Honour their Masters after the Flesh aright and so Church-members the Elders Wives their Husbands the Ruled the Rulers Yea thus they Honour their Faithful Brethren aright and in a Word all Men and so the Scripture is fulfilled in them But what Honour do these Faithful Ones look for from Men Nay nay believe and seek for that Honour that comes from God only and so the Scripture will not help the fall'n Man now to his Honour which is his Life but as the Scripture saith He that would save his Life must loose it And so all you Hypocrites of the World who are giving Honour to Proud Flesh and receiving Honour from it cease your Work and let Christ have his due or verily he will break you all in pieces with his Iron Rod. But in the end of thy Query thy Conscience a little checking thee for this vain Work thou wouldst daub over the matter by telling People the Honour from below which thou hast been pleading for must not be in Opposition to but in Subordination to God's Honour Nay nay I say the true Christ the Son of God is come and all Power in Heaven and Earth is given to him and so all Honour and Glory and Worship is his due and the due of none else to whom be it given of all his Angels and Servants both now and for evermore So all People hearken and hear a word for your good would ye be Honoured Then Honour the Lord by obeying his Voice and he will Honour you in due time though for doing his Will you loose the Worlds Honour as assuredly ye will if once ye be Faithful Qu. 12. The next Query Consisteth of a great Boast of the Ministry as though it were Unrebukeable And thou queriest whether that Ministry can be lawfully Condemned as Antichristian which the Lord hath owned and sealed with the Conversion of many Souls Answ. To which I say if your Ministry were such as this thou speakest of then indeed it were not safe to condemn it But where are these Converts thou speakest of to be a Convert is to be turned from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God bring forth the Man that can witness thee to be a Minister of the Gospel this way that he may give us an Account of the true Hope if he have it in him But Men cannot gather Grapes of Thorns nor Figs of Thistles so thou being such an Evil Tree as thou hast manifested thy self in these Queries to be how can a true Convert be expected from such a Ministry But thou say'st it s in Power c. and that many stubborn Sinners have been brought down unto their Faces and to confess that God is in you of a Truth But I say it will be hard for thee to bring forth such a Man for when I use to come amongst you to declare Truth against your Deceit as the Lord ordered me I found a heap of hard-hearted Sinners more like to destroy the Creature than to be Witnesses of Truth O shameless Men that bring forth such bad Fruit And yet with a Whores Fore-head dare take the Scripture which speaks of Prophets in God's Church in God's Power and apply it to your selves who deny the sufficiency of Christ's Light in Man and know nothing but meerly by the Letter without as thou for thy own particular hast made manifest and so are sensual not having the Spirit as was noted in the third Query I observe also in this present Twelfth Query the Ignorance of the Grace of God for when thou hast falsly Boasted of your Ministry what is hath done thou say'st is not this the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation Tit. 2. 11 12. I say no your Ministry not being the true is far from being the Grace of God there spoken of But if it were the true Ministry it were not that Grace there spoken of for the true Ministry is but a service to that Grace not the Grace it self for the Grace of God is that which hath appeared unto all Men and that which brought Salvation to Jew and Gentile as God's Gift without Words or Works and which was the Teacher of the Apostles themselves as well as others And so when People would have been setting up Paul for his Ministry's sake he
denied it as nothing in comparison of the All-sufficiency of the Grace of God and the Word thereof to which only at best he was but a Servant But if it could be manifest that any under or amongst you were Convinced of the Evil of their Ways in some measure and so in their Dark Minds set upon a seeking after the unknown God which is the most can be found amongst you and that rarely neither this is no warrant either for them to stay with you who are Ignorant of the Way out of Sin unto God neither is it any proof for you to be Gospel-Ministers nor your Ministry to be a Gospel-Ministry For the Gospel-Ministry is not only Convincing but Converting and Perfecting Eph. 4. 11 12 13. which work ye have utterly denied and so shut out your selves for ever from the Gospel-Ministry and amongst the Priests of the Letter Law at best must you be reckoned which made nothing Perfect and hence it is that you are such bitter Enemies to the Spiritual Ministration or New Covenant mentioned Rev. 8. And such earnest Contenders for the outward Shadows outward Law Tythes Temples Days Priests c. as is now every where found But for the True Power and Gospel-Ministration it is risen above all your Languages and Tongues and hath darkened the Glory of all your Fleshly Forms and Likenesses And the Babes of God are in Obedience to God turned and turning from you unto this his Power that perfects to God for ever And Pharoah and all his Host will not now be able to hinder Praises to the Lord God for ever Qu. 13. In this next Query thou goest on seeking false Covers to hide thine and your Nakedness asking How can the Quakers Condemn your Congregations because of some Wicked Unprofitable Hearers when Christ himself say'st thou did not Convert all his Hearers And for this thou bringest Mat. 11. 20. and Mat. 23. 37. and Isa. 49. 4. I say all this will not cover your Nakedness Oh ye Teachers nor your Congregations for what have you to do to compare your selves with Christ and his Holy Prophets You that deny the Immediate Revelations and Teachings of God's Infallible Spirit in these Days and instead thereof set up Schools of Humane Learning to make Ministers by O Hypocrites When will you give over perverting the right Ways of the Lord and leading the Blind into the Ditch You that love to be called of Men Master Greetings in the Market uppermost Rooms at Feasts chief Places in the Synagogues as the Pharisees did all which Christ dis-allowed What have you to do to compare your selves with Christ and his Prophets They are not Hirelings and Fighters and Pleaders for the Worlds Gain as you are And so tho' all that heard the outward Declaration or Sound of Christ or his Prophets Words were not Converted yet that makes nothing for you who have only a Sound and so Convert none to God But as I said before beget them into your own Images making them more able to Dispute against the Life of Truth than some others and so greater will be your Condemnation But now your Sheeps-Cloathing being pull'd off the Lord will be Glorified in his Power in the Conversion of many to himself without you For he hath rejected your Confidence and laid waste your Mountain and the Mountain of the Lords House is on the top of all your Mountains in this great Day of the Lord wherein in all the Children of the Lord are taught of the Lord and walk only in his Light which comprehends and teaches to avoid all the cunning crafty Ways of the Serpent and now not in your Congregations but in that Holy Assembly is the Swords beaten into Plow-shares and the Spears into Pruning Hooks and no War any more learned but under the Vine and Fig-tree all sit eating their pleasant Fruits and taking the Cup of Salvation and both Praying unto and Praising the Name of the Lord. But thou say'st we have Drunkards Fornicators c. among us as well as you and that they are with us at our Prayers if we have any and that they are not so severely dealt withal as yours are for thou say'st some of yours cast them out which we do not Answ. Yea thou false Accuser such are cast out from us and from the Church of God and with us they can neither Eat nor Pray but with such as are Ignorant of Christ and the Sufficiency of his Light and know no Light nor Teacher but a Letter without as thou hast manifested in thy Queries they may both Eat and Preach and Pray and when you cast out Drunkards and Fornicators from amongst you you must cast out your selves for in that Nature you and all Hypocrites are and so some of you are Drunk with Wine and strong Drink and some with the Cup of the great Whore some in the outward Fronications others in the inward and some in both so that your Tables are full of Vomit and every Bed defiled amongst you And for the outward Drunkards and Harlots and such like though we cannot but reprove and cast them out in that State yet this we say of them that they may sooner enter into the Kingdom of God than you that judge your selves free and are not for you are so Painted and Conceited that it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of Needle than for you to enter in and this makes your Wound more Uncureable for you neither enter in your selves nor suffer others And for those words in thy Parenthesis whereby thou questionest Whether we have any Prayer amongst us shows thee to be a great stranger to us and our Practice for Prayer with the Spirit and with Understanding we allow and are taught to practice and say with the Apostle Pray continually but the wicked Hypocrites the Lord rejects whose Prayers to God are Abomination and so it would have become thee to have said less of us and to have judged more soberly and moderately of us until thou hast known us better than thou hast done for thou hast little knowledge of us it seems by coming into our Assemblies but only judgest by Here-say and false Reports which brings thee under Condemnation and Shame when the Light now searcheth all things but your Ways and Practices are well known to such as are now come from amongst you and so in that they cannot be deceived And now John Reynolds to proceed I see much of the Wisdom of God in bringing thee forth thus to manifest thy self in thy Queries and the next three Queries that follow do with those already mentioned fully manifest thy great Ignorance of the Reformation of things brought to pass in Christ for the Law had but a Shadow of the good things and yet thou stickest not to plead for it and so thou hadst need learn the first Principles of the Christian Religion which thou remainest Ignorant of before thou be a Christian thy self much more seeing thou takest
upon thee to be Teacher of others but to set down thy Queries themselves or so much of them as is the substance of the whole Qu. 14. And thy fourteenth Query is Had not the Saints in Scripture-times their set places for publick Worship as well as we Had they not their Temple 1 Chron. 6. which Christ calls his Fathers House of Prayer and whips the Buyers and Sellers out of it c. Answ. To which I answer You have indeed an outward Temple or House made with Hands to Worship in of your own devizeing the Old Popish Mass-house and so cannot be called the Fathers House of Prayer so well as the Jews was for the Temple at Jerusalem was made by God's Appointment for the outward Circumcission to Worship in during the Law as a Figure of Christ's Body to be Magnified and therefore he whipt Buyers and Sellers then out of the Figure as he doth now out of the Substance but you have not only the Enemies Nature in you but you have brought forth his Work into open view in your outward Temples also which were never Built by God's Command and so there is Buying and Selling amongst you as was amongst them as every Eye seeth For there you Men made Priests sell Words the Words out of dead Books to the People and they give you their Money Glebe-land and Tythes for them O filthy Merchandize The Lord hath shaken his Hand at your dishonest Gain and is whipping out such Merchants by his Powerful Truth out of his House and your dead Works which you sell at so dear a Rate in your Stone-houses which you call Churches shall no Child of Light ever buy of you For the true Bread of God his free Gift is now witnessed Praises for ever One sort of Merchant Priests sell their Sermons and Mass to the People for Money another sort their Common-Prayer and Sermons and the third their Sermons and Directory And thou John Reynolds pleadest also for Synagogues and Pulpits and when thou hast set down Scriptures that tell of the Jewish Temple Synagogues and Pulpit thou askest if Christ and his Apostles did not report to these places to instruct the People To which I answer First That whilst the Jewish People stood Christ and his Apostles did sometimes go into their Temple and Synagogues to Preach the Gospel of the Kingdom and so an end of those things and to bring them out of these things which they and you so much dote on and plead for but they did never Command Christians to Build such amongst them but told them Their Bodies were the Temples of God 1 Cor. 3. and that those that abide in the Faith were the House of God Heb. 2. And these Christians never so confined themselves or others to any such place for the Exercise of their Conscience in the Worship of God but met as the Lord Jesus and his Apostles did much less did they stir up the Magistrate and drive the Jews out of their Temple and Synagogues and the Gentiles out of theirs that so they might creep into their Houses and under another Form of Worship live upon the Jewish Priests Tythes Offerings c. nor upon the Maintenance of the Idolatrous Priests of Diana and the like Idols as you Priests to the shame of your Profession have done and do at this day What have you driven the Papists out of their Mass-houses and do live upon their Priests Maintenance of Tythes Glebe-lands Smoke-mony Garden-pence Handmony and the rest of their Foolish things What cannot a Man be Born Marry Live nor Die but you must have Mony for it O Horrible and Filthy thing stop your Mouths for ever for your Folly is manifest to all and you can proceed no further And so you Priests of the last Order called Presbyters did not you drive out the Prelates out of their Houses which they had gotten from the Papists and there you sate down Feeding upon the Spoil of the People as your Fathers had done and now think much that you are driven out again And thus you fight with and drive out one another like wild Beasts striving each of you to get Power of others to be great in the Earth and do what you will in your fat Pastures But as I said the Lord is arisen to whip you all out and to pull down your Nests and to restore all things to their Primitive Purity as in the beginning before the Temples Tythes Pulpits and such things were Secondly I consider that though I read that Christ and his Apostles went amongst the People in their Temple and Synagogues as we do at this day to Preach the end of these things and so to bring People to the Word that was in the Beginning before all things that the Worship might be in Spirit and Truth as it ought to be John 4. Yet I never read that either Christ or his Apostles got up into their Pulpit nor ever Commanded his to perk up into a Pulpit of Wood over the People as a Master of a Synagogue to tell his Thoughts of the Letter as you do For though Ezra a Priest of the Law had his Pulpit or Tower of Wood to Read or Expound the Letter in in those days before the Life was manifest yet now the Life Christ Jesus is arisen whose Voice in the Heart and in all places is to be heard without a Pulpit and without Mony and without Price and the Apostles Preached this Gospel in Towns and Countries where neither Temple Synagogue nor Pulpit was but Tumults rather and so the Gospel is not a thing that will set up its Servants in Worldly Honour but indeed the contrary which he that hath an Ear may hear but the Wicked is so Proud in Heart that neither Preacher nor Professor amongst them will stoop to the simplicity of it The next thing Considerable in this Query is thy twisting and striving to keep up the Honour of the old Mass-house however if it be but a Name though it want the Nature yet if thou canst save that thou thinkest better that than nothing and say'st What though the Saints of God are called the Church yet that cannot hinder the House where the Church meets from being called a Church A Profound Reasoning What is this the Fruit of your cried up Vniversities What must every Place where any People meet be called by the Name of that People What Logick is this Surely the Wisdom of the World makes haste into its Nothing again God is utterly Confounding it Do you call the place where the Parliament or Privy Council sit the Parliament or Privy Council Do you call a Barn or such a moon place where the Saints of God now a-days often meet by the Name of a Church If we should Reason for the places where we meet as you do for yours surely you would Laugh at us and might then well call us filly Women and Seducers indeed But to go on thou bringest a Scripture as though
Eatings and Drinkings are Dead whil'st you Live And so of you that would keep People always in the Figures and Signs saying The coming of Christ spoken of 1 Cor. 11. 26. is never to be witnessed here I demand Whether that Cup which the Apostle said The Cup of Blessing which we Bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ And the Bread which we Break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Body and one Bread for we are all Partakers of that one Bread 1 Cor. 10. 15 16 17. I say Whether was this outward Bread and Wine yea or nay Qu. 19. And in the next Query thou comest over with these things again saying How can those Persons be Faithful to Christ Jesus and Obedient to his Gospel that refuse to Pray and Sing Psalms and Baptize with Water and receive the Lord's Supper I answer and say If any disobey God in any thing he commands them unto whether in any of these things or in any other they are not Faithful to Christ and his Gospel but those People thou here secretly shoots at are taught to obey God in all his Requirings and so to Glorifie him in their Bodies and Spirits which are his and so are we clear before the Lord from this thy Charge and also from that which follows for we Revile none much less those that in Conscience of their Duty to God observe them or any thing else And so the Reviler must lodge in thine own Bed who fears not to Revile and speak Evil of such in these days as in Conscience to their known Duty to God Worship him in Spirit and in Truth But you whose Fear towards God is taught by the Precepts of Men in vain is all your Worship for I Testifie for the Lord that whatever you do though it had the very Form of the Saints Practice of old which yours have not and not led thereinto by the Motion of the Eternal and Infallible Spirit of Life it is nothing but the Precepts of Men and Will-worship and no better than Offering Swines Blood or cutting off a Dogs Neck and for the endeavouring to keep up your Custom of Praying and Singing in mixt Congregations from the Example of Jews or them that follow Christ I say your Hypocritical Praying and Singing is good no where but Rejected of God and I see thy Pâ—ide all along that would be comparing your Congregations to those that followed Christ Nay nay for though there was One Devil yet there was Eleven Saints but when you are searched scarce One of many Twelves that hath any true Fear of God before their Eye is to be found amongst you Qu. 20 And whereas in thy last Query thou askest Whether those Persons that have Experienced the Operation of the Spirit of God in the Gospels Preaching and Administrations Convincing their Consciences Melting the Hearts Humbling the Spirits and Turning them from Darkness to Light and have afterwards Tasted much Sweetness and have felt Soul-Ravishing Comforts in the Enjoyment of God in Ordinances have not the Witness in themselves that God doth own these and Bless these Priviledges to them I answer Yea it is thus with all that in Truth have the Witness in themselves that God doth own these and Bless these Priviledges to them But those People that go under the Name Quakers have to the Praise of God's free Love the Witness in themselves of such Fruits as these amongst them from the Virtue of the Everlasting Gospel and its Administration And therefore we can Witness that John Reynolds and all such as Condemn this Ministry and Work of God amongst us as Heresie or so are Deceivers and that they are Strangers to Spiritual Communion with God whatever in words they may Boast who cannot meet with and enjoy God where we to his Immortal Praise be it in Truth spoken do experience that loving Kindness and Goodness which is better than Life it self And therefore how long may this John Reynolds or any other Seducer or painted Sepulchre talk before ever they can perswade these whom the Lord hath so loved not to believe their own Spiritual Senses and Experiencies But to conclude Whereas this John Reynolds in his high swelling Words of his last Query and the 12 th boasts much of his own and his Fellows Experiencies of Spiritual things I refer the Reader to the rest of his Queries and especially the 3 5 8 10 11 14 15 16 and to the answers to them all and to weigh all in the Ballance of Just Judgment and it will appear to him beyond words what may be Judged of them and us Thomas Taylor 1662 1662 1662. 1670