Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	word_n	world_n	yield_v	170	4	6.6498	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91474	The watcher: or, The stone cut out of the mountains without hands, striking at the feet of the image, whose head is gold, and brest of silver, and thighs of brass, and legs of iron, and feet part iron and part clay, Dan. 2. 31, 32, 33, 34, 35. Or, A discovery of the ground and end of all forms, professions, sects and opinions, and also how they now are made as friends, and joyn hand in hand against the substance, the life and power of God, which is now made manifest in his sons and daughters (according to his promise) as hath been plainly manifest in several meetings betwixt the people called Quakers, and the people called Baptists, which is here describ'd. And also a description of the true Church, ... / VVritten by a friend to all tender hearted ones, who hunger and thirst after God, who are hoping and seeking in forms for life, to the directing of their mindes, where and how to finde the true light which leads into the true life and power of Godliness, the end of all forms, where I rest with all who in spirit read me, who am known to them who are without, by the name, Iames Parnell.	Parnell, James, 1637?-1656.	1655 (1655)	Wing P541; Thomason E845_18; ESTC R621	62,535	56

which blinded their eyes and covered their sins so that they could not see their sins nor him that was the way the truth and the life therefore did he pronounce so many woes against them and called them whited Walls and painted Sepulchers who washed the outside but was the generation of vipers and serpents within and thus Christ who was the Light searched them and judged them who appeared faire on the outside but within full of uncleanness but they could not hide themselves from the Light therefore they joyned against it and the Saduces and the Pharises and the chiefe Priests and Scribes and the Herodians and Pilate and Herod and the rude multitude all joyned together against the life and they consulted against him and took counsell against him how they might destroy him Mat. 16.1 and the Pharises came to tempt him and insnare him with questions that they might get somewhat against him to bring him under their Law but he fore-saw their deceitfull hearts their plots and confounded their intentions and brought to nought their counsell then they said if we let this man alone all men will go after him and so they sought false witnesses and took Counsel against him Iohn 11.47.48 Mat. 26.59 and Crucified him and let Barrabus go free and thus the devill blinded their eyes in that age with a strickt profession and their own righteousness and wisdom so that they could not see the Light and the Life but persecuted it and seeked the living in the dead Letter but if they had known him they would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory yet they was wise in their own eyes and despised those that followed him and said none of the rulers believed on him Ioh. 7.48.49 but an ignorant people that knew not the Law that were accursed because they was the Publicans and sinners and they themselves was the greatest sinners but they healed themselves up with their own wisdome and righteousness and therefore said Christ they that are whole need no Physician but they that are sick therefore he said publicans and harlots should enter the kingdome before them Mat. 9.11 12. Mat. 21.31 Mat. 11.5 but the blinde the deafe the lame the dumb and the Leopardies came unto him and believed on him and were healed and the poor received the Gospel but the Priests and professors or the Pharises and Scribes and Elders and Rulers could not believe on him that he was the Messias but looked for another and these was the most zealous in their profession and builded the Tombs of the prophets and garnished the Sepulchers of the righteous and said Mat. 23.29.30 if they had been in the day of their fathers they would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets and yet those was the chiefe persecutors of Christ the substance of those things which they upheld in the Law and the Prophets therefore they was witnesses against themselves and filled up the measure of their fathers wrath and those professed Abraham Iohn 8.39 Ver. 44. Mat. 23.33 Mark 15.15 and said Abraham was their father and yet denyed Christ whom Abraham foretold of but Christ told them they were of their father the Devil and his works they did and would do and thus he judged them for all their zeale and profession and said how could they escape the damnation of hell Then after he was sacrificed up he appeared unto his Apostles and sent them to preach the Gospell to every creature and here they did not run because the Prophets run nor take up a command without them in the Prophets writings to do a thing because the Prophets was commanded to do it but they was also acted and guided by the same spirit and word of truth which dwelt in them Iohn 14.16 17. Iohn 16.7.8 which Christ before he was offered up had promised that he would send the comforter even the Spirit of Truth which the world could not receive which should lead them into all truth and should reprove the world of sin of righteousness and of Iudgment then after they had received the holy-ghost they went abroad preaching Christ and shewing thereby the fulfilling the Law and the Prophets which figured forth and prophesied of Christ Acts 2. Acts 4. and this they declared in their Temples and in their Synagogues and they haled them out of the Temple and out of their synagogues and brought them before Governors Rulers and Magistrates and the chiefe Priests and their kinred and the chiefest professors which was the Pharisees was the head acters therein but nevertheless they went on boldly being filled with the power of the Holy-Ghost without the fear of man obeying God rather than man so they was not subject to the authority of man in that respect but they was subject unto the Law of man so far as it was subject to the Law of God and so they went on preaching C●rist and many believed and were baptized and received the Holy-Ghost and were converted and it was so that the multitude that believed was of one heart and one minde and they was so far of one being exalted over another or seeking themselves that not any of them said Acts. 4.32 that ought of the things which he possessed was his own and the works of God went on in much power the ministers being acted and guided by the Holy Ghost And also Stephen a man full of faith and the Holy-Ghost he declared against the Temple which God had once commanded to be built and said Solomon built him an House yet nevertheless Acts 7. God that made the world and all things therein dwells not in Temples made with hands as faith the Prophet Heaven is my Throne and Earth is my Foot-stoole and where is the House that ye will build me and where is the place of my rest hath not mine hand made all things and he judged them and said ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and eares ye do alwayes resist the Holy-Ghost as did your Fathers so do ye and they gnashed upon him with their teeth and fell upon him and stoned him and when Saul was converted and became Paul Acts 26.17 18. his message was for to turn peoples mindes from the Darkness to the Light and then saith Paul when it pleased God to reveal his Son in me that I might preach him amongst the hearhen imediately I conferred not with flesh blood Gal. 1.15 16. 2 Cor. 4.2 2 Cor. 2.15 Acts. 1● 22 c Acts. 17. chap. here was Pauls call to the ministry they was made manifest to every mans conscience was a sweet savour unto God both in them that believed them that perished and Paul declared against the temple and told them that worshipped there they was too superstitious he went into their synagogues on sabboth days and reasoned with them they persecuted him and haled him before rulers and there complained of him

not Babel yea or nay These things I do not ask because I know them not but that the Truth may be made manifest and the deceit laid open therefore answer by plain Scripture or else all you formalists imitators and selfe-actors bow unto the truth and be silent and let your mouths be stopped and thereby confess and yeild your selves in an error and to have gotten the form without the life and power that the simple may no longer be deceived by you taking the shaddow for the substance Read this openly in your Church that all may hear and answer for themselves from him who by one of you was called a deceiver yet true who according to the world am called Iames Parnel A Copy of most of these Quaeries was sent to the chiefe Teacher of the baptised people in Fenstanten and after a certain time these words they sent me back again as followeth A few words to him that saith that according to the world he is called JAMES PARNELL We have received your Paper and according to your desire read it in the Congregation unto which you desire our answer by plain Scripture to which we reply that when you make good your affirmation that you are no deceiver but true by plain Scripture then shall we return you a further answer to your queries From them who desire to serve the Lord Jesus Christ Iohn Denne Edmund Male. Then after I had received this Libel I returned them this answer at the bottome of their own paper An. This is plain Scripture though as a deceiver yet true and if my life and conversation doth not prove the same and make good my affirmation then in your answer to my queries you might have taxed me and proved to the contrary but this of you is but a plain shufle to blind the world and shun the shame and still to blind the people who are enslaved under your deceit but this wil the more manifest your ignoranre then not long after they returned me this answer as followeth It is not plain Scripture though as a deceiver yet true as deceivers and yet true is plain Scripture the greatest deceiver in the world might as wel brought it to prove himself no deceiver but true as wel as you for your conversation we know it not we have not to say to that but this we know that wolves may come in sheeps cloathing and this doth appear in you in drawing people from the truth as namely from Water-baptisme which is a command of the Lord unto believers as for your saying we might have taxed you in our answer to your queries we think you might plainly see your folly in this you affirmed nothing in them as your judgment how should we then tax you and prove the contrary and again we made no promise to answer and therefore you might have spared your daring and false words to say the people are enslaved under our deceit and therefore until you have made good what you have taken in hand by plain Scripture by the fruit of your lips by bringing the Doctrine of Christ and owning his Commandments we say untill then we are exhorted to let you alone let them alone they be blind leaders of the blind you having been so plainly manifest unto us Rep. Here all people who with a single eye reads may see the deceit of this people for I spoke but of one and therefore in that respect it is plain Scripture though as v deceiver yet true but these are they who if they could would make a make a man an offender for a word Isa 29.21 my conversation they cannot touch and yet are not ashamed to say the greatest deceiver might as wel have brought this Scripture as I and this is the blindness of their mindes and also say because I deny water-baptisme to be an Ordinance or a Command of Christ that I am a woolf in sheeps cloathing which they do affirm to be a command but cannot prove it and so are such as use their tongues and say the Lord saith when he never spoke to them but surely a woolf in sheeps cloathing is to be known by the life and practise but in this they are blind and cannot discern and so themselves are the blind leaders of the blind but I shall not let you alone but make you manifest unto the world neither did Christ let them alone but pronounced woes and declared against them and here I am sure you might see your folly who say I have been so manifest unto you and said you know not my conversation what a confusion is this but it is your mothers language and also in expecting me to affirm my judgment upon my own queries then what need I send them to you to answe if I answer them my self and here I am sure you might see your own folly for it is here plainly plainly laid open so that all who are led by you are plainly seen to be enslaved under your deceit and these words shall stand for truth against you which you call false who are the blind and so put evill for good and good for evil and the Doctrine of Christ I have brought and his commandments I do own from and against you who are the busie-bodies and selfe-actors who have nought to do with him nor his commands therefore silence deceivers for here I have made good what I have taken in hand which witnessed shall be in your condemnation The occation of another meeting betwixt the people called Baptists and the people called Quakers SEverall times when I have come to the Town of Cambridge I have heard a rumour of a boasting and daring that sprung from the people called Baptists behind my back concerning a dispute with me yet I had received nothing from them neither by word nor writing to be certain of their mindes therefore I being in the Town sent them word that I heard a voyce of such a thing but knew not the certainty therefore to let me know their mindes in writing if they intended such a thing so then one Hindes a Tanner in Cambridge sent me this Note as followeth which Ioseph Doughty had sent unto him The Note Brother Hind as touching a Discourse with James Parnel I shall be willing to do God and men service in it to my power given to me Frst Provided that it be somewhat publike the questions in controversie may be stated in writing 2. That the questions may be such as may be resolved and answered according to Scripture 3. That the questions agreed upon may be delivered into the disputants hands three dayes before the day of dispute 4 That to avoid confusion in multitude of words a short form of Argument shall be used on both parts 5. That some shall be chosen on both sides to see order on both sides observed in discourse and competent Judges also appointed 6. That censorious rash terms of judging shall not be used 7. That the disputants shal declare before

be taken and all that receive his marke and worship his image into the Lake shal go small and great and there to lye forevermore Mat. 31.42.44 and this is the stone which the builders have rejected which now is become the head of the corner and whomsoever falls upon it shal be broken but on whomsoever it falls it wil grind them to powder this is the Stone cut out of the mountain without hands which strikes at the feet of the Image here is a blow to the foundation of the priests church of England Therefore now all people who are captivated under the Priests turne your minds within to the Light of the Lord Jesus which reproves you in secret when you tel a lye or use any deceit which shewes you your evill deeds and that your hearts are not right towards God for all your duties and shorship and profession and that which cals for uprightness of heart and an holy life and a change and reformation and a newness of life hearken unto this it is the free grace of God unto your souls and teacheth freely and by this you wil come to profit for it teacheth godliness and godliness is great gain so that you will not need to spend your moneys for that which is not bread 1 Tim. 6 6. Isa 59.1 2. nor your labor for that which profiteth not nor to be led captive by your blind guides ever learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth but stil in blindness and darkness for you have a teacher within which is a more sure word of prophesie 2 Pet. 1.19 to the which you do wel to take heed unto as to a Light shining in a dark place untill the day dawn and the Day-Star arise in your hearts this is the measure of the grace of God even the free gift of God which God hath given you to profit withal which wil accuse you or excuse you before the throne of God to which I now leave you having discharged my conscience concerning you and so I proceed to the rest of forms Now within these late yeers the Light of Christ beginning to stir in peoples hearts so that many come to see themselves in much darkness and ignorance of these things which they read of in the Scripture and also the corruption of the Priests and Teachers and what Reprobates they were concerning the faith and that they profited not the people at all but they had heard them so long and still blind and ignorant so that many come to see their folly yet their minds not being directed to the light which showed them this and should have led them out of this condition upon which they should have waited for direction to have found the way of truth but they run without to the Letter in their own wils and wisdome and so would find out a way by their own wisdome and imagination and so went out to search the Scripture but with a wrong eye giving their own meanings and interpretations upon the Scripture and one cries this is my opinion and another cries this is my opinion and another cries this is my judgment and thus they are confounded and divided into their severall judgments and opinions yet all still in one life and one Nature but onely confounded and divided in their judgments of what the Prophets meant and Christ meant and what the Apostles meant but it is as a Book sealed both to the learned and unlearned and none is found worthy but the Lamb to open the seals Isa 29.11 who is the light wherein lies the Ministry so this is the cause why they whose mindes are from the light are so divided and scattered in their judgments and opinions and one sets up a form in his imagination and another sets up a Forme in his immagination and one runs abroad into the world with his wisdome and he wil go preach up his form and judgment to be the truth and another he wil cry down that form for delusion anp preach up his form for a truth and so many deceivers and false Spirits are entred into the world and one cries lo here is Christ if you can believe and be baptised you shall be saved so they that can say that is the way and that they believe Christ dyed for them then they must be dipped in the water and that they call baptising of them and then they are of their Church and then they call themselves Saints though they are stil in the old nature and so in the fall and in their sins and corruptions and it is not the washing away the filth of the flesh that doth change them but because they are come out from the Priests and turnd into another judgment and profession they think themselves Saints Acts 19.6 and they read the Scripture of laying on the Apostles hands and then the disciples received the Holy Ghost and so those formalists and selfe-actors layes on their hands but there wants the Holy Ghost and thus they act and form and imitate and make the form or likeness of a Church and they read of washing the feet in the figure and so they dote upon the Letter Iohn 13 5. 1 Cor. 5.1 2 3 4 5. and wash one anothers feet and they read of delivering up to Satan one for fornication for the destruction of the flesh in the name and power of our Lord Jesus Christ for in the spirit Paul discerned it for saith he though absent in body yet present in spirit I have judged already as though I were present concerning him that hath done this deed and so those formalists imitators if any differ from them in judgment they wil also deliver him up to Satan as they imagine taking the Apostles words though they cannot tax him for any thing but his judgment differing from them but they want the power and here they are the Magicians like Iannes and Iambres opposing the truth and those are they that are called Baptists and another form they are more spirituall in their judgment and they hold a spirituall baptisme and not a water baptisme and as many as hold with them are of their Church and faith and thus they are devided into several forms and Churches and so have several names and there are severall judgments of one thing under one name and here is the confusion of Babylon with their severall sects judgments and opinions and every one professing the name of the Lord and stealing the words of the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and saying the Lord saith when he never spoke to them and here the difference from another onely in profession judgment or opinion but stil in Babylon and Babylons fashions customes and traditions and fellowship manners and breeding which is all heathenish and at enmity with God being in the fall and thus they stand in the first nature in pride in covetousness anger wrath malice fleshliness and lustfulness and idle words vain

spirit was a lying-spirit there tryed and made manifest to the people and his blasphemy against the Spirit of God Isa 5.20 in calling truth error and error truth and putting Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness because the God of the world hath blinded his eye and many witnessed against him for his filthy Spirit was odious to many of the hearers then afterward he again said that I was a deceiver and his proofe was that I was not obedient to the command of Christ to be baptised and I told him I was baptized but he said with water and he said that were a command of Christ to be baptised with water and I bid him show me that Scripture but he could not Acts 10.47 48 but brought a Scripture in the Acts where the Apostle commanded some to be baptised and this by his filthy logick and consequences he would have made a command of Christ but he could not decevie the Light which did him try and make him manifest to the shame of his profession but he could not bring one Scripture to prove it to be a command of Christ to baptize with water and then he shuffled to that Scripture where the Apostle said Be ye followers of us even as we are followers of Christ and then he said Christ was baptised but he confessed it was to fulfil all righteousness and I said he was also circumcised and he said that was not for example then not the Baptism for both was to fulfil all righteousness to which end he the substance came but Christ himself baptised not with water neither do they read that the Apostles was baptized with water then who is their example and how do they follow the Apostles in that seeing they are baptised and the Apostles was not then he fled from that being there routed and said they might be Disciples before they could take up the cross of Christ and I replyed with Christs words that they might take up his cross before they could be his Disciples which he denied and said that wicked men upon that account might take up the cross of Christ and that Christ required wicked men to take up his Cross and I said it was so he did them require so to do for by taking up his cross they come to deny their wickedness for they that bear his cross live not in wickedness but this Elligood said that wicked men could not take up his cross for he said reproaches and outward sufferings was the cross of Christ for his names sake but this was not the cross by which PAVL was crucified to the world and the world to him and saith PAVL where hee was speaking concerning wickedness and unrighteous ones to the Corinthians Such were some of you but you are now cleansed c. 1 Cor. 6.9.10 11. And here wicked ones and unrighteous ones tooke up his CROSS which to them was the Power of GOD unto Salvation though to the GREEKS foolishnesse and to the JEWES a stumbling Blocke amongst whom this ELLIGOOD is found who is a Stranger to the CROSS of CHRIST who saith Reproaches and outward sufferings is the CROSS of CHRIST when as the CROSS of CHRIST makes Disciples and they must bee Disciples before they can suffer Reproaches or Persecution for the Name of CHRIST and must depart from iniquity before they bee a Prey to the World for CHRISTS sake for the World loves its owne and they that take up the CROSS doe depart from iniquity which is before Reproaches or Persecution is suffered for the Name of CHRIST And here ELLIGOOD is found the Lyar who said Wicked men was not called to take up the Cross of CHRIST when as all are wicked before they take up this Cross and here ELLIGOOD is found to bee no Disciple of CHRIST who is such a Stranger to the Cross of CHRIST who is a Lyar and so are not the Disciples of CHRIST for the Lyar is of the DEVILL and therefore is ELLIGOOD Then I knowing him to be one of the Baptists Teacher I took out some queries which not long before I had sent them but no answer to them had I received and I would have read them openly that the people might have heard and also he that was one of their Teachers but as I was reading he not having power over his own wil could not bridle his tongue but disorderly run into many words so that the people could not understand and I spoke to him for it and he said he had not time to stay and further said that he was not of the society of these Baptists at Fenstanton and yet he came with them and from them and then I replyed that he owned them to be the Church of God and this he did and then if he was not of their society he was shut out of the Church and then he would have shufled off with his consequences and said he dwelt far off and then I replyed with the Apostles words though absent in body yet present in spirit and the multitude that believed was of one heart and mind and here was the Society of the Saints Acts 4.32 and he being out of this society is shut out of the Church and then he would have made it have stood by his logick which only is to make a false thing seem true but it the more laid open his deceitful heart and shame to the hearers who severally witnessed against him to speak nothing but deceit and then saith he you call the Apostles words deceit because he had often stolne the Apostles words to make his deceit seem truth by covering it with the Apostles words and this is a more subtile deceit and then in his wil he called me deceiver the which he was to prove and all the people was silent and there he uttered severall lies and laid open himself to be the deceiver as I had told h●m in going about to prove me a deceiver he would the more lay open his own deceit and prove himself to be the deceiver and the people did plainly see it so and witnessed with me against him for he did so utter forth his folly and deceit that he made himself odious to many that was there and at last he shufled away under pretence he had far to go but the judgments of God he cannot escape for his damnation slumbreth not who is an opposer of the truth of God Then there was one Phillips an old man of the Baptised Party in another Roome who in scorn and wrath stood up and said they knew the first Principle of Religion before I was born because one of my Quaeries to them was what is the first Principle of Religion so I replyed to the old man if they knew it they should have answered and then presently as he was running on in many words he swore as he lived and breathed and Christ saith Sweare not at all and here he was found not come to the first Principle of Religion

the people their intent in dispute Aprill this 17. 1655. Ioseph Doughty My reply to this was as followeth as not being willing to come under their snares Rep. This is not to me but betwixt Brother and Brother so if you two Brothers are agreed concerning this your intent towards me let me know your mind in writing now while I am in the Town for while I was abroad there was a voyce of such a thing as from you but to me you did not declare your mindes neither in word nor writing therefore now I am in the Town let me know your mindes in writing that there may be no boasting nor daring in secret for truth is bold and seeks no covers this from me to you I send and do require your answer who am called I. P. This was writ on the back-side of their note and sent back to Hindes who forthwith flew into a great rage against the messenger in the streete and said that I lyed in saying that the note was not to me which any one who can read may plainly see it so and him to be the Lyar for the Lake and his seeming Religion to be vain who is still in old Cain's nature in wrath and bitterness without a bridle to the tongue Then the next morning I received this from them as followeth Iames Parnel this is to thee my intent towards thee is this If thou art minded to dispute with me appoint time and place publike and if the Lord will I will dispute with thee and so on with his proviso's as aforesaid Then my Reply was as followeth To thee Ioseph Doughty I do reply That thou must understand the occasion of this Dispute to be sprung from thee or thy party as I did declare on the backside of thy other paper so if thou or any of you that made your boasts or darings behind my back or have any thing against me or the truth which I bear testimony unto or the way which I walke in I am ready now at all times through the power of God to stand up for and defend the same against thee or any other who shall object against oppose or gainsay it be it in the Towns-hall or as publike as you will and what I have at any time declared against you people or your profession I shall be ready to maintain and justifie by such weapons as I have which are not carnal but spiritual and here is time and place from me declared but to the end of all Disputes and Arguments I am come for before they was I am and in the Light do them comprehend and judge to be out of the Light in Babylon and the Disputer and Arguer of this World but stil I say against such I stand a Witness for the truth which I have received of God and by his power am carried abroad to declare and preach abroad to the directing and turning people minds to the true Light of the Lord Jesus and there to come into the love and unity where lives the Children of Light the end of all Disputes and Arguments and this I am ready to defend and seal with my blood but I say my weapons are not carnal but spiritual and as for these provisoes of thine they are rather for me to lay upon thee according to equity for I am the defender but these things of thee I do not require neither three dayes before hand but am ready at any time to stand to what I have here declared and as for confusion in multitude of words which is thy fourth Proviso Reply Look thou to that on thy part and if thou canst tax mee thou mayest And as for order in the discourse for which thou would have some chosen which is thy fifth proviso Reply Look thou to that on thy part for my God is a God of Order and if thou canst tax me thou mayest and let that stand against me but if there be men of power to keep the people of the world in order I am not against it And as for competent Judges which thou would have appointed Reply Is the Scripture thy rule and not thy judg but thou must flee from that to the judgment of man which is changeable or else how comes Disputes and controversies but to that judgment I shall not stand the spiritual man shal be the competent judge and the Scripture shall witness And as for censorious rash terms of judging which is thy sixth Proviso Reply Look thou to that on thy part and if my judgment thou canst finde contrary to Scripture thou mayest by Scrpture disprove it but what is that that would not be judged And as for declaring before the people the intent and purpose in disputing which is thy seventh proviso Reply If thou who art the Disputant amengst the people hast any thing to say unto the People thou mayest declare thy mind according to the freedome of thy minde I shall not bind thee neither shal I by thee be bound but as the Lord puts into my mouth I shal declare unto the people what is my minde and intent as his spirit guides me so that for that I take no thought So here I have declared my mind in Reply unto thy writing where thou may●st understand my minde if thou hast an ear to hear and an understanding open and if this do not satisfie thee and the rest of you yet nevertheless cease your boasting and daring behind the back for the time to come and let this witness for me to any honest heart whether it be not fair and equal and so I rest in the unchangeable I. P. So it seems this pleased them and so it was concluded to be of the twentieth day called Fryday of the second moneth called April so when the hour came which was appointed we was disappointed of the meeting-place which the Baptists had provided for they sent me word they had provided a place but when we came to meet it could not be had and so we was disappointed then we was in this Hind's house and the woman of the house much fumed and raged at us all the while we was in the house which manifested what spirit she was of and that water had availed her nothing for she was nothing departed from the old nature so then they would have had us to have met in the yard but there could bee no order for multitude of rude people and bruitish Schollars which was as untamed bruit beasts 1 Cor. 15.32 like the beasts at Ephesus which Paul fought with after the manner of men so I passed to a friends house hard by and there continued declaring the truth as I was moved to the people and there the idle drones followed even Babylons Children with their turbulent vain contending spirits opposing and gainsaying the truth like Iannes and Iambres their fore-fathers who must perish in the gainsaying of Core so then word came that the Baptists was in the Shire-house in the Castle-yard and had sent

according to their form with their stoln words Reply Now for the truths sake for which thou John Ray hast cast us out of your society we shall hereby cleare our selves from what is or may be cast upon us in this matter by thee John Ray and the rest of thy society whom we know to be most bitter slanderers of the truth This we deny that ever we was Elders in the church of Christ you made us Elders in your church who call your selves jews and are not but the Synagogue of Satan out of which you have cast us but not before we forsaked you we by the light of Iesus Christ through the love of God seeing both you and we setting our selves of acting and imitating the Apostles in our wils with a blind zeal for life but strangers to the life and power neither could witness the same infallible spirit as they had as you know we all confessed and therefore we had nothing but what we got into our brains of their words and so got a notion with adding to our own imaginations of them and wresting the same with our fallible spirits for we durst not say it was infallible as you also confessed your selves then it must needs be fallible for there are but two kindes of SPIRITS and if not the INFALLIBLE then the fallible and though we did the very same things and spoke the same words and not from the same Spirit it was all false and as nothing as they that swore God lived swore falsely for they that have not the Spirit of Christ are none of his and his spirit is infallible in the least measure and thus you are shut out in all that you can do of your selves with your formed Ordinances and this we know we was also strangers to the Cross of Christ and the Light and Life and Power of Christ which the Apostles lived in and also the one Baptisme of Christ without which none can be his Disciples so we was only jews outwardly washing the outside but within as foul as ever as you also are yet we say not but we had a zeale in the same though not according to knowledge but now the true Light is sprung in through the mighty love of God towards us so that we see the weakness of our own actings and formings in our own wils for life and now are made willing through the power of God to lay down our crowns at the feet of Iesus and to wait in what he hath given us of his Light and we have tasted of his powerful VVord through his gracious love towards us and now we have a witness vvithin our selves whenas before we knew it not but murdered it as you also do and for this you have cast us out of your society but not for fornication as he was in that place of Scripture which you imitate 1 Cor. 5. nor for making shipwrack of faith and a good conscience for we witness an increase of both but the discerning and power is wanting in you and so you do you know not what but know this we are not fallen to a looser life but to a more stricter severe life for to serve the Lord Iesus Christ but remember this that if they that believed your form to be the truth could but patter over a few words of faith and call it theirs and then according to your form they was put into the VVater and taken out again and then received into your Church and communion though no change of life or nature and this must needs be the Synagogue of Satan and this I Samuel Cater can vvitness for so have I baptised and at you I learned and you allovved of it but novv my eye is opened I do see it and do testifie against it that all I did so by I deceived them though then I confess it vvas ignorance and so vvas yours but novv you might see if you vvould therefore it shall no more be called ignorance but vvilful blindness but I knovv you vvill alledge you teach Godliness and holyness but I ansvver you run and the Lord never sent you as vve also did therefore you profit not the people at all and if you had not the VVords of Godliness and the form 2 Cor. 11.14 15 then the Ministers of Antichrist vvould not be like the Ministers of Christ but you are but I say your lives comes short of vvhat you profess for in them there is no change but they that are Earthly Minded and Covetous are so stil and your lives are in pride ambition and arrogancy puffed up vvith your vain knovvledg and vvith respect of persons and so are out of the faith of Christ and in vvrath and anger and envy and bitterness and in lying and slandering and backbiting and lust fleshliness we formerly being in the same Society do witness it now our eys are open out of which society you have cast us and praised be the Lord that vve have escaped the snares of darkness by the bright shining of his light into our dark hearts to the vvhich light do vve speak in you all by it to read your selves and judge your selves for by it are you seen and judged to be in darkness and in confusion out of the faith and society of the Saints but these things do vve not speak out of envy or Revenge but for the clearing of the Truth and our consciences from your slanderous tongues and to lay oped your deceit and vvay of delusion to the simple that they may escape the delusion vvhich vve vvas ensnared in and that so you may proceed no further vvith it that your folly might be manifested to all men as theirs vvas vvho vvithstood Moses E.C. S.C. A Copy of the most of the Queries aforesaid was given to this Ray but no Answer did he return NOw a word to all you who are stil in your own formings selfe-actings Rom. 8.7 and imitatings you are acting in that nature which is at enmity with God which is not subject to the Law of God neither can so all your formings and actings is in vain for it is not from life but from death for life but life comes from death for in the destruction of death is life obtained therefore to the light of the Lord Jesus in all your consciences take heed which is the witness for God to which I speak in you all which witnesseth for God against the secrets of your hearts which reproves you in secret for your secret actions and deeds of darkness and it will search you through and let you see what you can witness of the work of God in you hearts for all this your long and great profession and esteeming your selves of the Church and faith of Christ and Saints in Christ so if you can witness yet the earth quakes and that the earth is yet removed out of its place and mountains removed by the eye of faith and if the vail of darkness be yet rent Is not

of this World Here all you are shut out who live at ease in your pleasures and live want only upon the earth in the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye Iames 5.5.6 and the pride of life you are the Children of Babylon you kill the just and he lies slain in the streets but here you all are shut out of the new Covenant of Life in the dark world under deaths dominion of what profession and judgment soever Alians and Strangers to the Covenant of Promise for they that are not with us are against us and our union and society is in the light of life Mat. 12.30 but you must all suffer the death of the Cross to the life which you now live in before you can witness this Redemption for those that live with Christ are crucified with him therefore so it is they that wil take up life must first lay down life for the way to life is through death therefore you must be stripped of all your old covers naked and bare that your deceit and shame may appear which you have so long covered with your own righteousness but now you must suffer the shame of the Cross if you would have part in Christ and all your old wisdome knowledg and notions which you have gotten into your comprehensions by your conceivings of the Scripture Letter wherin hath bin your life and pride and exaltation must all come to the death of the Cross that no flesh should glory in his presence but I say unto all you Professors Formalists Notionists and Disputers and Wise ones of this World if you will not take up and imbrace this Cross Publicans and Harlots shall enter the Kingdome before you therefore not many mighty nor many noble nor many wise after the flesh are called but he hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise 1 Cor. 25.26 to the end and the weak to confound those that are mighty that no FLESH should glory in his PRESENCE but CHRIST is made over unto us Wisdome Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption that they which glory might glory in the Lord and this I witness in my measure the things which I have seen and heard and felt and tasted of the good Word of Life which was in the beginning the same do I declare and am known and read by the children of Light And now I shall proceed to severall passages that I have had with the people called Baptists in seveverall meetings that their deceit and delusion may be laid open to the simple hearted Upon the thirtieth day of the first Month called March in the yeare 1655. I was atone Ashens house in Fenstanten in Huntingtonshire where I was freely declaring the Truth of God to the people that came there together that day as I was taught and moved by the Spirit of Truth by which the holy men of God spoke forth the Scripture as they was moved and there came severall of the people called Baptists into the Roome amongst us amongst whom was one of their Teachers called Richard Elligood who after a while stood up in his wil and wisdome to accuse me and said that I said that God did not respect any forms and yet saith he you use the form and so use that which God hath no respect to but his first words was Sir if you please I wil speak something to what you have said to which I made answer here needs no complements and then he runs on as aforesaid to which accusation I replyed was false and bid him prove what form I used and he said the Letter and I replyed he that takes the Letter to talk of without the life and power such sets up a Form and makes a Form but this would not satisfie his filthy wisdome which darkned his understanding but because I spoke words which are mentioned in the Scripture by the same spirit that spoke forth the Scripture by which I challenge the Scripture from him and all such who have gotten it to talk of but denies the life and are strangers to the life and power therefore with his contrary spirit tasked me with a Form which by his logick and deceitfull art would have proved but could not but his deceit was laid open to the people and many declared against him for a form is this as I said before the likeness of a thing but not the thing it self as they have the likeness of a Church which they have imagined from the Letter with their Elders Pastors and Teachers but not the Church it selfe and so they imitate the Scriptures but live not in the life of them that spoke forth the Scriptures neither are acted or guided by the same spirit that gave forth the Scriptures and so wants the life and power and those are the formalists that makes forms and likenesses to deceive the simple as the devil hath the form of an Angell of Light but not the life and power who appears to rule in those formalists and selfe-actors but the day doth make him manifest and therefore he rages and then this Elligood denyed that I had the same spirit that gave forth the Scripture and he said the Spirit might be tryed by the Letter for he said many false Spirits are entred into the world and I asked him by what did the Apostle know that false spirits were gon out into the world and he replyed and said by the Spirit of God then I replyed and said if by the Spirit of God the Apostle knew that there was many false spirits gone out into the world then by the Spirit of God he tryed false Spirits and knew false spirits from the true and here his deceit was laid open to the people and he judged out of his own mouth to be a lyar and to be guided by a false spirit who would try the living by the dead and again he said that one Spirit could not try another for by that judgments the evil Spirits might try the good Spirits to which I replyed by the Spirit of God all other spirits are tryed and also that by the Light darkness is discovered but Darkness cannot comprehend the Light neither discover the Light and here again his blindness and ignorance and deceit was much discovered to the people although he fed himself and would have shufled it off by his consequences and filthy logick but it the more laid open his deceit and presently the said Elligood was found with another lye in his mouth for he said that I said the thing should be proved by every mans spirit which was a very lye for I said that the baptisme of the spirit was the substance of the outward baptisme the which he denyed and bid me prove it and I said I spoke to the witness in every mans conscience which his dark mind could not comprehend but with his dark mind wrested my words and therefore said that I said it was witnessed by every mans spirit but his