them sued men at the Law and therfore we cannot but utterly deny them Deut. 14.29 Heb. 7.12 They arâ— such Priests as beside their Tythe of Corn Hay Beast Sheep Hens Pigs Geese Eggs Cherries Plumbs take ten shillings for preaching a Funeral Sermon more or less as they can get it and ten shillings for the death of a man and Money out of Servants Wages and Money for Smoke passing up the Chimneys and Easter reckonings and Midsummer dues and Money for Churching of Women and thus by every device get Money and burthen poor people that labour very hard and can scarse get Food and Raiment to maintain them in idleness and pride these are they that have hearts exercised with covetousness burthening the Truth and making the free Gospel chargable if the Apostle was here he would be ashamed of them and so are we and therefore turn from them and deny them 2 Pet. 2.3 They are such Priests as not only take Tyths and Money for many other things of their own Hearers and sue them at Law for it but they take money of them they do no work for but only raile against them and say They that wayt at the Alter are pertakers with the Alter but live of them who are not of the Alter and say The Labourer is worthy of his hire but take Wages of them that have not hired them and if they will not give it them cast them into Prison or take their Goods by Justices Warrants these are they that Christ cryed wo against who lay heavy burthens upon the people who oppress tender Consciences that own the Everlasting High Priest where do they find any of the Ministers of Christ bargaining for so much a year here they abide not in the Doctrine of Christ but are Hirelings and therefore we deny them Mat. 23.2 They are such Preachers as have told us They have been gifted men and we find in the Scriptures that the gift of God is free and not to be bought and sold for money and Job said Wisdom is not to be purchased for money nor Gold but they will not sell their gift under 200 l. 100 l. 80 l. or 50 l. a year more or less as they can get it here we find they have not received the Gift of God but are like Simon Magus and therefore we deny them Acts 8.20 Job 28. They are Babylons Merchants that make a trade of Scriptures and the Saints conditions which the Prophets and Apostles spoke forth freely without money and without price and bad all come freely How many hundred thousand pounds in England is gained by the Scripture and humane Authors joyned to it Where is there a more profitable trade Here they make Scriptures their Cloak and colour to get Mnoey by and so make an Idol of it and if any come to witness it fulfiled as it was in them that gave it forth they cry out to the Magistrates against them as Blasphemers and Deceivers And if they answer He that administers spiritual things ought to reap carnal let him consider the Apostle wrote not that to the the World but to those that they had gathered out of the World to whom the ends of the World were come and let them gather people out of the World and then they shall not need to bargain with them for things of the World but their trading is with the World and therefore we deny them Isa 55.1 They are such Teachers as take a Text out of the Saints conditions and take a Weeks time to study what they can raise out of it adding to it their own wisdom Inventions Imaginations and heathenish Authors and then on the first day of the week go amongst the people having an hour glass to limit themselves by and say Hear the Word of the Lord and for Money tell people what they have scraped together These are they that speak a divination of their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord which the Lord sent Jeremiah to cry out against Jer. 23. These are they that use their tongues and say The Lord saith when as the Scriptures say so and the Lord never spake to them Jer 23.30 These are they of whom the Lord speaks I am against all such as steal my word every one from his Neighbour and so we are against all such as Jeremiah was sent to cry wo against the Pastors that now steal the words of the Prophets of Christ and the Apostles the Lord hath shaken his hand at their dishonest gain and to them belong the Plagues that are written in the Book they make a trade on for adding to it their own inventions therefore do we come out from amongst them and deny them Jer. 23.31 These are they of whom the Apostle speaks That creep into Houses leading silly women captive which are led away with divers lusts which be ever learning and never able to come to the knowledg of the truth though some have learned 50 60 or 70 years covetous proud high-minded self-willed lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God who have gotten a form of godliness but deny the power thereof from which the Apostle bad turn away and so do we 2 Tim. 3.6 They are such Teachers as gave us and give people Davids conditions in Meeter and when we had no understanding we sung after them as ignorant people do now his tremblings his quakings his weepings fastings prayers prophesies and when we sung we put of our hats and when they read them we kept them on and so they caused us to worship the works of their own hands here they shew the spirit of Error making wicked people to sing O Lord I am not puft in mind I have no scornful eye I do not exercise my self in things that are to high when they are puft in mind and have scornful eyes and do exercise themselves in things that are to high and are full of Filth Pride and Loftiness and can scarce look at one another here they make poor people to offer a Sacrifice of Lyes and make them Hypocrites deceiving themselves saying what they are not But the Singing with the Spirit and with understanding we own and therefore the Priests that Sing without understanding we deny 1 Cor. 14.15 They are such Teachers as deny the conditions that the Saints witnessed viz. trembling and quaking when as we find the Holy men of God that gave forth the Scriptures witnessed such things Moses who was Judge over all Israel feared quaked and trembled exceedingly and the Son of man was to eat his bread with quaking and Daniel the man of God trembled and was sore astonished and Jeremiah the Prophet of the Lord reeled to and fro like a drunken man and all his bones did shake and David who was a King trembled and quaked and Ephraim when he trembled was exalted in Israel and Habakkuk who was a Prophet trembled and his belly shook his lips quivered and Isaac in whom the seed was called trembled
your Colledges for our Brother Paul the Tent-maker said If you will not work you must not eat For would you own Christ if he had come in your day who was called A Carpenters Son You Popes with your Triple Crowns and you Lord Bishops with your Coaches and fat Horses and gorgeous Aparrel with your Black Coats and white Coats and Girdles Are you like to entertain him who is called A Carpenters Son or to cast him and his mother into the Manger in your Stables This was the Word by which John the Evangelist saw Christ which did enlighten every man that came into the world and saw how he became flesh and came to his own and his own did not receive him but to as many as received Christ the Light to them he gave power to become the Sons of God which all they that are Ministers of the Letter made by the seven years Colledges and not the Word hate the Light And by this Word the Minister of the Word preacheth Christs Word Life Death and Resurrection And therefore as John saith in his Epistle That which our Eyes have seen our Hands have handled and our Ears have heard of the Word of Life do we preach unto you that which was from the beginning in the beginning was the Word though since the beginning were the words and letters for the Scriptures of Truth are the words of God and the words of Christ and he that adds to these words saith John in the Revelations God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book So the Word was in the beginning and Christs Name is called The Word of God but Christ is neither called Scriptures nor Writings for Scriptures signify Writings So In the beginning was the Word since the beginning were Writings and Scriptures In the beginning was the Word since the beginning were all false Wayes false Churches false Teachers and in the Word ye comprehend them all The Priest saith That Hebrew Greek and Latine were the Original the many Languages and the many Languages began at Babel which Nimrod the Hunter before the Lord began to build after God had destroyed the Old World with water then would he go build a Tower which should reach to Heaven then God came down and confounded them into many Languages so he hunted before the Lord but the Lord followed him and confounded him in all his work as he will do all the Builders that run before him and so all the Priest that have gotten the many Languages which began at Babel they tell simple ignorant people that they have the Original and are the Orthodox men and get in a different habit from them and say the Quakers are a simple people and despise the Learned Orthodox men who have the Original Give ear O people if these Languages which came up at the confounding of Babel are the Priests Original that makes them Orthodox and Divine then Pilate that crucified Christ was as good an Orthodox Divine as they for when he crucified Christ he writ a Paper in Hebrew Greek and Latine and set a top of him he was as ignorant of Scripture and of Orthodox and Divine matters as you and you as he and the Apostle saith That Tongues must cease then that which makes Orthodox men and Divine as you say must cease according to the Apostles Doctrine and so then Tongues neither are the Original nor make Orthodox nor Divine and John that gave forth the Revelations saith That the Whore and the Beast are set upon Tongues and the Everlasting Gospel must be preached again to all Kindreds and Tongues which were before Babel was who was the first beginner of Tongues Now it is clear that the Gospel must be preached to all Nations and Tongues and that Tongues are not the Original neither do they make Divines or Orthodox men but it is clear that it is the Word which was in the beginning which makes Divines yea Tradesmen which are base and contemptible in the eyes of the proud and them that have gotten Babels Tongues who are confounded by the ministers of the Word which was in the beginning before Babel was for all the Earth was of one Language and Speech before Babel And you that call your selves Orthodox men made by Tongues and say that is your Original who are so blind and cannot see that there was an Original before Babel was for did not Enoch the Prophet the seventh from Adam who prophesied in the Old World before it was destroyed and long before Babel was concerning the coming of Christ in Ten thousand of his Saints as in Jude and Lamech prophesied in the Old World concerning Noah and Adam and others might be instanced before your Tongues which you call your Original were and so we say that the Word of God is the Original which doth fulfil the Scriptures and the Word is it which makes Divines which is called a Hammer but it is a living Hammer and a Sword and Fire but a living Sword and a Fire to hammer cut and burn up that which separated and kept man from God by which Word man is reconciled again to God which is called The word of Reconciliation by this word are men and women sanctified and made clean and this is the Word that makes both men and woman Divines and brings them into the Divine Nature which hammers and cuts down that which corrupted their nature and by this Word aâ—e they brought into a Divine Wisdom Understanding Knowledg Spirit and Power And this is the Word that lives and abides and endures for ever by which the Saints are born again of the Immortal Seed and Word of God who feed upon the Milk of the Word up into a Divine Life Wisdom and Understanding and Divine Nature and by this Word they do see all Flesh to be as Grass and as the Flower of the Field that fadeth and the Word of God that lives and abides and endures for ever which is Christ whose Name is called the Word of God And so to Keep the Word of Patience which is over all the impatient Spirits and then you will know the Word of Life the Word of Patience and Word of Wisdom is Everlasting and abides and endures for ever which all they that be in the Letter out of the Life and Word have neither Patience to themselves nor others for the Word of patience and the Word of Life which is to be kept in all Tribulations was before Death and impatient Spirits were Concerning the Heathen Idolaters naming their Dayes and Moneths THE old Pagan Saxons in their Idolatry Were the first that brought in the names of the Days which those called Christians have retained to this day for they adored Idols and unto them offered Sacrifices and Worshipped the Planets See Vestigans Antiq. and Cambdens Brit. As touching the Idols which these Saxons adored they were divers and though they had many yet seven among the rest they especially appropriated unto the seven
deny before his Father in Heaven O I beseech you do not trifle about these things for they are exceeding weighty lest ye perish from the way for missing of the Saviour ye must needs also miss of the Salvation O that ye knew your state as God knows it to be and as it is certainly known and felt in the measure of his Life and holy Spirit by those whom God hath gathered together and whose eyes he hath opened and preserveth open there Glory be to his Name therefore Yea Glory Glory Glory and everlasting Praises be sung to him throughout all the holy Land ye in the very heights of Sion by the Souls of the Redeemed from henceforth and for evermore Amen whose Mercy Love Grace Wisdom Power and rich Goodness remaineth and endureth for ever by and in which the Redeemed live to his Praise who have overcome by the Blood of the Lamb whose Blood they know what it is and none else knoweth it but they who feel the sprinkling and virtue of it Lo this is our God we have waited for him and how can we but be glad and rejoyce in his Salvation O let all that live by the breath of thy Power and drink of thy Streams sing praise unto Thee and exalt thy great and wonderful Name for ever and ever A brief Testimony for Truth by Tho. Tayler I Shall add somewhat of the Testimony which is written in my heart by the finger of Gods Spirit concerning the People called Quakers Indeed they have met with many reproaches and sore oppositions many wayes since they were a People but notwithstanding all their Bow abides in strength and the hands of their arms have been made strong against the wicked one with all his devices in his several kinds of instruments and their Light is still the same and their God the same who blesseth them from day to day even in the midst of all the revilings slanders persecutions and curses which they have met with from men without and in the midst of all the temptations inward trials and afflictions also which are often met with inwardly Yea we know him to be our God and cannot but trust him having found him to be faithfull to us hitherto and knowing his nature to be such that he cannot but continue his loving-kindness and faithfulness to all who are gathered by him in to his holy inward spiritual Covenant of Life and Peace and who dwells with him therein And truly we are fully satisfied and at rest in him and cannot desire another then he who hath redeemed our Souls from death given us Life brought us out of the Pit wherein was no water into a large place set our feet upon a rock a rock indeed and establisheth our goings in the path of holyness working all our works in us and for us by his Spirit and Power Yea we have the Witness in our hearts even the Witness which never erred nor can deceive which testifieth to and with our spirits our Sonship so that we do not imagine our selves sons from apprehensions upon Scriptures but we feel our selves sons in the true sensibleness and know who David is and reap and inherit the sure mercies of David daily O blessed be our Father O blessed for ever be the Father of Life who feeds who nourishes who waters Who refreshes with the Bread of Life and with the pure living water his Lambs his Babes his plants his tender ones of whom he is daily tender and who are daily tender of his Name and Honour And if any man preach another God then he who creates anew in the true Light and therein puts forth his arm of Salvation Death and Destruction and the Curse are his portion from the hand of the Lord. THE Conclusion GLorious was the Estate of the Church before the Apostacy for Purity of Doctrine for holy Order and Discipline for Love to God one to another and to all men even of Enemies for Faith in God for the Presence and Power of his Spirit among them insomuch as the unbeliever coming among them might find his heart and state reached to and be forced to confess and report that God was in them of a truth for singleness and uprightnesse of Heart meekness and innocency of Spirit and Conversation for zeal for God and his Truth suffering the spoiling of their Goods Imprisonments Stripes and many other wayes both from the Heathen and also from the professing Jews who had been the Church once O what shall I say concerning the beauty and loveliness of that State Ye that would know it O wait to feel it in that which giveth the true sence of it But over this glorious State came a dark thick corrupt night wherein the Kernel was lost and the Shell defaced wherein the House which had been swept and garnished became again recovered and possessed by the wicked spirit And how great hath this darkness been O what a kind of Church hath appeared in the World wherein the spirit of Enmity hath dwelt and acted in men under the Name of Christianity So that instead of loving and seeking the good of Enemies they are ready to rend and tear one another for every little difference and will be Lords over mens Faith requiring men to Practice things in Religeon before the Spirit of the Lord teacheth them so to do which the Apostles did not For though they had from God the express knowledge of what was Truth and could certainly instruct and build men up therein yet they were not Lords over mens Faith but if men were otherwise minded then according to what they knew and taught they could wait and bear with them bidding them walk so far as they had attained and God in his due time would reveal the rest also O that men were come to this Spirit again Then they would be Christians indeed and then they might be known to be Christs Disciples by their loving the Brethren and fellow-Disciples But without this love mens Religion is but as a tinkling Cimbal making a noise and sound of somewhat but not having the true Nature or Virtue of Religion in it Now will it not be a glorious Day when the Spirit of the Lord cleanseth away this thick darkness and causeth the Light of his pure Truth to arise and appear again Why there is such a Day to be wherein the true Church which was reproached and driven into the Wilderness is to come out of the Wilderness again and her Witnesses stand on their feet again and her Seed to spring up in the Power of Life following the Lamb who marcheth on fighting with the Sword of the Spirit the words of his mouth conquering and to conqeur thereby the corrupted Antichristian World even as he did at first the corrupt Heathenish World The Lord will purifie his Temple and cleanse the World by the Plagues of his Angels which he hath prepared making way for the beauty of his Truth and the Church of his gathering wherein he