in my Answer to your Queries and bearing rule by their meanes Heb. 13 7.17 speaking of Scribes and Pharisees which is another lye for it is by Gods Authority they rule over us and watch for our soules and you againe further adde it being called Masters of men which is cleared by that most Reverend Mr. Baxter and answer him if thou canst And then thou sealest all this with thine own Signet a most damnable lye that it is forbidden of Christ and that for bearing witnesse against such much innocent blood hath been spilt but whether you meane the Gunpowder Traytors or Garnet that Jesuit with the rest of those Romish Priests whose beginning was at Tyber and whose end not undeserved at Tyburne but prove that ever any unlesse such dyed for that cause you now stand for if you can name them Qu. 9. Since that you say that Presbiterians Independents and the like differing Forms are of Babylon and under the distruction thereof I quere who are out of it and where is the true Church Qu. 10. And if you say a small number of Quakers I query againe where then hath the Church of Christ been since his passion for this 1600. years and more till this upstart Faction spread it selfe abroad like an infectious cloud for if in all this time there were no Church then could Christ be no Head without a body nor no Husband without a Spouse nor a Saviour without a people saved Answ All formes differing from the light of Christ are in Babylon darknesse and distraction and the true Church is in God 1 Thess 1.1 Such onely are out of Babylon who are gathered out of the world by the spiritual light of Christ and there it hath been ever since his passion and he hath never been without though but in a small number which he hath saved which the world hated and scornfully miscall'd and into Prisons and corners have they been driven all this time of the man of Sinne and his Papal Priesthood but now he is come who is spreading his truth and multiplying his seed as a cloud to the Egyptians wherefore the Heathen rage exceedingly But it seems by thy Query that thou ownest the Church all along since the Apostles to have been in the multitude of the Popish Priests rather then in the Martyrs seeing thou speakest so scornfully of a small number to be the Church of Christ who are so contemptible which the Church ever was and so it is at this day Luke 12.32 Mat. 7.14 Mat. 20.16 Reply 9 10. Now I beleeve you speak truth as that all Formes differing from Christ and so yours among the rest are of Babylon and under the destruction thereof not but that there may be difference in circumstance and yet a concurrence in substance as there was in the Primitive times even amongst the very chiefe of the Apostles and though there be some difference in part of opinion yet may those so different be Christians still but not so if like you they erre in the main Act. 15.39 Gal. 2 11 12 13. And what you tel me here is nothing but what I knew before ever I heard of you and is nothing to the thing required at all for we know and are sure that there now is 1 Cor. 1.1 2 Cor. 1.1 Gal. 1.2 1 Cor. 16.19 Phile. 2. and ever hath been a Church on earth as also was that of the Thessalonians as well as other Churches which is evidently declared in many places And what I queried was concerning a visible Church not of an invisible Church of which you speak nothing at all and in that you grant that Christ had ever a Church since his passion you also grant your selves to be none of his Church you being never heard of until of late years unless in the days of holy Moses but if you follow their wayes Numb 16.1.3 be careful of their end And for what you further adde it is nothing but of words without proofe and the Pope calls them that dye for the testimony of his Apostacy Martyrs which are rather malefactors and for them who are Martyrs indeed they dyed for the testimony of that Religion Doctrine and Ordinances which we professe and you now oppose and like the Heathen rage exceedingly against the Ministers and professors thereof who are so contemptible in your eyes and others of your society as to be railed against with the unchristianlike termes of dumb dogs serpents sons of perdition instruments and children of the Devil and the like and if this be the language of the spirit of God what then is the speech of Satan Qu. 11. Whether you own the Resurrection of the body after death if not of what doth and shall Christs Kingdome consist for he can be no King without his subjects Answ I say yea the Resurrection I own according to the Scriptures Rep. 11. This is no satisfactory Answer in general unless you do descend unto particulars for I know not whether you doe mean according to the sense you wrest it unto and so by such subtilty smother perhaps heresie in privacy for some of your Fraternity have affirmed to me that there is no other Resurrection spoken of in Scripture but in this life as from the death of the first Adams sin unto the life of the second Adams righteousnesse contrary to the true meaning and so not according to the Scriptures which usually speaks of a resurrection from the dead after a dissolution of the body therefore speak out your meaning plainly Qu. 12. Whether you acknowledge the Trinity of the persons in the Godhead the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost one substance but three in subsistence or manner of beings Answ For the word Trinity thou mayst send it to Rome from whence it came but God the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost and that these three are one I know and acknowledge according to the Scriptures 1 John 5.7 Reply 12. Now O subtil Deceiver yet simple Etymologer doth not thy pen here stink with the tinkture of ancient Hereticks whom you here imitate in that you say that the word Trinity came from Rome in a derision of it I shall not stand to dispute it as a Controversie because perhaps you brought it thence with most if not all of your Tenets but this I know it was a word long time used and never disallowed that I know of by any unlesse erroneous Hereticks for the Latines have it as well as the English thus Trinitas as we Trinity both signifying three in one John 5.7 and so agreeable unto Scripture But O wretched imitator of Hereticks who with thy self hath stumbled at this word See Rosse his revel of Hereticks p. 53 Michael Servetus that heretical blasphemer compared the Trinity unto Cerberus the Porter of Hell-gate and Arius that notable Heretick counted the word Trinity a Fiction and a laughing-stock whose end was as wretched as his life was wicked See R. p. 58. for
in easing himselfe of natures courses he disburdened himselfe of his bowels and the same opinion is now upheld by his Successor Biddle a man no lesse obstinate then erroneous Page 59. The Turkish Mahomet and Sabellio likewise held the word Trinity in derision as doe you and many more of your Society and I fear in many more of your Tenets concurre with them Qu. Whether Jesus the Son of Mary incarnated in the flesh Godman in one person who dyed at Jerusalem upon the Crosse rose from the death to life the third day and ascended on high into the highest heavens and sitteth on the right hand of God be the true Messias that you own and say is within you Answ Jesus the Sonne of God and Eternal Word which came downe from God became flesh borne of the Virgin God and man who dyed at Jerusalem rose againe ascended and sitteth at the right hand of the Father the true Messias which Christ we own to be within us which no carnal minde which denies his light can comprehend and Christ in you except ye be Reprobates 1 Cor. 10.4 Reply 13. This is in some sort more then any of the rest satisfactory but that the true Messias is within you I have not faith to beleeve it because I see such opposite actings to him or any thing of his spirit That I apprehend them rather congruant to Antichrist then the true Messias And as no natural minde that either denies the true light or sets up a new light in its stead cannot apprehend these things so neither can they in that state distinguish between the spirit of Christ and that of Antichrist 2 Cor. 11.13 14 15. And this inded is the reason why you and your Society are so deluded and take that for the true Messias which is rather something crying crying Loe here and loe there is Christ in you which is onely the spirit of delusion and the rather I beleeve it because it so much opposeth Christ Jesus the true Messias in his Institutions And for what you adde further the Text I have cleared elsewhere already Qu. 14. Whether the soul of man be mortal or immortal if mortal for what then did Chr. Jesus suffer to purchase eternal glory And what profiteth holiness in life If immortal where then shall it abide after death since you say there is no heaven nor hell but in a mans conscience Answ The first part of this Quere I answer the soul is immortal but the latter part being made up of a lye I returne it back into thy Fathers bottle from whence it came till thou hast prov'd that ever I said there is no Heaven nor Hell but in a mans Conscience Reply 14. Since it is usual with thee O secret deceit to speak that in one breath which thou wilt deny in an other I wonder the lesse to see you stil uphold your lying practice else you might remember the superscription of my Queries were thus For the Speakers plurully not for you their Speaker singularly of that Society called Quakers neither did I know who was to speak at that time when I brought them with me whether you or another yet resolved to deliver them to him I should there finde when probability gave me good reason to expect Hoberthorn rather then your self to exercise there at that time because he was there the Lords day then last past and I think not before and then durst not own his own name and practices And though I confesse I cannot prove it against you in particular though perhaps others may See Rosse his view of Reli. p. 383. See Baxter against you p. 25. yet is it commonly known to be the opinion of the Quaking Faction and so of them to whom my Queries were directed and therefore you here lay under the guilt of a two fold lye First in denying that which is truth to wit that it is not the doctrine of your Fraternity that there is neithet heaven nor hell but in a mans conscience pure Familists Secondly in giving me the lye when I spoke the truth but I see you bear in minde your old profession your bottle and so your plow though you have now changed it for a lesse laborious yet diabolical employment fomention of Heresie Qu. 15. If you are perfectly free from sinne as you assert you are what then is the sting of death or are you in the flesh immortal on earth Answ The former part of this Query I returne thee back with the latter part of thy foregoing being both of one root but to the latter part I answer where the new birth is witnessed which is not of corruptible seed but incorruptible 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. partakers of the Divine Nature the life of Christ made manifest in mortal flesh and where life and immortality is brought to light there the sting of death is seen to be abolisht on earth but this Cain's generation knows not where death reignes and therefore would murder such as are translated from death to life Reply 15. Now O incomparable hypocritical lyar let us try the contest whether you or I in this be the lyar nay let thy own writings decide the controversie which thus asserts expressely them who say they have faith and yet their life is not the life of Christ and say they cannot be saved from their sinnes in this world but in part Them and their Faith we deny and as I told you in publick dispute so say I now againe if this be not perfect perfection what is or was the life of Christ imperfect And is not perfect purity from sinne perfect perfection in righteousnesse But you then reply'd though I denyed it in others said you yet thou liest plaine English to say I own it in my selfe but if it be not hypocrisie to disown that in another to wit imperfection if thou thy selfe art not perfect 1 Tim. 4.2 and is not this the Character Paul gives of a false Prophet Teaching lies saith he in hypocrisie But let us see if you lye not here againe for you further adde in the same page speaking of that light in every man this light we beleeve and follow observe that and by this light are led out of all the wayes works and worships of this dark world and if this be not perfect perfection then is light darknesse so that it is proved not onely to be taught and upheld by your society which had been sufficient but also by you in particular so that here you lie under the guilt of a double lye againe as before and that others of your Society have taught and upheld the same I need not stand to repeat it being so clearly proved against you and Hoberthorn affirmed the same the Lords day before I delivered my Queries in Now my Querie being thus justified it rests wholly unanswered in the least and therefore your pretended answer might be justly cast by without any further reply but out of charity take
large by several reverend pens extant in many volumes to which I refer you And for the power to fulfill these commands and precepts in the word of God I shall be brief there is no power but of God Paul may plant 1 Cor. 3.6 and Apollo may water but it is God and he alone must work with their labours and give the increase Quere 3. Seeing Christ preached the Kingdome of God within unbeleevers and the Apostle saith Luke 17.20 21. Rom. 1.19 2 Cor. 4.6 That which may be known of God is manifest in them and that they came to the knowledge of God and his glory by the light that shone in their hearts which God shewed them c. Deale plainly and let people know how it now comes to be without and denyed within as it is by you Prove your practice and judgement herein by plain Scripture An Answer to the Third Query In this Query I finde no lesse then two lies at the least if not three The first laid on Christ God-man blessed for ever that he preached the Kingdome of God within unbeleevers The second on the Apostle in that you say he saith they came to the knowledge of God and his glory by the light that shone in their hearts Luk. 17.21 And the third on me in that you say I deny that light which declares God and his glory to be within This I term a lye if you speak mean particuarly of Saints and a truth if you speak of Reprobates but I own it not wholly outwardly upon any account but I shall proceed to clear the Scriptures wrested and abused by your spiritual impious impudence and presumption So Leigh so Trap so Major and several others upon the Testam So Pumroy Killit and Glisson against your Society 2 Cor. 13.5 1 Cor. 6.9 10. For the first * I have observed the Relatitions of all the Expositors who have upon any occasion commented upon that place that ever I could procure the sight of who all concur in one opinion and render it thus from the Original Language The kingdome of God is within or among you the word in the Greek signifying both and so you have it in the Margent of your larger Bibles Now if the word in the Original signifie both then the one so well as the other may be used but that must needs bee most proper which most concurs with other places and therefore among rather then within since Paul saith Christ in you writing to the faithful not to the faithlesse except ye be Reprobates and again Know you not that no unrighteous person inheriteth the Kingdome of God where it is cleare that it does not possesse men as inheriting them for this implyes a contradiction but it is to be possessed of men and they to inherit it Luk. 7.28 Mar. 10.15 Mat. 25.21 He might enter into it but it could not enter into him and from this inheritance the unrighteous are excepted and exempted too therefore it is certainly a most notorious lye to say Christ preached the Kingdome of God in unbeleevers though among them for he himselfe and all his excellencies that attended him in his Incarnation were among them but not in them and an error in the Translation makes not an error in Christs Doctrine Thus for the first I come now to clear the Apostle from your falshoods for you speaking of unbeleevers say he saith that all which may be known of God or of his glory is manifest in them Rom. 1.19 This you pretend to be a proofe that there is a light in every man to reveale all that may be known of God or of his glory which I say can be nothing lesse then the Spirit of God when if you read the verse following for the first hath a dependency on the latter you shall see the extention of the former expression Rom. 1.20 Joh. 14.25 The invisible things of him from the Creation of the world are clearly seene being understood by the things that are made Now this cannot be the Spirit of God or Christ which teacheth all things needfull for salvation except you can prove him to be made at the Creation and so a creature and not a Creator Gen. 1.26 and therefore it must be something in the creature which can be nothing else but the eye of the rational soule which is reason by which may be seen the invisible being of God and that he is so Cicero Aristotle Plato but meer Heathens have attain'd unto therefore this is humane not divine I shall not stand to state arguments to prove it experimentally because I intend brevity I Come unto the other Scripture which you adde that the Apostle saith that they speaking of unbeleevers still came to the knowledge of God and his glory by the light that shone in them A most notorious lye wresting the meaning of the Apostle unto your owne wills and I leave it to you to examine with feare and trembling whether it be not also unto your own destruction too for the words are these For God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse 2 Cor. 4.6 hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ Where is observable First what it was that shined God that commanded the light to shine out of darknesse hath shined Secondly the persons to and in whom he shined in our hearts Now the word our maketh a separation between Paul and the Corinthians to whom he writ who were Beleevers and Reprobates who beleeved not therefore you must needs acknowledge you have belyed him in saying he spoke of unbeleevers when he spoke to and of Saints in our hearts unlesse you can prove that that Paul and the Corinthians were such as you speak of even unbeleevers Thirdly the intent and purpose for which he shone to give it was not free to all as you say but particularly given to some the light of the knowledge of the glory of God And then Fourthly the manner how in the face of Jesus Christ I intend not to write an Exposition on the words but onely rightly to divide them and so to cleare them from the scandal laid on them by you which is clear So that your Query being thus handled 2 Tim. 2.15 I suppose there can be no more required in answer to it and farre be it from me to hold a judgement willingly any further then is concomitant to and with Scripture proofes and practice Learne to speak truth and cease to endeavour the building of so lying a Babel which is not in that one language of God but that of Satan For every lye is of Satan the Father of lyes Query 4. Whether that New Birth spoken of in the Scriptures be Christ within or some other thing and if not he then what is it and how people may know it by the Letter without the Light when they have Christ
journey to their rest at Mount Sinai God made unto them a repetition of that Law once written in mans heart which Steven calls the lively Oracles of God then not a dead letter This is the time and manner how it was changed and that which once was written in mans heart and was sufficient is now become unsufficient Act. 7 38 53. for else if it either then was or how is sufficient of it selfe then hath God wrought a work in vaine which to assert is to suspect if not to accuse God of folly But then if that Law written in mans heart were not sufficient to its proper end as to direct and guide in matters of moral righteousnesse but that it was necessary that the Law should enter on mount Sinai Rom. 5.10 Rom. 3.19 20 21 22 23. Rom. 7.9 10. Heb. 10.20 Isa 42 16. Rom. 8.3 Gal. 3.13 as an exact rule that so offences which were not manifest might abound in the eyes of sinners how much lesse could or can that Law which brings the knowledge of sinne and a curse and yet is but the same that once was written in mans heart and therefore that which you so much stand for both justifie and glorifie wherefore it was a gaine not onely necessary but of necessity that the Gospel or Law from Mount Sion the Law of Faith should also enter which leads us in a neerer way by a Mediator who came to doe what the Law from Mount Sinai or in mans heart could not do and hence it is that both your Society Rom. 2.14 Phil. 3.9 Isa 53.1 Rom. 10.14 Luke 24.47 and naturally all men runs unto Mount Sinai for righteousnesse and life in and by personal obedience because it is that Law which is or at leastwise once was written in mans heart which cannot but own what it could not so fully dictate and you with the rest of your factious Fraterty put your Proselytes upon Rom. 4.15 and man so easily closeth with contrary unto the Gospel which is not first made known this I dare boldly assert by seeing within but hearing tydings without and in that you ask what that was which led the Primitive Saints before the Letter was written in wayes accepted I say when there was no Law there was no transgression Exo. 16.8 Josh 5.11.12 so then it must needs follow that their sins were no sinnes because they were not imputed not that I beleeve this onely though perhaps more principally presented them excepted but it is probable and I partly beleeve it too that they had immediate Revelations of Gods will for before the Scriptures were in the Letter visible there was still a supply of Prophets whereby that which is now fully written was then by peece-meals revealed as occasion required and as Israel when they had no crop or vintage they were supply'd with a sufficiency of manna from Heaven but when they came into the land of their rest a land flowing with milk and honey where all things were setled in a competent standing order they had no more manna by piece-meals as their allowance they had all things supply'd by a constant course sufficient Heb. 1.29 nay in redoundancy and lay as we use to say at rack and manger so when that which by peace-meals was revealed was written in an absolute literal method there needed no more revealing by degrees when we have alwayes in store the whole and despise them not for such offence hath certainly a reward Quere 2. Seeing you say the Scripture is a Rule declare in plainnesse is the whole Scriptures a rule to all men women to take up the practice thereof or how much of it is and to how many people and to whom in particular seeing the Saints in all Ages had their particular commands how may weak people know which of their commands they must take up and which they must not and when they have found the commands where they must have the power whether that which gives the commands be not the power only accepted for performance deal plain herein that people may know what to doe and what they have done that they be not alwayes learning and never able to come to the end of their labours and rest of God An Answer to the Second Query When first I considerately perused this your Query I in part determined to have returned it back as I found it holding it a thing cautious whether it were a subject lawful to dispute without a prejudice to conscience savouring so much of spiritual presumption that I leave it unto you to consider and examine whether it extend to heretical abomination or no But considering the instability of your vitiated braines which with a blast mounts upon the falatious clouds of vain glorious imaginations as to boast of the victory before the encounter I thought better to give it a curb then to passe it by uncorrected Forasmuch as you query how much of the Scripture is useful how much not it evidently appeares you suspect if not assert some of it to be uselesse which seemes unto me an apparent suspecting of Gods perfect wayes in his actings for if God hath made or composed any thing that is uselesse then hath he wrought in vain and this to believe and teach appeares unto my apprehension little better if any thing at all then blasphemy in a high degree for private Saints had never particular peculiar commands but that which was pleasing to God in one was also acceptable in another so the command was not particular or at the least not peculiar for this were to affirm mutability in God that the thing which pleased him now should not content him another time except upon some more then extraordinary occasions and this would be at the least partiality in him which is abominable to suppose but it is freely confessed that the Saints in their particular employments had particular commands as Noah Gen. 6.13 14. that all mankinde might not be destroyed had a particular command to build an Ark and Moses to deliver Israel from their bondage had a peculiar command to Egypt to lead them through the Sea to hew forth Tables to receive the Commandements and to consecrate Aaron had a command to array himself in Priestly Ornaments Exod. 3.10 11. Exod. 14.16 22. Exod. 34.1 Exod. 28. chap. â— Joh. 1.33 Mat. 10.5 6 7. Mark 6.7 Luk. 9.1 2. St. John to Baptize and the Apostles to Preach and the like all except the two last were peculiar to them without others the two last particular to them with others and an innumerable more might be named but it is needlesse yet this is no inducement at all to occasion a division of that sort in that which God hath inseparably united although there be remedies for every malady cures for every contagion and medicines for every misery spiritual and as the Pooles of Bethesda for all persons and all diseases This hath been discoursed of at