Spirit which also may be confirmed by the Testimony of the Scriture of Truth As to those which thou sets down as our Tenents I shall answer on the Lords behalf for Truthes sake and for the rest thou may take them home to thy self First concerning the Trinity thou saith they confesse the Father Son and Holy Ghost and yet they deny the Trinity and those to bet hree distinct Persons for confutation of this thou brings Heb. First and third He is the expresse Image of his Fathers Person Thy Trinity is an old Popish term and we love to keep to sound words but by Trinity I suppose thou means three and thy own words shall confute thee thou confesseth we say there is Father Son and Holy Ghost and yet but one God or one Eternal being or substance in which they all subsist but thy word distinct is thy own and not the Spirits yet to distinguish betwixt Father Son and Spirit we deny not and as for the first of Heb it is in another Translation rendred the expresse Image of his substance for Person is too grosse a word as to expresse an Eternal and Divine being in and if thou do hold three distinct substances thou errs in thy Judgement for that were to make three Gods Secondly They deny Christ to be God and man in one Person and Christ to be a distinct Person from the Father and they acknowledge such a Christ as unchrists Christ and when they say Christ manifest in the flesh they mean not as the Scripture but falaciously Answ. We say according to the Scripture of Truth and not according to thy falacy that in the man Christ did the fulness of the Godhead dwell and God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and he saith I and my Father are one and the Father the Son and the Spirit subsist in one Eternal Power Life and Glory which thou with all thy stupid generation are Ignorant of and Christ that we acknowledge is such a Christ as is able to save to the utmost them that come unto him and receive him and believe in him and is such a Christ is as able to raise them that have been dead and such a Christ giveth Eternal life to them that believe And so that Christ that we own doth not un-christ Christ but by your Doctrine who pleads imperfection and the continuation thereof and a continuation in sin for term of life as one of thy own said sin will dwell in the house till the house be pulled down speaking of the natural body which some other of thy own Generation have called the body of sin and so it is you that hold such a Christ as unchrists the true Christ in thy own words and when didst thou enter into our thoughts and into our heart or with what dost thou search that thou sits as Judge over the heart who knowes not judgement in thy self nor of what spirit thou art of and so thy lies and deceit is turned upon thee when we say Christ manifest in the flesh we say that holy thing which was brought forth and born of a Virgin and conceived of the Holy Ghost in whom the fulness of the God-head dwells in whom the Eternal Power of the Father was manifested that he was the Christ which was manifested in the flesh and Justified in the Spirit Preached among the Gentiles seen of Angels and received up into Glory and this is according to Scripture of Truth and thy judgement must be judged Thirdly Concerning the Scripture considered as the rule of Life They deny the Scripture or written word to be the rule of life and they make the Spirit without the Scripture to be their guide they account Chyrch instituted worship and waiting upon God for the Efficacious presâ—nce and operation of the Spirit of Grace in the Ministry of the Word and Sacrament for conversion and edification to be Iâ—â—latry and the Political order of Church Officers and members they affirm to be an Image Answ. Concerning the Scripture we say they are Scriptures of Truth and words of Truth spoken from the Spirit or Truth that which gave them a being is greater then they as he that Creates is greater then they that arâ— Created which is preferred above and before and yet no Deminishing or Detracting from the Creature so the Spirit is greater above and before the words and yet this doth not Deminish neither Derogate from the Scripture these and the like sound words we have spoken to thy deaf Generation yet a spirit of slumber being upon them all they could not hear that which giveth Life and bringeth to Life and preserves in the Life is a rule and a guide to them that are enlivened the Sons of God who were quickned by the Eternal Spirit of their Father of Christ and raised from death to Life this was their rule as it is written as many as are the Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God and we say it is a sufficient rule of it self and thou may as well count the rule of the Sons of God Hetrodox and Heretical and the Apostles position who said as many as are the Sons of God are led by it and Christ promised unto believers the Spirit of Truth to lead them into all Truth and to bring things to their remembrance and to guide them in the path of Righteousness what has Envy and madness eaten all the good out of your hearts Yet the Scripture is not so excluded by us as thou Judgest though we say the Spirit may lead and direct with it or without it yet not contrary to it for the Spirit doth will and may take up what thing it pleaseth to manifest it self and its mind unto the Creature and who art thou and what art thou any thing but an Egyptian who would limit it and tie it to Paper and Ink to words and Syllables sounded and written in diverse Tongues Languages and Caracters they that appointed thee for a Minister never knew Gods Work and we know that there are several Ministrations and several operations yet the same God and the same Spirit who manifested it self and formeth and Ordaineth things according to its Heavenly will to represent its Heavenly mind to the Creature and that which Christ hath Ordained and Instituted to be worshipped in waited in and his presence seen in and the operation of the Spirit of Grace in the work of the Ministry which is for Conversion and Edification is dearly owned by us as that whereby we have found the Lord and his pure presence through this or that thing and without and beyond all Creatures or visible appearances and this is not accounted Idolatry by us as thou falsly saith which God will Judge thee for in the day when he appears to take vengeance upon his Enemies in flames of fire and thou that talkes of trying the Spirit by the Letter knowes no more of God then a Horse but what thou knowes naturally the
so all thy Interpretations are false and thine is the private Interpretation and not from that sure word of prophesie which the Prophets and believers took heed unto and through which they interpreted things truely according to the mind of God As for the story of false Teachers arising and prevailing among People and what the signal nature is and thou sayest they are sent as scourges and as judgements to them who have not received the Truth in the love of it and thou brings a Scripture I came in my Fathers Name and ye received me not John 5. but if another shall come in his own Name him you will receive It s manifest that thou comes not in his name nor in Christs Name and if not so in thy own name thou comes by the appointment of the General Court at Boston and so there will few believe thy fabulous stories which are not worth rehearsal which will cast a mist before the eyes of them who cannot see through thy deceit and the sum is thou sayest of all that the Doctrines of Devils audatiously deseminated pretending themselves to be sent of God are signal signs of evil times The Doctrine of Devils hath long been seminated audaciously by numerous false teachers and false Prophets as Christ foretold in Mat. 23. and 24. which John saw come 1 John 18. little Children it is the last times ye have heard that Antichrists should come and even now there are many and they have Ruled long in most parts of the Earth that John said the whole World wondred after the Beast and this hath been a sad time these 13. or 14. hundred years wherein the true Church the Woman cloathed with the Sun hath been in the wilderness in a solitary place exiled because of the Beasts power and the Dragons Power and the false Prophets Miracles and because of the Doctrines of Devils has made it a sad time and an evil time such as thou hast taught viz. that the light which every man is lightned with is grosse darkness and worse then grosse darkness and that Christ left Political Officers and that the Lords Supper is a visible Political Church Ordinance and that Baptism is a visible Political Church Ordinance and that it is blasphemy to hold perfection of degrees in this life and that none can be cleansed from sin while upon Earth these and the like Doctrines of Devils hath been sown which thou now audatiously Seminates by the appointment of the General Court at Boston but the time drawes near an end the night is far spent and the day is at hand when the Beast shall be taken alive and the old Dragon laid hold on and the Mother of Harlots burned with fire and the false Prophets which have wroughts miracles before the Beast and has cryed as thou cryest him up in New England who is able to make War with him who hath shed the blood of the Saints of the most high God which will lie as a stain upon your Political Church as thou calls it which will not easily be washed away the time of your mirth in Sodom and Egypt is near an end though you strengthen one another and make merry yet wo will come when all these before mentioned goes down alive into the pit together and when the Sea is dried up that your traffique will not go off then alas shall be the note of her Merchants who have traded with her Sorceries and witchcrafts and have made People drunk that they have reeled and staggered and have been all like a Sea unstable and have not known the Rock of Ages upon whom all that do believe aâ—â— established Thou sayes the Gospel is a constitution or effect tempered of the Grace of God and of the blood of Christ Answ. The Gospel thou knowes not but builds with thy untempered morter and unseasoned words and what is the Gospel an effect of it is not onely an effect of an operation but it is that which operates and is the Power of God which will confound all this mudd and all these muddy traditions which you mix with the Scriptures and calls them Gospel And now thou comes to the distructiveness of the Doctrine of the Quakers to Religion the Churches of Christ and Christian States because thou sayst iâ— appears in this from the nature of the object they single out to fight against as the Trinity Christ the Scriptâ—re Order both Civil and Ecclesiastical as instituted in 〈◊〉 Gospel As to thoâ—e Principles I have answered before in part but dost thou 〈◊〉 of civil order in your state or in your Political Church as thou calls it is that to be counted a civil State who destroyes the Creatures Gods workmanship and destroyes mens Estates and sells their free-born Children as bond-slaves dost thou Judge that these Rules well according to the appointment of God who is a terror to them that do well and an encourager of violence and cruelty as your late actions hath sufficiently evinced and as for the order of your Political Church we have heard of it that you are as a company of wild Beares rending and tearing and stops gloves and napkins and binds keys over their mouthes that they may not speak the Word of Truth amongst you contrary to Primitive order and as for the Doctrine of the Quakers many who knowes it better then thee knowes it to he distructive to nothing but to the Doctrine of Antichrist and such ungodly Doctrines as thou hast laid down in this Book as that that light which Christ hath enlightned every one withall is grosse darkness and worse then grosse darkness and that the Supper of the Lord is a visible Political Ordinance and such black doctrines as these our Doctrines are distructive unto And further thou goes on and tells the work against order is policy against policy the pollicy of Hell against the pollicy of Heaven It seems your order stands in pollicy both in your Church and State and in craft fraud and deceit and thou Judges that Heaven stands in policy to but he that sits in Heaven laughes you to scorn with all your deceit and pollicy And now thou comes to thy proof and saith that Doctrine that denyes obedience to Magistracy in his due Subject in effect denyes the order of Magistracy but their Doctrine denyes obedience to Magistracy in its due Subject therefore their Doctrine denyes the order of Magistracy Answ. The Major and Minor is both false for we own Magistracy in its due subject which stands in the Power of God and in the higher Power and that which leads into order and out of confusion and distruction and thou must not think to fasten Stork and Muncer upon us for thy proof what as they did stands upon their account and not upon ours and that mischievous spirit of thine is that which presseth on the Magistrate to abuse his Power and to intrude into those things which belongs not to him to keep up your confused Babel which thou
this Take them to thee and thy doctrine for thou art but a stem sprung out of the same Root and acts from the same Principle and yet I tell thee and all the world I am not pleading for any matter of fact or for breakers of the Law which is Righteous for the Law is good if a man use it lawfully it is against murtherers man-stealers and stealers of the Creatures for Idolaters and defrauders and cheaters and every Act or Fact deserves punishment suitable to the transgression Now had it not been more reasonably done of thee to have produced the Fact of the Quakers in New England which hath deserved all these barbarous tortures then to Declare them and Publish them as Offenders in matter of Fact and hath none to lay to their charge and I challenge thee and the rest of thy Adherents to produce some matters of Fact which the Quakers hath done which is contrary to any Righteous Law of God or else own your Condemnation and repent and thou must not think that this poor Tract of thine which is full of deceit and confusion errour blasphemy and madness though thou Publish it by the Appointment of the General Court that it will cover your wickedness or hide you from being discovered to moderate People neither will shelter you in the Day of the Lord And thou saith It concerneth New England awayes to remember that originally they are a Plantation Religious the Profession of purity of Doctrine Worship and Discipline is written upon your fore-heads that after New England hath now shined 20 years should now go out in the snuff of Morallianism Answ. There was something amongst some of you but you fled the Cross as I told you before and so that spirit that persecuted you in the Bishops time got up in your selves and that which once you had while you were under affliction here you have lost not onely the Power of godliness but the Form thereof and also of sound words And now as to matter of Religion its rather become a place of Ostridges and Owles and Satyrs and for purity of Doctrine Worship and Discipline written in your fore-heads if it must be tryed by your Rule and if it be the same 20 years that it is now I have not heard of more unsoundness in Doctrine Worship and Discipline which I have read on in many ages but especially in the Scripture and truly your shining now is turned into blackness and your Sun is set and your day is darkness and your light is gone out as the snuff of a Candle because this man boasts of their Doctrine Worship and Discipline take a few things out of many and behold them in the light of the Lord and compare them with the Scripture and so I leave them to thy Judgement 1 First speaking of the Trinity he saith God is a distinct subsistance from the Son and the Spirit and that the Son is a distinct subsistance from the Father and the Spirit in the 9th page and because it is said the Father shall give you another Comforter this another he saith is Intelligible of the Essence so then the Son is a distinct Subsistance and Essence from the Father and the Spirit is a distinct Subsistance and Essence from the Father and the Son so here is three distinct Essences 2 And that the Spirit of God without the Letter is no Spirit that which obligeth a man to obey a Command of God is one Power and that which strengthens him and enables him to obey is another Power page 12. and that Christs words in the 17th of John 21. gives an uncertain sound which are these That they may be one as we are one 3 That Scripture is a perfect Rule of Life but not without Consequences 4 That Thomas and Mary is no where mentioned in Scripture neither are commanded obedience nor forbidden disobedience contrary to John 20. 16 17 27. 5 That that light which teaches a man there is a God and to Worship God and that Parents are to be honoured and that a man shall not lye nor steal and that which discovers the Creator his Eternity and Omnipotency is to be construed in opposition to spiritual light and contradistinct to the light of the Spirit page 16. 6 That the light which is in every man hath much miscarried whilst that it is managed by the reigning power of darkness page 17. 7. That that which lets a man see that he should not do to others what he would not have others do unto him and shewes a man ought not to steal nor to lye and that which discovers Eternity and Omnipotency this indeed saith he is darkness it is worse then gross darkness page 18. 8 Christ enlightens no man with the light of life but them that are so and so qualified 9 That the Gospel is a Conâ—â—icution or Effect tempered of the Grace of God and the blood of Christ 10 That the visible Political Churches Political Officers Political Worship and Administrations are Gospel Institutions or appointed by Christ page 41. 11 That there is Policy in Heaven page 42. 12 Pastors and Teachers are Political Church Officers 13 That the Lords Supper is a visible Political Ordinance page 48. 14 That Baptism is a visible Political Church Ordinance 15 That to Christ belongs the Prerogative of being the onely Politician 16 That there is much darkness in the hearts of all Children of light in this life page 42. Likewise at a Lecture at Boston John Norton taught That the Justice of God is the Armour of the Devil Take a view of thy doctrines again and be ashamed and blush and repent of thy deceit and false doctrines and lying stories and cease to pervert the way of the Lord for all this which thou hast waded through will little advantage your Kingdom neither all this covering which thou hast made will not vindicate your wicked practices nor shelter you from the storms and thunders and plagues and terrour and wrath which is to be poured upon all his enemies and then thy order from the General Court will stand thee but in little stead when the terrour of God comes upon thee and when the witness of God is awakened in thee to bring all thy iniquities to remembrance and thy deceit that hath been hid to the light then shalt thou see that thou hast not set thy self onely against man but also against God and his dear servants whom he hath redeemed by his pretious blood who knows a habitation unto which you cannot reach with your Clubs Whips and Ropes and their Habitation is as the Munition of Rocks their Bread is sure and their Water doth not fail and happy are they who suffer for the truths sake for they shall receive Honour and Glory and Immortality and the Crown of Life which he hath laid up for all them that endure the Cross and dispise the shame which will be given in the day of his glorious appearance to them that keeps the
Word of his patience and the word of his Testimony committed to them unto the end London the 12th day of the 11th Month 1659. OH New England whose heart is unbroken and is as hard as a stone thy fruits declares it and thy Iuhabitants are Rebellious against God thy Teachers and People are filled with enmity against the Lord and his People and they have not known sorrow nor are they acquainted with the Lord in his Judgements but the Rebellious and stiff-necked lives in them and they are covered with a Profession of Gospel but are as the Wolves in sheeps clothing who is covered with the Saints words and Practices but are destroying the Lambs of Christ oh New England what hast thou done how thou hast greedily run in the way that is not good how hast thou opposed the way of thine own peace and rejected the loving kindness of the Lord we have heard and we have seen and we have been sencible of thy wickedness of thy mercilesness and thy cruelty which abounds in thee and art without respect to God and his Eternal Power which is over you though you oppose it yet you are comprehended with it and it shall Eternally Judge you your Church hath brought forth bad fruits even of Sodom and spiritual Egypt and in the streets is the Lamb slain and the just crucified and ye are the People that have done it doth not your dealing towards the People of God called Quakers evidence this unto all the World and Nations do hisse at you what ye a gathered People what ye a seperated People and brings forth persecution in such a manner exceeding the very cruelty of the Scribes and Pharisees and the chief Priests this Nation hath wondered at your hard heartedness sober People are grieved at their hearts for you that you should so far indanger your souls to everlasting loss as to go on in this way as you have done for years together every day as it were heighthening your malice and your fury against the Lamb and his followers Oh you Teachers and Professors which hath openly appeared under the Dragons Collours who hath Warred under his Banner even the Dragon which sought to devour the man-child and by him do you make War against the Lamb and his followers with the Dragons weapons Prisons houses of correction whippings banishments cutting off the ears and such like cruel dealing which is of the Dragon his weapons and not the weapons of the Lamb oh what have you done is there not a wise man among you are you all besotted and inchanted are you all blind is there none among you that considers these things hath not your own doings pierced your hearts hath not the innocent blood that you have shed yet struck terrour upon your consciences can nothing awaken you will not your own doings reprove you oh consider for you are not hid from the Eternal eye of God it beholds you and you are naked and bare before it and your filthiness and wretchedness is open before it oh what floods of wickedness do you cast out and what wicked practices do you bring forth we are wounded in our spirits for you because you have lost all feeling and sence and are void of understanding your ears dull your eyes blind and your hearts hardned and hath neither Religion nor pure humanity but do you think to prevail against the Lord by your doings do you think to weary him out from among you No he is stronger and his Kingdom and Government of more force and though he is long suffering yet he can dash you to pieces and take your breath from you and cause you to melt away and sink you into confusion and destruction and his truth will prevail over you for there is a seed which you cannot quench there is a root which will bring forth though you choak it never so much and in all your glory you shall wither and pine away and your flower shall be cut down and your strength shall become weak as water and your Authority shall sink into the bottomless pit and there is no vision unto you of peace and prosperity in your way but you shall fall with no small weight of dishonour and affliction which shall be your portion for God is just and all Power is with him to break you to pieces and he can make you know that he can do whatsoever he will and you are but as the pot-sheards of the Earth which he will break and his heritage shall be increased and he will not be wanting to it his People shall have peace when you shall have trouble his People shall have joy when you shall have mourning he shall appear to their joy but you shall be ashamed for your portion shall not be like unto theirs but the wrath of the Lamb shall torment you even the long suffering of God which hath been great towards you shall be turned into a devouring fire and into fury to consume you this shall doubtless come to passe for the Lord hath said it wherefore repent ye Rulers repent ye Teachers repent ye hypocrites and if there be any among you that will be saved let him deliver himself by turning to the Lord But besides all that you have done by way of persecution imprisonment lies and slanders cutting off ears banishment and whippings and such like yet after all this here is a Book come over Called the Heart of New England Rent filled with false reproaches with slanders with false Doctrines and misinterpretations oâ— Scripture and such like stuff which we have taken notice of and viewed over and returned Answer what is this your best Divinity in New England we have heard of your wicked practices towards the people of God but now we have seen the wickedness of your Profession and the emptiness of your Religion and Doctrines and we cannot but turn them back to you again that if possible the Lord may open your eyes that you may be converted and live and what do we fear your revilings and threatnings and your persecutions in the immortal Life is our victory which Life you cannot Reach for the Devil hath not power given over it though you may have power over the body and over the goods yet the immortal Life you cannot touch and that is Eternal victory and that Life is our God bringing forth more and more and he can deliver if he will but if he will not we cannot bow to your Image nor say we have done you wrong in what we write and speak to you for this is our Religion that our Conscience may be kept clear and our zeal for God is in this that we may keep void of offence towards God and towards you by warning of you from time to time and though we are far distant in the outward man yet we have a witness in your consciences and in that we know you and by that shall be answered in the dreadful day of the Lord and that day is coming upon you and the Judgements of the Lord the wicked shall not â—scape O have you forgotten since you were sufferers your selves and then it was well with you far better then now for you are at ease in the flesh and have forgotten God and lost that sincerity which once was in you and the very spirit of the old Bishops which once persecuted you it is entered into your hearts and now liâ—es in you and acts you and in the dayes of your prosperity you are exalted and have forgotten the Lord and you requite him evil for his love and seem to be a people given up to do wickedly till the time of your distruction and like Rulers like Teachers all in the hard-heartedness and in the pathes of death and destruction your Church your Ministry your Religion is all of it a weariness and abomination to the Lord while that spirit of murder and â—alice lodges in you wherefore repent least you perissh the day of God Almighty is approaching the terrible day of the Lord is at hand I am a lover of righteousness and a friend to the Seed of God throughout the world and that waits for the Redemption thereof E. BVRROVGH THE END