up to the commandments of Christ in obedience and conscience and yet be found so rebellious and stiff necked neglecting and disobeying that which themselves have published to be the institutions of Christ Yea those institutions which are blessed which he in his own person practiced and left as a standing ordinance of the New Testament to all Generations c. Know ye not that rebellion is as the sin of witch-craft and to hearken is more acceptable than sacrifice and if he that knowes not his Masters will is worthy of stripes what will your portion be who profess ye know it and can admonish others for neglecting it and yet your selves be found in the utter disobedience I know in this ye will need a vail but it will never hide nor cover your shame And for me to tell such a people they are not a Church of Christ but a harlot a Synagogue of Satan c. is not to blaspheme God and his Tabernacle of both which ye are ignorant and in your blindness worship ye know not what neither is it a writing contemptuously as ye say against any who in conscience are obedient to Christ but it is for your advantage and profit if to it ye give ear And for the accompt ye can give of your faith of which ye boast I say that where true faith is it purifies the heart from lying hipocrisie and deceit and is a mistery held in a pure conscience And Thomas Ewine acknowledgeth in the 52 53 54 pages he doth very much question as I know he hath cause whether ever himself or many of you have received the spirit to establish and confirm or to open and reveal the misteries of the Kingdom or to beautifie and adorn you with gifts and grace to purge purifie cleanse and sanctifie and make you holy or to fill you with the spirit of faith and prayer and when all this is wanting amongst you ye are sure in a very bad condition such as the Church of Christ under the new Testament was never in and so might forbear boasting either of your faith or obedience till another spirit from the Lord is powred upon you And ye might forbear so much washing the outside of your vessel in rivers and brooks tel your infide comes to be cleansed sanctified and made holy In your fifth page ye seem again displeased that I call you a mingled people c. and say if some with me had been faithful to their light and practized baptism they might he mingled too and that but one of those that haue practised that Ordinance as ye call it with you are fallen away Reply It seemeth then ye acknowledge there is a light which convinceth to which people ought to be faithful how dare ye then to reproach and speak evil of it and are not obedient when by it your evil deeds are reproved And if it be the light as ye grant it is that convinceth of the need of your water Baptism how comes it to pass ye were once so near casting out of Hannah Taylor as aforesaid for embracing it and what great glory is it that but one of your Baptists are convinced of truth and turned from darkness to the light c. Know ye not that Christ Jesus the light of the world said Publicans and harlots shall enter into the Kingdom before the Hypocrites And what advantage was it to the priests and their generations when Christ came a light into the world that but few of them believed in the truth and were obedient to that which the world with themselves opposed and said it was the Devil But if ye were able truly to manifest that but few of your company were proud cocovetous envious back-biters oppressors extortioners unjust dealers c. living in the customes and manner of other Heathens but by the power of God were turned from it this had been something and so had not ye been mingled as now ye are Ye say Hath not Christ called and owned you his Church and that I can testify ye were at first rightly constituted and have profest that Christ hath manifested his presence amongst you c. To which I say That ever Christ called such a surfeited bodie as yours a Church of his is denyed and testimonie is born against it But that his presence was amongst you and manifested to many who by the power of it are drawn and separated from amongst you is granted though ye have neither known nor received him but cast him off and were not obedient but have rebelled and vexed his spirit so that by the weapons of his power is he fighting against you with whom it is but the beginning of sorrowes and if ye turn not he is whetting his glittering sword and his hand takes hold of vengeance c. And if as ye say ye were at first rightly constituted then are ye your selves not I nor others with me Apostates and backslidden from that in which at first ye were gathered For then ye did disown those called Anabaptists and their practices in which ye were so zealous that ye did often admonish and reprove and were near the casting out Hanna Taylor as I have said now called Hanna Packer because she owned it But now ye do own the Anabaptists and their practices and ye your selves become Practizers thereof as ye confesse and do admonish and reprove others who in conscience and obedience to the light of Christ cannot conform to your customes and traditions but by his power reproves them standing in that by which at first they were convinced and gathered out of the world and all its pollutions so far as to them it was made manifest And therefore all your feigned words of backsliding and back-sliders Apostatizing and Apostates both in your title page and other places in your book is clearlie turned upon your selves who are the Apostates and back-sliders of which ye speak and to whom belong all the reproofes and admonitions ye pretend to others who are obedient to the light by which the deceipt of your will-worships and inventions is made manifest and denied as was that of Parishes and other assemblies before And as for the Churches of Galatia and Asia Alas what have ye to do with them in whose life ye are not and are shut and cast out an◠〈◊〉 the cursed ground where the briars and thornes grow and the beasts of prey feed and with the persecutors of the life of God which they witnessed are ye joyned against the truth and proudly have ye laboured to trample upon and cast it to the ground but all in vain for over your heads it is exalted and life and immortality is brought to light and reigns for ever more Ye say Those who were stiled a synagogue of Satan were a company of proud boasters that said they were Jewes and Apostles and were not but did lye I answer just so are ye who boast your selves the Church of Christ but are not and his commands to observe
but do not and so are lyers in the light which is true and lighteth every man that cometh into the world are ye tried and found so and therefore are no Church of Christ but a synagogue of Satan where the owles the Bats and venemous beasts inhabit in which crueltie and persecution dwels Ye tell how ye have tried some as the Church of Ephesus did and found them who boast of persecution to be lyers and their books and doctrine to be contrarie to the glorious Gospel of grace c. To which I say The condition of the Church of Ephesus ye know not who were quickened raised and set with Christ in heavenlie places not dead in trespasses and sins as ye are They walked not in the vanitie of their minds like other Gentiles according to the course of the world serving lusts and pleasures as ye do but from it were gathered to the light in which they were made able to judge and try both persons and doctrine because it is the light which makes manifest the hidden things of darkness c. But ye who hate the light and like the owles of the desart love to be in darkness not in light and therefore cover your selves with a veil that with open face ye may not see the glorie of the Lord ye are not able to judge or try as they did and therefore in your darkened minds call light darkness and darkness light rejecting the corner stone who is the head of the Church speaking reproachfully of perfection and those that attain it when Christ commanded his to be perfect as their heavenly father was perfect and his Ministers pressed to the attainement of it Ye say Was it ever heard that a man either Prophet Apostel or any that fâ—ared God and expected to give an accompt of his words and actions did assume that boldness as thus to judge a people professing godliness because I said ye were found a synagogue of Satan c. To which I say what I said in that particular stands unanswered by you onely ye would deceitfullie veil it over to evade the matter in hand and in stead of answering what I said propound so pitiful a question was it ever heard c. To which I say was there ever a people so blind as to take to themselves the name of a Church and for so long time profess the Scripture and some of them gain so many hundred pounds for trading with them as some of you have done and novv to say Was it ever heard that any man Prophet Apostel or any that feared God was so bold as thus to judge a people professing godliness as if ye had never read the Scripture Were not Isaiah and Jeremiah Prophets who cryed against the Jewes a people professing godlines and said Ah sinful Nation a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters that have forsaken the Lord provoked the holy one of Israel c. Hear the word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom give â—are to the Law of our God ye people of Gomorrha Hell hath enlarged her self and opened her mouth without measureâ— and their glorie and pomp shall descend into it How is the faithful City become an Harlot and with thy whordoms the land is polluted c. Was not John the greatest of Prophets who said to a professing people O generation of Vipers c. And did not Stephen a man full of the holy Ghost say ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do alwayes resist the holy Ghost c. And did not Christ Jesus the light of the world say O generation of Vipers how can ye escape the damnation of Hell And to the chiefest professours ye are of your father the Devil c. And did not Babylon the mother of Harlots from whence ye proceeded professe godliness and so bewitched the Nations with her sorcerie c. whom John saw and said she is become the habitation of Devils and the hâ—â—d of unclean spirits and a cage of hateful birds where ye may read yourselves and your condition at this day who are indeed fallen and become the habitation of Devils and foul Spirits and unclean and hateful birds and cruel devouring beasts inhabit your hold who live upon the prey and spoil of that which falls into their net of which sort I perceive your cage is much filled since my departure which happily occasions you to boast and tell the world your number of 60 persons which are not now mingled as it was c. But if I should manifest what I know of some of your washt but yet filthy members 〈◊〉 I forbear many might wonder that ever such a people should accompt themselves the Church of Christ And whereas ye bespeak my condition sad for judging and condemning as ye say near 60 persons c. whose way spirit and principles I am well acquainted with And know ye are without and not in the life as I often told you whiles I was amongst you How sad must your condition be who reproach revile belye judge and condemn the generation of Gods children who are many thousands whose way principle and spirit ye cannot know nor comprehend but speak evil of that ye know not calling them miserable deluded people wandering in the dark and blind pathes of deceipt and delusion towards death and destruction but cannot truly demonstrate any thing in which the deceipt and delusion lyeth but belie the light which is their glorie But ye accompt it strange that we run not with you to the excesse of â—iot and therefore speak evil of us for which ye must give an account Ye say ye shall easily grant that my fellowship with you in the things of God was but outward for had it been inward and spiritual I would have continued in it but as it is written 1 Joh. 2.19 they went out from us because they were not of us c. Repl. What fellowship I had with you must needs be in that in which your fellowship stood which is outward things beyond which ye cannot see being covered with a vail and not able to see to the end of what is abolished and so are shut out of that condition and fellowship of which John there speaks And was as truly applied formerlie to you by the Parish Masters and their Companies as it is now to me by you But I shall freelie grant that I went both from the Parish Priests and also from you because I was not of you and that had I been of you I had continued c. But God having prepared better things for me than that which is abolished and waxeth old and is now perishing and in love manifested his Son and by his powerful arm gathered me unto it from amonst you all I was not disobedient but by him am made freelie willing in my measure to renounce and forsake my share in Aegypt and Babylon and all that is on this side the promised land that in it with John and those to whom
world to believe is true and verbatim according to the copie which in three or four pages your selves contradict manifesting your falshood at which so many of you as are not given up to hardness of heart may be ashamed and blush for if such things had been pubpublished by a diviner or a particular person amongst you that had been to your shame but for a whole company of sixty persons who call themselves a Church to agree in such works of darkness and wickedness and no one amongst you free is such a thing as hath hardly been heard before in our daies c. And notwithstanding my former answers to the three particulars mentioned in the copie stands good and not toucht by you yet I find you deceitfully nibbling at the heele and going on falsely to accuse saying I asserted that as Christ was the great light of the world so he was the great faith of the world none of which was in the copie nor I suppose spoken by me but is another lie invented among you because I then knew him not the light of the World that lighteth every one that commeth into the World while among the diviners and sorcerers I stood by whom the light is denied And I could not say he was the great faith of the World because both to you and the rest of the world who are of the world and speak of the world and believe not in the light both Christ and faith is a Mistery hid and unknown and is none of theirs who in their imaginations talk of objects c. and deny the light and know not the onely foundation but by sorcerie and wicked art would divide that which God hath joyned And so ye go on telling many words spoken by one and the other which truly I take to be but so many lies invented to serve you as a vail for if your memories are so short and your wits so confounded that ye are not able or willing to draw sixteen or twenty lines out of a copie which ye say is by you without so much falshood and untruth as is before mentioned how can a man believe ye are able and willing to remember and truly publish without forgery and falsehood so many words and passages which so many years past were spoken as ye say in several meetings And whereas in my answer to what ye say touching faith being an eternal thing ye say I alleadge 1 Tim. 1.9 and tell me I shew my weakness in abusing the words and sence of the Apostle this is another lie as the Reader may perceive who reads my book for I said faith is a mistery held in a pure conscience and unknown to all ignorant and vulturous eyes as well as to yours c. And asked whether that faith by which the Saints are justified by which they overcame the world saw him which is invisible by which their hearts are purified by which Enoch was translated that he saw not death and is the substance of things hoped for c. be eternal or carnal c. In stead of answering which ye publish a down-right lie and say I aâ—leadged such a scripture and abused the words and sence of the Apostle which I did not as the Reader may see so that although those who are given over to believe lies may happilie embrace what ye say yet none whose eyes are truly opened by him that is given a light to the Gentiles is like to believe what ye say though ye together joyn to frame and to publish so false an accusation which is so visible that all that read both our books may perceive it and it had been well if ye had taken my former advice and been silent till by the true light ye had been guided and known how to speak truth for though hand joyn in hand the wicked shall not go unpunished nor he that speaketh lies escape But as I said the sool will be medling c. In your sixteenth page ye labour to cover your selves the best ye are able that all beholders may not see your shame by what is charged upon you in The skirts of the Whore where it is demanded why ye had not questioned me for these things sooner and whiles I was amongst you And why ye would suffer principles contrary to truth to pass without rebuke c. To which ye reply that I was presently opposed though for a solemn dealing ye did it not till I had left the Church which ye say perhapâ— was your sin But considering the state of the Church ye knew not how to set about it though some saw ground enough to do it c. To which I replie O woful Church in a woful sad state and condition indeed which is worthy thy serious consideration who with thine own pen hast confest and published to the world that thou knewest thy duty and saâ—est ground enough to do it but knewest not how to set about it Art not thou worthy to be beaten with many stripes Oh wicked and sloathful servant whose judgement is come and into darkness art cast and so no marvel that some amongst you did oppose some manifestations of truth whiles I was amongst you of which you speak for I know some son of Baliel was there who knew not the Lord some blind guid who leads the blind into the ditch who for the wages of iniquity hath laboured to curse the Israel of God and to make you stumble at the stumbling stone who often opposed the life and power of truth as it was made manifest and against it contradicted as I before made mention whose judgement lingers not c. But I take notice how unwilling the harlot is to confess her own guilt and therefore saith perhaps it was her sin which is but a deceitful shift from a just stroak for her hypocrisie and if ye could speak truth in this particular ye might have told the world plainly that whilest I was amongst you ye had not whereof justly to accuse me of which I know I have a witness in your consciences so that most that then were of the company loved and prized me dearly and many were sorely grieved at my departure But when nothing could prevail because into Aegypt again I could not go then and not before some Diotrepes that loved preheminence prating against the innocent with malicious words by degrees made a partie and devised those pretended accusations and with much deceit and deceivableness of unrighteousness prevailed with you to charge upon me c. which if ye had clearly manifested and not drawn this further guilt of lying c. upon your selves some had been excusable but now ye must bear your shame and judgement whatsoever ye are But now ye come to a fifth branch of that ye call an admonition though in pag 13. where ye say ye insert it verbatim ye number but four and that which here ye put as a fifth general branch ye there make a fourth particular in the fourth
and spirit of envie is pouring out of stoods of reviling bitternes not onely when she assembles in her harlots houses and Idol Temples with the rest of the proud and persecuting World where the Churches of Christ after they were gathered did never assemble but in her books and pamphlets speaking evil as she can not only of the Church ways of Christ which she understands not but of Christ Jesus himself who is come a light into the World ane is the light of the World which hath enlightned every man that cometh into the World and this is clear and plain and no studied accusation but a real thing and her proper sentence justly due is gone forth from the presence of the Lord and over her head doth stand And notvvithstanding ye say I gave no vvord or reason of my departure the sober Christian ye mention will easily perceive that this is another refuge of lies for it was reason enough of my departure to deny you to be a Church of Christ and to prove you an harlot a Synagogue of Satan a cage c. And all this I have done notwithstanding ye blush not to say I gave no reason of my departure c. But I perceive that which troubles you is that I who so well knew you and was so long as an Elder amongst you whom ye did so often chuse and elect to that employment and so highly esteemed should now so sadly apostatize as ye call it as not to acknowledge you a Church To which I reply Were ye indeed a Church of Christ how gladly would I acknowledge ye But till ye prove your selves so I may in the words of Thomas Ewins to Ralph Farmer in the 60 page of your book tell you though you be so wise to propose I cannot be so foolish as to grant it lest I make my selfe a transgressor like unto you and rebell against the light which hath manifested you But now let me demand your proof for although ye say ye would prove every tittle and had proved every tittle of what ye charged me withal yet is here no proof at all produced to prove that I drew any from the Church grieved and sadned many or opened the mouths of any to speak evill of the wayes of Christ yet is this more than a tittle or a syllable it is many words and sentences Oh foolish people and unwise how hath the Devill the god of the world and Rulers of the darknesse blinded you why is there no feare of God before your eyes who are adding one iniquity to another as drunkennesse to thirst and yet bespeak your selves a Church And because ye have recovered a veile with which your selves are blinded do think all others must be veiled too but where Christ is witnessed the veile is removed and in the light of Christ which ye have despised and set at nought are ye seen and comprehended and your hypocrisies inventions and traditions will-worships carnall ordinances together with that lying spirit to which ye give heed are in the same light judged denyed and witnessed against as that which to the Lord is abominable and burthensome in which he hath no delight but his soule hates because it is iniquity and a loathsome thing Isa 1.16 But from you whom have I drawn away Why had ye not mentioned one that some colour of truth might appear or that by it also ye might be reproved who of the strong and mighty arme and power of the Lord are ignorant by which he hath powerfully drawn and gathered many from amongst you as well as from others who in the like deceit are worshipping they know not what into his mountain of holinesse which he in this his day is setting up and establishing over your heads and a top of all mountains in which to his people the Lord is making a feast of fat things of which those that pour out a drink offering to that number must not eat in which mountain the Veile is removed the shadows taken away no Lyon or carnall devouring beastly thing can ever come but in it is the way of holinesse known and witnessed and life light and immortality reigns for evermore and the true and living God in spirit life and power known and worshipped who is light and in whom there is no darknesse at all And so although gross darknesse hath overspread the Aegyptian land where the Diviners the Sorcerers the Taskmasters and oppressors dwell yet in Jacobs Tent there is light by which the deeds of darknesse are seen and reproved And therefore although ye have taken liberty to vent your lies and slaunders and false accusations against the innocent over your high places when ye assemble by troops in harlots houses where the children of light dare not come to reproove and gainsay it except they are thereunto powerfully moved of the Lord to testifie against your deceipt and abhomination Yet must ye learn wisdome and take heed of printing and publishing such stuffe to the world else may ye be sure whilst ye seek to cover it with a veile your iniquities will be marked your filthy sepulchre opened which is already but badly painted your skirts more discovered so that shame and confusion will be your portion for evermore except ye repent And therefore of this be ye warned In your third branch ye lay the charge thus viz. your extream censoriousnesse and rash judging not onely of persons abroad but also of the Church c. And tell the world ye will prove yea that ye have proved every tittle and syllable of these things to be true when ye have not endeavoured so much as a shew of proof for ought ye speak touching persons abroad but past it over as if ye had never spoken it And yet this is tittles and syllables yea words c. But a bridle for your tongue ye want who have so long given heed to lying spirits that now ye appear to love lying more then to speak truth and being out of the fear of the Lord speak ye care not what I come now to your fifth branch and shall not trouble my selfe again with those many lies falshoods and contradictions which I there finde in what you say is verbatim having mentioned some of them before but shall examine your proof of that also and see if every tittle of it be proved or whether ye may not be proved lyars in this as in the rest Ye say I did at a meeting at mine house affirme the first part of this branch viz. That the Scriptures were blinde and a plague to souls And for proof ye again produce your own saying it is so and that some of you sitting over against me do well remember how I spake it Clapping my hand upon the book or table saying That Book or Scriptures was one of the greatest blindes and plagues to mens souls this day in England And that ye will again affirme and set your hands to it that I spake those very words
generations past And then poor man what hath he to preach or to minister or with what can he quicken comfort and refresh poor souls and turn them to God as he speaks Well may he feed them with ashes winde and confusion with lying visions with a vision of his own heart And by a spirit of Divination may he cause them to erre from the right way like Balaam But with the bread of life the immortall food the power of God the life and quickning of the Spirit the hidden mysteries of the Gospel in which the glory of God is manifested he is not intrusted neither of it can he at all minister to whom it is hid and not opened nor revealed And are not all those blinde and like to fall into the ditch that are led by such a guide expecting to receive joy peace establishment comfort refreshment from him who is out of it all can do nothing vvell but is dry barren and empty in the pollution and defilement not purged cleansed nor sanctified nor adorned with spirituall gifts but is himselfe out of it all and gives it under his hand that it is so And how dares he say his record is on high and that many soules that lay weltring in their blood of ignorance before he came are now turned to God For although the children of the night and of darknesse may flatter and please themselves in their imaginations and lying visions yet how can he be an instrument to turn souls to God who himselfe is out of all c. as is before mentioned and can do nothing well nor knows that God to whom he pretends to turn souls for God is light and in him is no darknesse at all and those that turn souls to God turn them to the light for God is light but of this is he no Preacher but accounts it pernicious doctrine to bid people turn to the light And whereas he saith page 59. it is his daily care and work to preach the Kingdome of God freely to sinners and the Lord Jesus Christ as the vvay to the Kingdome and to invite and encourage poor soules to come into it I say his ignorance both of the Kingdome of God and of Christ the light which is the way is seen and comprehended For the Kingdome of God cometh not with observation but saith Christ who is the true light and the vvay to the Kingdome the Kingdome of God is within you and in his Kingdome he is vvho is light and he that is the vvay and the truth the same is the light that enlightneth every man that cometh into the world And all that are invited and encouraged to come into the Kingdome are invited and encouraged to come into it vvhere it is and that is within and not in outvvard observations and those that are encouraged to vvalk in the vvay that leadeth into the Kingdom are encouraged to receive and vvalk in the light vvhich is the vvay Christ Jesus the light of the vvorld and so all that preach the Kingdome of God preach it vvithin and all that ever preached Christ the vvay to the Kingdome preached the light for he is the true light But against all this hath Thomas Ewins declared not only his ignorance but also his enmity and saith to bid people turn to the light vvithin is pernicious Doctrine of it is he no Preacher and those that preach this Doctrine do shut up the Kingdome against themselves and others Alas poor blinde man vvhat a pittiful thing of a Preacher is he vvhose eye is so utterly darkned and made blinde by the god of the World to vvhom he turns or vvith vvhom he keeps multitudes of souls that novv the day is so much appeared he cannot see but is groping as in the night vvearying himself in his imaginations stumbling at the light which is his condemnation but the glory of Gods Israel vvho receive and believe in the same And whereas he saith he preacheth that Gospel of glad tydings which Christ gave Commandment to be preached to all Nations in which the everlasting love and good Will of God in Christ is declared to lost sinners I say that Gospel of which the Apostles of Christ were not ashamed is the power of God to salvation to all that receive his love and believe in the light but against all that walk after the flesh according to the course of this world in the imaginations of their hearts not believing in the light nor to it are obedient but hold the truth of God in unrighteousness the wrath of God is revealed and thorough the Gospel which is the power of God is tribulation and anguish ministred to every soul that doth evil and against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and the Gospel of the grace of God teacheth to deny it which Gospel according to the Commandement of Christ is now preached not onely thoroughout this Nation of England and the domions thereof but in most or all other Nations I know in the world so that the chief Cities and Seats of the Pope and Turk are not exempted and the Ministers thereof have not loved their lives unto the death nor accompted any thing too dear or too much to suffer so they may but finish their testimony and the Ministry which by God is committed to them for the Elects sake and from other Heathens do they receive the like measure abroad as they do from their own Country-men at home and account it not grievous to suffer for the name of Jesus whilst the Ministers of Satan that work deceitfully destroying souls for dishonest gain are at ease in their wealthy Parishes and Lectures living in pleasure and idleness not serving the Lord but their own bellies and by pleasing words deceive the souls of the simple speaking evil of that they understand not persecuting the truth and evilly entreating the Messengers thereof for which they must give an accompt And for what he speaks of Mary Prince which he calls Mrs. Prince accusing her of envy hypocrisie railing reproaching jeering scoffing c. I say Alas poor man why had he not first pulled the beam out of his own eye before he had sought motes in anothers eye for Mary Prince for many years past hath had and still hath so large a witness not onely in his own conscience but in the consciences of many other her enemies of her meek sober and good conversation beyond many which he himself accompts the people of God that I need not say a word in her behalf but let wickedness be upon the head of the wicked and false accuser But for what is she accused as aforesaid why for this namely bearing true testimony against his deceit and as he saith called to the people at his Lecture and bid them beware of him for she had heard him say that he had not the Spirit of God To which I say I never read of any of the Ministers of Christ that were owners of a thing called a Lecture
must ye be and neither root nor branch shall be left And the false Prophets that see vanity and divine lies and all that imbrace and receive them who must not be in the assembles of Gods people are not in a capacity as they say for those that feare the name of the Lord to converse withall Neither is dried stubble in a capacity to contend with those in whom the spirit of judgment and burning is left thereby they be both scalded and burned But Robert Purnell and Robert Simpson were it not meet for you to take liced beware lest whiles ye pretend a Commission from God to admonish others for backsliding who are not at all drawn back but are of those that believe to the salvation of their souls who for the hope set before them doe endure the Crosse despise the shame and with much patience through many tribulations the race doe run and through good report and evil report as deceivers and yet true do passe pressing on if by any meanes they may attain to the resurrection of the dead and to apprehend that for which they are apprehended of Christ Jesus Ye your selves be not found in Satans work and indeed gone back by many degrees into the world and the pollutions thereof being intangled and overcome by that which once ye seemed in a measure to have escaped and so your latter end become worse then your beginning And therefore to you or to one of you I say do not eate and drinke with the drunken do not fill your selves with wine and ftrong drink nor spend the creation of God upon your lusts Do not spend your time out of the feare of the Lord in pleasure and wantonnesse in lightnesse and vanity abusing the servants of the Lord For he is at the door and ye know him not that will cut you asunder except ye repent and all your inventions traditions foolish customes and carnall washings will not hide nor help you And this is a warning to those of you that forget God and cast his law which is light behinde your backs to consider lest he teare you in pieces and there be none to deliver you who as unsavourie salt are become whose ill savour is gone abroad from Alehouses and Taverns too much frequented sporting your selves with the enemies of God with which ye now begin to appear as one rather than to be grieved for the afflictions of Joseph or to become companions of those who for witnessing the power and life of Jesus do suffer by the world the generation of Vipers as ever they did of old And this is all the fruit I know that your invented washings have brought you to and yet for this time I do very much spare one of you But why are Robert Simpson and Thomas Ewins so much troubled that my letters to each of them are made publique for what is published was written to them many moneths before without an intent to publish it and in all that time which one of them acknowledgeth was above a yeare no answer was given in word or writing nor any word spoken to me about it by them testifying dislike as if all were quiet and well But now it 's made publique and brought to light and their deeds seen and openly reproved how angry do they appear crying out of wrong lies c. and after me pour their floods of contempt reproach and scorn notwithstanding under their hands it may appear I was before called their honoured Brother and when of worldly honours I could accept though I did not as others seek it and when into his mouth I could freely put Thomas Ewins to me cryed peace and in my absence declared he had little or no encouragement to abide in Bristol were it not for me But since to the light I have been turned and by it convinced of the blindness and falseness of your minds and worships and could not put into his mouth as before hovv doth he bite with the teeth and prepare war against me though his weapons appear too weak and carnall to prevail against which the bowe is in strength and the Reader whose eyes are opened will easily perceive that had not the things been true which to each of them I writ and not at all to be gainsaid nor contradicted they would in all that time either in words or writing plead their own innocency against me who had so much wronged them as now they pretend But being very true and not to be gainsaid the subtilest beast in the field it's like perswades them to be quiet that it be not noised abroad but in oblivion kept But since beyond their expectation it is come to light and they cannot prevent it some course if it be possible must be taken that it be not believed And therefore how falsly soever accused it must be of lyes falshood and folly though themselves feel the power of it standing in truth and wisdome and have not told the Reader in what the folly and falshood lies But by all the means they are able labour to recover a veil though but little have either they or you done more then to ensnare your selves in your own vvorks whose webb is not become a garment neither do your works profit for your works are works of vanity But how comes it to passe that my letters were true and not to be contradicted before they vvere published but are not so novv Why onely thus our skirts are discovered our sepulchre is opened and our nakednesse is novv made manifest that people as vve passe the street point us out Notorious and at us vvag the head so that before the people that are not vvilfully blinde vve and our povverless hypocritical profession vvhich stands in vvords and forms not in spirit and povver are like to receive but little honour Novv because they have vvritten severally I shall reply particularly And first to Robert Simpson in vvhom me thinks I see most honesty though it be clouded and covered vvith much deceit and hypocrisie vvhich the light reproves And had I not a desire very much to spare him for the honesties sake the second stroak vvould exceed the first And because I perceive his main vvork as vvell as yours is to seek a veile of deceipt under vvhich to hide himselfe from the stroke of truth and to attain it spends himselfe in many light vaine and angry words which have little weight I shall not trouble my selfe nor the Reader in speaking much to it for of it selfe it falls yet I would not that he should so often take the name of the Lord in vaine as he doth in the beginning of what he speaks for the Lord will not hold him guiltless But in page 29. he saith If the charge I laid upon him were so indeed how sad were his condition Well might his countenance be changed and his thoughts trouble him To which I reply That though he hath laboured till he saith he hath forgotten himselfe to
deceit I call a testifying from the Lord And it 's apparent it reacht him and his bottome was stirred up to give forth such filthy unsavoury words more like a persecuter then a Minister of Christ so that he may well blush to write his own folly and confusion for me his words reach not But he would devise a thing of his own and make a little Logick as he calls it to shew his skill and to evade the thing in hand And when he hath uttered his abhominable lyes asks is this good Logick I say it is his own and not being good he may be ashamed of it for they that read his lines may read his folly He saith in my letter I endeavour to parallel her with Paul and her sufferings with Pauls sufferings him with Pauls persecutors All which is so notoriously false and from the father of lyes that were he not past feeling a man would marvail how without blushing he can write such plain lyes and untruths when nothing like such a thing appears in my letter to him as the Reader may see In which letter I do not so much as once mention her name much lesse do I endeavour to parallel her with Paul or her sufferings with Pauls sufferings But that which I did was to reprove Thomas Ewins for his unsavoury words and practices in opposing the truth and them that come to witnesse against his deceit whom he threatned with Bridewell with whipping c. And by his fruits I tryed him according to the Scriptures found him out of the practice of the true Ministers of Christ and directly in the steps and practices of the enemies of Christ and his Gospel and therefore plainly told him it was the Devill that cast the Saints into prison It was wretched Pilate that scourged Jesus It was those Masters whose gain came in by divination joyning with the rude multitude that carryed Paul and Silas before the Magistrates and caused them to be beaten and cast into prison It was Jesus that told his Disciples they must be so used by the world the generation of vipers c. It was Paul the able Minister of the Spirit and not of the Letter that proved himselfe the Minister of God in patience in tumults in stripes in imprisonments c. But it was Thomas Ewins a Minister of the letter and not of the Spirit that is threatning the servants of God witnesses of Jesus with stripes with whips with Bridewel Now let all that read but honestly consider hovv from these expressions and the like a man vvho hath any fear of God vvithin him can be so knovvingly wicked as to affirme in print that I endeavour to compare her with Paul and her sufferings with his And hovv vvofully it is like by vvicked art he can corrupt the Scriptures and bely the Prophets and Apostles and holy men of God that gave them forth vvho are deceased that dares to affirme things so directly false and untrue as done and published by a man vvhom he knovvs to be yet alive and able enough to see and discover his vvickednesse And hovv blinde and like to fall into the ditch are all those that vvill believe or receive for truth all that comes from so false a speaker vvho I might easily prove is far out of Pauls condition vvho vvas a Minister of Christ and Preacher of the Gospel and called to the vvork But Thomas Ewins hath denyed that he is a Minister either called constituted or ordained And therefore is he no Preacher of the Gospel Paul vvas sent to turn the Gentiles from darknesse to the light But Thomas Ewins saith to bid people turn to the light vvithin is to cause them to cease from believing in the person of Christ And he is no Preacher of that namely to bid people turn to the light Therefore is he no Preacher of the Gospel Again Paul and the Ministers of Christ in meeknesse instructed those vvhich opposed themselves But Thomas Ewins vvhen one came to oppose him in his deceit said It were fitter such an idle huswife were whipt and sent to Bridewell Paul vvent into the Temple and Synagogues to declare against them that held up the Idols Temple and shadovvs from vvhence he vvas haled out imprisoned and abused But Thomas Ewins stands up in the chiefe place of the assembly and Pharisee like he stands praying in the Idols Temple and some that bear vvitnesse against him he threatneth vvith vvhips and Bridevvel and some are haled out and imprisoned for he confesseth pag. 58. in the margin that one is novv imprisoned for disturbing him Therefore Thomas Ewins and Paul are not alike Again Paul vvas not sent to baptize but to preach the Gospel and to turn to the light But Thomas Ewins doth either baptize as he calls it that is to say wash the outside of the people in brooks and rivers when the inside is full of hypocrisie deceit and wickedness not being sent or else he was sent to do it and from the light doth hee turn And of that Gospel is he no Preacher therefore no preacher of that Gospel which Paul preached Again it is the work of the Devil the god of the World to blind the minds of those that belive not in the light lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them and into their hearts to give the knowledge of the glory of God And Thomas Ewins is no Preacher of the light but lest the light which God commanded to shine out of darkness should shine into peoples hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ he labours hard to blind their minds with prejudice against the light telling them it is pernicious doctrine they that preach it shut up the Kingdom and take people from believing in the person of Christ Therefore is Thomas Ewins a Minister of Satan and a Co-worker with the Devil in blinding peoples minds and turning them from the light And now all this being considered will it be unequal for me to couple him with Ralph Farmer though he would couple me with him and say he wondred that I and they who are so different in other things can all agree to cast stones at him which is a lye for I joined not with Ralph Farmer to cast stones at him whose blood-thirsty spirit I do deny and with it have I no union but in soberness and seriousness I write the truth concerning him But he asketh me if I be not joined a brother in bitterness with him that is to say R. F. I answer nay I am no brother in bitterness with him but all brotherhood and affinity with that bitter envious bloody persecuting spirit with which ye both are acted and ruled I do utterly renounce and disclaim who in my measure have unity with that meek and gentle spirit which with God is of great price and therefore hated and persecuted by Satans instruments but