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try that took tithes, the ministry of Christ came in. The rise of this ministry is since the days of the apostles in the apostacy, that is made by kings, bishops, popes, schools, and colleges. Tithes falling, the hands of this ministry that takes tithes, thou sayst, is weakened; it is not, therefore, the power of God that strengthens the hand, but the earthly. Now I say, in the fall of the maintenance, which weakens this ministry, ye have showed what ye are covered withal, and in the fall of this is the rise of the Lamb and his ministry, the preaching of the everlasting gospel; and the everlasting gospel shall be preached to them that dwell on the earth, which is the power of God: and though the devil, and the beast, and the false prophets, and the kings of the earth do make war against the saints and the Lamb, yet the saints and the Lamb shall get the victory.

P. He saith, 'Christ without the church doth not comprehend all the elect; and we are not elected, though we receive Christ, because we are elected in him,' &c. page 80.

A. Thou art meddling with things too weighty for thee, Christ is the elect whom God upholds, and the election obtains it, (the victory,) and Christ knows his, and said he had other sheep, and he knew all the elect. And he is the wisdom of the Father, the light, the life, and the power of God, the offering, the sacrifice for the whole world, the redemption of mankind. And who receive him, and are in him, are the elect, and out of their own works, and have possessed him, and his image and glory; are come to the throne of grace; he is in all and over all, the salvation to the ends of the earth, and they who are elected receive Christ, and are in him.

P. He saith, Thy denial of sin, and satan, and antichrist, to be where they are in power and part, is the old trick of the evil one,' &c. page 83.

A. They who are come into the Lamb's power, are come out of the power of the beast, sin, and satan; into the city, the paradise of God, where no unclean thing enters, but the tree of life is the food; and they are atop of sin, satan, and antichrist, and all thy tricks; and witness against all sin.

P. He saith, When the dissolution comes, he bids farewell to all the saints of God,' page 94. Again, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us: if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar,' page 89.

A. The saints are in Christ and God; and at the dissolving of the earthly, or sin, they do not bid all the saints farewell; for then they come into unity with them, with the elect. And John shows there was a time to see they had sinned, and a time to see they had sin, and a time to confess it and forsake it, and a time to witness the blood of

Jesus Christ to cleanse from all sin, a time to witness the birth of God born, which doth not commit sin, and the seed of God remaining in them, that the wicked one could not touch them.

P. He saith, The saints are neither in the fulness of the godhead, nor part: away with this blasphemy that saith this,' &c. page 92.

A. The work of the ministry was to bring people to the knowledge of the son of God, to a perfect man, to the unity of the faith, to the measure and stature of the fulness of Christ, and Christ will dwell in the saints, and God will dwell in them. And thou sayst they have no part of the fulness of the godhead; but John saith, 'Of his fulness have we all received;' in whom dwells the godhead bodily. And ye are all in the blasphemy that are out of this part of the fulness.

P. He saith, The Quakers know man whether he be a saint or a devil, as soon as they see him, or hear him speak, or act, and they are beyond all our forefathers. And the apostle saith, "What man knoweth the things of a man, saving the spirit of a man that is in him,” so ye are not as Christ in this respect.' And thou sayst thou art as Christ in this present world: and no man can be without sin in this house of clay.' And sayst, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me; and my flesh is sin's freehold,' &c. pages 94,95.

A. Here thou hast showed that the Quakers have a spirit given to them beyond all the forefathers (which we do witness) since the days of the apostles, in the apostacy. And they that are in the power and the life of truth, can discern who are saints, who are devils, and who are apostates, without ever speaking a word. And the natural man knows not the things that are in another man; but with the spirit within him may know what is in himself: but the spiritual man searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God. Here thou hast made no distinction betwixt the spiritual and natural. And as Christ 'is, so are we in this present world;' and where Christ is manifest, he destroys sin in the flesh; here they come to be as he is, they come to be above clay and mortal, and fading, and so the flesh, which thou calls sin's freehold, comes to be put off, and the body of it, and they come to be made free from the law by the body of Christ. And the creature comes into the liberty of the sons of God. And this the saints witnessed while they were on earth. And as thou wast born in iniquity, thou showest thou wast born in the unregeneration; there were some sanctified from the womb, there are some children clean, who are believers. He that can receive it, let him. So thou art an ignorant man, not able to divide the word aright, nor canst minister unto the people, not knowing the condition they are in, unless they tell thee, and so art apostatized from the apostles, and not one of the ministers of the spirit, that minister to the spirit; for could not the apostles preach and speak VOL. III.

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to the Jews and Gentiles, unless they came and told them what condition they were in? or did all the Jews and Gentiles come and tell the apostles what condition they were in before they preached to them?

P. He saith, The light in man is imperfect, a weak, faint light,' page 97. Again, The light in the Gentiles is called a natural light,' page 88.

A. The light that every man hath that cometh into the world, is not an imperfect light, a weak, nór faint light, nor a natural light; but they who are weak, go from it, and faint, and hate it, and despise it, as Esau, and run into the earth. But those who believe it, have the light of life; and who receive it, become the sons of God. And the light in the Gentiles, which brought them to do the law, was spiritual, not natural; whom the apostle sets up to be the circumcision, and the Jew inward; and throws out the Jew outward, and circumcision both. And this brings to have 'praise of God,' which the Jews had not in the outward, and makes the Jew no Jew, and their circumcision no circumcision, and judges them, and all professors upon the earth that are from that that doth the law in their heart, and the Jew inward. And you are from that, who stand against the light of Christ that doth enlighten, &c.

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P. He saith, if any hypocrite reign, his power is of God: and saints are to yield to the power, and it must be honoured, and have obedience from the saints,' page 101. 'And so they that call them corrupt magistrates, are the filthy dreamers that Jude speaks of,' page 102.

A. Such as are turned into corruption, and are hypocrites, are gone from the higher power, which the soul should be subject to, and it is gone over them; and so for the Lord's sake the saints cannot be subject to that power, but to the power that brings down the hypocrisy, and the corruptions in magistrates; and as they come to be clothed with the power of God, they are able to put a difference betwixt the precious and the vile; and that the saints own; those are a praise to them that do well. The Jews of old time, that feared God, that lived in the law of God, could not obey the heathen magistrates, bow to their gods, nor to their commands, nor their power or authority. Nor could the apostles bow to the authority of the Jews, to their ordinances which Christ came to put an end to, nor the power that held them up, nor that among the Gentiles, held up by the magistrates. For Christ was come to reign, who had all power in heaven and earth given to him. And since the days of the apostles the saints cannot bow to that which the pope, and kings, and queens set up in the apostacy, though they call it a supreme power that commands the things. But who are in the power of God, it destroys that which defiles the flesh, and the evil speaker, and that is the dignity which the saints own and live in, and speak not

evil of, but they who do so transgress the spirit of God, and go from it, and are such as Jude speaks of. Therefore have the martyrs, saints, and prophets suffered, since the days of the apostles, by the beast, the false prophets, and the great whore, which have been in the power of the devil that went out of truth: and that the saints were not subject to. But now Christ is come to reign, and the Lamb and the saints shall have the victory; and the higher power is owned, that is higher than all the transgressors upon earth, that reaches to the soul, and the transgressed principle of God in every man upon the earth; for the beast's power hath set up your tithes, temples, and colleges, and compelled men to worship it, which the saints could not do, and therefore have suffered by it, who have worshipped God in the spirit and truth, that the devil is out of; and such were in the higher power.

P. He saith, There is a kind of infiniteness in the soul; and it cannot be infiniteness in itself,' page 103.

A. Is not the soul without beginning, coming from God, returning into God again, who hath it in his hand, which hand goes against him that does evil, which throws down that which wars against it? And Christ the power of God, the bishop of the soul, which brings it up into God, and which came out from him, hath this a beginning or ending? And is not this infinite in itself, and more than all the world?

P. He saith, The soul is a creature; and yet it is a noble power, and an essence, and is the appetite, fancy,' &c. Again he saith, he knows that the soul is a spiritual thing, and cannot be divided into parts and powers, as being one single entire essence,' page 107.

A. The soul is in the death in transgression, so man's spirit is not sanctified while the soul is in death. And fancy, appetite, anger, pleasure, &c. which thou sayst are taken for the soul usually, and called the soul,' are they that war against it: thus thou divides the soul, which is one, into parts, and art ignorant of it, and yet thou hast said it cannot be divided! So thou art in confusion in Babylon. The soul being living, and the spirit sanctified, that diligent hearkening is come to where the counsel of God is stood in, his voice heard, his hand felt, that the soul comes up into, that comes from God; that is living and immortal, and gives a creature its feeling, and sensibleness to divine things: and so the covenant of God comes to be received wherein the soul lives to the bishop of it, which is immortal, and then that birth of the new creature is known, whereby the spirit of man is sanctified, and the God of the spirits of all flesh is known. Now where the power and life guides up to God the Father of life, that works down and directs the mind up to God, the immortal to the immortal, whereby light springs, Christ is known, and the soul praiseth God the saviour, who, in its low estate, hath regarded and reached down to it. Now where

the light is hated, and that of God within transgressed, (that doth pertain to the righteous law of God, and answers it,) the spirit of man is not sanctified; and man's understanding being darkened, the higher power is denied, the soul comes into death, transgressing of the law is known, the witness is buried which should guide the mind, whereby the soul should live in the diligent hearkening. Hereby man comes to be defiled, and his spirit, and body, and mind, whereby he glorifies not God in his body, and soul, and spirit, and glorifies not the God of the spirits of all flesh. Hereby he comes to be an alien and a stranger to the life of God, and his ways and covenant. And thou say st The soul is a spiritual thing, and yet a creature, an appetite, and fancy.' Every man that cometh into the world, though they be in the first Adam, have a light from Christ the second Adam, the bishop of their souls. So every one being turned to the light which Christ the second Adam hath enlightened them withal, they shall see the bishop of their souls, Christ the power of God, which is immortal, and brings the immortal soul into the immortal God. Christ is their sanctification, who sanctifies their spirits, and bodies, and brings the soul up into God, from whom it came, whereby they come to be one soul. For in the lusts of the world, and the affections of it, is the war against it, and there are the powers of wickedness. The soul must be in the higher power, higher than the flesh, which stains the man, spirit and body, and the powers of wickedness. So the light being turned to, man receiveth the spirit of God, which sanctifies him, the spirit of sanctification in Christ Jesus the sanctification and redemption. So every man that cometh into the world has a light from Christ Jesus, the way out of the fall, the second Adam, and receiving the light he receives his redemption and sanctification, whereby his spirit, body, and soul are sanctified.

P. He saith, The binding of satan shall not be by a personal reign of Christ in a body.' He saith, 'The Quaker denies the light written in Scripture:' and saith, 'When ye pretend most love to Christ within, and light within, ye deny the Lord that bought you; and the high talk of a light within, goes out for ever into utter darkness.'

A. Who own the 'light within,' and 'Christ within,' and are come into it, own the Lord that bought them, Christ, and no other; and they that receive not this within, are reprobates, without him, yet talk of him as the devils, false prophets, and deceivers. And they that go from the light within, go into utter darkness, and stumble, and do not know whither they go, and want the garments, the Lamb's clothing. And so, he that believes in the light within, hath the witness in himself,' abides not in the darkness, nor in the condemnation, but hath the light of life. And the light within that shines in the heart, gives the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.'

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