ministers of Ireland, who had Christ's and the prophets' and apostles' words, stop the mouths of Edward Burrough and Francis Howgill, but suffered or caused them to be banished out of the nation. You looked upon them to be gainsayers, who are the servants of the Lord; and yet you were not able to stop their mouths, though you had all the sheep's clothing, neither were able to resist their spirit; which shows your spirit, and that you are not fit to send forth ministers, nor make ministers, nor try ministers. And the apostle doth not say, that the letter is the only rule or trial; but if people have not the spirit of Christ, they are none of his, and if they have not Christ in them they are reprobates. And we do witness that the spirit is come, whereby we are ministers of that, not of the letter: for the spirit that once established circumcision, the same spirit ended it again. Now the Jews that tried by the letter, judged the apostle to be a deceiver. And those that have the sheep's clothing, and have not the spirit of Christ Jesus, they are crying, 'lo he is here,' and lo he is there.'

P. You tell us of a sacrament, and that the world lies in wickedness, in gross Egyptian darkness, and of false apostles and Jezebel, making herself a prophetess to teach and seduce, and men loving preeminence are to be called masters.'

A. In this state you are called of men masters, loving pre-eminence, Jezebel like, usurping authority, setting up yourselves to teach, keeping your fasts, persecuting and banishing the righteous, you are in the steps of the false apostles, in spiritual Egypt, in gross thick darkness, rejoicing with the world that lies in wickedness, telling people of your sacraments, which you had from your father the pope, and the false apostles your forefathers, who were got up before the apostles' decease, and so you are judged with the life of the apostles and Christ, and by them that are in it; which shall answer the witness of God in you all. And the wickedness of the world declares your fruits, that you have not profited the people at all. And your Jezebel's doings hath declared itself, and your loving pre-eminence, being called of men masters, which the apostle judged, and Christ cried wo against: these marks are found in your foreheads, that all that can read the scripture, may read you to be out of the life of Christ and the apostles.

P. Unless some preacher of righteousness be then living to warn the sinful world of their wickedness.’

A. Such as are the preachers of righteousness, who warn you and the sinful world of their wickedness, you banish, these are your fruits.

P. The purest grain hath its chaff, the best needs a fan to cleanse them, the best needs a Nathan, all flesh is liable to fly-blows. To run without office and power argues presumption.'

A. The wheat that is gotten out of the chaff, hath not its chaff, that

comes into the garner: and such as are cleansed, need not the fan to cleanse them. They that are born of God do not commit sin,' for the seed of God remains in them, that they cannot. And all need not a Nathan, all are not adulterers; and the flesh of Christ which sees not corruption, is not fly-blown: and the saints of Christ are of his flesh and his bone; and you run without the power that the apostles were in, so you judge yourselves by the presumptuous ones.

P. The sheep are apt to wander; ordinary ministers receive their ministry from the Lord. Paul chosen immediately by God, Stephen mediately.'

A. In the cloudy dark day, the sheep wandered, who were made a prey of by you, who seek for the fleece. Ezek. xxxiv. But the Lord will seek them, and gather them, and feed them atop of the mountains. And the sheep of Christ hear his voice, and follow him, so saith Christ; so they do not wander. And they that receive their ministry from the Lord, are above all your ordinary ministers of the world made by men. And Paul was made immediately, and all the ministers of Christ and God that are in the spirit, it makes them immediately. But all you, since the days of the apostles, that have got the sheep's clothing, and ravened from the spirit of God, are mediate.

P. Such are in the self-conceit that are against ordinances and sabbaths."

A. Every one that is in the spirit of Christ sees him who hath blotted out the hand writing of ordinances, and triumphed over them, and therefore cannot touch them; and such as are come to the body of Christ, see the end of new moons and sabbaths. And such as are out of the body, and do not see that, are crying up their ordinances and sabbath, which the body of Christ comes to end, who is the substance and end of them, and was before they were. Now antichrist cries up that which the apostle preached down, who are blind and see not the body, and set up sabbaths of their own making, and keep markets and fairs on that day which the Lord commanded, and call it Saturn's day, which was the Jews' sabbath, which was given to them as a sign; but the body is Christ.

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P. Vice may be nourished with the milk of virtue, the gospel ministers; and we find that the harvest is great, and the labourers are few. We conclude with a few words to the readers of our principles and intended practices.'

A. The readers have viewed your practices and principles both, and tell you that they are corrupt, the milk of virtue doth not nourish vice. This was not the ministers of Christ's language; the milk of virtue nourisheth the babes; and the labourers that have been sent amongst you from the Lord God, you have banished out of the nation. But if

one come in his own name, him you will regard and receive; but if one come in the name of the Lord, him you put out. So you will not have the Lord, nor his Christ, to reign, neither his servants to labour in his vineyard.

P. Ministry is like a mighty tree, whose fruit the Lord hath appointed for the healing of the nations.'

A. But your and the Papists' ministry hath been got up since the days of the apostles, that brings nations all into heaps, and into blood, and doth not heal the nations, but wounds, and burthens, and kills, and casts into prison, as this your fruit declares, who casts into prison such as you do no work for.

P. To the law and to the testimony; pray to the Father of lights that he would enlighten us with his truth, and show us the way that he would have us to walk in; and pray for us who watch for your souls, as those that must give account.'

،

A. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy:' and 'the law is light,' and the law and testimony was before Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and before the Epistles were written, and the Revelations, which outward books you call law and testimony; but the scripture saith, The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy;' and the law is light.' Prov. vi. Are you them that are the makers of ministers, and ministers, who watch for the souls of people, and yet do you bid people pray to the Father that he would enlighten you with his truth, and show you the way that you may walk in? How can you present souls to God, that do not know the way, and are yet to be enlightened, and yet to have the way showed to you, that you might walk in it? Is this the conclusion of all you ministers in Ireland? Now I say, Christ hath enlightened every man who comes into the world, which is the way, and though your darkness cannot comprehend it, yet you pray that he would enlighten you. John saith, he doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world, and that is the true light. Have you the light to seek, and the way to seek, and truth to seek, and yet are you watchers for souls? And you that are called ministers say, the soul is human; yea, the soul of Christ; the soul of man is appetite, and lust, and pleasure, and human, from the earth, from the ground. Is Christ's soul from the ground? and appetite, lust, and pleasure war against the soul, in them that are in the unreasonableness. You that have the light to seek, truth to seek, and way to seek, are in the earth, and so give the soul the name of that which comes from the ground. Now the soul is immortal; God breathed into man the breath of life, and he became a living soul.' It is that which came out from God, who hath all souls in his hand, that is his power; which goes against him that doth evil. And Christ the power of God, which is immortal, is the soul's

bishop, from whence it hath its nourishment, and which is able to save the immortal soul.

And as for all the rest of your ignorance and nonsense in your book, which comes from your confused earthly spirit, who are found in the nature, spirit, and stock of your father the pope, who hath apostatized since the days of the apostles; with all the rest of your stuff, which is but fuel for the fire, in the day of your account, the witness in all your consciences shall answer it.

John Stillom's book, called 'Margin Notes.' His principles as fol

low.

P. HE calls it the Quakers adoring their own light, magnifying the light of nature. The church is ashamed of your doctrine and walking,' saith he.

A. The Quakers' light is Christ the truth, in whom they worship God; which light was before natural lights were; and this the church owns, and is not ashamed of; in which stands the doctrine, by which light the church is gathered up unto God the Father of light; but the imitated churches in the apostacy are ashamed of it.

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P. Not any man knows him,' speaking of Christ, to be God, until he find him in scripture,' and saith, as deep things as the spirit hath revealed, they are all in the scripture.'

A. Many knew God, and knew Christ, and yet had not written scripture to tell them of those things, as Enoch and Abel; and many again have scripture speaking of God and Christ, and yet do not know God and Christ, and do not find him in scripture. As for instance, the Pharisees who had the scripture, knew not God and Christ, and had not life, until they came to Christ the scripture speaks of; and many things the spirit did reveal which were not written in the scriptures, and were spoken to the saints.

P. John meaneth not that there was any substantial truth necessary to be known to salvation, which is not revealed in the written word; but the spirit ordered the copies and mysteries of the gospel to be contracted within a narrow compass of lines.'

A. Many knew their salvation, as in the days of Noah, Enoch and David, who had not the written scriptures. And though people have the copies that speak of the gospel, and of the mysteries of the gospel, put together, and compassed and contracted into lines, yet they do not know the gospel, nor the mysteries of it, nor the word, though the scriptures testify of these things; and the Pharisees did not, that had

scripture; which scripture doth not tell us of written words, but that the word is Christ and God, which was in the beginning before words were given forth. And the gospel, and salvation, and the mysteries of it, are known by the spirit, and the light which comes from Christ Jesus, and none knows them but by that.

P. Stillom adds, 'not only heart rising prophecy, nor breast prophecy in the mind, but written down in books. The apostle excludes not heart prophecy, so he includes scripture prophecy; but till the daystar did arise in their minds by reading and heeding of the scriptures; that is plain meaning.'

A. The scriptures were given forth by prophecy, and the spirit of it, and no man knows them but by the same spirit; and the apostle did not exclude heart prophecy; and the day-star doth not rise in the heart by men's reading and heeding the scriptures in their own wills, and having them written down in books; but as men come to the life and spirit that they were in who gave them forth, and heed that, with that they heed scripture, and know scripture, and with that they know the day-star, and Christ who is the end of them; and so men must come to take heed to the light that shines in a dark place, before they know the day-star arise. For the Jews had scripture, and did not heed that; for the spirit of prophecy within doth not deny any title of the scripture without. And in thy principle thou hast confounded thyself, who sayst, Not heart prophecy, heart rising, breast prophecy;' and yet thou sayst, the apostle doth not exclude heart prophecy.' And thus thou with thy new names, and thy words, darkenest counsel and knowledge; but the children of light see thee.

P. The Father, word, and spirit, are to justify the word trinity, not to make the holy spirit and the saints one person.'

A. The word trinity is not in the scripture, but in your old father's book, the canon book, the pope; and the Father, son, and spirit are one, and the saints are in the spirit; and those who are joined to the Lord, are one spirit. And the scripture doth not tell us of three persons; but, as I said before, the old canon book of thy father, the great apostate, the pope.

P. The light that Adam was qualified with before the fall, which every man hath a spark of since the fall, was and is given from the creation by things that are made.'

A. The light Adam had before the fall, did not come by the creation, nor by the things that are made; if it were given from the creation, it comes by nature. This word is contrary to scripture; for God made man in his image, and placed him over all the creatures, and gave him an understanding capable of his law, and to know dominion; but when man