error, keep people in forms out of the power, and so not in the apostles' work.

P. Again they here say, 'It is blasphemy to say God is in all,' &c. See page 30.

A. And the apostle saith, God over all, through all, and in you all, blessed for ever.' Ephes. iv.

P. They say, 'It is not a transgression if men pray not, nor preach for many days, weeks, and months together, though necessity is laid upon them,' &c. See page 32.

A. Contrary to Christ's command, who bid them watch and pray.' And contrary to the apostle's doctrine, who said, 'Wo be unto him if he did not preach the gospel.' Where there comes a wo there is transgression: so likewise where Christ's doctrine is denied. And the apostle said, 'Pray always,' but without wrath and doubtings;' and lifting up holy hands,' and 'pray for enemies.' But you pray in the wrath, and hands full of blood, and persecute Friends, as your jails may witness; so, as pastor Eaton saith, you never heard the voice of God.' And Micah said, 'Night is upon priest and prophets, that divine for money, and preach peace to the people, if they put into their mouths, if not, they prepare war against them.' Such have no answer from God.

P. They say, that apparel is for distinction of qualities of persons,' &c. See page 36.

A. That is but in the world; for that which distinguisheth persons is the word, the person of Christ from the persons of Adam in the fall, and who are in the transgression, and who are out of it, and who are vessels of honour and dishonour; and your wearing of gold and costly apparel, distinguisheth you from the apostles' doctrine. And the holy women of old who were honourable, it was not the apparel that made them so, but the hidden man of the heart, which was of great price with the Lord; these were brought to do the commands of God. That honour which is in the world for clothes and respect, God will stain, which stands in the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, and the lust of the flesh, and there stands the world's honour, in transgression.

P. They say, 'It is most true, the Jew inward desires not the praise of men,' &c. See page 38.

A. Then all that desire the praise of men, and respect to persons, are not the Jews inward by their own conclusion, but the Jew outward. And so, priests, judge your work and fruit, how many Jews outward you have begotten; for that which begets the Jew outward, which hath the praise of men and respecting of persons, is the outward Jew; and that which begets the inward Jew, is the Jew within, who hath his

praise of God; and Christ who was the king of the Jews, was not a respecter of persons.

P. Again they say, 'It was not Christ's command to give your coats to the next beggar that asketh them." See page 42.

A. The scriptures say, 'He that hath two coats, let him give to him that hath none;' and the rich will give to the rich, and thus they affront the scriptures. God gives wisdom how to distribute, and to whom to distribute, and how to honour the Lord with the substance; and so you show yourselves ignorant of Christ's doctrine, in letting so many poor beg at your doors and in the streets, and yet you will have boothose-tops, and double cuffs, and ribands about you, who are more like stage-players than ministers, and are not like to give your coat to the next beggar; which double cuffs, and boot-hose-tops, and ribands, you have got for tithes of poor people that have hardly a coat to put on; but they that obey Christ's command, that have two coats give to him that hath none.

P. Again they say, 'The son of man is not come; and these are false prophets and false Christs who say he is come.' See page 43.

A. And so they call John a false prophet, who tells that the son of God was come. 1 John v. For we know that the son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding.' And you are the false prophets and antichrists in the world, that deny Christ come in the flesh.

Again we say, you are them that come not in by the door, who draw people from the teachings of God, from the light that doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world.'

See page 43.

P. And you tell them it is natural.' A. The light is the door, which doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world;' but ye blind Sodomites are groping for the door, but cannot find it, raging without, and would kill the just who are in the light, which is the door. And all are blind, though they say they see, that do not see the light

which lighteneth every man that

cometh into the world,' by whom the world was made.

P. Ye say, 'The apostles went out of their own nation without

money or two coats, without a bag either,' &c. See page 44. A. Which of all of you in your own nation goes without your stipend, or augmentations, tithes, or glebe lands? which of you all will go into your own nation without this? So not going, have ye not all judged yourselves by the apostles' practice which ye speak of? and with your own words?

P. And ye say, 'That the greatest part of the persecution in the nation is ceased,' &c.

A. Ye say so that to persecution are turned, whose persecuting fruits have been seen more within these late years, than for several

scores, nay these hundred years past; and you are turned the persecutors of them that will not put into your mouths that you do no work for, and for speaking to you, as your jails bears witness.

P. Again they say, 'To be called of men master,' (and so transgress Christ's command,) is but a civil respect to their public employment.' A. Pharisee-like have they showed that they condemn Christ's commands, and unlike ministers of him, but antichrists, that condemn Christ's command, and call it a civil respect in their employments.' For you do not read of Mr. Paul, and Mr. Peter, &c.

P. Again they say, 'That is it which makes many ears to tingle, and is a desolation, to say God is coming to teach his people himself, and to redeem them from all their teachers,' &c. See page 47.

A. Now are the prophets fulfilling, They shall not need every man to teach his neighbour' or his brother. Now are people coming to hear the son, who is the salvation to the ends of the earth, God's covenant. Now is that coming which shall make your ears tingle; and now are people come to the anointing, that they need not any man to teach them.' Now are people ceasing from men whose breath is in their nostrils, and looking to Christ the Lord, the salvation to the ends of the earth.

P. Again they say, 'that satan, transformed into an angel of light, is helping on good motions and fair compliances with rules of right, to an ill end.' See page 49.

A. That is like your doctrine, that satan should make use of good motions, and fair compliances with rules of right! The rule of right and the good are out of his power.

P. Again they say, 'Why may not satan help on mortification,' &c. See page 53.

A. Nay, that which mortifies is out of the power of satan; that goes against his power, and brings down to the death of Christ and his resurrection, which they that are out of mortification know not.

P. And the persecutors, when they have persecuted the children of light, which light enlightens every man that comes into the world,' say, 'they expose themselves to suffering."

A. And this light is it which torments them. So striking at the light, they strike at the foundation, as we find these seven men's work is to strike at the light, the foundation, Christ Jesus, so are satan's ministers. And abundance of lies is their book stuffed with, which are not worth mentioning, which will turn upon themselves; in the day of fire and judgments they shall feel their works: in their conscience the witness shall answer. They that prison the just in themselves, turn against them that are in the covenant of light, where the prisoner shows himself forth; for there is no persecution in the general,

but men have first stopped their ears against that of God within them, and gone from the truth in their own particulars, then they turn against them that are in it; and such were always said to be of the devil, doing his work, out of the truth.

6

Richard Baxter's book, called, The Quaker's Catechism.' His principles follow,

And his works, which are to be condemned to the fire.] And as for his lies, and railings, and brawlings, and revilings, we turn them back to himself; for which his own sorrow will be the greatest.

P. HE saith, at the beginning of his book, in a letter to a friend, &c. "To say that any are perfect, and without sin, is the devil speaking in man,'

&c.

A. Contrary to the language of the apostle, and Christ, who bid them be perfect,' and the apostle spoke wisdom among them that are perfect,' and said, they were made free from sin.' And it is the devil speaking in man that speaks for sin while men are upon earth; for the devil holds up him who makes men not perfect, but truth makes men free again from the devil, and speaks in man, and says, 'Be perfect.'

P. He saith, Christ doth not condemn men for being called of men master, and it is not the title, but,' &c.

A. Contrary to Christ's words, who saith, 'Be ye not called of men master, for ye have a master in heaven, even Christ, and ye are all brethren.' And thus he tramples upon the commands, and makes the commands of Christ of none effect, which is one of the marks that Christ gave to the multitudes to know the hypocrites by; and so he not only denies Christ's commands, but teaches men to break them: so crucifies Christ, and says they are his ministers; but that is the antichrist that abides not in his doctrine, as in 2 John.

P. And he saith, People are tossed up and down like a bundle of feathers, and novices,' &c.

A. How should they be otherwise than tossed up and down by you, when ye deny perfection, and call it the voice of the devil speaking, that speaks of perfection and overcoming sin? How should you but be the men that toss people up and down with every slight, being blown up and down with your windy doctrine that is not perfect, and so make the nations and people like waters? For all the imperfection is out of Christ, in the first Adam, in sin and transgression, and in the devil which is out of the truth; and all the perfection is in Christ the second

Adam, the covenant of God, out of sin and transgression; and so they who are in Christ are new creatures, and old things pass away, and all things become new. And so in the second Adam, in the Lord from heaven, above the earthly the first man, in the perfection, out of the tossing. Your imitated church, got up since the days of the apostles, is not the true church.

P. He saith, A true church is guilty of injury,' &c. See page 4. A. Contrary to the scriptures, where the apostle saith, the church is the pillar and ground of truth, without spot or wrinkle, or blemish, or any such thing.

P. He saith, God hath commanded a sufficient maintenance in general, for ministers, and left it to human prudence to judge what is sufficient,' &c. See page 7.

A. By this he hath forsaken the spirit as judge, and the wisdom of God, and run into earthly human prudence. Therefore is there so much oppression for tithes and maintenance for ministers, and so much making havoc, and prisoning, and persecuting for the same: and the power is denied which the apostles had, to eat and to drink, which Christ gave them. And so you run into the lust for money which you do not work for, and the earth; and whilst they coveted after that, they lost the faith; and that is the cause that people have lost the unity, and run all upon heaps, through coveting and love of money. Their teachers have lost the faith in which they should have had unity with God, and one with another, and have pleased him, and had access to him, and which would have given them victory over the world, the devil, enmity, and corruption. P. He saith, All that come into the world are lighted with the light of nature.' See page 7.

A. For so he calls the light, which John calls the true light (which is Christ) that lighteth every man that cometh into the world; so is ignorant of John's doctrine, and the scriptures, a man not fit to teach, but is gotten up by an usurped authority, and is not able to divide the word aright. But with the scriptures thou art corrected, and the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world; by it the natural lights were made, the sun and moon, and so forth. And men that are born blind, are enlightened with that light which was before the sun was, before all things were made, which came a light into the world to enlighten every man, that all men through it might believe. Now all men may see how men are mad against Christ, and the apostles' doctrine, that bore witness to the true light, and Christ bid believe in it. P. He talks of, and preaches up an external word.' See page 8. A. Which the scripture speaks nothing of, nor the prophets, nor Christ, but saith, the word that lives, abides, and endures for ever:' and the scriptures of truth cannot be broken. And God's words, and