not love it, but would hate it as those did when the Scriptures were alive; for when commissionated men spake the Scriptures, and declared their revelation, they were inspired with the Spirit, they were then alive, and their words were spirit and life to those that believed; but you that are the pretended preachers of Scriptures now, are ministers of the dead letter; for there is no saving knowledge, nor spirit, nor life, in any of yours: nay, there is not one of you preachers that will be saved, for you do abuse the letter of the Scriptures, in that you make a trade of other mens words and you will conceive what prophets, and apostles, and the words of Christ mean, and have no infallible spirit, nor gift of interpretation of Scriptures; for none can interpret Scripture but such as have the same spirit as spake them, which, I am sure, you have not, therefore the Scriptures will prove a dead letter to you indeed and it is a great abuse unto God for you to take the Scriptures in any other sense, but as a dead letter; for it will prove a killing letter unto you, even unto death eternal. And as for your brother being cheated of his reason, it is happy for him that ever he was born, that he was cheated of his reason in spiritual things; but you shall never be cheated of your reason, neither in things spiritual, nor in things temporal; for the reason you so highly esteem shall be the only devil that shall torment you, both here and hereafter.

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Tenthly. Your brother saith, there is no other spiritual God or Father, but only within the blessed body of the Man Christ Jesus glorified.

This you deny, and say it is utterly false, and contrary to the whole Scripture. Also, you say, your brother's distinction of Christ's being Father, Son, and Spirit, is full of contradiction, and in plain terms

say, it is a piece of nonsense, as you say you can make it appear by Holy Writ.

Answer. That there is no other spiritual God, Creator, or Father, but only in the blessed body of the Man Christ Jesus glorified. That is as true as truth itself, and I have abundantly proved that by Scriptures, in my other writings, as in the Interpretation of the 11th Chapter of the Revelations, and the whole Revelations; but what should I say to blind men of interpretations of Scriptures? For there is light and life in the true interpretations of the Scripture to the seed of faith: but give the seed of reason, or the serpent, the dead letter without the interpretation, that he may conceive what meaning he pleases, and not be contradicted; for the letter of the Scriptures is the prophets and the apostles dead bodies, as I have clearly opened in the Eleventh of the Revelations: for your preachers do like unto the doctors of physic, they get the bodies of men and women opened when they are dead; but when they are alive, they dare not do it, to learn expe+ rience by their dead bodies, to cure diseases, as they think the better: so likewise it is with you that preach without a commission from God; you open the dead bodies of the prophets and apostles, that is, their letter of the Scriptures, to see if you could find the cause of life and salvation there; by their dead bodies you learn experience and knowledge, to prattle and talk of life and salvation, by the doctrines of Christ; but know nothing but what you pick out of the letter of the Scriptures, even as the doctors of physic do out of the dead bodies they open; for when those men were alive that spake the Scriptures, you durst not take upon you to say, this is the meaning of Paul, and I conceive this is the sense of Peter's

words; for when John said, speaking of Christ Jesus, that he was the first, and the last; that he was dead, and is alive; and behold he is alive for evermore, as you find in the Revelations. And likewise John saying, This is the true God, and eternal Life; durst you have denied these words of John if he had been now alive? And dare you say his words are utterly false, and contrary to the other apostles words? But you know there is neither one apostle, nor other, that can reply unto you again, that makes you so confident as you are; but I would have you to know that God hath chosen me in their steads, to give judgment upon you, and the letter of the Scriptures you put your trust in shall not deliver you from it; and that distinction your brother giveth of Father, Son, and Spirit, is true, and as good sense as men can speak : and what you deny in plain terms and words will be a seal of eternal damnation to your own soul.

Eleventhly. You call all the talk of the commission of the Spirit to be a mere whimsey of the brain, and you say, no less than mere delusion; and you say will prove so in the end, as true as God is in heaven.

Answer. Here you have shewed yourself of the reprobate seed; and that you have sinned against the Holy Ghost, as most of you Baptists do; a sin that God will not forgive in this world, nor in the world to come and as sure as God is in heaven, you are appointed to be damned to eternity. This I know as sure as God is in heaven.

Twelfthly. You say your brother pleaseth himself with the face of a God, being in a form, and gives credit to no man that is rotten in his grave, and will not believe (say you) the living oracle, that says, he

is a spirit. And (say you) let your brother take God's form, but give you his power.

Answer. As for your brother's pleasing himself with the face of a God being in a form, to this I say, a man can have no true satisfaction in his mind, except he really believes God hath a face and form of his own, distinct from man and all other creatures. And for your brother's giving credit to a man that is rotten in his grave, your brother could not have had the assurance of eternal life in himself, but by giving credit to that man's words: but what think you? Are not the prophets and apostles rotten in their graves, many hundred years ago, and none living that ever saw them, or heard their voices. How comes it to pass you gave credit to their words, that were rotten so many hundred years ago? And And you blame your brother for giving credit to a prophet of the Lord, who is yet in the sight and memory of many; for while I live, John Reeve liveth, and we are true as ever prophet and apostle were, and ought to be credited as they were.

And as for the believing the living oracles, that say God is a Spirit, the Scriptures you mean to be the living oracles To this I say, the Scriptures do prove three places to one, that God has a form, and hath a face, to one place where he is called a spirit. And the writings of us, the Witnesses of the Spirit, are more living oracles than the letter of the Scriptures, and will give more peace and satisfaction to the souls of those that believe them, than the belief of the Scriptures will, now the prophets and apostles have been dead so many hundred years.

This many can experience, and witness in themselves, at this day; neither can any have the power of God but such as know the form and nature of

God, which you, nor no man else can know, but such as believe the living oracles declared by us the witnesses of the Spirit.

Thirteenthly. You say, that Peter, nor Paul, or any other mortal whatsoever, hath power to save, or damn to eternity: this is a work (say you) peculiar only to God, the Judge of all. Also, you marvel how many men dare to read otherwise than God speaks, or to put interpretation of their own brains.

Answer! That mortal men have power to pronounce the sentence of eternal damnation and salvation upon men and women, that is clear by the Scriptures: And it doth belong unto men, and not unto God himself; for God hath chosen men to be judges, to condemn men, or acquit men, according as they are found guilty or innocent by the law; but the king leaves it to the judges, and doth not meddle with it himself: so it is with the King of Heaven, he gives power and commission to his prophets and apostles, and the witnesses of the Spirit, to judge and determine of people's eternal weal, or woe: and those keys of heaven and hell, that Christ gave unto Peter, was power to bless and curse to eternity; for whose sins he did remit, they were forgiven to eternity, and whose sins he did remit, eternal salvation did come upon that man: so on the contrary, whose sins Peter did retain, that man's sins were never forgiven of God, being retained by Peter; so that eternal damnation is passed upon that man whose sins are retained, and God will not revoke what his judge hath done; and this power God hath given unto us, the witnesses of the Spirit: but if you had read the book called the Quaker's Neck Broken, you would have seen this point more largely proved; but I perceive you are ignorant of all things pertaining to