Richard Farnesworth, Thomas Taylor, George Fox, Isaac Pennington, as may be seen in The Neck of the Quakers Broken, and in Fox's Looking-Glass, and the Answer to Pennington; besides letters to other Quakers, more than I can remember; besides the Interpretation of the 11th of the Revelations, and the whole Revelations, and The Interpretation of the Witch of Endor.

These things do manifest, that I have not lain still in secret, but do manifest me to be the most publick man in the world in spiritual things; because I am not only hated of you Quakers, but am hated of all the speakers and ministers of all the seven Churches of Europe, besides thousands of their hearers; so that it is an impossible thing, that I should have lain in any secret place. And this hatred have we procured of all people in the world, for no other cause at all, but for declaring this doctrine, which you call erroneous, and the authority of our commission, given by voice of words from the Lord Jesus Christ, the only wise God, who hath a glorious body, in the form like a man of his own; as we have written in The Transcendent Spiritual Treatise, when God gave this commission, in the year 1651.

3, These Quakers say, forasmuch as a false rumour hath been spread, that we, or some of us, whose names are here under subscribed, have received the doctrine and principles of the aforesaid Reeve and Muggleton, whereby some honest hearted may seem to stumble and startle.

Answer. If such a rumour hath been spread, and it was false, the more will be your misery. And you that have subscribed your names as a testimony that you have not received the doctrines of Reeve and Muggleton, but have utterly denied it, in sub

scribing your names as a testimony against it: I say, it would have been good, if none of you had been born; for in denying those doctrines, you have denied us; and in denying us, you have denied the true God that sent us; which hath given me just occasion to give sentence of judgment upon all you that have subscribed your names.

And whereas, you think by this means that you have removed the stumbling stone out of your way, that the honest-hearted might not stumble and startle, and that you might establish your AntiChristian principle the more sure; but you will be prevented; for God hath laid this doctrine and commission, which you deny, as a stumbling stone in Sion. So that many of you Quakers, and others, shall stumble at this stone, and fall, and never rise again; but there are some of those people that shall be preserved from stumbling at this doctrine of the Witnesses of the Spirit. For whoever is left to fall upon this stone, as you have done, shall be broken into pieces as to the peace of their minds here in this life; and on whomsoever this stone, or sentence of damnation, shall fall upon, it shall grind to powder in those eternal torments, which the wicked despisers and fighters against a personal God and his messengers, whom he hath sent, in utter darkness; so that there shall not one motion of peace arise in them to eternity. And farther, I say, I never did, nor never shall persuade any man or woman to believe this doctrine, or commission; for I have done my duty to God, in that I have declared the whole council of God beyond all that have gone before me, or that shall come after me; and whoever doth understand and believe, it will be for their eternal good; and if there should none believe this

doctrine, yet should not I question the truth of it; for I have peace in myself, in that I have declared the mind of the Lord freely, as it hath been revealed unto me; neither did I ever encourage or persuade any person to believe. I set life and death before them, as Moses did, to chuse or refuse; if they did truly believe the doctrine of the true God, and the commission of the Spirit, they should live, and have eternal life abiding in them; this many can witness: but if they did refuse, deny, despise and blaspheme, as you have done, against the commission of the Spirit, then they chose eternal death rather than eternal life; this many hundreds can witness in their consciences if they would. For it was never my custom or practice this twenty years, to persuade any man against his conscience, nor to believe me, after they have had several discourses with me. I gave them liberty to go to any opinion whatsoever, and if they could find any man speak like this man, or give them better satisfaction to their questions than I have, let them go, and come no more at me. It was never my custom nor practice to compel people to enter into the kingdom of heaven, whether they would or no, as you Quakers do. I was always inclined to let the kingdom of heaven to suffer violence, that the violent desires of men and women, after salvation, might take the kingdom of heaven by force, and not be compelled to enter in. For you Quakers keep a great bustle to keep your disciples to you, for fear of losing them; I never did endeavour to get your disciples from you, yet there are many of them that are come to the life of this doctrine of Reeve and Muggleton, which you call erroneous. And if they could not have found rest in this doctrine and commission, they had liberty to

return to you again. And can you Quakers tell the reason why so many of your disciples, that were absolute of you, should come to me, and never return to you again; and it is a more admirable thing, that there should not be one of Muggleton's disciples, or true believers of him, to fall from him to the Quakers, not this fifteen years; I know not one; neither do they stumble or startle any more, if they truly believe Reeve and Muggleton's doctrine.

4. Say they, we therefore, the people of the Lord, called Quakers, at a general meeting at Cork, for the province of Munster, have very seriously, and in the council of God, weighed and considered the principles and doctrines of the aforesaid Reeve and Muggleton, and the spirit from whence they flow.

Answer. That these people, called Quakers, at a general meeting at Cork, were not the people of the true God, but the children of that serpent devil that beguiled Eve. And your serious council in God, as you say, it was in the council of your imaginations of reason, the devil within you, which is the Quakers God they take council in, and in your imaginations of your hearts, which is your God, God, you weighed and considered the principles and doctrine of Reeve and Muggleton, as you say, and the spirit from whence they flow.

have

5. They say, and do, in the name and authority of the holy spirit of truth, deny that Spirit as the spirit of error, and give our testimony against the same; warning and admonishing all people, in the fear and dread of the Lord God of heaven and earth, both to turn from it, and avoid it.

Answer. Here the Quakers do prate of the name and authority of the holy spirit of truth, yet know not the body of that God, from whence the holy

Spirit of truth proceeded; for this I say, that a spirit without a body can give no council at all; neither can any council proceed but from a spirit that hath a body of his own. If men's spirits had not bodies, how could they give council to one another? Neither can that God, that hath never a body, be the true God, or give any council at all. Yet the Quakers people doth take council of a spirit that hath no body, which they call God; which God is nothing else but the law written in their hearts. So that this conclusion must needs follow, that you Quakers take council, in your own hearts, with a spirit without a body; the light of Christ within you: this you call God's Holy Spirit of truth, in which you take council. Now the light of Christ within you is not the true God; it is nothing else but God's law written in the heart, which doth accuse the conscience when you do any thing contrary to it. And when you do commune with this righteous law, written in your hearts, you do imagine that you take council in God, a spirit without a body. Here lieth your great mistake, in that you take God's righteous law, written in your hearts, for God himself. A man may as well take the law of a king for the king himself: only here is the difference; a king's law is visible, and himself is visible to the natural eyes; but God's law is invisible, written in the hearts of men, and God himself is that invisible God, yet a person distinct from this invisible law, written in man's heart. Now shall I say, that this law, written in my heart, is God; because I cannot see it with my natural sight, nor know how it came to be written there, it being invisible. So that the Quakers do worship the law, written in their hearts, for God; and the light of