For if fuch a Quaker fhould give his Goods to the Poor, and his Body to be burnt, for that Light within him, it will avail him Nothing; for there are but these three States in Man, Egypt, the Wilderness, and the Land of Canaan.

But by Faith in a Commiffion, and they that truly believe in a Commiffion, are the Saints that Chrift dwells in, and not the Quakers; for they are, for the moft Part of them, as I faid before, the Children of Cain, who was of that wicked one, which always was in Bondage, and there shall remain to Eternity. So much in Anfwer to your railing Letter.

Now I have given you Anfwer to your curfed Blafphemy and railing Speeches, against thofe Truths which I have faid concerning you Quakers; it remains that I fhould give Anfwer to your Queries, which are many. There are Queries enough, if answered, to make a Volume bigger than the Bible; for there hath been greater Volumes than the Bible made of one of thofe Texts of Scripture which you have propounded, by wife Men in Reafon.

But this feemeth to be a marvellous Thing, that you Quakers, that are guided by the Light of Chrift within you, and knows the Mind of Chrift, and the Apoftles Doctrine, and knoweth the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghoft, and Christ, the exprefs Image of the Father's Perfon, in that you should be ignorant of the Knowledge of thefe Things, which you propound unto me to answer, elfe I must stop my Mouth for ever.

Certainly if you had known them yourselves, you would not have propounded them to me to anfwer; neither is it the Property of him that hath true Knowledge in him to put Questions to another, which he cannot answer himself. It is a Thing I never did to any fince I came to know the Truth, I never did propound any Queftion to any Man that I could not answer myfelf; though I have been asked many Questions by feveral Sorts of People, yet never any went empty away without an Anfwer; fome fatisfied, and fome unfatisfied, because they could not question any further; nay, there hath not been that Queftion that could arife out of the Heart of Man, let it be what it would, concerning fpiritual Things, with Relation to God, Devil, Heaven, Hell,

or

or any other spiritual Thing, but I have given Anfwer to it. Nay, fome have gone fo far as to afk who made God, and I have given Answer to that alfo.

Nothing hath been too hard for me in fpiritual Things, if it hath been propounded in English Words. When I fay fpiritual Things, I fpeak with Relation to the Knowledge of the true God, his Form and Nature before he became Flesh, and what he is now in himself, and what the right Devil was before he became Flefh, and what he is now in himfelf, and how Heaven and Hell doth depend upon these two, with the Knowledge of the Perfons, and Nature of the Angels, and the Mortality of the Soul. On these fix Principles depend all fpiritual and heavenly Knowledge, with many other heavenly Secrets, which floweth as a River of living Water from those fix Heads, which no Quaker doth, or can know, in that State of being a Quaker, nor any other Opinion or Religion whatfoever, but thofe that do believe in this Commiffion of the Spirit.

And as for thofe eighteen Queries that you have propounded, thofe that are of the moft higheft Concernment, they are anfwered and opened at large in our Writings already. And fome of your Queries are of fuch a long Nature, that they are not worth the Labour to answer, neither would there be any great Edification to any that fhould know them; yet I fhall give a Word or two to the first Part of your third Query,

For what End did Christ come?

Anfwer. Chrift came into the World for this very End, for to deftroy him that had the Power of Death, which is the Devil, which Devil is the Seed or Spirit of Reason in Man, of which Spirit of Reafon, which is the Devil, moft Part of the Quakers are of his Seed, and Chrift came into the World for to deftroy; that is, to deftroy the Seed of the Serpent with an eternal Death, and to raise the Seed of Adam up to a more happier Estate, than that was wherein he was created.

This could not be accomplished but by God's coming down from Heaven into the Womb of a Virgin, and fo be

came

came a Child in pure Mortality; and when he grew up to be a Man, according to the Scriptures, he was capable to fuffer the Pains of Death, and fo pafs through Death, and quickening into Life again in the fame Body, he got Power over Death, in that Death was not able to keep him under; and fo got Power over him that had the Power of Death in his Hands, which is the Devil.

This Devil fo much spoken of in Scripture, is no other but the Spirit of Reafon, which was firft in Cain, he killing righteous Abel had Power to kill, that is, Power to put to Death, and fo Death entered into the World: For Death never was in the World before the Serpent beguiled Eve, then entered Death into the World; and Cain being the First-born of the Devil, he had the Power of Death in his Hands, and it doth remain in his Hands to this Day.

But happy are the Seed of Adam, that hath fo much Faith as to believe that it was the very God-head Life that fuffered Death, and fo overcame Death by his quickening into Life again, and fo hath gained to himself a greater Power and Glory than he had before Death entered into the World; for by his rifing again, he hath got Power to raise the Seed of Adam to a more happy and glorious Eftate than that was wherein he was created.

He hath gotten Power alfo to deftroy him that had the Power of Death in his Hands, that is, to keep the Seed of Reafon in a more low and fad Eftate than that was wherein he was created, even under the fecond, or eternal Death, which could not have been but by the Death and Rife again of God himfelf; and for this very End did Chrift come into the World..

It would have been well for you, and many Thoufands more,. if Chrift had never come into the World at all, for your Condemnation is procured by it.

I could open what is meant by the Light of Chrift, and how it may be faid that Chrift enlighteneth every Man that cometh into the World, but it would be too large; befides, it is fully opened in that Book of ours, called, A Divine Looking-Glafs.

And as for Adam and Eve's Eftate before the Fall, and after their Fall, that is plainly declared in The Interpretation of the 11th of the Revelation. The Tree of Life, and the Tree of Know

ledge

ledge of Good and Evil, and of the Serpent, and of the Woman that fled into the Wilderness, and what the Time and Times, and half a Time is, and of the Beaft, with many other Things opened, and Scriptures expounded, of a far more high Concernment than thofe Things you propounded; I fay, thefe Things are largely opened in The Interpretation of the faid 11th Chapter of the Revelation, and in The Divine Looking-Glass, wherein are written the deepest Mysteries that ever was penn'd, if understood by the Reader.

Alfo there is The Mortality of the Soul, that doth fhew what is Scripture, and what is not, and how the Soul of Man is not immortal, but muft, and doth die. Alfo there is that called, Look about you, for the Devil that you fear is within you. And A Dialogue between Faith and Reason, and The Quakers Downfal. There is hardly any Thing that is neceffary to be known concerning the fpiritual Eftate of Mankind, but it is to be found in fome of thefe Writings.

Therefore, if any of you Quakers have a Mind to be any further informed of your Queries, they must look into those Writings afore-mentioned; for there is very few of your Queries that are not anfwered in one Kind or another. But I know you Quakers do not regard looking into any other Writings but your own; therefore I fhall not perfuade you unto it, but let you remain in your own conceited Light of Chrift within you.

But you will find it to be the greatest Darkness of all the feven Churches, because it is the very Spirit of Antichrift, or the Devil transformed into an Angel of Light; that is, it carrieth the pureft Shew of Holinefs of Life, and fuffereth more than any other doth for his Religion, and yet the most cursedst of all in Point of Doctrine; for they are the greatest Fighters against God's being a Perfon, by that Light within them, of any. Neither will there ever come any more Spirits of Antichrift fo Angel-like, as the Quakers do, for they have received the Spirits of Antichrift new in this laft Age, as I faid before, and it will continue to the End of the World.

Samuel Hooton and W. S. you might have fet your Name as well as two Letters, but it matters not now.

I have given Anfwer to your railing Letter you fent to me for fpeaking the Truth. For there is not one Jot or Tittle of my Words in those fix Principles or Sentences of mine concerning the Quakers, that shall fail and not come to pafs, but are as true as any Thing that ever was spoken by Prophet or Apostle.

Therefore I fhall speak a few Words unto you two in particular, because you two have committed that unpardonable Sin that never will be forgiven in this World, nor in the World to come; for you have done Despite unto the Spirit of Truth, in speaking Evil of Things you do not know; for you have called the Doctrine and Declaration of the Spirit, Blafphemy, Deceit, and Lies, with many other railing Speeches, with high Impudency, from a Light within you, and from the dead Letter without you, and hath prefumptuously lifted up yourselves with that Light within you, to speak Evil of the Commiffion of the Spirit, which we received from the true Perfonal God without us, even the Man Chrift Jefus in Glory. Therefore in Obedience to my Commiffion, I do pronounce Samuel Hooton and W. S. for this their Blafphemy against the Holy Spirit that sent me, curfed and damned, Souls and Bodies, from the Prefence of God, elect Men and Angels, to Eternity,

Your Light within you, nor God without you, fhall not deliver you from this Sentence which I have declared upon you, because you shall know that there is a true Prophet now in the laft Age, as well as there hath been in former Times. And this Sentence shall be the Mark of your Reprobation in your Foreheads to Eternity, even as your great Grandfather had in his Forehead; and all the Seed of Faith that fhall read this Epistle and see you, fhall fee the Mark of Reprobation in your Foreheads, neither fhall you fcrape it out, but it will be seen by the Elect as long as you live.

And when you die, you fhall pass through this firft Death into the second Death, and in the Refurrection you fhall never fee the Face of God, nor Man, nor Angels, nor your own Faces, to Eternity; but you fhall be in utter Darkness, where is Weeping, and Gnafhing of Teeth, for evermore.

And though you think you fhall have never a Body, you are deceived: You shall have a spiritual dark Body, which fhall

E

be