I told them it was presumption in them to meddle with the words of
Christ and His Apostles, and make people believe they succeeded the
Apostles, yet be forced to confess they were not in the same power
and Spirit that the Apostles were in. "This," said I, "is a spirit of
presumption, and rebuked by the Apostles' spirit."
I showed them how different their fruits and practices were from the
fruits and practices of the Apostles.
Then got up one of them, and said, "Ye are a company of dreamers."
"Nay," said I, "ye are the filthy dreamers, who dream ye are the
Apostles' successors, and yet confess ye have not the same power and
Spirit which the Apostles were in. And are not they defilers of the
flesh who say it is presumption for any to say they have the same
power and Spirit which the Apostles had? Now," said I, "if ye have
not the same power and Spirit which the Apostles had, then it is
manifest that ye are led by another power and spirit than that by
which the Apostles and Church in the primitive times were led."
Then I began to tell them how that evil spirit by which they were led
had led them to pray by beads and to images, and to set up nunneries,
friaries, and monasteries, and to put people to death for religion;
which practices I showed them were below the law, and far short of
the gospel, in which is liberty.
They were soon weary of this discourse, and went their way, and gave
a charge, as we heard, to the Papists, that they should not dispute
with us, nor read any of our books.
So we were rid of them; but we had reasonings with all the other
sects, Presbyterians, Independents, Seekers, Baptists, Episcopal
men, Socinians, Brownists, Lutherans, Calvinists, Arminians,
Fifth-monarchy men, Familists, Muggletonians, and Ranters; none of
which would affirm that they had the same power and Spirit that the
Apostles had and were in; so in that power and Spirit the Lord gave
us dominion over them all.
As for the Fifth-monarchy men I was moved to give forth a paper, to
manifest their error to them; for they looked for Christ's personal
coming in an outward form and manner, and fixed the time to the
year 1666; at which time some of them prepared themselves when it
thundered and rained, thinking Christ was then come to set up His
kingdom, and they imagined they were to kill the whore without them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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