A TESTIMONY AGAINST Jeffery Bullock HIS Antichristian and Foolish Pamphlet, STYLED, Antichrist's Transformations Within Discovered by the LIGHT WITHIN. Wherein his perverse Spirit, Darkness and Whimsical Conceits are Reprehended by the TRUE LIGHT. Romans 1. 21. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their Imagination, their Foolish Heart was darkened. Vers. 22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became Fools. Printed in the Year, 1676. A TESTIMONY AGAINST Jeffery Bullock HIS Antichristian and Foolish Pamphlet, STYLED, Antichrist's Transformations Within Discovered by the Light Within. HAving lately seen a Book printed by J. B. entitled, Antichrist's Transformations Within discovered by the Light Within, this Testimony arose in my Heart, That Antichrist's Transformations within is setting and would set itself above the Light within, in such as have departed from it in themselves, amongst whom is this J. B. with some others, who went out from us because they were not of us, but went out, and so are made manifest; who, had they continued in the Light, they had not been pushing at us and it; for such are at Unity with the Light, and in it, in sweet Fellowship, Peace and Communion one with another, and there is no Occasion of stumbling in them because they walk in the Light: And these have been much opposed since they were a People, gathered by the Light, in it to walk; and the Enemy hath laboured always to disperse their gatherings, and to hedge up their Path; and when the National Priests and others of all sorts, with their Weapons, could effect nothing, then have there arose some amongst ourselves, who have spoke perverse things to draw after them; and so, this is no new thing, neither would we have any startled, or make a wrong Judgement concerning, us or the blessed Light because thereof, and so make their Bonds strong; for so you may read it was in the Primitive Times: And those are more subtle than others, in that they have known something of the Openings of the Truth, whilst in their first Love, Tenderness and Lowliness, unto which it did open, which State they having lost have made use thereof to make War against the Light and the Dwellers therein; and the Knowledge has pust such up who have fed there, and departed from the Grace that humbleth and keepeth humble, out of Contention, and Strife, and Enmity, where these dwell who speak Evil of Dignities, and Despise Government, and would pretend to give Honour to the Light, but dishonour and disregard them that are the Messenger and were the Bringers of the Glad-tidings thereof to their Ears, who ha●e turned many to Righteousness, who do and shall shine forever and ever: And this Subtlety is seen, and this transformed Angel of Light is discovered, though he come in that Name and under the Pretence of Light, crying out against Man, and calling it Man's Power and Man's Authority, as divided from the Lord's Power and his Authority, even in those that are begotten of it, and live upon it, and act by it, and judge the World through it; and this i● not to honour the Light, which has honoured them that have honoured it, and given them Power, which hath reached through them even to Thousands, who are their Witnesses they have used it to Edification and not to Destruction: Neither have such forced any, or exercised Dominion over the Consciences of any, as Rome and other Chuches have done by their Coercive power and Penal Laws; so none like to be so ensnared by their Power and Authority given them of God to judge Error and Blasphemy, and whatever rises up that is of a contrary Nature to the pure Light and peaceable Spirit of Righteousness, which has brought us forth a People to his Praise, amongst whom is the Spirit of Judgement and a sound Mind, who have the Mind of Christ, and will not be divided from their Husband, their Maker, nor let his Judgements depart from his Law that he has placed in their Hearts, and his Righteousness that he put in his Spirit in their Inward Parts, which now goeth forth to judge Unrighteousness and Filthiness, as well of Spirit as Flesh, which makes the filthy Dreamers that despise Dominion angry, and causes them to vent their Confusion, Blasphemy and Darkness, to the manifesting their own Shame, as J. B. has done, because Judgement is gone forth against him for denying that Christ that died at Jerusalem to be the Judge and Saviour, who having denied him in his Workings for our Salvation, we cannot think it strange to see him inveighing against the Ministers and Elders, and the Form and Order in the Church, established by the Lord, and his Power in them, wh●ch disowns his Disorder, and Informing from Satan's Transforming against the Light within his People, which can never lessen the Fame and Glory of the true Ministers, or their Power and Authority in the Churches, amongst which the Lord has given them a Name, who, as he sent his Son into the World, so hath his Son sent them, and hath sanctified them through the Truth, that they may be one as the Father is one, and the Glory which the Father gave him he hath given them, though J. B. grudges them it, and that which they have they return unto him, who is the Giver, God blessed forever. Thy Judgement is thou sayest and believest, That whatever is writ to the Churches by Men, Elders, aught to be written by the Holy Ghost, whether it be Exhortation or Counsel, Admonition, Warning of Evil, etc. in Matters of Conscience, which things belong to God. So then they have Power in the Holy Ghost to admonish and warn in things relating to Conscience according to thy Judgement; but we may go something further as well as our Brother Paul, who wrote to the Church's Advice and Counsel, and said, He spoke by Permission, and not by Commandment, and sometimes not the Lord but He spoke, and so his Faith and Judgement herein was divers from thine, and so is ours. And the Paper to the Churches (thou sayest) is not to be owned, because it was writ from a Sight or a Sense, or Sensible Part, and not from the Spirit of Revelation. As if that employed Contradiction, as if the Spirit's Revelation put out Sight and Sensibility, and so thou wouldst have Blind Elders and Senseless Ministers; and is not this from Satan's Transforming in thee? and has he not led thee here into the Ditch? for did not those that spoke forth the Spirit's Revelations, speak from a Sight and a Sense, and from that Part in them that was made sensible of the Revelation? and were not the Prophets called Sears? and were they not to declare what they saw? and did they not speak from the sight they had of the Mind of the Lord? and were not they sensible of what they declared? And did not the Apostle declare what he had seen with his Eyes, and his Hands had handled, and what he had tasted of the Word of Life? so his Senses were exercised therein, and from the Sense he wrote; but thou, who hast lost thy Sense and Feeling, criest out against Sensible Ministers and Elders; and so People may see what stuff they have, and are like to have from thee, which is full of Senslesness; and 'tis much if thou canst put it off with giving it away; for it is not worth buying. So thou runnest on in thy senseless Stuff, and sayest, The Woman is the Soul, Heart and Mind of every Visible Man. And whence hast thou this? who art crying out against us for not holding the Form of Sound Words? hast not thou presumed herein above what is written? where does the Scripture say so? or where can it be so much as inferred from thence? and dost thou think to recover thyself with writing such stuff as this, or hurt us thereby? or will it not make thy Folly more manifest, that it might proceed no further. And the following part concerns thyself, whose Mind the Adversary has stolen from the Light, that would have kept humble, out of the Headiness and spirit of Exaltation, in which thou stand'st feeding upon the Tree of Knowledge, that has puffed thee up, who has made use of thy Knowledge to serve Lucifer's Interest, who is now become thy Teacher and Leader in the Work of Opposition against the Light, and his Teachings, Leading and Forming of his People. And thy not owning the Judgement and Superiority of the Ministers who say, He that is not justified by the Witness of God in Friends, is condemned of it in himself, does not make it untrue, who contendest against the Truth and its Ministers; for God's Witness is one, and its Judgement one, and as his Name is one so is his People (though such as are got into Hardness, above the Fear, would divide them, and make their Judgement differ) wherefore it will hold true forever, That such as are unreconciled to the Church, are no Ministers to the Church; for God's Church and He are in Unity (which thou art insensible of, being divided from it) and the Church is in God; so they that are unreconciled to the Church, are unreconciled to God, and so can be no Ministers unto it; and he gives his Power to the Church that is in him; and they that will not hear the Church, let them be as Publicans, saith Christ: and such unchurch themselves that receive not the Judgement of the Church that is in God, the Pillar and Ground of Truth: and though the False Church may and does bring Snares, yet will the True Church of God never bring Snares upon her Members. And thy Testimony against the Practice of Imposing Books (as thou deemest it) favours more of Malice than Truth; for thou knowest, there were none imposed upon thee, nor any in the Meeting; and thou hast dealt Enviously and Treacherously in the Relation thereof: and when it was mentioned at Sudbury (where J. B. opposed it) it was left to Friends Freedoms, who all besides him then and there consented, without the least Contradiction. But he ●as more gratified his own Enmity, then shown his care for the Poor. And so J. B. thou hast lost the sense of the Light that saves, and art got into that which destroys, and darkens, and vails, as they that read thy Book may feel the Darkness, it is so thick. And thy crying up the Light to cry down the Messengers and Labourers it has sent forth, is not from the Light, but from the Transforming of Satan, who informs against its Messengers and Ministers; for the Light said of such, You are the Salt of the Earth, and that salts the Earth; and he calls them, The Light of the World, and has not excluded them from being Fellow-Workers together with him, nor yet ashamed to call them Brethren: So thou and thy Work are discerned, and there's Thousands can never forget the Day of their Convincement, who would have even plucked out their Eyes for them that were made instrumental in the Power and Spirit of the Lord, to beget them to God, having them in Esteem for their Works sake, accounting them worthy of double Honour (though thou hast lost thy First Love and Sense of the Heavenly Visitation, that reached through them unto thee) which they can't forget who have kept their Habitation, but must highly esteem them by whom they were begotten to the Lord, as Fathers; and such as have believed through their Word, and abide therein, can't think slightly of their Authority, and that Power which hath effectually wrought for the breaking all Impositions and Yokes of Bondage from off their Souls, and those are found Witnesses for them, they are no Imposers of such Yokes, and so thy Arguments fall of themselves. And thou who deniest the Resurrection of the Power, or the arising of the Seed, or God in Man, hast therein shown the Effect of the Power of Darkness and Seed of Enmity risen in thyself. Jesus Christ humbled himself, and made himself of no Reputation, but descended, that he might bring man up out of the Fall, and in this Respect he is truly said to ●uffer the Just for the Unjust, that he might bring again to God, who in the pouring forth his Soul unto Death comes to see his Seed, and so thou art a Stranger to the Sufferings of Jesus, and knows not the Fellowship of them, who never wert baptised into his Death with him, who art denying the Extent and Effect of his Sufferings, thou being out of the Sense and Feeling. And if that which God made in Man be in Bondage and Captivity (as thou sayest) than must he descend thither to fetch it out; and this is according to Scripture, which says, I looked, and there was none to help, and my own Arm brought Salvation. And so 'tis thou must come into Silence, and sit in the Dust, who art an Inhabitant of Kir of Moab; and thy Ranting Spirit is discerned, who talkest of the World's being the Church of God; and what needst thou make such a do about Error in Principles and Practices? they can but lead into the World, and so into the Church of God: and if he be above in all the Sons and Daughters of men, he is then in his proper ●lace, and the Devil is in his, and so thou mightst have spared thy Pain●: but the Scripture says, His Soul is pressed as a Cart is pressed with Sheaves; and are not the Sheaves above the Cart it presses? And doth not David say, Let God arise, and his Enemies shall be scattered? And though God in his Sovereignty be over Man to his Condemnation, yet he delights not in the Death and Condemnation of Man; but so great is his Love towards him, that he would rather have him under the Power of his Love and Mercy, which can't be as Man is in the Fall; but by sending his Son to suffer, which Man being truly sensible of, through the Participation thereof, c●mes to attain to the Power of his Resurrection, and so by being risen with him becomes a joint-heir of his Kindness and Mercy: And thou ownest the Light and Spirit to be the Resurrection, but deniest the Resurrection of the Power and Light; How great is thy Darkness! and how do the Chains of it wrap thee about? How canst thou own it to be the Resurrection, if it rise not in Man? for Resurrection signifies that which is risen again, which necessarily implies a descending before that: And unto them that fear my Name shall the Son of Righteousness arise; but thou being out of the Fear of his Name opposest his Rising, and so knowest not truly the Resurrection, and therefore believest against, and wouldst not have him arise in Man and Woman; But his Power is risen in Thousands, who can testify against thee; and he which was dead is alive, and risen over Death, Hell and the Grave, Glory, Glory forever. And who says, that God has lost his Dominion in man? for we say, That Man is only in fault, who is under the Region and Power of Darkness, and therefore is Christ sent to seek and to save that which is lost; and he that seeks a Thing, declares thereby 'tis lost; and he hath both sought us and found us out, who were as Sheep going astray. And thou deniest the Travail of the Seed, and so art unacquainted with the Labour of Love and Kindness of God in Christ, and wouldst make it void in Men and Women, who being deprived of, the Right of his Dwelling place does stand at the Door and Knock, and cries, Open, open unto me, till hi● Head is filled with Dew, and his Locks with the Drops of the Night; and his Light has been put out (as to Man) and by him, though in itself it cannot be put out; and the Candle of the Wicked is often put out, and is put out in thee, and so thou writest not what thou hast seen; for the light that thou actest and writest by is Darkness, and how great it is thy Book in a great Measure does manifest. And the Devil (thou sayest) could never get into Heaven since he was thrown down. How then came the War in Heaven that John saw, who was in the Spirit; and so thou art not in the Spirit, but in the Transformation, that hath not seen it; and John's Revelation was since the Fall, who saw it, Michael and his Angels making War against the Devil and his Angels; and so thou art ignorant of the Scriptures and the Power of God, that makes War against the Devil and his Angels, who sits in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God, and is exalted above all that is called God, and his Seat and Power in thee and thy Brethren is that which makes War against them who sit in the Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus, who are his Ministers and Elders; but John saw they prevailed not, neither was their place found in Heaven any more, and so do we. And as to our Testimony to that Christ that dved without the Gates at Jerusalem, we are glad (for the Truth & our sakes) thou hast printed it, and our dealings with thee in that Particular, concerning thy Opposition to us in it, and we can leave it to the Witness of God in the Consciences of them that see it; and thy seeming Answer unto it is something Answered in what is already written; and I am willing to add this further, seeing thou thinkest thou art yet unanswered, and also for the sake of the Simple: Rome and the Priests saying, That they own Justification and Condemnation by that Christ that died at Jerusalem, makes it not antichristian Doctrine; and we do not deny the True Doctrine that Rome and the Priests own, but the Antichristian; and it's not contrary to the Scriptures and the Form of Sound Words, to expect Justification and Condemnation by that Christ that died at Jerusalem, but agreeing with them: And thy Subtlety is seen, in taking those Expressions to exclude the Manhood, in which it is really included, which says, By Grace you are saved, and therefore not by him that died, though he was full of Grace, and by it tasted Death that he might reconcile unto God, without which no Salvation: And by the Light of the World we are condemned; as if that was not he who died, who said, I am the Light of the World; so that I might as well say, because it is said, The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpent's Head, therefore not the Seed of God; and a Man shall be for an Hiding-place, and a Covert from the Storm, therefore not Christ; the Son of Man's Coming is as the Lightning, therefore not the Spirit; God shall judge the World by the Man Christ Jesus, therefore not by the Light; this is contrary to the Sense of Scripture; for that includes them in one, and joins them together whom thou wouldst part asunder, as thou mayest read in John, when Christ said, The Son of Man must be lifted up: and they asked him, Who is the Son of Man? his Answer was, Yet a little while and the Light is with you, while you have the Light walk in it: likewise when the Babe was brought to Simeon, he took it in his Arms, saying of it, Mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation, a Light to lighten the Gentiles, etc. and the Prophet speaking of him, And thou Bethlem-Ephrata, who art one of the least amongst the Tribes of Judah, out of thee shall come forth unto me he who shall be Ruler in Israel, whose Goings forth are from of old, from everlasting: so He that came out of Bethlem was he that died at Jerusalem, who is the Ruler, that judges and condemns, who was from Everlasting; so that the Gentiles need not perish that were in the World before that Body came in it for want of Salvation; for his Goings were from of old, from Everlasting; and God's Anointed is spoken of, which is Christ (though thou understandest it not) before his coming in that Body. But thou tellest us, Only all the World was freed from their Offerings for Sin by that One Offering, and that Only has an Also too, they were outwardly reconciled by the Death of his Son. And was not he that was the One Offering for Sin, that ended all other Offerings, the Justifier, Condemner and Saviour? why else did he put an End by it to all other Offerings, but because they were faulty, and had not Efficacy in them to justify & save? and he that reconciles to God by his Death, must needs be the alone Justifier and Saviour? and there's not another. And then to thwart thyself thou sayest, 'Twas the Man in the Mystery that died, that was one with the Mystery, who was the Christ of God, being one with the Spirit of God; so then according to this, he that died that was one with the Spirit of God, doth both justify, condemn and save. And then in Contradiction again to the Man in the Mystery, thou sayest, 'Twas the Woman's Part that died, which was his Soul and Body; for Eve (thou sayest) was in Transgression: And did his Soul and Body sin, which thou sayest was the Woman's Parson, which was in Transgression? And in pag. 2. thou sayest, The Woman is the Soul, Mind and Heart of every Visible Man and Woman: and so thou makest no Difference between his Soul and Body, and the Soul and Heart of every Visible Man and Woman; Oh gross Darkness, Blasphemy and Confusion! And our Testimony has always had a reverend Esteem of that Precious Blood that was spilt without the Gates, as being of great value in the Sight of the Lord, and having a Testimony in it towards the Remission of Sin, to oblige all that are sensible of the End thereof, not to live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them: And as they are to be blamed that will not come to the Light, but cry it down, relying upon the Death and Sufferings without it; so art thou, who pretendest to cry up the Light to render the Lovingkindness of the Lord invalid, in sending his Son to lay down his Life and Precious Blood, and taste Death for Mankind; and such as speak from the Light, which is the Life that was in that blessed Body, can never disregard regard, but have an high Esteem of what he did and suffered therein. And further, thou sayest, There is a Soul, or an Invisible Woman, which God did make and place in every Visible Man. I never read before of an invisible Woman that God did make; no, that's thy making, and comes from thee, who dost not write from Sight or Sense; a mere Figment of thine own Conceiving, being gone from the true Sense and Sight which gives a plain Understanding: And Eve (thou sayest) conceived and brought forth the first Invisible Man, the Son of Perdition, which brought Death over all; but thou tellest us not who she conceived by, and who brought Death over her, if she brought Death over all. And in thy other Answer, which is much to the same, 'Tis plain in Scripture (thou sayest) there's Two Christ's, Christ and Antichrist: And art not thou in the Transforming, that wouldst make Antichrist a Christ? and who'll take the Information of this Informer can we think, but Satan, who would have Antichrist to be Christ, and lay it upon the Scripture also; but the Scriptures say, There's but One Faith, and One Lord Jesus Christ; and we believe them, and not thy Writings from Satan's Transforming. And thou dost directly oppose the Scripture, who sayst, Christ came not of David or Israel; for in Rom. 1. 'tis said, He did come of the Seed of David according to the Flesh, and so thy Spirit is seen, and the Opposition is discerned; and 'tis the less for us to be Opposed by thee, who art so great an Opposer of Scriptures. And Antichrist (thou sayest) strives to bring in his Doctrine, and would be Head over all those Invisible Appearances that come from God, yea, and Visible Appearances also; which is fulfilled in thee and thy Brethren, who are judging his Ministers, and the Wholesome Order and Commendable Form in the Church, to lay them waste; nay, that spirit hath not left unattempted the Scriptures themselves, that so all Outward Footsteps in the Goings forth of the Light being abolished, and the Motions and Whimsies from Antichrist's Transformations set up in their place, the True Light and Spirit might thereby be abolished also; and that is the Word of Truth in my Heart to that spirit whose Workings have been to that End. So thy Work is seen, and Judgement gone forth against that spirit, which it cannot escape: And the Judgement of the Quarterly-Meeting is true, and will stand over thy Head forever, except thou Repentest: And so the Reasons of thy Disowning us are some of them answered in what has been writ. And whereas thou disowns that Body or Church, who look upon themselves to have Power to judge of Errors, and have not Power to convince of Error, etc. I answer, that that Power by which the Ministers and Elders amongst us do and have judged Errors, the same hath convinced Thousands of their Errors and false Doctrines, and I believe, even thee also in Years past, when thou wast little and tender: There is a difference between Conscience truly tender unto God, and that which is seared and hardened through Enmity, which is to be judged and condemned by the Church, and such as make Strife and Division, to be amarkt by them that keep in the Power. And how canst thou deny thyself to be a Member of any Church, but the true, who hast declared, the World to be the Church of God; and the true cannot admit of thy belief and speaking, who believes and speaks contrary to the Faith of it? And how shouldest thou understand the Faith and Belief of the Church that is true, who art against Sight and Sense, and art gotten into another Principle, viz. the Darkness which cannot comprehend the Light and the things that are therein, which are only seen in its Principle truly? And thou preferrest Rome before us, and so they may take thee; for thou hast been a Shame to us, who hast manifested so much Sottishness and Hypocrisy, a to be twenty Years and more amongst us, and be called after our Name, and yet all this while remain ignorant of our Faith and Belief touching Doctrine. And thou art for our marrying with the Nations; for thou sayest, The Lord made all Nations of one Blood; but the Nations have polluted themselves, and are gone from God's make, and the Lord hath gathered us out from the Nations and Kindred's; and thou wouldst have us mix with them again, and put that together, which God hath disjoined, and this is the Informer's work against God, and his Christ's work: And when Naomy's Sons married, thou didst not see where they were (who writes not from any Sight) for there wa● a Famine in the Land of Israel, and they were gotten into the Land of Moab amongst the Moabites, where the Lord cut them off, and made Naomy return empty, but when Ruth returned into the Land of Israel with her, she then matched with Boaz of the Tribes of Israel; and so we are Witnesses to the Matches in the Land of Israel, even of such as return from Moab: And the Law was not given forth when Moses took the Ethiopian Woman; so where there was no Law, there was no Transgression, & God justified him, thou sayest, contrary to his Commend, as thy ranting Spirit judgeth; but the Apostle commanded not to be unequally yoked; for what part hath a Believer with an Infidel? and so thou art for the linsey-woolsey Garment and expects to be justified, and for bringing Confusion into the Churches of God, who is the God of Order, and not of Confusion, as in all the Churches, who hath set Watch men upon her Walls; so they have not set themselves, not assumed Authority, but he hath raised and is raising Judges, as at first, and Councillors, as at the Beginning, Men fearing him, and hating Covetousness, who judge for him alone, and bear not the spiritual Sword in vain. And in thy first Query, where thou askest, What is the Fruit the Tree of Knowledge bears? in thy Book thou sayest, It was and is the Scriptures, And was not the Tree and Fruit of it before they were written? And in thy 21 Query thou sayest again, Such as are feeding upon the Tree of Knowledge or the Scriptures; so I perceive thou understandest not thy own Queries, and thou art not like to know more of them for me, who imployest thy Knowledge so ill, in which thou hast shown us what Swine do with Pearls. And to thy Postscript, I refer the Reader to Geo. Whitehead's Answer to Will. Mucklow's Queries, and take only notice of that, where thou sayest, That which came as from thee in thy Book, was either from a Mcasure of the Spirit in thee, or from Satan in thee transformed into an Angel of Light: it seems thou well knowest not, but the Universal Spirit and Light thereof in all Consciences does, by which thou art judged, and thy Work manifested: And s●, though thou hast born the Name of a Quaker long, yet what an one thou hast been thy Work has declared; and thou art no Priest, no, (but the Lord makes his Priests) nor Teacher, mark that, and teach no more, seeing thou art none, etc. but an Informer, and so take thy Place amongst the Informers, who art Fellow-Worker with them, and must have their Wages, except thou Repent. G. BARNARDISTON. Many other Gross Absurdities, Confusions and Follies in J. B's Pamphlet are here omitted. THE END.