THE QUAKER'S CHALLENGE, AT TWO SEVERAL WEAPONS. TO THE Baptists, Presbyters, Papists and other Professors. The Quakers Challenge. WHEREAS certain Baptist Teachers, whose work is to be lie the Innocent, and to fill the people's Ears with false reports; as did Jeremiah Ives, Matthew Caffin, and William Burnet behind my back at a dispute at Chertsey in Surey, with our friend G. Whitehead, and finding myself Innocent of the Accusation; and knowing that Jeremy Ives, and Mat. Caffin, to be known Enemies to the Lord, his Truth, and his People; and for these so doing, I do here offer myself in God's behalf, and Truth's behalf, and in the behalf of the People scornfully called Quakers. I do Challenge Matthew Caffin, Jeremy Ives, and William Burnet, or any of the Teachers amongst the Baptists, or Independants, or Presbyters, or Papists, or Jesuits high Priests, and low Priests, for these are all blind Guides, and their profession is rotten, their Church is Babylon, their Faith is unsound, and their Doctrine is false for ever; and I will maintain it by these two Weapons, Viz. To Fast seven days and seven nights and not to Eat nor to Drink. And the next Weapon is; To Wake seven days and seven nights, and not to Sleep till they be faithfully performed before the Lord: And the God that answers by Fire shall be the true God; and he that the Lord shall carry through this fiery Trial, shall be counted a Worshipper of the true God, and shall give him the glory and honour, and acknowledge his Power, who alone is worthy, who is over all God blessed for ever. But he that tires by the way, shall be counted a member of a false Church, and a Heretic, whose God is his Belly, whose Glory is his Shame, whose End is Destruction. Come Papists with your Murdering Weapons: Will you maintain that your Church is a true Church which is established by Blood. Answer the Quaker; Was not the Devil a Murderer from the beginning? your God is your Belly; for you pretend to Fast in Lent from Flesh, and yet you Eat Fish; and is there not a flesh of Fish, as well as of Birds, wherefore I testify against you, that your Faith is unsound, and your Church and Doctrine is false for ever. Come Protestants, Who are called by the name of Presbyters, Independants, and Baptists, Fifth-Monarchy, Seventh day Sabbath-men, and Family of Love; the Quaker denies you all, and is come to try you; not by the tongue which is your glory, but by the belly, for that is your chief God; for of a truth, you all are Shut out of the Saints society, And your book of the Practice of Piety. Come Papists and Protestants, Gogg and Magog, will you be daunted by a Quaker? stand up Presbyter with your hippocritical Fast, who fast for strife and debate, who for matter of Persecution there is none exceeds; you had need to be ranked next the Papists; for who so cruel as you against the Truth, witness New England, who cruelly Whipped our Friends, and afterwards hanged two Men and a Woman, who feared God, and eschewed Evil, and sent many into the Wilderness after they had been sorely Whipped in Frost and Snow, and we know, that if you had the Power in your hands again, We should feel your cruel Weapons, and Halters, and Gibbets: We know your hippocrasie of Old, towards God and his Truth. Come go with me these fourteen day's journey; and after this two times seven is over, we will have three times seven more, I never knew the Quakers Conquered yet by all your cruel Weapons, therefore if ever you conquer the Quakers it must be by Fasting and Watching. Come Thom. Vinson who proffered the Quakers a Dispute, but when they came, thou fellest a Preaching and Praying among a rude Multitude, and presently got away, and would not answer them; though a Servant of the Lord told thee, That thou didst Preach the Doctrine of Devils: Come I have a mind to Challenge thee, and thou shalt see I will not slink away as thou didst, but if thou dost not answer, if either Papists, or Protestants, Jesuits or Priests are willing to answer this Duel: Let them name their day and time; and for what God, and for what People; and I will answer you, or whom you can produce: yea, I will make you in the name of the Everlasting God that made Heaven and Earth, the Seas and Fountains of Waters, and in the behalf of his People scornsully called Quakers, who are in the Truth and none but they; whose Principle is, Christ the true Light, that doth enlighten every man that comes into the World. Who is in us the hope of Glory, and they that walk according to this rule, are the people of God and none else; and their Principle is the true Principle and none else, and it shall live, and out live all; and grow, and out grow all; for he is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, who only hath Immortality dwelling in the Light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen or can see, to him be glory Everlasting, Amen. 1 Tim. 6. 13, 14. Come Jeremy Ives thou false man, who did say, that that body, that hung upon the Tree, when the spirit was out of it, was but as an empty Trunk: Whereas thy Brethren Jo. Lukis and Robert Porter have affirmed before many witnesses, that the Blood that followed the Sphere was the Blood of the New-Covenant; Did the Blood of the New-Covenant come out of an empty Trunk? Why dost thou go about to overthrow the Faith of thy weak brethren; wherefore I Challenge thee, as Elias did the false Prophets, and thou John Brown Baptist Teacher, when thou wast asked of G. W. what became of the Blood that followed the Speere, thou repliedst and said, (it sank into the Ground; But did the Blood of the New-Covenant sink into the Ground? You Blasphemers come and answer this Duel. Stand up you sleepy Professors, and maintain your assertions; Come Jeremy, I must not pass thee by, for I testify, thy Faith is false, and so is thy Doctrine, and thy Profession is rotten, and thy God is thy Belly, and thy Faith is the Faith of Devils that purifies not the heart: And was thy heart pure Jeremy, when thou tookst an Oath in open Court; O base: And yet take the Holy Scriptures into thy mouth to hold Disputes and Janglings, and ye● the Scripture is against thee, and the Spirit that gave them forth, and the Saints in Light are against thee, and Jesus Christ the King of Saints is against thee, who said, Swear not at all: And his Apostle James is against thee; who said, Above all things my Brethren Swear not at all, neither by Heaven, nor by Earth, nor by any other Oath. Mark that Jeremy. Stand up old Thomas Lamb, of whose Church I was a Member; but why didst thou take the Oath without any Mental reservation. Come old Thomas, and young Thomas, and help your brethren Jer. Ives, and Mat. Caffin, and William Burnet; For the Quaker denies your Church, and is come to the true Church, which is the Pillar and Ground of Truth, and the true Faith that overcomes the World is known, and the Rock of Ages is known, and the Ancient of days is come, and the Tabernacle of God is with Men again: Glory over all be unto our God, that sits upon the Throne, and to the Lamb for evermore Amen. Come Will. Burnet (What's thy Faith good for) who sayest in thy 15 page, That the Light that is in every man, is neither God, Christ, nor Spirit; and then thou saidst thou shalt indeaver to show, what that Light is in every Man, and thou goest to prove it, to be Conscience and citys 2 Rom. 4. 5. But doth not the thoughts in the mean while accuse or excuse; and what is that which shows unto Man his thoughts, is it not the Lord God of Hosts, Amos 4. 15. Isa. 42. 6. 7. Isa. 49. 6, 8. Thou falss Messenger, for the true Prophets and Messengers of Truth Condemns thee, Jo. 1. 1, 15. And that of God in thy Conscience shall one day awaken in thee and Condemn thee; and then thou shalt read me, who does bear witness to that, which is, the Light of Christ in thy Conscience, which was before Conscience was: Yea, is not all that made manifest, made manifest by the Light, Eph. 5. 13. O People hear him no more; for he that denieth the Father and the Son; yea, he hath denied God, and the Father and Christ: (First, he hath denied God) read, for God who Commanded the Light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our Hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ, Cor. 2. 4, 6. Again, John the Divine will tell your Messenger W. Bur. That he is a false Messenger, for, this is the message that we have received of John, and deliver unto you, That God is Light, and in him is no darkness at all; Jo. 1. 1. Whose Messenger is W. B? stop thy mouth for shame; and thou hast denied the Father: For every good and perfect gift cometh from the Father of Lights, Jerem. 4. 17. And he hath denied the Lord Jesus Christ, as all that pass by may read; John 8. 12. 9, 5. Therefore I Challenge thee for a false Profit, and an accuser of the Brethren. Come Baptists, Independants, and Presbyters, and Papists, you talk of Moses, Elias, and Christ, who fasted forty Days, and forty Nights, and the Apostle of Christ did exercise himself much in Fasting and Watching 2 Cor. 6, 5. Let none of you say, that it is a tempting of God to cease from Sin, for Peter saith, They that suffer in the Flesh, cease from Sin. And John Wiggins the Blasphemer hath left behind him a Writing, though he be gone to his long home; yet, in his Book he saith, That Christ the Light, that lighteth every Man that comes into the World, is an Idol: Let the Reader read, Jo. 8. 12, 9 5. And he says in his Book, That Christ's Blood was not shed for all; but John the Divine bears Witness against him, Jo. 1. 1. Rev. 19 13. all these make against him, and yet this man went for a Minister of the Gospel, but he hath left a stink behind him, and better had it been for him, That a Millstone had been hanged about his neck and cast into the Sea, than ever he should have opened his mouth against the Saints in Light, or their Principle. Come forth you Jesuits and Papists, and Monks, and Friars and Star gazers, and Monthly-Prognosticators, and Astrologers and all the Devils Conjurers; will you not find a man to answer the Quaker: If you do find a Man, let him be known who he is, and for what God, and for what People; and let him send one to me, to see me perform my Challenge, and I shall send one to him, to see him perform his Answer: Or we will be shut up togeter in one Room. Stand up Muggleton the Sorcerer, whose mouth is full of Cursing, Lies, and Blasphemy; who callst thy last Book a looking-glass for G. Fox, whose name thou art not worthy to take into thy mouth, who is a Prophet in deed, and hath been faithful in the Lord's business from the beginning: It was said of Christ, That he was in the World, and the World was made by him; and the World knew him not: So it may be said of this true Prophet, whom John said, he was not; but thou wilt feel this Prophet one day as heavy as a Millstone upon thee; and although the World knows him not, yet he is known. Thou sayest in thy 84 page, of thy Pamphlet, that that Christ the Quakers are in: I that am but a man, have separated their Christ from them; and one from another: This is fourteen years ago thou cursed them, and they are Blest for ever. An. Those that went out from the Truth, were separated from Christ, before they came to thee, and were never joined to the Truth, nor owned of us, therefore such may easily become thy Disciples, being gone from God, his Truth, and his People; and given up to believe lies, and so they have found out Lodowick Muggleton the lying Prophet. Thou sayest, thou hast Power over the Quakers, Christ within them, and that Judgement thou hast given upon the Quakers, will surely come to pass: Neither can you, nor your Christ within you, deliver you from it. An. Thou Fool, The Quakers Christ within them, Is the Cornerstone which shall bruise thee to powder; neither shall any deliver thee out of his hand, who is the true Light, that lightens the Gentiles, and God's Salvation to the end of the World: but thou hast no share in these say. Thou sayest, The Quakers Principle within them, shall vanish like smoke. An. The Quakers Principle, will shake thy Foundation, and all the Foundations of Men; it is the Foundation of many Generations, and can never be moved. Thou sayest, When I am dead, many of the seed of the Serpent shall have regard to my Writings, page 61. An. Who should else? For thou art a Messenger of the Old Serpent, therefore, needs must his Seed have regard to thy Writings. But why dost thou say, when I am dead? who is dead already unto God, but alive to Sin and Blasphemy: but when thou art dead as thou sayest, thou shalt be dead indeed to God, but alive to the Pain; by the Worm that shall never die, and forever to be tormented: Neither shalt thou be able to shut out the sense of the Torment, but the smoke of thy Torment shall ascend for ever, and ever; and thy pain shall have no end, in the flame that cannot be quenched: And then thou shalt know, that thy Soul is Immortal and cannot Die; and then thou shalt feel, what thou hast done against God, his Truth, and his People; unto which place thou art hastening. Now in the mean time, I Challenge thee, or any of thy Disciples; and will maintain, that thou art an Epicure whose God is thy belly, and thy end shall be everlasting Destruction from the presence of God: The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it: and Repentance is hid from thy eyes. Though thou didst tell me, that I was Damned, Body and Soul, to all Eternity; thy blessing and thy Curse is all one to me: thou sayest, That God is no biger than a Man; and yet Job saith, God is greater than Man, Job. 33. 12. And again, thou sayest, That thy God is a Man, and had Arms, and Shoulders as I had; but according to Job I shall answer thee: That God is not a Man as I am, Job 9 32. Now all may see, That Muggleton is a false Prophet: For, God himself saith, I am God and not Man the holy one in the midst of thee, Hosea 11. 9 And thou hast often said, That thy God is a God of Flesh, Blood, and Bones. But Christ saith, God is a Spirit, and hath not Flesh and Bones, John 4. 24. Cor, 2. 3, 17. Luke 24. 39 Come forth Robert Porter, thou shouldst answer this Duel, for art not thou the cause of this quarrel, and hath opened the mouth of God's enemies against the Truth and his People: but is not thy God thy Belly, as the rest of thy lying brethren's? Come forth, 'tis but fourteen days, and if I fall by the way, then mayst thou say, the Lord never sent me. Stand up all the Armies of the Beast, Papists, Jesuits, Presbyters, and Baptists, and all the false Prophets of the Nation. Come Gloucester Professors, to whom I writ a Challenge once, but none would answer me; come William Shepard the Lawyer, and Thomas Marriot; Come William Jordan the Presbyter, who said, thou wouldst fast with me 39 days, and I could never get thee to fast one. O ye Presbyters are horrible liars, but this is my Council to you all▪ you that have had a hand in speaking against the Quakers Principles. Howl you Papists and Jesuits, Howl howl; yea Presbyters howl; yea Baptists, for the Woes, Judgements, Plagues, and Torments, will assuredly come upon you, suddenly as a Woman in pain of travel, and you shall not escape, the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. O, Woe will be to every one that hath spoken against the Light. and hath lifted Tongue, or Pen against the Lord's Heritage. Well, shall it be with that Man that can say, God bethanked, I never spoke against the Light, nor the People that walk therein; yea, though they cannot be excused for other Sins; yet they shall be glad that they did not meddle with such weighty things, but all they that have so done, shall weep bitterly, and gnaw their Tongues for pain: Oh I say again, Repent speedily, before it be too late, that ever you lifted up a Tongue, or Hand, or Pen, against the Light of Jesus Christ, which doth enlighten every man that comes into the World, or against his only People; for never did any thrive, that spoke against the Quakers. I am a Friend to all the upright in Heart, and one who loves the appearance of Jesus Christ; Who do write my Name Solomon Eccles. The 17 of the Nineth Month, 1668. THE END.