have, in that Estate and Principle which they hold; for they deny that Flesh and Bone of Chrift which fuffered Death, to be now living above the Stars in that Heaven; but I have opened that more large in thofe Letters to the Quakers.

3. God hath given me to know the Law, that is, to know the Book of the Scriptures; and that he hath given me more Knowledge in the Scriptures than all the Men in the World at this Day: This I know to be Truth, and fome others can witness it; neither can any Man interpret the Scriptures truly but myfelf, and those that have it from me, because no Man doth know the true Foundations which the Book of the Scriptures doth stand upon, namely, the true God, and the right Devil.

4. And according to the known Law of the Scriptures, I do give Sentence and Judgment of Bieffing and Curfing to Eternity.

Thus far I do proceed like unto the Judges of the Land; but now, as for Juries, and Witneffes, and Accufers, the Judges of the Civil Law and I fhall differ fomething, but not much, becaufe Juries and Judges are fo bound together by the Civil Laws of the Land, that one in many Cafes can do nothing without the other; fo that many Times there is a great deal of Hurt done as well as Good, because the Power lyeth in them both; for many Times when Judges would do Right according to Law, yet the Jury doth prevent him, and fo tieth his Hands: Likewife fometimes the Jury is willing to fhew Mercy, and do Right, and the Judge will not, having fome Prejudice againft that Party, and doth overpower the Jury with his Authority and Knowledge in the Law; fo that Judgment is turned backward fometimes, becaufe the Law lieth between two, the Judge and the Jury; which if it did lie always in one, then there would be always either true Juftice done, or Injustice always done: Thefe Things fome can experience which have been. accustomed to the Law.

2. The Judges of the Civil Law can do nothing except there be Witneffes or Accufers Face to Face; the Cause of that is, because the Laws of the Land are grounded upon Reason, and the Judges of the Land are the Interpreters of the Law of Reason; fo that Reafon's Kingdom being in this vifible World, it must proceed in the Way of Reafon, by the Law of Reafon,

which is the Law of the Land; for the Law of the Land can lay hold of nothing but what is a visible Breach of the Law; therefore the Judge moft have a vifible Witness or Accufer Face to Face, elfe he can give no Judgment upon the Matter; yet there is fome Cafes in Law that Men are fued at the Law, and condemned by the Law at a Distance, the Party fued not being Face to Face, nor knows of it until that he be condemned; this fome can experience; yet this I fay, the Judges of the Land doth go the beft Way in having Juries and Witneffes that Reafon could find out, and for my Part, I do approve of their Way very well; but whom God doth make Judges, they must go a naerer Way to work; for you may read, that thofe Judges which God did ordain in fpiritual Matters, they did not call for Juries and Witneffes, as the Judges of the Land do: What Jury did Mofes call for to plague the People of Ifrael for their Idolatry? And what Jury did Elijah call for, when he called for Fire from Heaven to destroy those two Captains and their Fifties? What Jury did Elifba call for, when he curfed those forty-two Children, and caused them to be flain by two She-bears? What Jury did Peter call for, when he ftrake Ananias and Saphira his Wife dead with a Word fpeaking? With many more Things, which the Prophets and Apoftles, which were Judges of fpiritual Matters, have done without any Juries or Witneffes, and yet they have gone by as certain a Rule as the Judges of the Land do when they give Judgment according to Law: So that I do know how to proceed in Judgment according to the Tenor of my Commiflion, as the Prophets and Apostles did in theirs, and as the Judges of the Land do in their Commiffion of the Laws of the Land.

But to give a little further Satisfaction to the Reader, I fhall fhew why I do condemn Men and Women at a Distance, and yet fomething agreeable to the Way of the Law of the Land: First, those that are condemned by me at a Distance, there is fome of this Faith that hath heard them speak wicked Speeches against me, and the Doctrine declared by this Commiffion of the Spirit, and have given me Intelligence of it; and fo, upon their witneffing the fame, I have fent the Sentence unto them; fo that if the Witness that informed me did not witness Truth,

then that Sentence which I have paffed upon them fhall be of no Value; which is better Judgment in fome Kind than the Judges of the Land doth give; for if Witneffes be falfe, and fwear falfly, the Judges of the Land do many Times condemn the Innocent meerly through falfe Witnefs; therefore in that Regard my Judgment and Sentence is more certain than the Judges of the civil Law is, in regard I never condemn the Innocent thorow falfe Witnefs, for I feldom or never do fend the Sentence to any, though their wicked Speeches be witneffed unto me by one that is not in this Faith, though they may speak Truth in that Thing as well as others that are of the fame Faith with me. 2. I never do país Sentence on any at a Distance, except I have fome Writing from their own Hands, as I have had from you Quakers, and your Hand-writing is as good a Jury and Witness to me, as the Judges of the Land can have; for what Jury or Witness can be required more than a Man's own Handwriting? Others again have blafphemed against the Holy Spirit that fent me in my Hearing, fo that there doth need no Jury, nor Witneffes, nor Accufers, but their own Words, for by them fhall they be condemned or juftified: For you fee that Men are put to Death for speaking Treafon against the King, as well as for acting Treafon, fo is it with God; for Words of Blafphemy against the Holy Ghoft, is a Sin that God will never forgive, neither in this World nor in the World to come; yet we read in Scripture that all Manner of other Sins fhall be forgiven unto Men, but not that Sin; and this I fay, there is more Quakers guilty of that Sin than any other Sect whatsoever, and for that very Sin have I paffed the Sentence of eternal Death upon fo many of them: For God hath given me a difcerning to know when a Man doth commit that Sin, I being one of the Witnesses of the Spirit, and fo Judge of them that I know doth commit it, I do give Judgment and Sentence of eternal Damnation upon them; fo that I am neither Accufer nor Witnefs in those that are condemned at a diftance, but their own Writings or their own Words fhall be a Witnefs and an Accufer against them; for I do accufe no Man of Sin, but give Judgment upon them for their Sin: And if you call the Sentence that I pafs upon them to be an Accufation and a Witness against them, then indeed in that Senfe I am both Judge, Accufer, and Witness myself;

but

but these Things afore-mentioned being confidered, will prove that I do go by as certain a Rule, when I pafs Sentence of eternal Damnation upon the Bodies and Souls of Men and Women, as the Judges of the Land do, when they give Judgement according to Law. And as the Charters and Liberties of England are worthy to be written in Letters of Gold, as Judge Cook doth fay, because of the Exellency and Juftness of them, I fay fo too; for I always loved legal Juftice among Men: So Ifay likewife, that those Letters which I have fent to you Quakers, are worthy to be written in Letters of Gold alfo, that they might indure in the Memory of Men and Women to the World's End; for I am certain they will endure in your Memory to Eternity.

Yet in all this I do neither own myself a King, nor God, nor Christ, nor the Holy Ghost, nor any of thofe Titles do I take upon me; but this I do own myself to be, one of the two laft Prophets and Witneffes of the Spirit, or Meffenger, Minister, or Ambassador of Chrift, this I do own myself to be, and by the Authority of the Commiffion I received from Chrift, I am made chief Judge in fpiritual Matters, in all those that doth either receive my Doctrine, or defpife it: But as for others, that doth neither receive it, nor defpife it, nor hear of it, I judge them not, but leave them as God fhall find them at the laft Day.

And whereas R. F. doth fay, that God hath reserved a pardoning Power in the eternal Godhead, and a punishing Power, to correct and punish me, and fuch as I am: Alfo he faith, wouldft thou make the eternal Power and Godhead inferior to the Kings of the Earth? Doth not, faith he, the Kings of the Earth referve a pardoning and punishing Power in themselves, befides what they give to their Judges by their Commiffion? So, in his Conclufion of that Matter, he doth affirm that there is a punishing Power referved in the eternal Godhead, and doth therewith remain, to punish the Rebellious, and Obftinate, and Prefumptious, fuch, faith he, as I am, or, as may be read Heb. x. 26. with many more Places of Scriptures, which would be tedious to cite.

L. M. Reply. That there is referved a pardoning Power and a punishing Power in the eternal Godhead, that I do own and believe,

believe, but the pardoning Power in the Godhead doth not extend to thofe that are condemned by thofe which God hath made Judges. Why? Because thofe Judges that God doth make in fpiritual and eternal Things, they go by a certain Rule; thote Judges doth either difcern Men and Women to be the abfolute Seed of the Serpent, or else that they have finned against the Holy Ghoft: Thefe two Things are infallible Rules for God's Judges to go by; for will any one think that when Peter retained any Man's Sins, that God would forgive that Man his Sins afterwards? Surely no: So fay I, you Quakers and others, that are condemned by us the Witneffes of the Spirit, you will not be pardoned of God, because most of you have finned against the Holy Ghoft, efpecially you that have written to me in calling the Doctrine and Declaration of

the Witneffes of the Spirit, whom God hath chofen, anointed and fealed, to reveal the whole Councel of God, in that he became Flefh, which is the greateft Mystery, in that we the Witnesses of the Spirit are fo far honoured of God as to be the Finishers of it, as John Revelation, the x, doth fpeak of: I fay you Quakers have defpifed it more than all other Men, by calling this Doctrine Blafphemy, Error, Lies, and Deceit, with many other wicked Speeches, which could not have been spoken but by the Seed of the Serpent; therefore I am no Ways deceived in saying that thofe People called Quakers, that the most Part of them are of the Seed of the Serpent, and not the Beloved of God, as you say; so that they and others that I have paffed the Sentence upon, will not escape; though there be a pardoning Power in the Godhead, yet none of thofe which I have pronounced Sentence upon, fhall partake of it, for thofe Reasons aforefaid: For though there be a Power in the Godhead to do what he will, yet, when he hath given his Word, he will not go back from it, because he cannot lie: So that it is not your repeating what Power the Prophets and Apoftles of old had, nor the Multitude of Scriptures which you have rehearsed, that will stand you in any Stead, nor deliver you from that Sentence which I have paffed upon you; yet in all this I do not make the eternal Godhead inferior to the Kings of the Earth. I do alfo acknowledge that the Kings of the Earth referve a pardoning Power in themselves,

befides