AN ANSWER TO ROGER CRABS Printed paper to the QUAKERS. AND Likewise to his Principles and Doctrines, Whose spirit is tryed and found in the dark.

VVhich is to be directed again to Roger Crab and his followers, who cryed up his paper; that they may learn wis­dom to preserve them in innocency, in the power of God, in which there is no confusion.

By George Salter.

LONDON Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and mouth neer Aldersgate, 1659.

Friend Crab,

WEE have viewed thy letter, which is not the word of the Lord, but much confusion there is in it, and is not from the essence the eternal power; for thou speakest of a place where no Righteousnesse shall enter in, without distinction; What, art not thou one of the foolish prophets that puts no difference between the pretious and the vile? Doth not Christ the righteousnesse of God enter in? Doth not he that is Righteous as God is righteous enter in, that sits on the Throne with clean hands? And thou sayest again, all be­loveds without distinction; must be taken away. What, is Christ and God the beloved, the husband, doth not he remain? What foolish Pro­phet is this, with his foolish instrument, that useth the name of the Lord? And thou sayst, Darknesse Imagines two powers when there is but one. How now, Roger, what hast thou made here? What, darknesse? The power is light, hast thou not judged thy selfe out of thy own mouth, and thy tongue out-run thy knowledge? hast thou not made two powers, who sayeth Darknesse Imagines? or else thou must say Darknesse is God, (in whom there is none) What streams are these that runs a broad? what a vomit is this? Dost think the children of Light can lick it up? So Essence, word, that called out the Quakers, and the Crosse in which they live, Cause the sufferings and the persecutions which thou art ignorant of & a Rod they are to thee, and to all the powers of darknesse that be out of the truth, which is the wickeds Rod, which bowes before the gates of the righteous. And what, hast thou not made two powers thy self here? But, there is but one power over all. And that power of darknesse which went out of truth, (which is the blind, called the God of the World) blindes the eyes of the people, and such be they that are in the power that mars the workmanship of God; And so the Quakers, who are the Royal seed of God, elect before the world began, that sees and feels over the Earth and over selfe (which is thy midwife) who is tur­ned into the Earth, who have helped to bring forth the birth which is set up; the propriety in the Earth; and Sarah, thou art ignorant of that bears the Seed, The clean woman and she that kept and watered her Fathers sheep; for if selfe had been the Quakers midwife she would have kept them from persecution; but thats become thine; let not selfe be thy midwife; what, dost thou make two powers? dost thou not confound thy selfe in thy own jugement? dost thou not condemn thy selfe in that thou dost allow? Hast thou the blessing? But the Quakers be in that which was before selfe was, and knoweth it, who comes to that power, who are manyfesting their Lord and King to the utmost parts of the Earth, who is the supream power; and there is none in the power of God that confounds themselves and their own principles as thou dost: For if there be children of darkenesse (as thou speakest of, thou hast stopt thy own mouth) which are to persecute the Quakers, So thou hast set [Page 3]up two powers, though thou saist there is but one. But I must tell thee the children of light are in that, that darknesse is out of (and her children whose midwife is selfe) that hath the rod that strecheth over the Sea, whe [...] by the waters stands in heapes, that the spirituall Jewes can passe to the spiritual Land, and Christ goes before them, as Moses did before the temporal Jewes; and our flesh, if we should have given it that comfort it would not have suffered; but thou shouldest have distinguished what that flesh is, and not have Jumbled them together; for there is a flesh that s [...]es no corruption; And art not thou gone out of the form of god­linesse, and out of the power, and the form both of sound words, and the form of God in which we do stick, who are [...] to the Lambs marriage, and knowes the Lambs marriage? and it is that we should stick there, who knowes our maker our husband; But art not thou sunk down in­to the Earth, as thy old Father Adam for transgressing and disobeying the righteous command, and now sayest in the unbelief, neither righteousnesse nor unrighteousnesse shall inherit? doth not thy ancient of dayes speak it? and the Quakers be in that which comprehends dayes, which are in the first and the last; which hath such as thou art, and all the world to war with, and all false spirits out of the truth; they are the Saints that shall judge the world, and them that be in the truth they do not judge, but them that be out of the truth; and therefore to judge them that be below us in the truth, as thou sayest; doth thou speak here like wisdom, or self, which has taken up the beautiful beloveds place, which should have come forth in thy selfe, who judges now in the carnal reason, understand­ing, wisdom and knowledge? &c. with that which must be con [...]ounded and come to an end, and come to nothing, to which birth limits & bounds are set, but not to the Son, which sees far above thee who art in the first birth among the creaturs that have several names given to them, according to their nature, and some are called Lyons, and some Beares Bulls, Heifers and [...]ea [...]es, so ther's a destinction in these natures, which I perceive thou art a man not yet come into the distinction of those things, these crea­tures and names according to their natures, which is far off the sheep and Lambs state, which be in that which is divine; for the others feeds upon grasse or mortal and fading things; which the sheep has a shepherd who is hi [...] by whom the world was made: Neither I believe hast thou di­scerned the nature of Trees, who art far from the treasure of wisdom, who in halfe a sheet of paper cannot write but much confusion, and judge and condemn thy selfe with thine own pen and tongue, contradict thy selfe and make thy own principles void, who speakes of one power, and makes two, yea, a third beloved who art far off the Lilly; That which is thy beloved, the Lord will rend, and the beloveds, and give it to the beasts of the field and the dogs for to eat; what, [...]end the beloved, and faithfully in the beloved? This is confusion, Roger, is not the beloved Christ, who is the water of life, who makes the waters of life run over, who is God and Christ, and shall the forme of God passe away and be brought to no­thing? Thou saist, all forms, how speakes wisdome, how is all one when thou speakest of Selfe, and powers of darknesse, and many beloveds, and that Midwife Sel [...]e, How is it, all was good in the beginning, and many since [Page 4]the fall, and beginning are all one again in Christ the Image of God, that that destroyes the devil and his works and selfe propriety, which thou must come out of, the hole of the earth and thy nest, for such Christ calls. Foxes and fowles, such as be in him reignes over thy head in him againe, out of the one, which is out of the truth, which makes many wayes, ma­ny Sects, many opinions, out of the divine nature, which makes one, who are one in it, are in wisdomes steps, power and dominion, and sees and feels thee in the Earth, and cannot eat sower things without setting their teeth an edge: The devil must serve the Lord, and he must wor­ship, and come behind the truth and not before it, and the devil, the ser­pent, that is out of the truth is a murtherer, and out of the wisdome of God which is gentle and from above; but as fallen out of the truth he is devilish, devouring, destroying, but all things as t [...]ey were in the begin­ning they were very good, standing in the truth and power of God, and so the devil must be destroyed and his wisdome: Now doth God destroy his own wisdome? So thou art not in the wisdom that puts a difference, but we are in that which puts a difference, and remaines; and so that he did not create the Devils work, which is out of the truth, which he doth destroy; for by wisdome all things were created and by wisdome they stand, out of this is the Enmity, and the works set up in his wisdome, which by this wisdome must be destroyed, by this wisdome, that is above, and so the beloved one is turned into his beloved one, from the bed that is defiled, to the bed that is not defiled; so mark each bed where each beloved lyes, each marryage, the honourable and the dishonourable, the defiled and the undefiled, and this wisdom doth see, and so here the Be­loved that appeares black and terrible to you, all is known whose face is marred in whom there is no beauty, nor forme nor comlinesse to the earthly, to the Nations, to the formal and literate Earthly ones, nor to the Fowls nor to the Foxes that have holes, who be in the defiled bed, set up since the fall: For from the Ʋirgins state in whose mouth is no gail, and his face is beloved which is beautyful to the pure eye, but ma [...]red by such as thou art, who art yet in the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life which is of the World) who lives within the City & knowes the 12 gates above thy three, which are distinct from thee; wisdom hath seen thy in­vented gates, the gates thou hast invented, who saith, The second is that that tries the heart, and the first that that tries the Spirit, the third is that which none can enter that feeds of the tree of good and evil: Thou fool, must not the heart be tryed before the spirit be tryed, and the tree of knowledge tryed when their hearts be tryed, and doth not that one tryal that tryes spirits, tries hearts, tries food, is not that one, and is not that the gate? Hast not thou confounded thy principles that makes many? doth not good enter? Nor no name distinct from other, doth not? Christs name who was called the word of God, enter into the City, which thou saist neither good nor righteousnesse enters in, and is not the good and righteous both, and distinct from others that makes one: So wisdome over all the wise men of the Earth doth foresee, that wisedom, that is to be confounded, and thou art seen, whose city is the wicked City into which no righteousnesse must enter, who puts no difference, and the black sheeps cloathing, and pride [Page 5]which [...]hou must be deceived of, which signifies two in thy owne, as I read I [...]udge, which is comprehended by the sheep, who hath the wis­dome of him by whom the world was made, before twain was, when all things were good; And is this black sheeps cloathing invented by the Serpents wisedome, and artificiall colours of God as thou sayest? now dost thou de­stroy thy own wisdome here, for wisdome doth not destroy true wis­dome, but the Serpents wisdom which is out of the truth and its works and doth the Serpents wisdome which thou saist, is the wisdome of God, bring people to set up stately buildings, Idoles, Images, Gold? and doth, the wisdome of God deceive the wisdome of God, and destroy those things; what, a Kingdom divided? how now, Roger, what hast thou set up two powers again and so confounded thy own principles? what, but [...] power, yet envyings? What, Roger, but one power, yet furious, and shat­tering to pieces it selfe till it come to nought? then there's no power at all, Roger, and what is your evil to him that doth think it, and envy in the envyous one and but one power? how comes this opposite, & how comes this thinkst? Is not this all the wisdome of God, as thou seest, that is, the wisdome of the Serpent, and so if wisdom be divided against its selfe it cannot stand. But wisdome it selfe, which is the truth, sees all this, for envy and strife is that which are out of truth, and turnes against the truth; Alack poor brat! how dost thou build and throw down, who art dashing thy se se to pieces against the stones? If one look upon thy flesh, it is loathsome and would make one sick, read this in secret Roger, in patience, who art a corrupt bulk of Fog, [...]ho art like a quagmire that sucks up them that comes upon thee, that art not in the wisdome, which doth force [...]o shun thy mire and clay, who walks in the wisdome of God mis­ses thy paths and way, where the streames of life flowes, and under the vine s [...]ts, where the showers comes: And so thy beastly garments are not to be touched, but such there may be in the Earth, in the dark, in thy own powe [...], out of truth, that sees not to shun the way, and for an casefull life gathers together to make up a hill a mountain, which in the end turns to a Quagmire, which they that comes into, their feet doth stick fast, which is made up of beastical lust, earth, and of powerish ayre. And her's Sodom, which saith I am not Egypt, but dwell in a plain out of whom just Lot the Angel calls, whom to Abraham is revealed of destroying, & the just that is out of it called, who sees it on fire, over it reignes: So who are of Faith are of Abraham, of the flesh of Christ, far above thy wisdom power & flesh.

If thou appeares wrath, confusion and darkenesse, to them that be in darkness to that [...], and yet thou saiest there is but one power, then there is but one eye; and what, is the confusion in the power, and yet but one? and darknesse in the power, and it but one? how now Roger, how smells this? Hast thou in this set up two powers and two eyes; and yet thou sayst there is but one power; now there is no confusion in the power of God, which goes over the confusion, the evil, the darknesse, and confounds it; but the confusion is in the power of darknesse, where people sees not one another, who are from the light with which thou art comprehended and seen: And dost thou appear, an Adulterer to them that be in adultery? and a theef to them that live in theft, and yet thou [...] [...]ere is but one [Page 6]power Roger; what, doth not one power appear against an other, then theef against theef, and Adulterer against adulterer, terror against terror; hast thou not set up a transgressor, or transgressors here? now if there be but one power, how do they transgresse then? Now there is but one power which remaine in which there is no theft, no adultery, no terror no iclo [...]ds, for terror and theeves and adulterers are out of it, for all that, [...]s in the darknesse: And thou saist to him that lives in two powers, thou ap­pea [...]es, in two powers, here thou hast confounded thy own principles by thy own tongue, & thou sayst, thou appeares in confusion to him that is in confusion, and all [...]ut of love to the pure seed that is in captivity; how now Roger, is there captivity and but one power? and yet the pure seed in captivity, what is that which captivates the pure seed? and if there be but one power, there is but one love, and then there is no captivity, yet thou saist there are many lovers, who art out of the power of God in the darknesse, and so in confusion, & there thou art but the pure eye in the power of God sees no confusion in it; for God is not the author of confusion nor his power, but confusion is in that which abides not in the power of God, nor in the truth: And we do not Imagine that thou art without the gate, (where all names and distinctions are, and settings up and throwings down) but know it: And here thou hast set up an opposite to thy selfe, who saies we Imagin, so two powers thou hast set up, and yet sayes there is but one, and thou saist this is a full answer for all gainsaying; hark, is there gainsaying, and yet but one power? and is there a single eye that it appears too? so by thy own words thou inferrs that there is a double eye; with the one power of God and the single eye art thou and thy power comprehen­ded that is out of the truth, who saith, the wisdome of the Serpent is the wis­dome of God; is it in the wisdom of God which is earthly, sensual and di­velish? for that is out of the truth, is not God, the God of all truth whose wisdom is distinct from the Serpents, these things consider.

Again, Roger Crab, thou grants that as a body of flesh thou art guilty of the whole Law, yet thou justifies thy selfe in that state of guilt, and here then justifies the wicked which is abomination to the Lord. Again thou saist that no body of flesh on earth can accuse thee for any transgression, no more then thou canst accuse thy selfe.

Ans▪ What need any accuse thee more then to be in the transgression and guilt of the whole Law, as thou accuseth thy selfe, which he that is so, cannot enter into Gods Kingdome.

Roger, thy wisdome hath perverted thee, and thy own confusions may make thee ashamed and keep silence, putting thy mouth in the dust, if so be that for thee there may be hope.

Thy power and thy spirit cannot Correct, it is corrected with the power of the Spirit of them who are called by thee and the world, Quakers, who are not found in the Spirit of the world, whom the world is not worthy of, for had they been worthy of them, their Gaols, houses of correction and Dungeons had not been their place for them, but that is the provision of a backslider, and their houses that they do prepare for the Lambs of Christ; And thy spirit is tryed, and thy shape and seed is seen, which is the seed of confusion, the Adulterer, and [Page 7]the who [...]e▪ which made up the sorcerers, but it is gone over, with the power of the Lord, & thy cloud is seen in which is no rain, & thy well is seen in which is no water, and it hath been tryed to the bottom, & what a friend who art to the Quakers, who are come through that, that can be shaken, and into that which cannot be shaken, by which thou art tryed, and all upon the earth, by such as hath the salt in themselves, That are the light of the world, & are as a City that cannot be hid, for had they not had the salt in themselves, they had been trode under mens feet before now; so thou art such a friend of the Quakers, that hid his talent, whose hand and [...]ot must be bound, who art with thy challengings, in the chief Priests nature, as Judas did with that friend, with multitudes and slaves and s [...]ords, that would betray and ensnare the just, and get them into the earthly liberty, where there is not its rest, nor Sabbath, but in God the Creator of all things, and truth fears thee not, to look thee in the face, for to it must thee & all unclean bow, in which we stand & reign, which i [...] the condemnation of all the unjust, which is the answerer of all the just, which is the releaser of all the captives and prisoners by the unjust, which power must have an end, but this power hath no end, which is unity and brings into oneness, which remains, and with the light the Power of God, th [...] body that thou hast prepared, out of which comes all the strife, and carnal weapons, which body is not the flesh of Christ, but it must be put off before that appears which remain, and thou yet with thy body which hast set forth and prepared, out of which comes all the contention in the world, aggrava [...]ion and strife, and it is but the body of flesh, upon which the law was given, by thy own confession, in that number thou art a son of old Adam, not of Christ who was made under the Law, and the bolts, and [...]all and locks, are seen and felt, and arts which preserves the Adulterer and prisons the innocent, who would ravish and destroy the Virgins and mar their beauty, and defile their Marriage bed which is honourable, the eyes of all that look up to Christ, and beholds their help, cannot turn into thee, though thou lie in every corner of the street, though it be in time o [...] night, though it be in the time that simple ones are travelling, though it be in the time that thou may say the good man is gone from home, and gone a long journey, and taken a Bag of money, come in thou hast Loves, and all that be with us, we have one purse, and we be brethren, But truth and life and power sees in what, for that is attained to which the tempter hath nought in, though he may find in the first Adam a transgressor, and Evah his wife, but in the seed he finds none, (but the Serpent,) that bruises his head, and in that is the Quakers life, and in that body they are in, which is peace above thy body in which is contention and strife, where men are surfetted with their aggravating spirits, who [...]eels, who sees over the body that burthens the just in the particular, in which I am one, and do it visit, though a plague, a Hammer, a sword to thee; who stands in love to all mankind in the Creation, and knowes the peace of that Kingdom in which is no end, thy jealousie burning, and thy flame is quenched with the power of the Lord, and the hear of another love, thy motive is seen from what ground it comes from, thee and the dark Priests, from that body out of which comes all uncleanness in the world, [Page 8]envyes, fightings, Quarrellings, evil [...]maginations, false accus [...]ions. The Lyon is raised up that will rend and tear the beast, the nature, and the beast himself, the Quakers power and spirit it seems you feel that doth torment you J.E. and Roger Crab; And as for the Ballat, and the Bal­lad of J.B. you are not with them able to get a top of the Quakers hill to sell your Ballats there; for the Kings throne is set, in which there comes no dirt, nor no enchanter, and thou must not think to come before the Throne with thy crooked body; and thine is the Kingdom that must come down with the Devils, who creeps like vipers upon the earth, and there lives in your nasty holes, who charms against them that amongst you makes not their dens; But the power and Throne hath compasled your home, that against the Lamb you cannot push; for that which you at them do throw is but your dust, who with it cannot dazel the eye of the ryders on, that tramples and treads, whose rest is in the corner stone, who slings with a sling, and hits the uncircumcised in the head, and his feet upon him stands, who is come to the flesh of Christ, which is not meat for the Dog, swine, and viper, and wolves, and fowls, who this flesh out of their mouth throwes, and cannot swallow down, and the blood of Christ they cannot drink, but lies in their sins, and cor­ruptions, till they stink; for from that filthy thing doth it make clean, and they that drink must have the pure mouth, and they that eat [...] the flesh hath his life, in which we reign, and remains, and in which we have our being, let us see if thou can sing this song.

G.S.
THE END.

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Text Creation Partnership. Searching, reading, printing, or downloading EEBO-TCP texts is reserved for the authorized users of these project partner institutions. Permission must be granted for subsequent distribution, in print or electronically, of this EEBO-TCP Phase II text, in whole or in part.