then hanged in iron cages the King in the midst higher then the rest by the height of a man he endured the first three pinches in silence afterwards cryed out for mercy till he was dispatched John Matthiz a Baker of Harlem a Prophet after a revelation from heaven Commands all books to be burnt except the Bible Herbert Truteling a smith hereupon called them dirty Prophets Therefore Matthiz shot him dead This Matthiz by the impulse of the Spirit without the Scripture taketh a long spear runneth up and down Munster crying out that he had received a Commandement from the Father to repulse the enemy from the Cittie He no sooner approacheth the Camp then a Souldier one Misnicus faceth him and shoots him dead At Sengal in Helvetia 1527 Thomas Schucker with a sword beheads his own brother Leonard in the presence of his Father Mother by the impulsion of the Spirit without Scripture Upon the place of execution he shewed no remorse but professed that it was the will of God revealed to him from heaven Coppius a Flanders man Quintinus a Taylor of Picardie Claudius Persevatus Pocquius a Priest who conitnued still to say Mass in Holland Brabant and other parts of the Low-countrys and in France seduced above four thousand in Calvin's time All the murders whoredomes villainies saith M. Rutherford practised by Muncer John Becold David George Swenckfield they fathered on the Spirit without the Scripture or on such an allegorick sense as their unclean spirit expounded the word by so as a man knows not when they sin when they serve God I shall take off my pen from transcribing any more of these examples many wherof are at hand What further troubles were caused by these factious spirits in Moravia Bohemia Poland Hungarie Austria Silesia Westphalia Freizland Holland and Brabant in France I leave the studious Reader to inform himself from the histories of those times Did Luther in those times write to the Senate of Mulhusen to beware of the wolfe Muncer and have not we cause now to beware of the spirit of Swenckfield Muncer Becold Quintinus more then reviving in this present doctrine of confusion Iliad ψ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rem Regem Regimen Regionem Relligionem Tollere tentarunt Region Estate Rule Civil Divine Religion ALL they seek to undermine Amongst these three wayes of teaching Authority Reason Example the last is peculiarly accommodated to the capacitie nature of man as that which both inlightens affects Examples make difficult things plain and doubtfull things certain Hence they are aptly called the Pledges of speech delivered for the assurance of the mind of the hearer concerning the subject spoken of upon the reception whereof all experience attests unto a perswasive operative influence concomitant in rational subjects It were a great violation of charitie to looke at all seduced as thus minded we know the very method of the Masters of Spirituall pestilence sufficiently admonisheth us that their novices are not arrived at the heights of the mystery of their iniquity 'T is probable that many of their considerable proficients are not alike insighted into these secrets of darkness Yea that not a few of them would readily really profess their detestation of the perpetration of the villanies forementioned All which notwithstanding it were great defect of prudence after so fair or rather formidable warnings past and such prodigious apparitions present not timously to put our selves into a regular and necessary posture of defence Alas men know not their deceitfull hearts At the same time we may both hear Hazael saying But what is thy servant a dog that he should do this great thing and see the man of God weep foreseeing the evil that he would do unto the children of Israel Be it so that many are led away in their simplicity yet a discerning spirit may well doubt that neither Achitophels head nor heart is wanting in the design Besides why should not men of the same Spirit temptation opportunity concurring be looked at as too like to walk in the same steps From the same root reason teacheth us if not maturely prevented to expect the same fruits from the same principles the same issues from the same cause the same effects To give warning is the duty of the watchman to take warning is the duty of the Citty The experiences of generations foregoing are the instructions of generations following The history of the experiments of others is our advantage The improvement thereof in season will be not only our duty and wisedom but also a token of mercy The woe 's of Ancestors ought to be the warning of Successors CHAP 4. Of the Remedy against Heretical doctrines and in particular against the doctrine of the Quakers NOtwithstanding manifold evils prevailing threatning yet the Prophet will not admit that there is no Balm in Gilead that there is no Physician there Though Christ hath not seen good to exempt his with a preservative from exercise by temptation yet hath he so provided as to supply them with a defensative against the evill of temptation There was not more sicknes amongst the people then there was healing vertue in the Disciples gift Mat 10.1 A venimous Serpent may be brought into Crete or Ireland but may report be credited no such can live there The wiles of the Devil are Serpentine and malignant yet not to be compared to the wisdom of Christ The Serpent's head is poysonous but thanks be to God through Jesus Christ his malignity is both antidated antidoted I will put enmity between thee the woman between thy seed her seed It shall bruise thy Head Gen 3.15 The Saviour of his people hath smitten Satan long agoe in his intellectuals His plots are foreseen and the remedy hath prevented the disease To Christ belongs the prerogative of being the only Politician Now a compleat Polity exhibiteth meanes sufficient as to the sufficiency of meanes for the defence of the Law and of all those that are loyal subjects thereunto Would the Patient but regularly attend the prescript there is no stratagem can infest the Churches in reference whereunto wee may not still boldly say yet there is hope in Israel cōcerning this thing Surely there is no inchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Israel According to this time It shall be said of Jacob of Israel what hath God wrought Num. 23.33 mine eye affects my heart Lam. 3.51 A due sight of the Spirit of errour heresie is a great help to affect a Christian Spirit therewith Monsters in nature are eye sores The face of death that King of Terrours the living man by instinct turneth his face from An unusual shape a Satanical phantasm a ghost or apparition affrights the disciples The vision of sin unto a spiritual eye is an object of much more abhorrence then the former But the face of heresie is of a more
interpretation Non-sense a false sense and the true sense The two former are wiles of the enemy the last is the gift of the Spirit of trueth and a great part of the work of the Ministry So they read in the book of the Law of God distinctly and gave the sense caused them to understand the reading Nehem. 8.8 He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself Luke 24.27 Philip said understandest thou what thou readest and he said how can I except some man should guide me Act. 8.30 31 Object 3 Nothing is to be acknowledged Scripture-trueth but what is contained therein in express termes Answ A Scripture consequence is a Trueth evidently necessarily arising out of a proposition held forth therein in express termes So that if the doctrine conteined in the proposition held forth in express termes be true then is the doctrine conteined therein by consequence also true Those trueths are Scripture-trueths which are conteined or held forth in the Scriptures though not in express termes yet by just evident consequence Exod. 3.6 I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaak the God of Jacob. Hence Mat 22.29 30. Christ proves the Resurrection by consequence the summ whereof is as if he had said that which God spake to Moses in the Bush inferreth the whole persons of Abraham Isaak and Jacob to be in everlasting covenant with him and that they shall be blessed therefore there shall be a Resurrection For how can the body be glorified except it rise again and so farr were the hearers from objecting against this kind of argumentation as that they highly approved of it One of the Scribes having heard their reasoning perceived that he had answered them well Mark 12.28 Then certain of the Scribes answering said Master thou hast answered well Luke 20.39 The multitude were astonished at his doctrine Mat 22.42 And no man was able to answer him neither durst any man from that time forth aske him any more questions verse 46. Out of Psalm 16.10 Peter proves the Resurrection of Christ. Act. 2.31 He that is the Patriark David seeing this before spake of the Reserrection of Christ that his soul was not lost in hell neither his flesh did see corruption Yet the Psalmist in these words speakes not of the Resurrection in express termes but onely by consequence the question is whether the believing Galatians which were formerly heathens were justifyed by faith Paul out of those words Gen. 22.18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed proveth the affirmative by consequence Gal. 3 8 9 The question is whether believing Abraham hath matter of glorying before God The Apostle from Gen 15.6 concludeth the negative by consequence Rom 4.2 3. Question whether Christ did well or blasphemed in saying that he was God Chr st from Psal 71.6 justifieth his act by a Scripture consequence Io n 10.35 36. His argument proceeds from the less to the greater Question whether Circumcision is necessary unto the believing Gentiles The Apostle concludeth the negative by consequence Acts 15.8 9. God bare them witness giving them the Holy-Ghost even as he did unto us and put no difference between them us purifying their hearts by faith Therefore c Many more instances are producible if need were So many citations as there are in the New Testament of testim onies in the old Testament not extant there in express termes are so many proofes of the Scripture-consequences Scripture trueths by consequence are called Scripture yee do erre not knowing the Scripture Mat. 22.29 for what saith the Scripture Rom. 4.3 and the Scripture foreseeing Gala. 3.8 what Peter deduceth from Davids words by consequence that he affirmeth David to have said Acts. 2.31 what Paul deduceth out of Moses by just consequence that he affirmeth Moses to have said Rom. 10.5.10 That proposition the Scripture is a perfect Rule of life is understood as including Scripture-consequences otherwise it were not a trueth The greatest part of Scripture-trueth is revealed in Scripture-consequences Yea many fundamentall trueths are not held forth in express termes but by manifest consequence If there be no truth contained in the Scripture but what is held forth therein in express termes then the individuall persons of Thomas Mary c are therein neither Cōmanded Obedience nor forbidden disobedience For we no where read thou Thomas or Mary such an one by name do this or not that This trueth concerning Scripture-consequences is the more to be attended because of the time wherein many after the example of Arrius of old and the Libertines Gunter with some other Jesuites of late when they are not able to answer unto Scripture-arguments rather then to yeild unto the trueth chuse to fly to this miserable subterfuge of hereticks namely that the trueth defended against them is not contained in Scripture because it is not there in express termes Concerning the Vindication of some Scriptures Iohn 1.9 That was the true light which lighteneth every man that commeth into the world Hence they affirme that in every man Collectively i. e. in all men not one excepted there is a light which being followed is an infallible guide that this light within us not the Scripture or written word is the Rule of life In answer hereunto two things are to be cleared First that the sence of the text pretended is notoriously false Secondly what is the sence of the place Were the sence pretended sound then righteousnes should be by the law not with standing sin contrary to Rom. 8.3 For the light which is in every man that is born into the world is not Gospel-light The Gospel being the secret of God a mystery unknown to Angels Adam himself in the time of innocency The naturall man cannot know the things of the spirit of God 1 Cor 2.14 Natural is to be construed in opposition to spiritual and denoteth a man as following the dictate of reason only or the light of nature whence it is manifest that the light of nature as such and the light of the spirit are contra-distinct the one to the other The light of nature remaining in Adams posterity since the lapse is so little as that it is not to be mentioned the same day with what was in Adam before the fall The light of nature consists in common principles imprinted upon the reasonable soul by nature inclining man to assent unto some naturall and manifest trueths upon the representation of them without waiting for any proofe that is as it were by instinct without argument Viz that it is impossible for the same things at once for to be not to be that the whole is greater then the part That a man is bound not to do to others what he would not have done unto himself As also in certain Notions that there is a God that God is to be worshipped that Parents are to be honoured that there is difference to be
in a needy condition seduced the inferiour sort especially such as were pinched with penury into a perswasion that it was lawfull for them to help themselves Thereby procuring an insurrection of Sixty thousand for the while carrying all before them commiting diverse murthers many outrages unto the entering awing of London the terrour of the King jeopardy of the whole Realme Iohn Woll is pestilent but Iohn of Leyden is much more pestilent The strength of this temptation lyeth not in the reason of it but in it's compliaance with corruption Such is man's propensness to the world that where it offers it self he is apt to hasten to it though by a way which inferreth the perdition of the soul No marveil if that Religion which hath made the way to salvation and to the worlds enjoyment both the same and quick easy be much followed though not for Religion sake yet for the worlds sake Howsoever Becold might smile in his sleeve at the fallacy of his Religion yet therein he found sweet in that it promoted him from a Tayler of Leyden to be King of Jerusalem yea of the whole earth and that all Princes must obey him had their revelations prevailed To possess our hearts the more throughly with the pestilence of the heterodoxie impleaded consider the dismall effects which have followed upon the practices of such who have acted according to these principles Caspar Swenckfield an eloquent but unlearned man spread his errours about 1520. The confession of the Divines of Mansfield condemneth him Anno 1555 and testifieth that he hath troubled the church thirty yeares About 1522 Nicolas Storke of whom before rejects the Scriptures as being a carnal literal Rule holds forth revelations thereupon the extirpation of the Magistrate with a renovation of the world wherein Righteousness should dwell Out of this school came Muncer About 1524 arose Thomas Muncer who in his letters stiled himself Thomas Muncer the servant of God with the sword of Gideon against the ungodly He cryeth down books and the letter of the Scripture saying the Spirit was Leader and Rule to believers Amongst other things he teacheth parity amongst men rejection of Dignities Community of goods that all the world should abide in the liberty wherein it was at first created Of his dangerous attempt in Alstad to destroy the Princes innovate the Government change the times we heard also before In Mulhuisen an Imperial Citty in the Province of Turingia he so wrought upon the people that they changed their old Magistrates chose new ones of Muncer's way whence arose many troubles Many people leavened with his doctrine defist from their ordinary Labour when they had need of any thing they took from those who had it whether they would or not In Swaben Francony the husbandmen labourers take up armes to the number of Forty thousand they drove away the Nobles imprisoned some according to the French Historiographer they slew many of the Nobility sacked burnt their Castles fortresses as the fetters of their liberty At last he Henry Pfeiffer pretending a vision from heaven gather forces with a numerous companie take the field fight with the princes are taken put to death 1525. In these tumults of Muncer were slaine first last fifty thousand of the people according to some one hundred thousand About 1533 John Becold an Hollander of Leyden by occupation a Taylor commeth to Munster a Citty in Westphalia with one Cniperdoling where with their adherents followers having gotten some advantage into their hand Command is given that such who were not rebaptised should be put to death as Pagans and wicked but these troubles were issued by composition In February 1534 contary to their Faith promise they secretly fill the Citty with their own party In the beginning they talked of nothing but spirit Holiness they said it was not lawfull for a Christian to be a Magistrate and that it was not lawfull to bear armes But after they had gotten power into their hands then it was lawfull to seize the publick armes to take the Town-house to choose Magistrates to their mind to reject those who were ordained of God to thrust themselves into their places They that before cryed Repent Repent now change their voyce and cryed Depart Depart if you will not die Pillaging stripping honest people of all they had forcing them out of house Citty with their wives and little ones all that were not of their mind without regard to age or sex Where saith the Author are those fair speeches now which were wont to be in their mouths Do not resist evil He that will take away thy coat give him thy cloak also They command Community of all goods upon pain of death they abolish Schooles and Courch-assemblies Spanhem historic Narrat Cap. 2. yea so far saith Spanhâ—mius proceeded the madness of this villanous fellow meaning John of Leyden that by the craft of a gold-smith of Warrendorp suborned by him who feigned a revelation inspiration and the blockishness of the bewitched people This scum of the earth was set upon a Kingly throne excercised a stage-player-like Kingdom in an oppressed Citty prepared himselfe Princely furniture and attendants useth all manner of cruelty with whoredoms murders unheard-of tyrannie distributed amongst his followers Principalities Dukedoms at his pleasure by his messengers every where stirring up the country-people to mutinie and rebellion yea attempted such mischiefs as will scarce find Credit with posterity ascribing to himself this frantick title John King of new-Jerusalem King of righteousness over the whole world Upon a Revelation of one of their Prophets Henry Hilvers viz that three rich Citties Amsterdam Deventer Wesel were given to them they attempt to take Amsterdam May 10 1535. and that so unexpectedly wilâ—ly and resolutely as that the Citty was not saved out of their hands without some danger and much bloodshed At Munster the King provideth a great Supper the people sit down to the number of four thousand the King Queen Courtiers wait upon the table Supper almost finished the King gave unleavened bread to all saying Take eat declare the death of the Lord. Then the Queen presented the Câ—p saying Drink declare the death of the Lord. Afterwards the King Queen waiters supped as they were at supper the King ariseth saying he had a commission from the father Accuseth a souldier which had been taken that he was a Traitor as Judas and with his own hand haveing cut off his head returneth to sit down at the table by way of merriment reciting what he had done King Becold beheads Elise one of his Queens and wives in the market-place because she had said that she did not believe it was pleasing to God that the people should thus perish through famine At length Becola Chipperdoling and Cretchting being taken with the Citty which they held till June 25. 1538. were tortured with burning pincers