such as I naver experienced before in the Vnction from the Holy one 1 Joh. 2.20 27. and have yet a lively hope that I shall one day therein serve the Publick again although for daies weekes moneths and yeeres I have now lain among the tile-vâ—â—s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ben shephaâ—im or between them in the fiery furnace and burning kilne and by the Walls like a Dead man out of mind Yet the Almon-rod blossometh and God hath powred out grace and my heart as Psal 45.1 hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rachash boyled and bubled up a tabar tob a good Word indeed yea my tongue is as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guet made of the quil from the Eagle before the throne Rev. 47. 6.7 5.7 the pen of a quick Accountant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sopher mahir in the times and seasons and great Matters of our King Now O all ye friends Fellow-citizens of Sion and Fellow-waiters with us for the help of Israel bear us a little in your bowels and bosome before the Father Me and my dearest concaptives and co-exiles in this glorious cause of Christ when you come before the King into his Presence-chamber of grace and supplication be sure you forget not Joseph Ah! I beseech ye in those open bleeding earning bowels which hung upon the Cross to mind a poor Worm and a prisoner of hope and of a little faith in this Valley of Achor and Eshool thorough grace that whiles Christ is lighting and you without are trimming the Lamps in the Sanctuary in the light and life of those seven Lamps of fire the seven Spirits of God before the Throne we within may also draw neer with the holy perfume for a perpetuall incence Exod. 30.78 poured out on the Altar of Incense by our High Priest Jesus Christ within the veile till from thence the Temple be filled with smoke Rev 15.8 Levit. 16.12 31. and the Angel of the Viol go forth Now I commit you all to the Inner-court comforts and counsels that yo may be measured these disorderly times by the Angels Cubit the Golden Reed and not by mens rotten rules according to the which I am layed out and measured in the Lords Tabernacle of Testament yea bound with those Golden Chaines which fastens the Shoulder-pieces to the Breast-plate wherein is put the Vrim and Thummim by the finger of God and thereby I have had an Answer of God to my great encouragement and rejoycing who yet remain in the faith hope and patience of the Kingdom THINE as a Heave-offering to the Lord by the hand of Christ in this fat soyle wherein my foot is dipt with Oyle Jo. Ro. Errata's in the Introduction c. PAge 2. Line 25. Read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 4. l. 21. r. were able p. 6. l. 36. r. abstract Account p. 10. l. 12. r. 4 l. 4 s. p. 12. l. 15. r. Commanded p. 16. l. 24 r. Lies p. 19 l. 35. r. doore with l. 30. language p. 21. l. 36. r. ne peccem p. 24. l. 7. r. and yielding from our p. 27. l. 26. dele of p. 30. l. 19. r. for the Lamb. l. 30. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gnanoim p. 41 l. 4. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 47. l. 4. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 49 l. 37. r. ex debito p. 50. l. 26. r. responsable p. 56 in marg r. whereof it treats p. 62. l. 3. r. Jehovah had p. 64. l. 36. r. disputes about l. 37 r. where are their degrees r. 70. l. 23. r. that Christ was the Lord of the S. l. 37. r. there Righteousnesse p. 71. l. 33. r. Civil Powers p. 79. l. 24. r. after the Mode of the World l. 38. r. That made Daniel p. 80. l. 17. r. Satiari l. 34. r. Duorum Testium p. 81. l. 2. dele in l. 23. r. of that party l. 35. r. of Luther p. 82. l. 4. r. of lip l. 5. r. when he bids l. 16. r. fee or favour of the great Turk l. 35. r. of Lies l. 36. r Tyriig bilingues r. Dorick l. 37. r. cor auro l. 38. r. heart p. 83. l. 1 r. obstreperous l. 7. r. Parrots and Parasites as these l. 10. r. Terrigeni l. 29. r. leapt from them p. 84. l. 2. r. and destroy l. 4. r. Preachers l. 19. r. too low and too little in the marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 30. r. too the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 35. r. for your selves your Children l. 36. r. that are p. 85. l. 25. r. pocos y focos l. 31. r. say they in marg r. poorest p. 86. l. 4. r. it seems so in Josephus l. 5. r. him too l. 6. r. to come and dwell l. 16. t. most amarulently and r. professors l. 20. r. It was not the common p. 87. l. 12. r. begin l. 28. r. Seeming impossibilities l. 35. r. O Paule p. 89. l. 6. r. And so it hath been p. 19. l. 7. r. ipso l. 16. r. So are the Priestly in marg r. pellit p. 93. l. 4. r. there Suffrings there Acts. p. 94. l. 9. r. justils l. 32. r. tortures jocularia ludibria nobis l. 34. r. they are jucund in the midst of p. 95. l. 11. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 20. r. Heb. 10.38 p. 98. l. 23.24 r. superadded ante delienated p. 99. l. 13. r. aequaliter l. 18. r. differt l. 30. r. in speculativâ ratione p. 102. l. 22. r. trepidation l. 23. r. house fell under l. 7. r. have bin to thi p. 103. l. 1. r. preserve us l. 24.25 r. Venite in contemptum Diaboli There be other lesser faults which thou mayst correct in reading And beyond p. 104. I have never seen therefore know not how to correct the other Erratas FINIS
hand Now if ever there were a time to hear the Grave-groans of the living and the dead of those who are in Prison graves and of those whose skulls and bones we left behinde us in the Field and of those under the Altar who cry How long O Lord holy and true Rev. 6.10 yea the shrill heaven heart and earth-tearing Call of Saints past present and to come from the days of Abel to this day to maintain their Cause to revenge their Blood and the Lamb's and to be VP AND DOING for the Lord Jesus the King of Saints to purpose it is NOW within a year or two as we shall shew you WO to them that are at ease Amos 6.1 yea to the very women that are Careless Isa 32.9 10 11 12. for they shall lament and if ye will be All silent the very Graves shall open the Dead shall live the dry bones shall live the stones of the street shall speak and the beam of the timber utter it the Witnesses will arise and the earthquake come to take vengeance against this Apostate generation of sowre Professors But say some seeing the Prisons are so deeply sensible and bear so heavie a burthen for us how falls it that before now your exonerating groans and sighs got not a free passage abroad in the Nation To which I must answer That for above a years Imprisonment now partly more at large Why the Prisons are so silent and partly close I have lien under pressure of Spirit as if my heart would break within me at times to see so servile and degenerate a Spirit as yet among the Saints yet with patience purposing to wait and possess my soul as unwilling to write what few if any we able to bear though most honourable Truth I kept in as long as I could not knowing but there might have been before this a kindly recurrence among some of those retrograde motions which so tremendous and fearful a Wrath as I easily foresee follows the heels of Melius est recurrere quam male currere Besides so great is the servile spirit and fear which possesses the hearts of men against this glorious Cause and Controversie of Christ for which we are imprisoned plundered exiled or persecuted that what we write to ease our hearts and consciences with the greatest sobriety and simplicity we cannot carry thorow the Press or get Printed upon any terms almost in the language life and savour of the present Anointing from the holy One which is upon us and teaches us All things That new-found Engine of the Beast the Ordinance of Treason for words and imaginations hath put them into so pannick and foolish a fear that above an hundred sheets preparing for the Press to enlighten the Deluded and Abused people of this Nation as to us and our Cause or rather Christ's while they give out we suffer not for Conscience have been either betrayed by Iscariot-kisses plundered from me or stifled before they were born and all this lest the people should have light into the sufferings of our Consciences or conscience of our Sufferings viz. the truth of the fifth Kingdom or receive a right Information of the Apostacies Hypocrisie Perjury Cheating Persecution and unheard-of Baseness of such as are gotten into Power having a form of godliness denying the power thereof from whom we are to withdraw 2 Tim. 3.5 and notwithstanding we and they declared this Tyranny in the Bishops the words are To lock up the Printing-Presses against whom they please was in the Bishops time complained of Vid. Guilford-Declar p. 10. as one of the great Oppressions Yet this is revived upon us which is the reason the good people of the Nation are so deceived and prejudiced about us and our Principles whiles we are not suffered to publish the truth and our enemies false Reports of us pass cum privilegio all over the Countries 2 The Prisonopprobries abuses and injurries especially at Lambeth 2. The marvelous Trials which I have encountered with in the flesh since Imprisonment have much impeded my appearing in Publick until now and albeit I have forborn hitherto making publike complaint of the worse then Romane tyranny upon us for the exercising of our faith and patience that in all well-doing we might suffer with joy and that our consolation in Christ might abound and that Jehovah whom we serve to whom vengeance and truth belongeth might take the matter into his hands onely Yet because of the loud Obloquies lend Lyes Invectives and ungodly reports which pass without examination from one to another upon me on purpose to reflect upon this blessed Cause and faith we contend for and for that some have greedily made such use of those loose Tales and do conclude upon it that Silence argues Guilt and gives advantage to all sorts good and bad to accumulate their most amarulent and uncharitable censures some precious friends have prevailed with me for the Truths sake the Lord knows without the least desire to justifie my self for I leave that to my Lord and Master or delight to rake into the rank and sordid excrements of mens mouthes or pleasure in their unhandsom nakedness for I take little delight to inculcate their lapses or incivilitiâ—s to us in this Cause and can be better content my conscience bears me witness to sit down in silence then to take so much as notice of the foaming and frothy agitations of some pragmatick and unquiet heads these Times But the Truth Cause and persecuted Saints do expect some Account at my hands it seems of the particular harsh usage I and my family met with under this Power in Lambeth-House and since where I was for above five and thirty weeks and then sent to Windsor-Castle the 31 of 1 mon. 1655. with two Messengers who deliver'd me up Prisoner here a little after Noon I was fetch'd out of my bed the 27 day of 4 mon. in 1654 early in the morning and at night after all day waiting I was sent to Lambeth-prison being very ill and distemper'd with a Fever yet for all that at 11 in the night did a Messenger rap at the gates call'd another of the Messengers who was going into his bed made him put on his clothes again to assist him and so they came both with Harding the under-Goaler to carry me at that time of night I knew not whither nor would they tell me but being very ill on the bed and my wife also unready I told them I was not Able prayed them to let me alone for that one night told them The righteous man was merciful to a Beast and were a Beast of theirs horse or Cow so ill or little able to stir they would be more merciful with many other Arguments I and my wife also desired them to forbear that night but they said they had Orders from Sergeant Dendy to remove me presently and I must not stay one of them speaking very high and threatning The issue was They
and hatred to the cause and to us 5. To hinder Preaching and Praying to poor Souls is beyond the Tyranny of the Heathens 5. They fall short of Heathen civility in the Allowance the Romans gave yea Nero as notorious a Tyrant as he was to Paul Act. 28.31 Preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ no man forbidding him yea and this at Rome under Nero's nose yea the Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes in the Compter and in the Bishop's Coal-house behind his Kitchin they Preached Prayed and Sang together none forbidding them But we are forbidden to Preach in Prison and our Friends forbidden to come to us to hear us yea Serg. Dendy sent a Letter at large which I have by me to forbid it yea the Church-Society I walk with are not suffered to come at me to Pray or Exercise with me And after they had an express Order to turn me out from the air and use of the Common hall in Lambeth because I Preached and Prayed there They said also they had Order to keep Prisoner any man that should dare to pray with me in my Chamber The same day when Jonathan Taylor of Warwick-Church was with me and Prayed they gave warning thereof And after that they took strict notice of any that look'd like a gifted-brother that they suspected would Pray or Preach in my Chamber c. would not let him of Any have access so much as to see me unless he would engage to come down presently again not to Pray or the like with me in my Chamber so precise were they against preaching and praying Here also at Windsor we have like experience having been beaten abused and clap'd up close for it as we shall shew ere long This is doubtless so high a crime among Christians too that Nero shall finde more mercy at the day of judgement and it shall be easier for him then for these men in this matter But O! it is no little comfort that we can suffer this and a thousand times more we hope by the grace of God with great joy for his sake who hath made us worthy Acts 5.51 Unto you says the Apostle Phil. 1. is given not onely to Believe but to Suffer which all Saints cannot do And as it is Acts 28.20 It is for the Hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain as I shall shew in this Treatise Et signum est mihi majoris Gloriae ut omnes impii ferè me detestantur I might mention other Particulars wherein our Persecutors and Goalers are worse to us then Heathens or Romanes under the Dragon-Government or Papists and Prelates under the Beast's Government as in that they were allowed to dispute the Truth with the Word of God which we are not and the like But by this you see it a true assertion That we are under a worse then Romane tyranny of the greatest aggravation By our brethren too and for our Consciences too and at such a time too and after such vast streams and treasures of our blood estates faith tears and prayers too to purchase our undoubted priviledges and immunities in another manner of liberty too and to us too who have all along fought in the field raised men spent our estates and ventur'd our lives and for the very Truths and upon the same Principles we now suffer in too all this is the Aggravation of the Threnody Much might we say of Paul's Plea of Free-born Act. 23.28 and as we are the Conquerors and never yet the Conquered though cheated and deceived Side and much according to the Laws of the Nation whereof the General was a Member that made them which are duely Enrolled Proclaimed in due order Acted upon Executed and Unrepealed to which have been many Solemn Engagements Oaths Declarations and Wars and much more I might say but that the Sword as it is hath neither eyes nor ears and therefore can neither pity us as English-men nor as Christians The Souldiers counsel was Acts 27.42 and is it not to kill the Prisoners But stay brother Red-coat we Except against thee for we will have no Butcher for a Jury-man The main Causes which moved Serg. Dendy to be so long a Suitor as I hear to the Council for my removal to Windsor according to his several threatnings by Letters Messages and Word of mouth at White-hall that day I was before them was the Complaint the Prisoners made being afraid to take that freedom excess in sin night and day as they would do whiles I was there and then the Gains which he lost by my being there both in Fees and otherwise as Acts 16.19 When they saw that the hope of their gains was gone they brought Paul and Silas and drew them to the market-place to the rulers and the rulers cast them into prison vers 23 24. yea they were thrust into the Inner prison but there they sang Praises and so do we our Antelucanos Hymnos and so we will till the Foundations of this Earthly Government rend Amen! Hallelujah Though for these Reasons and for others more publike as for Preaching Praying c. Lambeth became inhabitable to me under the Torrid Zone of these Persecutors and Goalers anger yet I can tell them if I may boast in the Lord with greater comfort confidence then they can look Christ his Saints or Cause which they have betrayed in the face or look for favour from the Righteous Judge That I live in the most Temperate Zone of heaven do what they can for their hearts and with a better Conscience which is my continual feast can look out at these Iron bars and sing whiles the thorn is at my brest to keep me wakeful then they can at their Belcona's or ratling Coaches or ruffle in their gold and gaudiness dyed in the blood of the Saints or gotten by Hypocrisie and cozening It is a true saying of Aug. de bon pers cap. 6. Tutiores autem sumus si Totum Deo damus non autem nos illi ex parte nobis ex parte committimus We are best and safest when we give God All and not seek to share or part stakes with God much less like the Apostates of these Times who are so far from giving God All and they be Nothing but what God will have them that they Themselves will be All in Civils Military and Ecclesiasticks and God or Christ shall be Nothing but what they will have them Therefore no wonder they are alarm'd with continual fears whiles we poor Worms in prison need none of their courts of Guard but can sleep sweetly and securely in the warm bosome of Eternal Love though Mad-men Drunkards and Devils are about us day and night for with no little sap solace and sweetness have I suck'd in Luther's saying which is mine now Ipse viderit ubi anima mea sit mansura qui pro ea sit sollicitus fuit ut vitam pro ea posuerit and therefore
could not in conscience so do for his standing there was only to hear prayer yet intreated B. F. to come away and when he found his argumâ—nts of no more force with him in that duty the Serjeant was returning but in the way this wicked Ensigne whose feet were swift to shed blood saluted him as an enemy for not tearing him a way by head and shoulders at first with sword and scabbard struck blows in such strength that the yron thereof cut through his skull and brake his brain-pan so sadly gashed mangled and wounded the blood spinning out a great distance from him he with much ado reel'd to a seat where he assayed to break his sword and throw away his scabberd with a witnesse against them to wear it no more in such service but in the mean-time this enraged Morster with his naked Sword laid about the rest who now ran away with B. F. as with a light burthen and so like the Dâ—â—gge in the Smiths Forge they that would not stirre at the many stroaks upon Gods anvill whiles we were at our work could run now at the sight of a wand yea with winde in their wings lift up their Ephah Zach. 5.9 Work poore whetches Such miserable slaves are they all According to the Arabick Adage which for want of characters the presse omits Men ' la a-rifo-lchaira mina-Isecri alhiqho bi-lbeha ima they that cannot discriminate are company for beasts The Serjeant was conveyed into a house and as it was by the Chirurgeon himselfe supposed mortally wounded and a dead man for after hâ— had taken out two or three pieces of his skull he concluded him doubtfull of recovery if not beyond it it being so contiguous and ambiguous for at last he found it but a hairs-breadth between him and death being hewed to the Caruncles and concavity of the head and should have utterly despaired but that the Cerebrain-skin was marvelously kept from the cuts Thus blood was shed in their rage against Religion and the Worship of God who formerly and when it was their interest have with blood contended for it yea the Blood of Warre in the time of Peace 1 King 2.5 And as tame Foxes once loose do the most miscriefe so do these Et ad extremum lupus manebit etiamsi inter homines educatus fuerit as the Persians say Wolves will be Wolves though brought up amongst men or put into sheeps cloathing Mat. 10 But the Avenger of blood will pursue these sonnes of Belial and wo unto them that build their Citty in blood Isa 1.5 for when their plague comes the name of their place shall be Kibroth-hataavah the Graves of Iust for whiles the flesh is between their teeth the Lord shall smite them in the interim consider First That we lie as yet among the pots in the hot kiln the yron furnace of Aegypt Lam 4.2 How are ye precious ones of Sion compable to solid gold accounted as earthen potsheards yet with the reversion promised us we will not part Psal 68.13 Though ye have lien among the pots as the wings of a Dove oppressed of Janah made a prey overlaid with silver and her feathers with beaten gold of Charatz cut a sunder for though we be Chenshe phatta of shaphattariim order'd and disposed between the very hearths where the fire is kindled in the hottest Urn among the Tile pots I mean in those Ovens of mens wrath viz. Garisons of Souldiers to be scorched far exceeding in that sense the common Goals and Prisons yet praised be our God for his presence is with us which was with the three Children in the fiery furnace and as Psal 66.11 12. Thou laidst affliction such as comes from oppression of Gnuk upon our loines thou hast caused men to rid over our heads or beginnings of rosh we went through fire and through water but thou hast brought us out into a wealthy place or larevajah to an overflowing and afulnesse of moisture and anointing as Psal 23.5 where the word is and herein shall we yet more abundantly rejoyce for such earthen pots as we are in the Lords house shall be like the Bowles or Bâ—sons before the Altar Zach. 14.20 that is ever full of the hott blood oâ— the Sacrifice which is our sure mercy and Nâ—w-Covenant-Comfort in this State of patience Secondly we may see the è polupragmoseume the pragmaticall proclyvitie activity of the Cavalerish spirit to prosecute and execute the rage of the Beast upon us under this Sword soveraignty with the same Antipathy and principle they had in the Kings dâ—yâ—s though under a shew of more religion refinednessâ— and zeal like Balâ—k Numb 22. and 23. that to curse the Lords people and get power over them with great readinesse and real ran to the worship of the true God as if he had renounced his false God Chemosh when in truth he retained still his old principles and yet with them he seemed a new Proselyte he offered seven Oxen and 7. Rams so far exceeding the true Saints in his seeming zeale to the true God and stands by his sacrifices fasting and praying and his Princes too with so great devotion and why so why all to get Power over the Lords Chosen ones So these have seemed to have laid aside their old principles of enmity hatred animosity revenge persecution and opposition so of prophanesse Atheisme and open wickednesse of that kinde thereby to get a power of revenge over us to curse and diminish us for our faithfulnesse and constant adhaesiâ—n to the good Cause both now and in the late wars this also lying in the road of their preferment so to treat us for the Cavaleers highest Counsels ar this day are to fall in with this Power in order to the bringing of Ch. Stuart ruining us and precipitating of them and all this by their old principle 3. It appears a conviction of Conscience is a capital crime with them and merits cutâ—â—ng slashing and shedding of blood without mercy for as the Jews Jo 9.22 Had agreed that if any man did confesse that he was Christ he should be put out oâ— the Synagogue So have these agreed to cast them out from amongst them that acknowledge the Lord Jesus in Power and truth according to the dictates of an enlightened Conscience for a blind men restored to sight they will not endure amongst thâ—m who in such a mixture and complication of sinister interests prefer butchery before the liberal arts as they say of the Jews yea revenge above Religion and Coin above Conscience calling the touch of conscience contempt melancholly and madnesse and punishing of them they themselves being â—eared and having made shipwrack thereof whiles we as Paul saies 2 Cor. 4 2. Have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftinesse nor handling the Word of God deceitâ—ully but by manifestation of the truth commend our selve to every mans conscience in the sight of God Fourthly It is evident we are under as barbarous a Spirit
as Acts 21.36 and John 19.15 Away with him away with him Ah said I So did the Souldiers deal with my Lord Jesus and the servant is not greater than his Lord. But O thou Hypocrite doest thou professe the Word or read it and yet contrary to the word of God Law or Reason biâ—st thy men to abuse mee thus without any cause the Lord will judge the for thy Hypocrisie and contempt doth not the Word say to Souldiers do violence to no man Luke 3.14 c. but this renewed their rage and roughnesse and then this Serjeant King as if he had been at Cuffs for his life fell on a fresh with his fists doubled his blows about my head neck and shoulders so unreasonably that some of their Creatures cryed to him hold your hand stay your hands hold your hands but I said Ah! Lord my God look thou downe but do you strike on Sirs strike strike strike for my Lord Jesus Christ takes these blows for his sake well at my hands though I am sure not at yours O it is sweet to be buffeted for Christ c. But as they had often done before they mocked at Jesus pish Christ saies the Captain Haddyway what talk you of Christ O said I that you would talke of him and walk in him more too yea and yet I will talk of him who is my most sweet Jesus and this is Christianity thus to suffer for him But they some hawling some thumping and some beating had gotten mee up a wrong pair of stairs and when they knew that they never staid to let mee come down nor offer'd it but some at my back thrusting some at each side and S. King at my hands pull'd me out at length with the Corporall all at once pulled mee down at one pluck the stairs as if they had rent mine arm from my shoulders but falling upon other Souldiers by the gracious providence of my most dear Father I was preserved my poor wife beeing by and the maid schreching and crying and then they hawled mee almost spent out of breath the other pair of stairs and at the doore of the room wherein they with such cruelty carri'd me where I now am They renewd their violence with such redoubl'd strength atrocity that several of them laying hold on mee some at my back some on shoulders and some at sides cast mee headlong who not knowing their design could not prevent it with such an united force fiercenesse fury and wrath as if they meant no longer to dally but dash mee in pieces so that the least they could have conceived thereon was to have broken my bones or put them out of joint imitating those Savage Spirits filled with wrath which carried my most blessed Saviour to the brow of the hill Luke 4.28 29. That they might cast him down headlong but the same God that delivered him delivered also me a poore wretch not worthy to be named much lesse honoured thus and that by a very marvellous appearance for in the fall my head and face were preserved from the battery of the ground by lighting upon the armes and shoulders of the maid and one of my children the blow of which threw both them also to the ground but my face was so-preserved though my body bruised with the fall which fall I perceived rejoyced the bloody spectators at their hearts and if otherwise it was I think that I was not quiet killed with the fall as Tully saies Quia totum telum in corpore non recepisset to whom I turned with these words passing thorough tears unto them Well Sirs now you have done thus O that I could entreat you but to search into the Scriptures and see if you finde any warrant there for this practise if you do then the Lord give you the blessing of it but it not then the most righteous God convince you of it or judge you for it and this was all I said to them knowing they were heardened and at these few wordes and tears they fell a scoffing and there left mee where I now am at the writing of this with very great consolation and joy thorough believing for as much as these verbera were ubera full duggs for my soule to suck out of And 1. Methinks I now may say I begin to be the Minister of Christ who is indeed a Theologus Crucis and the Servant of Christ Jesus and companion with Christ in the world as Ignatins when he came to the Wilde Beasts to be devoured his bones broken his blood sucked and his whole body crushed with them Now saies he now I begin to be a Christian It is nothing to be accounted and go for currant Christians as all are almost in England with ease pleasure delights estates and worldly enjoyments so to become Ministers of Christ with out the Crosse or Tryalls but for all that they will not stand for such before the Lord who fall not in with the Crosse of Christ in the Generation-suffering for the witnesse of Jesus your dainty mincing Professors who are afraid of sufferings at this day shall be shut out in that day when the Bridegroom comes for Christianus is Crucianus and Lucianus saith Luther Obj. But we live not under such Persecutors as the former Saints did who were headed hanged burned fleaed braten broken on racks tossed on Bulls horns rent and torne of Wild-Beasts broyled on Gridyrons starved stoned c. Answ 1. No! if you did I do wonder where we should finde a Christian then or them that would come running to the tortures as those Martyrs wearying the Tyrants with their faith courage and constancy to their teeth as they did when indeed ye are afraid of and faint at a little plundering prisonment banishment soft beatings and easy deaths for the Testimony of our dear Jesus who now suffers 2. Yet we have such persecutors of Christ and his cause at this day as would not spare us were we as high as resolute and of as noble a spirit for Christ as the former Martyrs who had not learned the State-policy of Professors now adays to spare themselves and comply a little and not to run themselves into sufferings for so they call it but they rather can to them accounting it their glory challenged and provoked in a manner the Tyrants Now it is not so much because our present Nimrods and Oppressors are better than the former Tyrants as because we poore low Spirited Christians and white liverd milgsops are worser and indeed a shame to the Saints and Martyrs of former dayes that we suffer so little for Christ our Lord Ah a las we love indulge ease and pamper the flesh more than the former Saints ever did or durst 3. To answer this objection with Mr. Burroughs out of Salvian I must say to them then the lesse they have to show of passive obedience the more they are to show of active plus ei fides devotio nostra debet quia minora a
every one submit himself 2. In that my most gracious over-ruling Father hath made the enemy to imprison and persecute me not onely is the same way and spirit but in the very same places where the Martyrs of old were imprisoned and persecuted which did refresh me indeed as at Lambeth that old Butchers shop and shambles of the Saints where so many even Wickliff himself and all along since have suffered their rings whereto they were chained remaining in the walls to this day which did affect me much to see And after that at Winsor where the eminent Martyrs Cranmer Ridley and Latimer were put in their way to Oxford in bloudy Queen Maries dayes 3. In that I am also instructed how to want as well as to abound and so in all conditions as the Apostle saith to be therewith content Phil. 4.11 1 Tim. 6.8 having passed through prisons reproaches tumults beatings bufferings often throwings headlong banishment spitting upon yea spoyling of my goods which hath been much one Letter hath signified to me the losse of an hundred pounds at one time and in plundrings often and in perills of life sicknesse Feavours storms cold snow tempests without bed without bread in sore travells and severall other tryalls yet all this which is the life of all for my most dear Christ against Cromwell and the whole Earth blessed be Jehovah therefore I wait but for Whitehall or the Pretorium-hall 4. In that the enemy though he hath sought it greedily yet to this day hath not found any just cause or colour for my imprisonment and exile nor so much as signified why in their Orders of commitment which is my great comfort and advantage for as Paul said in his fourth defence Acts 25.7 8. and they utter many and grievous complaints which they cannot prove for neither against the Law of Christians nor against the Temple nor against the faith have I offended at all So Acts 24.12 13. neither found they me in the Temple disputing with any man neither raising up the people neither in the Synagogue nor in the City 5. In that the Persecution upon me hath been above many others so sweet though sharpe a primitive-like diogmos or chasing Persecution from one place to another not letting me rest in our own Countrey nor in Exile but hunting me about like a Partridge from place to place with Nimrâ—dian Tyranny like them of whom the Worlâ— was not worthy although I am not worthy of the happy number or race Heb. 11.38 who confessed v. 13 14. they were strangers and pilgrims on earth declaring plainly that they sought a far beâ—â—â—r Countrey 6. For that this their spreading and hurrying Persecution did so primitive-like sow and advantage the Gospell of the Kingdome in all places where I was carried round about this Island the report of this Doctrine running and inclining the poor people to enquiry reading and search and so was the Gospell at first spread and sowâ—n in all Asiae Cyprus Cappadocia Macedonia and indeed over all Nations by such a chasing Persecution which I praise the Lord for that it fell out to be my lot in this Island to sow this seed Paul plants Apollo waters but the Lord must give the encrease And indeed I dare not deny but our God hath given a very great encrease hereby insomuch as the very women who have enquired into the very truth as at Newport do professe openly this is the way of God that we are imprisoned for and that they will part with all they have in this heavenly Cause and Quarrell between the Prisoners and the Powers which is very much considering in what exceeding slavery people in this Island are kept by the sword So that as the Gentleman in Scotland told the Bishop Bettoun upon the burning of that Martyr Mr. Patrick Hamilton My Lord if you burn any more of them you will ruine your selves if you burn them let them be burnt in hollow Cellars for the smoak of Mr. Patrick Hamilton hath infected as many as it blew upon it may be is the policy that our Persecutors have taken to imprison plunder and banish and make no noise no mention in news-Books of it least it should be known yea to coop us up so closse Prisoners in Banishment and Cellar us up from all noise of their cruelty to us least it may be our breathing or as Bull saies seducing which is the old note of Persecutors and Goalers over the imprisoned Martyrs But as we know Beggars by their chanting so do we Bull and his Masters by their language with the same spirit lying traducing and opprobriously abusing as those base Monsters both Heathenish and Popish Goalers and Tyrants did that were their Predecessors but for all these Atopos absurd men 2 Thess 3.1 2. Shall the Word of the Lord have free course and be glorified Amen Hallelujah 7. In that the Lord hath in this School instructed me to Preach in tumults and uproars as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 6.4 5 6. in all things to approve my self the Minister of my God In much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments in tumults in labours in watchings in fastings by purenesse by knowledge by long-suffering by the holy Ghost by love unfained by the Word of truth by the power of God by the Armour of Righteousnesse on the right hand and on the left by honour and dishonour by evill report and good report as a deceiver and yet true as unknown and yet well known as dying and yet behold we live as chastened and not killed as sorrowfull yet alwayes rejoycdng as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things O blessâ—d be that bondlesse love and grace of God unto me herein yea I tell you he hath been teaching me a strange way of Preaching as if I were a pouring ouâ— of my bloud with my words at once to seal the truth and in expectation of leaving my life with my Light of the dashing my brains about my Exhortations O this this is me thinks to bear about in my body the dying of our Lord Jesus indeed who did preach thus and so did the Apostles and thus am I become dead to the Laws yea to my own life by the life of Jesus and body of Christ I think I can say sometimes most sweetly Tossanus in Anâ—olia had such a time of it too among the Barbarous Souldiers for he preached every Sermon not looking to come out alive and in a Barn too where the Church met Ah Lord let me thy poor worm be such a Preacher all my dayes to speak in every Sermon as my last words to poor Souls yea as if I were sealing them on a Scaffold with my bloud Amen so be it Amen He had that honest saying of Seneca it seems often over Vir bonus quod honesâ—è se facturum putaverit faciet etiamsi periculosum sit ab honesto nullâ re deterribitur ad
he made a scoff at what I said and turnd away in great fury then I said wel the LORD wil look down and see all these things at which he turn'd and said pish the LORD what do you tel us the LORD who is the L you are not the LORD aâ—e you and so went on raging and blaspheming and the rest scoffing for company as ful of fury as they could hold who indeed have not the patience to hear the Lords name so much as mention unless at Alehouses and in sin so sadly prophane are they and indeed how can they be otherwise when men with wicked and idle courses have spent al their meanes and cannot or wil not work they get into these Garrisons to drink and guzzle their Pay out before their pay-day comes and for other misdemeanours deserving to be chashiered can find no way to secure their places but by their brutish premeditated and barbarous cruelty to us wherein they merit most that are monstrous and these things I declare as in the sight of the God of truth to be true having read over again and again what I have written and do not know one line I have written too large the Lord knows whatever some may think but in many that I have written too little rather intending hereby to give but hints to the Saints of the continued and multiplied Series of our sufferings especially to such at London as through their ignoance and our forced silence say it is but a flea biting that we suffer and not worth speaking of but it is a sign they have not a fellow feeling for as the Lord said to Ezek 2.46 They are impudent and stiff necked but be not afraid of them though BRIARS AND THORNS be with thee and thou art among SCORPIONS and therefore it is we are so torn and stung every day and indeed in a sense it is a suffering worse then Death as slight as men make it It is true in reproach to us the Soldiers after they have beaten and abused us bid us to complain if we wil and if we do not like it help it knowing that the cure is worse then the Disease to us and that we have none to complain unto but the Lord who surely wil hear us and save us at last before they have wearied us out and broken our very heart-strings and which doubtless they designe in one kind or other before they have done with us But matters of greater moment I must refer to a fitter season and blesse Jehovah with us O ye upright ones that sympathy with us for he hath yet lined us with a good conscience within and a good cause without and we trust We shal not fear what flesh can do unto us and pray for us yet more abundantly I had thought long ere this to have been at an END and that this Persecution would have added or imposed a Quietus est to my body by death out of the continuance of their cruelty but it pleases the Father that I should yet live as one alwaies dying under their immanity and now since that of the poor Maids sufferings by their so immodest dragging her al at length in the yard before mentioned I am intreated by friends to inlarge this sad History which I write with no great delight though I hope I suffer it with joy a little further but I had rather a thousand times to set it before the Lord my God then once to make mention of it to any below yet by reason of Friends importunity to whom I must not be ungrateful I shal give you a short view of this new link added to my chain since that of Joseph in his round Caines-brook-Castle or Tower too Gen 3.20 running much in my mind for the Lord was with him and although I never read of such rigor in his bonds as are in mine renewed often yet of him the Holy G saith Psal 105.18 19. Whose FEET they hurt with fetters he was laid in Iron VNTIL the time that his Word came the word of the Lord TRYED him yea not only my feet have they hurt but my back bones and whole body hath been hurt beaten bruised and are aking every day with these heavy fetters and furies Since the Maids such monstrous usage without any cause and being last out at the gate with her clothes rent and torn where besides that she lay on the ground lame like Lazarus at the gate six or seven hours the next day for admittance and at last was let in again with no little stir and threatning I had liberty to go in to my dear Co-Exiles chamber not knowing of any design they had upon me which it seems they watched for and had Orders from BULL as they say to observe when I did so being now resolved to take their rage from the lame Creature having little credit of their cruelty to her and to wreak it upon me and my poor weak Wife which they did at present thus but O Lord let the remainder of their Wrath PRAISE thee Upon a sudden after my fellow prisoner had invited me into his Chamber four or six Musketeirs with Swords Guns and light Matches were set upon me there and soon after more followed them they set also Soldiers upon my weak Wife and Family yea into the very room raging which frighted her for the suddenness of it she being as ignorant as I of the meaning of this new piece of tyranny and so keeping us asunder that we could not come at one another see or hear so as to know of each others condition or what the matter was which made it look like a bad business as bad as if forthwith they had intended to murther me at least my Wives sickness subjecting her withal to very frightful fancies feares and apprehensions wondring vvhat would become of me stil asking after me and what was become of me or what they had done with me and besides to make it a through piece of a monstrous matter to her they set within her chamber the most uncivil drunken raging wretches stamping threatning grinding their teeth calling Jade Quean Carrion with a many such obscene names bending their fists striking tearing thumping raiâ—ing with their staggering if any offered to go in the room not suffering them to stir for necessaries within the rooms offering and drawing the naked sword upon them with asseverations several times vvithout any provocation given them in Word or deed and soon after followed ten or twelve more as they inform me and filled the room vvith such rude creatures and doings vvithout any regard at all to Sex sickness or condition As they vvere at this inhumane sport persecuting my Wife and Family those armed Soldiers with me were not wanting with great violence and fury to execute their Orders as they called it for I offering to go to the door with desire to see my Wife being fearful of some mischeif to her though I knew not of this cruel usage of
rejected must fal flat before the house of David the little stripling And all this Apostative interest of Councils Courts Triers Clergy Academies and Armies whom the Lord is departed from or rather who have no foundation at all in the Covenant of Grace or Kingdom which the God of Heaven hath set up over all Nations must worse then tumble but our cause cannot miscarry my Friends it cannot fail us who are Heirs of the Promise because every jota of it as we contend for it is founded in the New and everlasting Covenant blessed be the Lord the Holy one of Israel who hath already given us so many gracious and specifying prison prognosticks of the great day of Jezreel at hand 1. In that We and the CAUSE we are in are found and founded in Covenant of Grace vvhereby the Father stands ingaged to his Son by his Son to us in an inseperable union and tye Isai 53.11 Jer. 33.25 26. Acts 2.30 Gal 3.16 So that as Rom 4.16 It is of Faith that it might be by GRACE to the end the PROMISE might be sure to AL THE SEED 2 Sam 23.5 and our infirmities though many cannot hinder the most excellent glory and Resurrection of this most blessed Cause of Christ against Antichrist of the Lamb against the Beast in England Psal 89.33 34 Ezek 16.60 nor deprive us of our weight in that glory which is a coming by how much the Lord of this cause is the Lord of that covenant which is established upon so clear sweet and sure New-Testament promises Heb 86 12. Isai 43.25 yea Jer 50.20 saies the Lord In those dayes their iniquity shal be sought for but not found for I wil pardon whom I RESERVE the little REMNANT that overcome with the blood of the Lamb and the word of the Testimony Rev 12.11 O my brethren do not our heart even burn with us by a New Covenant communion with the Lord in this Cause having the pardon of sins the seale of his Love the assurance of his favour and boldness in his sight through the blood of Grace yea can we not run into the inner Court vvith the blood and the Fat of Lords Offerings and have as free and frequent an access into the Holy of holies where our High Priest is as vve vvil what should hinder us or who should let us and do not the Lords fats overflow with new Wine and Oyl unto our souls O my most precious Friends shal we or can we ever forget our prisons and Exiles so exceedingly lined warmed refreshed renewed and followed vvith such ful plentiful and ravishing mercies and let men say what they vvil it is marvelous sweet to our souls and our Consciences do witness it daily that our sufferings are New-Testament sufferings our vvitnessings New-Testament testimonies our comforts and hopes pure New-Testament hopes and consolations so are our priviledges principles and Spirits as odious as our enemies make them by their false reports New-Testament spirits and principles O that they vvere tryed yet more and more yea and our actings thereupon are New-Testament actings upon and in the Covenant of grace which the blood of Christ haâ—h sealed yea the Decree of God which to put an end of all strife Heb 6.16 17 18. God himself hath SWORN to that VVE poor prisoners of hope might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the HOPE set before us and herein lyeth the whole controversie between us and our persecutors blessed be our most Heauenly Father for these prison companions and comforts of Christ for these fresh springs vvhich cannot fail us nor can vve fal the subjects of Gods wrath let them prison hang or head us banish or burn us for the Covenant standeth sure and is wel ordered in all things 2. The EARNEST PRESENCE of Immanuel or GOD WITH Us in our Prisons and Exiles is a most excellent PREFACE to the matter in hand yea a sure token for good unto us and a certain testimony of the Cause of Christ with us which we suffer so sweetly and satisfactorily in and for in the race of those righteous ones in all Ages that have freely parted with all to follow Christ for although a many profess him talk of him and pretend to do it very highly yet they turn it off to the affections not actions as if it were only to fix the heart upon him and not upon the vvorld or sublunary things and those have thereby condemned themselves as unworthy of him nor indeed are they the true Disciples of Jesus Christ but onely at larges as the young man vvho had great possessions Mat 19.22 and so the Martyrs and primitive Saints as I could prove have all along lookd upon them at a distance as vve shal see in the day of Christ but now I say vve see the bredth of the Land of Immanuel much more then formerly in these prison prospects and do men or Devils their vvorst vve may expect a most eminent reviving of the spirit of life upon us yea on our heads in an Oecomenical dispensation as is rested on Christ 1 Pet 4.14 the blessing shal be upon the head of Joseph whom no man remembreth in the prison Deut 33.16 yea and Joseph shal have the first lot among Davids singers 1 Chron 25.9 or Christs VVorthies that have victory over the Beast Rev 15.2 vvho have your chambers in the inner Court and a clear prospect Ezek 40.44 and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb Rev 14.2 JOSEPH being one of the free Woman that stands upon the Mount of blessing and not on the Mount of Cursing Peut 27.12 Besides as MANOAHS WIFE said if he would have killed us he would not have received our Offerings nor would he have shewed us all these things that are to come at this time Judg 13.23 and in the prison too and in a strange Land had vve been such evil doers as our enemies for their own sakes vvould make men believe us to be But O my happy Brethren in Christ doth not our God give us most remarkeable ful and frequent visits yea reveale his minde unto us and foreshew us things to come and accept of us in his dearest Son vvhat mean vve then to fear vvhat flesh can do unto us Psal 27.1 2. Psal 1â—8 Verily verily I say it and see it and by the authority vvhich the Lord hath given me I speak it that not ONE no not one soul in prison upon this pure and single account for the King of Saints but shal say it and if they persevere yet much much more injoy it that they have had such a presence of the Lord with them as is not usual no! not to Saints but I leave the further evidence of this tasted truth to TIME to declare at our next Hallelujatick triumph altogether over the beast and his Image for our God is gone up with a SHOVT and we shal sing praises together sing praises to the Lord sing praises