these distinctions of Parishes Church-yards and Churches shew us I say from whence had you your foundation and others for these things and if the Popes were not prove it otherwise and in so doing you will satisfie many for many of the people in this Nation are jealous as well they may how that the Popes and their Counsels were the first Coustituters and Ordainers of these things 3. Whether or no you do own such a thing as that God will teach his people himself if so then why do not you let the people alone unto the Lord to be taught of him and cease taking these great sums of money under a pretence of doing that which only and properly belongs unto the Lord Give in your answers in plainness hat so thereby we may prove whether you are approved Ministers of Christ but if you cannot prove your selves so to be then it will be time yea and high time for people to draw off from you and cease giving their money for that which is not bread and spending their time any longer about you 4. Seeing that the Scripture saith Whatsoever is not of faith is sin then whether or no ye do not sin and cause the people to sin by going about to compel them by a Law to conform unto that which they are not perswaded in the Faith to be according to the mind of God for if they were perswaded in their own hearts as the Apostle said they should be then what need would there be of your compelling of them and whether or no it being so it will not be your great sin thus to go about for to make the people sin by a Law seeing that it is so that though one man should be required to do a thing by the express command and movings of God if another should go about to do the like and not be required of the Lord to do it it would be sin unto him I speak in relation to the worship of God and if it be not so prove the contrary by plain Scripture without wresting if you can 5. Whether according to the Scriptures ye own that every one hath the manifestation of the Spirit given them to profit withall If you say you do then tell me why do ye or indeed how durst ye go about as ye do to limit the same in people and to appoynt them how much they shall hear and how long you shall pray and speak unto them as you do by an hour-glass and tell me whether there can be blasphemy in a higher nature than this for to limit the Spirit of God to so many words spoken in such and such a form time and place O blush and be ashamed for these things and repent if you cannot clear your selves from being the very men who are guilty of these things as I know you cannot at all 6. VVhether or no you your selves would not have the free liberty and exercise of your Consciences towards God freely to do what you in your selves are perswaded for to be of God in your own hearts why will ye not allow the same liberty unto others seeing that the Scripture saith that every one must give an account of themselves to the Lord and every man must dye for his own iniquity and whether or no it can truly be said a man is a Christian indeed until he come unto this life to wit to do unto all men as he would all should do unto him and whether the contrary may not be said unto all who are contrary minded that is to say no Christians whether it be found in you or any other whatsoever they profess themselves to be upon the face of the earth 7. And if it be so that you cannot at all clear your selves from the guilt of these things which are here queryed of you but are found guilty of them then whether or no a man may not in the Spirit of sound judgment without offence to God or just men call you hireling Priests false Prophets blind Leaders of the blind and say you that are leaders and those that are led by you will all fall into the pit of Perdition if you continue to go on in the pernicious way you are going in And whether or no one may not justly charge you to be Ministers of the Letter and not of the Spirit seeing that ye can limit your selvs to so many words made ready unto your hands of other mens lines which was not nor is not the way or manner of the Ministers of the free Spirit of God which cannot be limited unto times words manners persons nor places but in whom he will when he will and where he will he speaketh as long as it pleaseth him that sends it 8. An Answer of these things will be exspected from some of you being I am made an offender by some of you for speaking somthing of these latter queries and remain still in the Prison of Bristol a sufferer for the Truth of God and a witnesse against all false Teachers and hireling Priests for ever and so I shall conclude with this Query VVhether or no it may not be properly said that such who take Tythes under a pretence of a Gospel Ministry hold neither a Law nor Gospel seeing that the Gospel maintenance was to be free and as under the Law Levy only was to have a maintenance out of it for his service and the rest was for the maintenance of the father lesse and widows and strangers which you Priests in England are so far from that you take it all your selves and much more where ye can get it which is a great evil in you seeing that Tythes properly belonged unto the Lord in the time when they were required of the Jewes but the Law being changed the commandment must needs be disanulled and I am sure you cannot find a new one for it since unlesse it be the Popes Charles Baily THE END The Postscript THe Servant of the Lord is gentle and doth not strive and wrestle with flesh and bloud about outward things and outward Observations but hath the wisdome from above that is first pure and then peaceable and easie to be entreated and when he hath given forth his Testimony for God he leaves it to the witnesse in all consciences by that to be believed and until that be raised in the Conscience for him he is content to lye down in the suffering life having learned of the Lamb of God that pleads not his own cause but committeth it to God But men of strife will have Oathes and Protestations to bind and confirm their power and Authority over the Conscience because they are wrestling with flesh and bloud and with carnal weapons and their strength of binding is only by the power of the Law which Christ the Oath and Covenant of God hath put an end to in them that believe in his name that was made a Priest by the Oath of God that could not swear by a greater than himself as men verily swear by the greater and by the word or voyce of the Oath is the blessing confirmed in him that promised it to Abraham and his Seed saying surely blessing I will blesse thee and multiplying I will multiply thee which in the changeable Priesthood could not be in that they could not continue by reason of death but by the two immutable things wherein it is impossible for God to lye the change might rest on him that was not made a Priest after the Law of a carnal Commandment but the power of an endlesse life where the Priesthood being changed the Law is also changed therefore saith Christ Swear not at all c. Let him that readeth understand R. B.
love unto them that thereby they may take warning and turn from the evill of their wayes and repent with speed FOr the Sword of the Lord is already drawn over the City and is made ready for the shedding of much blood and for hewing of the mighty in pieces And this is the Word of the Lord unto you all both Rulers Priests and People of what sort or degree soever and if it were so that Abraham Lot Job and Noah were in the City yet should not they deliver it from the fierce stroak of the Almighty which is ready to come upon it by reason of sin and transgression so much the more saith the Lord God of vengeance because my glorious truth hath been so much declared in it above and beyond any other of its neighbouring places for thus saith the Lord God of Hosts the mighty and terrible one If the mighty works had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah which have been done in thee O Bristot they might surely have repented But ye have surely slighted it and counted it as a thing of nought you are even fled as it were upon Horses into your dark Egyptian bondage and reliques of idolatry and confusion and there as it were setled your selves upon the old lees of Popery which my hand is stretched out against and shall never more be with-drawn untill I have cut off and quite rooted it out of all Nations both root and branch and they who go about to hold it up or any part or parcel thereof such shall be the object of my fierce anger that both them and it shall surely fall together saith the Lord of Hosts And forasmuch as ye do with out-stretched necks resist my truth and say in your heart we will not that this thing rule over us therefore shall the sword of my anger bring you down if you continue still in your gainsayings against me and whatever is high and exalted in this City shall be bowed down the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and it shall shortly come to passe who will not that any thing reign but his son alone whom all the Angels must worship and every knee be made to bow and every tongue to confesse unto him for ever and own his righteous judgements which shall come upon the high lofty and proud and rebellious who forget God Therefore haste haste haste with speed and repent and remember Nineveh who repented at the preaching of Jonas and a greater than Jonas is here and hath been here in many Prophets to warn thee and as sure as God lives if ye take not warning hereby and repent ye shall shortly know unto your sorrow that a Prophet hath been amongst you sent of the Lord who sought not yours but you that your immortal souls might come to be saved from the wrath tribulation and anguish which is ready to come down from the righteous Judge of all upon you O People Consider whilest you have time what a sad deplorable thing will it be when ye shall be likened to a generation of Vipers and dead Adders saying We have piped unto you and yet have not danced we have mourned unto you and you have no lamented as those who would not hearken to the voyce of the Charmer though he charms never so wisely For assuredly if ye still slight Gods tender visitation of love unto you many may take up a lamentation for you but none will be able to help you As the Lamb of God who came to lay down his life for the sins of the whole world yet because his love was rejected slighted and not received the day came that he took up a lamentation over that place people and City which he would have gathered up into his armes of love whose tender bowels of pity and compassion was moved for them saying O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thee as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings and ye would not Because they had slighted the day of small things and would have none of his reproofs therefore was the things which belonged to their everlasting peace hid from their eyes So likewise will it be with you oh Inhabitants of Bristol many in thee whose loves are unfained in the lowly life of the Lamb and desired nothing but thy everlasting peace and welfare such I say in like manner will come to take up a Lamentation in thee and for thee saying Oh foolish and unwise people had you but understood the things which belonged to your everlasting peace before they came thus to be hid from your eyes surely ye would have been a blessed people for ever but now instead of it weeping and howling will for ever be your portion Oh people for ever consider this thing before it come upon you whilst yet the door of mercy is set open for you and a hand freely stretched forth out of the tender bosom of God to gather you up into his bosome which is ready open to receive you but if ye refuse his loving kindness and his mercies then hell fire will open her mouth wide for you into which you will all be cast with all the workers of iniquity there to be tormented with the Devill and his Angels for evermore And this will be your portion on eithe hand if ye cleave unto the good which God by his Son hath placed by his own Light in your hearts then everlastingly happy will ye be and all those who come to witnesse an inheritance with the Saints in light But if you hate the good and love the evill which the Prince of darkness hath put in you then ye choose unto your selves death instead of life and the Prince of the power of the Air will be your God and King instead of the Prince of peace and so sad and lamentable will be your condition who have had as much if not more of the loving Visitation of Gods love in his dear and precious Servants than any people or Nation whatsoever for have ye not had line upon line and precept upon precept the Lord sending his Prophets rising up early yea it might be said early forasmuch that the Lords love reached unto you as it were in the very morning and breaking forth of his glorious Sun of righteousness after this long and dark woful night of Apostasie and confusion which hath over-shadowed all Nations and people of the earth which shall never set more until it hath exspelled all the darkness forevermore never to rise and sending yet still and yet for all this you yet remain in your sins even you who are again turned to your old hireling Priests which the Land had as it were vomited up long agoe because of their unprofitableness for in simplicity of heart consider were not they unprofitable unto you and all people over whom they were and did they not find you in your sins and did they not leave you there and now upon their return have they not found you the same
still And what think you of this is it not high time for you to be awakened and look about you seeing the day is so far spent of your lives and you know not how soon the Lord may call for your breath out of your nostrils and what can ye in righteousness think will become of you seeing the Scripture saith As the Tree falls so it lyes and There is no Repentance in the Grave and If ye dye in your sins where I go ye cannot come saith Christ And if ye do but confess him to be a man of truth and these sayings true then ye may soon passe the sentence of eternal condemnation in your selves seeing that tribulation and anguish is to come upon every soul of man that doth evil even to Jew as well as Gentile And the Apostle in plain words without wresting saith Nothing that worketh abomination or maketh a lye must enter into the holy City And Paul saith Let no man deceive you with vain words for such as ye sow such shall ye reap Now see if your Priests be not the very men who are deceiving you with vain words who tell you that you can never be freed from sin yet say it shall go well with you They call you good Christians though ye do bring forth the Devils work Or which of you in or amongst you will deny to partake of that which they call the Seal of the Covenant though they are never so wicked and ungodly in all their words and actions Surely surely the Lord is highly displeased with these things Therefore is this Warning sent amongst you that you may come away from such a devilish Priesthood as preacheth up sin unto you for tearm of life that is till ye can sin no longer Surely they who made a Covenant with Hell and Death in the dayes of old were never more lead into the Mysterie of iniquity than these And thus the Devil hath his Kingdome by consent both of Priests and people Oh horrid wickedness is this that ever men should thus sell themselves unto the Devil for dishonest gain and filthy lucres sake to preach up sin unto people these are they who trample upon the Blood of the Covenant and say in effect that its uneffectual and unsufficient to purge the creature from all sin and uncleannesse but such people ye must cease from for they who were real and true Ministers of Christ said The wages of sin is death therefore laboured to bring people therefrom whose Ministry was powerful and effectual enough in that work to accomplish the same For Paul when he writ to the Romans amongst whom he had laboured to turn them from darknesse to light and such came to be turned from Satans power to Gods by whose power they came to be redeemed and made free from sin and so became Gods children And this was the fruits and effects of those who were sent of God and were not hirelings for such run and are not sent therefore saith the Prophet they profit not the people at all no more than yours do now for I say as you love and prize the salvation and redemption of your immortal souls consider these things Is the wicked man returned from his naughtinesse amongst you is not a Lyar a Lyar still a Swearer a Swearer still and so likewise all others whatsoever And if any should go to your Priests to be eased of his burden which come upon him by reason of sin what ease can he have seeing his Priest is a sinner as well as himself if not a worse and in effect will tell him he cannot be without sin while he is in the body of flesh and so by this means as you were born and conceived in sin so ye live and so ye dye And this is the fruits of your Ministry and yet you have the liberty of the reading of the Scriptures which saith and sheweth how that the true Christians are to be redeemed from their vain conversations and did witnesse a purging and redemption therefrom not with the blood of Bulls and Goats but with the Blood of the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the World Mark that people and see if ye are not wholly strangers to this thing and to the very end and coming of Christ who was made manifest in flesh to the end that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in all those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and to such there is no condemnation But unto you who are following your blind guides and are strangers unto this thing condemnation from the righteous God the Judg of all will for evermore be seated upon your heads except ye repent even on you who are strangers unto the Spirit of God and are walking in the flesh and are fulfilling the lusts thereof and are resolved so to do until your dying day in which thing I warn you to repent in Gods pure power and dread and turn unto the Lord God by forsaking the evil of your wayes which if you do not as sure as God hath set Sodom for an example of his eternal wrath and Judgment so sure will this come upon you if you slight this the day of your visitation which is now over your heads I say repent before it fall upon you and the night overtake you in which no man can work And this is a true and faithfull warning unto you all from the Lord God of love who desireth not the death of a sinner but that he would turn from his evil wayes and live and if you do this then blessed will you be for ever but if ye refuse then will you be left without excuse and I shall be clear of your blood before the Lord who required this of me to do and to say unto you which in faithfulness I have done without respect unto persons time or place as the free Spirit of God hath given me utterance thereunto without hatred or dissimulation at all Therefore live or dye my peace is and will be with the Lord for ever And now if any should say amongst you What shall I do to be saved Why unto such I say in the tender bowels of Gods love turn unto the Light of Gods own son which shineth in your darknesse even in your dark hearts and receive it love it follow it and obey it with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength and then power will be ministred unto you whereby ye will become the Sons of God and to be born of him which birth sinneth not but in it there is power over the man of sin which hath born rule in the first birth which was according to the flesh in which none can please God forasmuch as it lusteth against the Spirit continually and will do until it be wholly crucified with the lusts and affections thereof If ye come to receive the Gift of Gods Grace and Spirit in your own hearts a measure of which