limmit and turn them as it pleaseth him therefore all ought to look unto him and be instructed by him in order to Eternal Life Happiness and Salvation and to be delivered by him from outward Judgments and Wrath to come from the Almighty God and all ought to dread and fear his holy Name to believe really and trust therein for his Name he will exalt and cause every Knee to Bow and Tongue to Confess to it O all People upon the Face of the Earth stand in awe and sin not commune with your own Hearts and be still be still and know that the Eternal God who is God from everlasting to everlasting will exercise great severity and plead with the Wicked in his Wrath and Indignation when his Goodness Mercy and Forbearance is sleighted and abused by renewing Transgression upon Transgression and adding Sin to Sin that hath brought upon many People and Nations God's fierce Wrath to the depopulating many fair flourishing Cities Countries where Pride Debauchery and Hellish Cruelty aboundeth to bring down their Pride and vain Glory and to shake the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens also to make way for that which cannot be shaken which shall remain notwithstanding any attempts which are or may be made to overthrow and rout it out of any Kingdom or Nation by any Prince or People whatsoever which will be but an Addition to the manifold Sins and Trespasses that God will bring his Judgments upon Nations and sorely punish People for if they do not repent whilst 't is called to day Terror upon Terror Loss upon Loss Perplexity upon Perplexity Trouble upon Trouble will come upon People in all Nations when God shall plead with them in the way of his Judgments by the Sword by the Famine and Pestilence but the Wicked then want that supporting Hand of the Lord whereby he supports bears up and strengthens his People that fear him that however it be such are at rest and peace with God Now the Wicked who work wickedness and are cruel Enemies against God and his People he will ease him of his Enemies and avenge him of his Adversaries tho' never so strongly consident in an Arm of Flesh or Carnal Weapons prepared for Battel for that strength is little to the Lord 's great Power and strength and surely it will be but a vain thing in any King or Prince on Earth to withstand the Lord's Almighty Power What are the Armies on Earth to they Armies in Heaven What is any Camp on Earth to the Camp of â—he Lord of Hosts who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords And hath not the Lord Legions of Angels at his command to do his Pleasure What Earthly force or strength can incounter them or cause them to desert the doing of the Will of God which he gives them in charge to perform saithfully And when any Angel hath a Vial of God's Wrath to be poured forth who can stay or hinder it from taking its Effect Then We to the wicked and ungodly Men and Women and Wo to all Ealfe-Hearted Treacherous-Deaiers Dissemblers Temporizers Truce-Breakers Ealse-Aecusers and Despisers of them who are good who refuse the Appearance of the Lord and shall so continue in obstinate Rebellion against God and hating to be reformed from that which at last brings ruin and great desolation in the World And now many Houses will be left dsolate without Inhabitant in all Nations where there is or may be a Seat of War and the Sword Famine and Pestilence will be seen in many Countries more or less and sweep away many People out of this present World Husbands from Wives and Wives from Husbands Parents from Children and Children from Parents many Women will be made Widows and Children Fatherless because of the crying Sins and horrible Abominations in most Nations of the Earth committed against him that gave them their being will desolation come how many make a God of their Bellies glory in their shame and mind Earthly things and what end can such who remain so but expect destruction All you that have peirced do peirce the Lord by your wicked works prepare prepare to meet him look upon him whom you have peirced and mourn over him let your Feasting be turned into Fasting and Mourning and your Laughter into Heaviness and bitter Lamentation give not rest to your Eyes nor slumber to your Eye lids till you find out a sure and safe Habitation and resting place in Christ Jesus forsake all your pleasures in Sin and seriously consider that they are but for a season your Digniy Glory Honour and Pleasures of this World are not lasting nor its Riches durable and they fly away they will shortly leave you and you the world you must dye and go hence and after Death come to Judgment Therefore People of all ranks and degres in this World take heed of rushing into Evil as you have done in times past but without delay learn to do well learn Righteousness whilst God's Judgments are in the Earth that if possible you may yet escape those heavy Judgments and Plagues which will come upon the Wicked and Ungodly who then are found ungodly they will reap the Fruit of their own doings But if the Spirit of Grace still strive with thee Man and Woman their is left some hope of Salvation and so be awakned to stand up from the dead and thy mind turned to God from Darkness and the Devil's Temptations and Snares where they are prepared and the Enemy layeth his Snares secretly in the dark Night he catcheth and holdeth fast multitudes of all Nations captive Mind the Light of Christ the Light of Life by which you may all come to see your way out of this Captivity and obtain the freedom and liberty out of this bondage and slavery to Sin and Satan and by Christ Jesus know absolute and real Redemption through his Blood shed as a Sacrifice for your Sins and that it effectually redeems you from the power of Hell and Death that you may not dye in your Sins but live to God hating of Sin and Evil all your dayes The appearance of God in the Spirit wait for the knowledge of that will truly convince you all of your Sins of your Righteousness and of Judgment of Sin because you do not really believe in the Son of God although you profess him long have talked of him also heard of him by the hearing of the Ear yet despising and wondering at his appearance as not worthy to be minded or regarded by you therefore how many are found rejecting that appearance of God in the Spirit that secretly smites checks and convinceth them of their Sins which Spirit also convinceth the World of Righteousness being wrong A Righteousness of your own you have gone about to establish and would establish which God will convince you of and lead you out of by his own Spirit and that will acquaint you with God's Righteousness that which is really of him
glory appears for his Day will dawn and break in Peoples Hearts in all Nations of the Earth when he shall terribly shake the Earth and all Nations and the keepers of the House will tremble and all proud Flesh shall be made to tremble before the Lord at hiâ— appearance he will make known his Voice he will make the Earth to hear and the Heavens shall be astonished at his Power Glory and Majesty and every false Foundation shall be shaken and every high Tower and fenced City built upon a false Foundation will fall and tumble down tho' never so strong and lifted up in their forms of Worship and formal Profession without Life and Power that will not be able to stand in the Day of the Lord 's fierce Wrath which is against that City of Confusion which the Lord God will break down and race it to the Ground then will her Merchants and such as have traded with her lament and cry Alas alas none will buy her Merchandize of us any more Thus will the Lord bring down and destroy Babylon that great Whore that hath with her Cup of Fornication made drunk the Kings of the Earth who have committed Fornication with her and her Merchants that traded with her with great endeavours and all their Babylonish Skill and Trumpery have brought Darkness and Ignorance over the Earth and so would still keep People but the Day of the Lord is come and coming and the Knowledge of the Lord shall cover the Earth and many shall hate the Whore and burn her Flesh with Fire for by Fire and Sword will the Lord plead with all Flesh where-ever the Flesh of the great Whore is the Sword and Fire of the Lord of Hosts will find it out and pursue it till it be devouered to the end that the which is for the Sword and Fire of the Lord may be cut down burnt up and consumed then Envy Malice Cruelty Hatred and Unrighteousness so much abounding in Man and Woman will have an end and People will not be over-come of evil but over-come the evil with good and provoke one another to Love and good Works and not to Hatred Cruelty all manner of Unrighteousness which is Sin and punishable by the great Judge of Heaven and Earth that cometh quickly and his reward is with him although many shut their Eyes against his Appearance are so blinded by the God of this World that you do not see or behold him tho' his Light shines in all your Hearts by which you may all see behold him who is not far from any one of you yet you do not see him nor know him and that is the Condemnation of the whol world that lieth in wickedness that Light is come into the world but darkness is loved rather than Light because their deeds are evil Now it is as if I heard the noise of Trumpets sounding and Drums beating an Alarm to battle in many Kingdom and Nations and the Sword drawn to execute the Wrath of God for Sin and Transgression by the ungodly committed to the great displeasure of the Almighty God who now will shew himself a terrible God to the Workers of Iniquity by Wars Famine and Pestilence with other Judgements and Calamities that God will bring upon many Cities and strong Nations to bring down their Pride and Haughtiness and to abase them for their sleighting and Contemning his Appearance in the Light of his Glorious Gospel which shines in their Hearts to give them the Knowledge of the Glory of God to humble you under his mighty Hand that all might turn to him who smites and corrects Men and Women that they might see his Hand and acknowledge his Power and Soveraignity over all and what we can do with strong and fenced Cities and indeed with all Nations that are but as the drop of a sucket and the small dust of the Ballance to the Lord and his strength and great Power when in his sore displeasure he gives them up to the Sword Famine or Pestilence how soon can he make of a fair and flourishing City on heaps and a strong City a desolation when they Inhabitants thereof will not be reformed from the evil of their Ways and doings nor Repent of the same how often hath the Lord brought Plagues and heavy Judgments upon such Cities and Nations how glad should I be to see the Inhabitants of England in general and the City of London in perticular bringing forth Fruits meet for Repentance that they would whilst they have time be Afflicted Mourn and Weep for the great Evils that daily are committed by many of them that your Laughter might be turned into Mourning and your Joy into Heaviness that those great Calamities which threatens both City and Nation the mercisul God might turn away from my Native Country and every Inhabitant may be humbled for their Transgressions that the Lord may repent of the Evil that doth so much threaten this and many other Kingdoms O that there were such a Heart in all People of all Nations that they would seek after the living God and that they might know him and receive everlasting Lise by Christ Jesus and leave off doing Evil and learn to do Well that instead of hating and killing one another about Religion and worldly Glory and Honour they might feel the Love of God shed abroad in their Hearts and in that love God above all and one another as the Children and Off-spring of God for all Nations upon the face of the Earth being of one Blood made by the great and heavenly Creator all were created by him to fear reverence and serve the eternal God So all you who do pretend that you are Servants of God and Christ Jesus sear reverence serve and obey him in a measure of that Love of God wherewith he hath loved you and all mankind and desireth the Salvation of all men and not the death or destruction of the Wicked but rather that they would turn from their Wickedness and live for evermore to serve worship and obey the living God whose Servants you call your selves and think you worship him and serve him whilst you are out of his holy Spirit and Godly Fear in your vain superstitious and idolatrous ways of Worship which are so unprofitable and of no berefit spiritually to you that vainly pretend to worship the living God who is a Spirit and will be worshipped and served in the Spirit and in the Truth as it is in Jesus for their is no other acceptable worship or serving of God but in his holy Spirit and Truth which the Devil is out of and all his Servants are erred from the Spirit of God and doth imagine that God acceptably may be worshipped and served well enough by them is another Spirit than his own holy Spirit then it must be an unholy Spirit in which you can offer toe God no Worship or Service but what is vain unprofitable and unholy which is rejected of the Lord God as but vain worshipping of him and for this many spend their Money and Labour many Years together but gain no advantage or satisfaction to their immortal Souls being from the Spirit of God and Word of Life that was in the beginning and which is eternal so obtain not Life or true satisfaction to their Souls and therefore cannot livingly move or act spiritually in the service or worship of God but it seemeth to them as a strange thing and the pure God hath but blind and dead service and worship from such and indeed it is no marvel that so many wise and learned men in Arts Sciences and natural Tongues are unskilled and ignorant in spiritual waiting upon serving and worshipping the living God whilst they question whether any doth receive from God the gift of the holy Spirit now in these dayes then let such men in coolness of mind consider with what they adventure to serve and worship God and approach before him not receiving the spirit but will draw nigh to God serve and worship him out of the spirit and what may you expect who are in that deplorable state but that the Lord should say unto you Who hath required such Worship or Service from you now in this Gospel day the spirit of God being poured fourth Do you think People that God will be mocked with such service or worship to be offered to him that doth appear but the fruits of the Flesh or sowing to the Flesh O that you would come to see and seriously consider that the Flesh profiteth nothing nor any of the fleshly motions ways services or worships of fallen man performed in the Wisdom of the Flesh although performed in never so much skill and cunning outwardly can give man acceptance with the Lord nor can at all give Life to the Soul for its the spirit that giveth Life and this Spirit first must be received by you and work in your Hearts to will and to do before your Hearts can be fitted or prepared to serve or worship God acceptably so all of you wait upon God for his holy spirit receive it into your Hearts and no longer reject it but in the silence of all Flesh feel the spirit of God to quicken your mortal Bodies that in and by the spirit you to God may present your Bodies to him and draw night to him with your Flearts fitted and spiritually prepared to offer to God spiritual sacrifice holy and acceptable in his sight who cannot be pleased with Iniquity nor the Works of it in their service or worship for Sin and Iniquity must be done away before you can graciously be received of the Lord or know how to render to him the calves of your Lips or draw nigh to him aright with your Tongues or Lips why should you hate to be reformed or cast off from you that which is good to cleave to the evil and perish therein Beware of that left the Lord utterly reject you and cast you out of his fight and deprive you of his Mercy and Favour that he upon your real Repentance and Amendment of Life would bestow upon you Which is the fervent Desire of a cordial Well-wisher of all your Souls who seeketh the Glory of God the Peace of all Nations and the general good of all Markind to Eternity James Parke Hostedown the 7th day of the 3d. Month 1690. THE END
Inhabitantes of the Earth and the Sea therewith and thining the People by the Sword and sore Deseases And what a terrible Storm and Tempest hath the Lord distressed and amuzed many with of late both by Sea and Land yet some People have been so far from looking at the Hand of the Lord in it that they would have it as the work of some evil Spirit in laying a Spirit that as they said did appear after a Person was dead The Power over the Winds and Seas belongeth to Christ Jesus and the Winds and Seas obey him for he had all Power in Heaven and Earth committed to him and gives Power to his faithful Servants over Serpents Scorpions and all the Power of the Enemy to hear see so many disregard the Hand of the Lord lifted up sheweth that it will fall heavy shortly upon their heads who remain wicked and by their crying Sins bring down Vengeance from God upon their own Heads and procure their own ruin for God will recompence Fury upon his Enemies who harden their Hearts more and more against him and now is the Lord come to make Nations and Peoples sick in smiting of them he hath a long time forborn and kept his Hand of Judgment from falling upon the Heads of the wicked according to their deceit their manifold Sins to see People if you would turn to the Lord by true Repentance but ye would not hear his Voice to obey him how often soever the Lord called to and by how many Judgments soever he hath pleaded with you you would not reform therefore the Lord doth appear in great displeasure and is shaking the Earth and causing the Mountains and Hills to tremble he is making Kingdoms reel and tossing and fifting them to lay them low stain their Glory and bring them down from that height that they are got to and have appeared in against the Lord and his holy Mountain which abides and stands strong through him that is over all blessed for evermore O all ye wicked and ungodly People upon the face of the Earth your time is but short your dayes in Wickednsss will be shortened 't is but a little time and you will not be found who go on and persevere in wickedness and never come to Repentance your judgment and reward of Condemnation will come upon you swiftly and you will not be able to withstand it whoever you are high or low rich or poor where-ever you dwell that have sold your selves over and are given up to work Wickedness the all-seeing God will find you out and will be just in condemning of you to everlasting Flames of Fire and that will be your Portion and Reward that you will receive at the Hand of the Lord who hath appeared to you in his Grace and Truth in your inward parts and condescended to draw you by the Cords of his Love but you have despised and utterly rejected his appearance to you in his Grace whereby you might have obtained Life and Salvation to your immortal Souls if you had received God's Grace and Truth into your Hearts and kept to its Teachings and obeyed the same or done according to its Instruction but contrary-wise you have hated his Appearance to reform you and wofully continued in Rebellion against his pure Law so you have drawn down the Wrath of the Lord upon you and kindled his Displeasure against you in a high degree by your manifold provoking Sins which many Cities and Nations abound in and very many of the Inhabitants thereof are miserably corrupted and debauched thereby calling and alluring one another to Lightness Folly and gross Impieties with hellish Words Damning Swearing Drunkenness Lying vain ungodly Pastimes Murders Adulteries Thefts Cousining Cheating Cards playing at Dice and Stage-Plays which many strive to out-do one another in to the great dishonour of God and the reproach of the Name of Christ especially in Christendom so called where such a Profession of the Name of Christ is made but by their Conversation causeth the Profession of the Christian Religion to stink and to become of very ill fame amongst the Heathen that do not own nor profess Christ Jesus the Lord nor expect Salvation by him how were such like to be converted to the Christian Faith in the Lord 's Christ as long as so many pretended Christians do walk ungodly speak and act as wickedly if not worse than the Heathen who know or understand little but gross Superstition and Idolatry May not some such rise up in Judgment against many who call themselves Christians and condemn them who are found using such Words and Practices which are contrary to God and Godliness and ought to be repented of ceased from and forsaken otherwise it will stand People in no stead and be a vain thing to talk of profess and call Christ Jesus their Saviour Lord and Master whilst by Sin and Disobedience they serve and obey another Lord and Master and Christ Jesus is greatly dishonoured and provoked by the Riotous Debauched and drunken Feasts wherein so many called Christians sport and feed themselves without the fear of God on their Mass-Dayes and Feastival-Dayes which you had no example for from the Primitive and true Christians in the Apostles days Oh foolish People and hard-hearted Is it a time for Feasting and to invite one another to Feasting Mirth and Jolatry in such a day of Distress and Calamity as now threatneth almost all Nations Is it a time to sit down to eat and drink and then rise up to play when Nation riseth up in War against Nation and Kingdom against Kingdom and every battel of the Warrior is with confused noise and Garments rolled in Blood and when God is rebuking strong Nations and when the just and righteous God is bringing his Judgments and Plagues upon many Peoples ought not every one from the highest to the lowest rather to sit down solatary be humbled and call each other to Weeping and bitter Lamentation because of the abominable crying Sins of Nations and to leave off your Horse-Racing Cock-Fightings Stage-Playes and all other idle vain and ungodly Sports Games and Pastimes whereby the Spirit of the Lord hath been grieved Nations corrupted and many of their Inhabitants made Vessels of Wrath fited for Destruction therefore such as yet have a Day and Time given you consider your Ways and cursed Practices O renounce and come out of them all and meet the Lord by timely Repentance and Amendment of Life or your Iniquity will certainly prove your Ruin But if all People Languages Kindreds and Tongues would come to fear and love God and love one another then their would be no need of letting in Fear or evil Jealousie one of another or of one to hurt or destroy another by Wars or Fightings or otherwise for all were made and created to love fear and reverence the Powerful Omnipotent God and to let him be their fear and not man neither to fear what man can do and if so
then Wars and Fightings would cease with Carnal Weapons then Kings and Princes and their Subjects would learn to be quiet peaceable and love one another indeed and in truth which would make Nations happy and flourishing Kingdoms and they would learn War no more but beat their Swords into Plow-shares and their Spears into pruning Hooks and Peoples Fleshly Lusts would dye which doth so often and so much prompt Peoples and Nations to Wars and Fightings but Christ's Doctrine and Example all People ought to mind and follow who command his Followers to love their Enemies as well as to love another and to do good to them that did hate them and to pray for such as dispitfully used and persecuted them and in so doings we manifest our selves to be the Children of our heavenly Father who causeth the Sun to shine and the Rain to fall both upon the Just and Vnjust and all People ought to cease from Anger and forsake Wrath not to fret themselves in any wise to do evil for Evil-doers-shall be cut off and who are of Caln's blood y race that slew his Brother Abel because Abel's Offering was accepted but Cain and his Offering was rejected and Sin lay at his Door and he was a Wicked One and they all are Wicked Ones who are in his wicked envions Nature which leads them to Hurt Kill and Destroy one another about Faith and Religlon now in the Gospel Day and Dispesation and Cain's envious Nature must be slain and dye in Man and Woman which hath caused so many Wars and so much Fighting in the World before Peoples and Nations come to a lasting Peace with God or one another for if People would truly Love God and one another as they ought and hearken to the Lords Voice then all would come to know great Peace with God and Concord and Agreement in that which is good which indeed is amiable and becometh Christian socioties for its want of love to God and Peoples not loving one another without Dissimulation out of a Fure Heart that there is so much envy and hatred amongst Men one towards another and so the envious one kindleth Passions stireth up Amimosities and Heats into a great Flame in Men and Women one against another to do Violence unto and destroy one another in self-love self-honour and about the Sinful Pleasures and Profits of this World with Fleshly Lusts that Wars against the Soul which all ought to abstain from high and low rich and poor and it s no marvil if People in that state ask but cannot obtain what they ask of God for they Kill and desire to have that they may spend it upon their Lusts which wars against their Souls and these Battlements ought to be taken away for they are not the Lord's but of the Divil's raising and building up in Man and Woman for the hurt of the Creature to do violence to and Kill one another but the War and Battlements of the Lord are against the works of the Devil that he hath wrought in the Creature and to save Mens lives not to destroy them So the Lord's War and Weapons that are Spiritual and mighty through God strikes at the power and spirit of the Enemy which captivates the Creature in that which is evil the power of the Enemy leadeth People captive into Sin and Evil but the Lord's Spirit and Power leadeth the Creature out of Sin and Evil and to free the Creature totally from it the spirit and power of the Enemy leads People to contend wrestle sight with Flesh and Blood Kill one another but the Spirit and Power of the Lord God Almighty leadeth the Saints to War and wrestle with Spiritual Wickedness in high Places and with the Rulers of Darkness not to harm or Kill Men but to love one another and forgive them that Traspass against us as we would be forgiven of God our Trespass against him but how can such expect the Lord should forgive them their Trespasses and Offences against him that are for revenging Trespasses which they have commited one against another also continuing in and revenging their Trespasses against the Lord and yet abink that he will Pardon and forgive them their Trapasses before they truly Repent or leave off so doing and so great Multituds are kept in miserable Blindness imagining the Pardon of Sin by Christ Jesus his Death and Merrits whilst in as much love to Sin and in the practise thereof as ever they were such do but deceive themselves being erred and gone astray from the way of Life and Salvation remain ignorant of that precious Redemption that Christ Jesus purchased with his own Blood from the bondage of Sin and Corruption for that was the great and Glorious end of his offering up himself a Sacrafice for Sin not that Men and Women should alwayes abide or keep in the practice of it but to be delivered from the practice of Sin and the Guilt and Condemnation removed and taken away that sinning against God bringeth upon the Transgressors of his holy commands that saith Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve And such as Worship and serve another God than the Eternal God who made Heaven and Earth and the Fountains of great Deeps they Worship their own Imaginations in their dark Conceits and foolish Imaginations and with such Services and Worships the Lord is grieved and in vain do People draw near or come before him with such Worships and Service that yet many Socioties and false Gatherings in vain content themselves with being erred and strayed from that Spirit and Power of God where in all might come aright to serve and worship the only wise and true God no more to serve the Devil or Sln but to come to Serve God in newness of Life and living Soberly Righteously and Purely unto him his Honour and Praises the resudue of time yet to spend and abide in this present World which cannot be known but through a daily crossing thy own Will and vile Affections O vain Man and Woman come to deny thy self thy sensual desires and thy ungodly deeds take up a cross unto all that which is evil in which thou hast taken great pleasure and delight thou most renounce it part with and deny thy self of it to be a Desciple of Christ Jesus to be taught of him and follow him who will never lead thee into any Errour but out of all Sin and Errour and out of every by-path or crooked way that thou hast troden or walked in the Nations of the Earth are angry be cause God's glorious day is come which discovereth and layeth upon their hidden Works of Darkness and Dishonesty will come out and by the Light of Christ be manifest even that which long hath been hid and covered with thick Darkness and the Light God will cause to shine out of obscurity and his Day will break and the Shadows of the Night will vanish away as the heavenly Rayes of God's