Babylon as also in those endeavours for reformation in apparell wherein opposition is made against one not the least of her evills That which is added in those Quaeries to the Quakers serves for the discovery of Satan transforming himselfe into an Angel of light It is no new thing for scornfull men to set light by plain testimonies against their abominations and lay a snare for him that reprooveth in the gate f Isay 29.20 21. making a man an offender for a word if such shall count mee vile for this work I shall not thinke it strange If the Lord shall make it appeare that the least of the poore of his flock receive light and reape benefit hereby and give the glory to him I shall rejoyce therein Although my service to Christ in this or any thing I can doe be but small I am comforted in beleeving that there shall a time come and that it s not farre off when God shall reward his servants not onely the great but the small g Rev. 11.18 The high esteeme I have of the prayers of the Saints together with a deepe sence of my need of fresh supplyes of grace put mee upon this humble suit to you who are the seede of Jacob that after your supplications to the Lord for all Saints hee may obtaine a speciall remembrance who is unworthy to be accounted The least of those who follow the Lambe J. P. A word of Exhortation To the people of God in Babylon Deare Friends I Beseech you in the bowells of Christ consider that like as it was a singular act of Gods grace to warne Lott to come out of Sodom when fire and brimstone was ready to come downe upon that Citty so is it now no lesse but rather a more eminent act of his rich grace to warne and wooe you to come out of Babylon lovingly engaging you thereunto even as though he did beseech you by and for all the interest he hath in you saying Come out of her my people Rev. 18.4 The mercy to you may appeare farre greater the judgement of God upon Sodom being more tolerable then the grievous torments and spirituall plagues belonging to Babylon whose sins reach unto Heaven Rev. 18.5 and her judgement is lifted up unto the skies Jerem. 51.9 Herein is his great goodnesse to you that he hath not onely given you timely notice before the Decree bring forth but in this also that he hath condescended to afford many helpes in his Word for the discovery of Mysticall Babylon which with so much serpentine wisdome transformes her selfe with such faire pretences that shee is least suspected to be what shee is by most who dwell with her That little light which the Lord hath lent me concerning this Mystery I here impart it to you as your right considering my selfe as in the body of Gods people one with you though not so in respect of a visible orderly Church-state and worship wherein the name of God is greatly concerned Beware of that which is a common evill among the people in the broad way whom you joyne hand withall to speake evill of the things they understand not * Pet. 2.12 Yee are bought with a price be not yee in such bondage to men as not to try their way opinions and sayings by the Spirit and the word of God whereby David was made to understand more then all his teachers and more then the ancients Psal 119.99 100. Why should it be thought unlikely that God should reveale unto babes and sucklings that which he hides from the wise and prudent Oh read and weigh these Scriptures Mat. 11.25 1 Cor. 1.27 28. Psal 8.2 Isa 29.14 15. My bowells being troubled and my soule in travell for your deliverance I have as a learner by way of Quaerie presented divers weighty things backt with Scriptures to your consideration whereof the meditation hath been sweete to me the Lord make the reading so to you And whereas God doth and will by men as instruments call to his people to come out of Babylon before her utter destruction which is not farre off As the day which hath already dawned comes on upon us wee may expect cleerer light and better helpes In the meane time accept of use and improve such as you have and the Lord command his blessing that his name may have glory So prayes The Lords unprofitable servant J. P. Arrowes against Babylon OR Certaine Quaeries serving to a cleere Discovery of the Mystery of Iniquity 1 Quae WHether Israells going into Aegypt their bondage there and their deliverance were not all typicall to set forth the state of the Church and people of God under the New Testament And whether this hath not been by the tongues and pens of all parties of the godly in England who have publickly contended for Reformation in Religion of late yeares generally confessed and asserted 2. Whether the Church of Rome and principally the head of that body her Ecclesiasticall powers the Pope with his Cardinalls Arch-Bishops Bishops c. be not that Mysticall Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots described in Rev 17. who is said to be the Whore sitting upon many waters commiting fornication with the Kings of the Earth c. Having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations c. drunken with the blood of Saints and Martyrs of Jesus And whether those Characters with others there layd downe by the blessed Spirit of God for our information That the church of Rome is no true Church of Christ have not divers Martyrs sealed it with their blood Reade Acts and Mon. doe also fitly agree and may be applyed to any Church or State whatsoever as to the Church of Rome And if the Church of Rome be Mysticall Babylon then whether is shee any more worthy to be accounted Syon or a true visible Church of God then was Babylon of old her proper type 3. Whether the Church of England the Nation considered as a Church with the Parochiall Congregations as Churches be not a Daughter of that Babylon the Mother of Harlots and their Ministry in point of Ordination the off-spring of the Pope Have they at any time even to this day either by word in any solemne Declaration or by practise in gathering a Church out of the Nation as out of the world disclaimed that Church-state which in its grossest corruption was avowed and maintained by the Popish Ministry and people of this Land in Queene Maries dayes Is it not apparent that some new peices onely have been put to that old garment that old Church state yea whilst first the same and since the like people without any visible Marks of Conversion with their Romish Baptisme and Ordination of Ministry are still retained And whether the aforesaid Characters in the second Quaery describing the Mother of Harlots the Church of Rome and her Ministry doe not in like manner in their measure appeare upon her Daughter the Nationall Church of England and her Ministry
4.3 the substance of the Legall shaddowes is come in the flesh See Quae the third And whether the pretended reformed Church of England retaining the old Romish Church-state and confused mixtures maintaining the same things in substance with them be not to be esteemed as a painted Jezebel 16. Whether the Mystery of iniquity which wrought in Pauls time were not the same which now workes in the Church of Rome and her Daughter-Churches Did it not then worke mainely to bring the Saints back under the bondage of Moses his killing doctrine and his rudiments and shaddowes And whether the Apostle as a faithfull Witnesse and Watchman did not bend his doctrines and discourses in his Epistles especially to the Romans Corinthians and Galatians against this way of confounding the grace of God with mans works in justification and confounding Moses his old Lawes with Christs New Testament Ordinances The same mystery being at worke now not onely in Rome but in this Nationall Church Is it not the duty of Gods faithfull Ministers and Watchmen to warre against it by preaching and discourse with the sharp sword of Christs Word warning Gods people to beware of being seduced with this iniquity which being discovered in many things more grosse putts on a new dresse and works most mysteriously so that the workmen say who seeth us Isa 29.15 The mystery of 〈◊〉 is now 〈◊〉 with a 〈…〉 17. Whether the Mystery of iniquity that now workes be not founded upon the will of man confederate with Satan And is it not promoted and upheld by humane and Serpentine wisdome with worldly power and pollicy opposing and counter-working the Gospel-graces of God and Spirit of Christ exalting the creature above the Creator And whether the Abettors and promoters of this Mystery may not be discovered and discerned in our dayes by their prizing men much more for their naturall and acquired parts and abilities then for the anointing looking more at a mans learning and prudence then at the teachings of the Spirit minding excellency of speech more then the power of godlinesse seeking more after their owne honour from men then to bring honour and glory to God 18. If so then May wee not well expect that God who hath laid by so many instruments whose designe is to exalt his owne grace his Son and Spirit will choose and use most unlikely instruments in mens account as the weake and foolish in respect of worldly wisdome even the younger brethren even as David amongst the sons of Jesse spiriting them through faith and prayer to bring to passe those things which by humane power and pollicy could not be effected Whether then are not many and some good men like to be deceived who looke as did Samuel on Eliah on some wise expert prudent men to be the onely prime instruments for Gods great and strange worke 1 Cor. 1.26 27 28. which will not be done by power or might but by the Spirit of God Zach 4.6 19. Whether the faith and prayers of Gods people were not once as the Chariot-wheeles to the great worke of God in this Nation but now of late since our enemies have been subdued have not many good men slacked their hands to those duties and by looking and leaning to mans wisdome power and pollicy turned aside to crooked wayes and so have lost the footsteps of the Lord in his worke And whether can they come to a cleere sight of them againe except they humble themselves and returne to a diligent exercise of faith and prayer And if they will not be otherwise provoked thereunto may it not be just for God to reduce them unto sore straites that so they may learne to seeke him early Hos 5.15 20. Whether the continuance of divers godly men in Babylon and pertaking with her be not one great occasion of stumbling many weake Christians with some other enquirers after truth And ought not such then in the feare of God to consider and examine their standing and to lay to heart how great service they doe to Antichrist and disservice to Christ and his cause And doth not the deceiver suck no small advantage from godly men serving his designe which puts a faire face thereon though they doe it ignorantly or inconsiderately May we not observe that since godlinesse is in some request Satan puts on such a dresse as may most take with the godly to seduce them And if these should flee out of Babylon would shee not soone appeare to all good men to be what shee is and the judgements of God would they not come suddainly upon her as did the fire and brimstone upon Sodome the day that Lot came out Whether that which hinders many from comming out be not a slavish feare of man and the flattery and friendship of this world Whether such onely will not be found fit to follow the Lambe even whither soever he goeth who first sit downe and count the cost and so build the Tower of their profession upon Gods grace alone as held out in his Covenant trusting him with all their concernments If they onely are said to overcome who loved not their lives unto the death as Revel 12. What becomes of all the other professors Remember the hand of God against the rebellious Scots at Dunbar the fearefull and unbeleeving c If Gods servants shall abide there notwithstanding all the warnings they have had and all Gods patience towards them may he not justly slay them with the wicked though he save their soules at the last 21. Whether the Antichristian Ministry in the Nations which derive their Church-state from Rome are not found committing fornication with the Kings of the earth No Bishop No King And whether this fornication be not by interweaving their interests for the upholding one another thus by flatteries and by force bringing the people and keeping them in bondage to their wills enslaving their bodyes and insnaring their soules 22. Whether seeing the greatest judgements belong to Babylon may not God in justice to aggravate their sins who receive not the love of truth lend them so much light as that many of them shall be found willfull Apostates after all their other persecutions at length persecuting the Spirit of Christ so bringing upon themselves swift destruction Are not many found persecuting that light which they once profest Is not that word made good in them They shall goe and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken and if it be so is it not high time to bid them take heede lest they sin willfully after they have received the knowledge of the truth 23. Whether by that sure rule of justice that all the blood from Abel should come upon the persecuting generation in Christs time Math. 23.34 35. And that in the Revel 18.24 that in Babylon was found the blood of all the Saints shed from the foundation of the earth Doth there not lye a heavy load of blood-guilt upon the Antichristian faction
for the Spirit as also for reforming in habit and for some other good things at this time may not have in it a designe of Satan to bring up an evill report upon those good things and the persons that practise and seeke to promote them (l) Satan he doth it in malice but God in just judgement doth lay stūbling blocks before men Jer. 6.21 Luk. 2.34 Isa 8.14 1 Pet. 2.7 May wee not I say looke at this as a stumbling blocke cast in the way to hinder this good worke by the Enemy of man who leaves no way unattempted to stirre up the minds of men to prejudice against the truth 7 Object The great cry of many is somewhat like to that of Demetrius Act. 19.25 By this craft we have our wealth viz. many rich trades by Sea and Land whereby many families are maintained are upheld by the wearing of costly ornaments on apparrell Answ First Observe that this objection is agreeable to that prophecy Rev 18. which describes the dolefull complaint of the Merchants of the earth at Babylons fall when her pride and pompe is brought downe as we reade vers 18. They cast dust on their heads and cry Alas Alas that great City wherein were made rich all that had Ships in the Sea by reason of her costlinesse (m) Are there not divers complaints murmurings among the people of England at the removing of Popish superstitions because the trade was maintained by costly provisions for them Such complaints becomes not the sons of Sion who have their conversation in Heaven They are bidden to rejoyce at her fall even then when those Merchants mourne see Revel 18.20 Secondly As for the families maintained by such trades are they rich or are they poore If rich are the Saints bound to maintaine such who hath required this at their hands If poore and if the good of the poore and their families be the mark aym'd at in such wearings were it not much better that what they have to lay out in such superfluities might be given immediately into the hands of the diligent poore or such as through age or other infirmity of body and unable to work If in buying such things at the shops men act conscientiously for support of the poore doe they act wisely to let the rich shop-keeper gaine so much by them (n) By that time the gaines have passed through the shop-keepers hands little is that which is left for the poore who oft proves a bad Steward of their bounty and an hard task-master to the poore that work for him The Scripture abounds with many great and precious promises to him who from a right principle within gives liberally to the poore as Isaiah 53.7 8 9 c. Luk. 14.13 14. Prov. 28.27 Mat. 19.21 2 Cor. 9.6 7 8 9. Mat. 6.2 3. Luke 11.41 Deut. 15. 10th But what one word of them or what other promise can a man warrantably apply to himselfe in buying such trimmings Let the gallant professors consider it well and aske their experience Will it give them a cleere testimony of Gods promise or presence with them in so doing but in giving to the poore that duty so oft commanded and commended to us by the Lord many humble and mercifull men can say they have mett with many good words of promise Psal 19.10 more sweete then honey and dearer then thousands of gold Hee that pitieth the poore saith Solomon lendeth to the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him againe Prov. 19.17 But can such who lay out their money at the shops in costly ornaments account that in so doing they lend unto the Lord and that God will pay it them again so that they who thus act shew thmselves in this matter neither wise for the poore nor for themselves Thirdly As for such as are poor in Churches who are imployed in making Lace and such like Ornaments If God enlarge the hearts of the rich Members to study to do some singular works of mercy causing them in order thereunto to cease from their costly superfluities in house-furniture apparell and delicious fare and from seeking great things for themselves and theirs they may without doubt set their poor fellow-members on work in providing things honest for necessary uses whereby they may bee more profitable to their Generation and spend their dayes on earth with more satisfaction and to a better account than in making and providing such vain things which tend to little profit but for the most part meerly serve the lusts and humours of proud men Let ours also saith the Apostle Tit. 3.14 Learn to maintain good works some read honest Trades for necessary uses that they bee not unfruitfull Might not the poor Saints if the rich were blest with an heart to devise liberall things bee set on work in making coates with Dorcas Act. 9.39 and other linnen and woollen Garments for poor widows and for the Fatherlesse and would not this bee a praise-worthy work and that which would give occasion to all beholders to glorify God so that if wee respect the glory of God the good of the Poor and our own Comfort the way that is taken to go to the shops and upon the account of maintaining Trade to lay out their mony in needlesse Laces Points and Ribbands to put them on upon good Cloathes which are convenient and may well become us without them this way I say is not the best and most excellent Obj. 8 Some great Professors are ready to object we may provide and put on superfluous Ornaments and yet reserve enough to bestow on the Poor seeing the number of them whom wee are called to relieve is but small and most of them can make a shift to live with little help Answ First Such ought to know and consider that of those whom God hath blest with a liberall portion of outward things hee expects and requires a proportionable excercise of liberality for to whom much is given of the same much shall bee required (o) Observe how the widdows two mites are valued above the great gifts of the rich Mark 12.43 44. 1 Pet 1.14 15. Luk. 12.48 Act. 11.29 And yet the rich even in some Congregations of Saints count they do well and enough if they give to the relief of the poor double what other mean men do two shillings to their one whereas did they dispense their gift according to their ability they would give fifty for others one Beleevers who are rich in this world are required to bee rich in good works 1 Tim 6.17.18 And if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth 1 Pet. 4.11 Secondly Do such in relieving the poor walk by that rule Deut. 15.11 Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother to thy poor and to thy needy in the land and in the verse before Thou shalt surely give him and shalt not bee grieved and again in the 14. verse Thou shalt
may they not boldly conclude from many promises to beleevers that their soules are in a safe condition But it may now be said they have laid by that Catechisme and now they preach to them a necessitie of regeneration But seeing they have been trained up from their infancy in this beleife which they have by heart as wee say that they were regenerate in their Baptisme long wnce Is it probable that the old evill sent which hath remained in the vessell for so many yeares will be removed by telling them now and then they must be borne againe Although many declare this to them in the Pulpit and so wound them a little for the present time yet doe they not quickly heale them againe at the Font or Bason Is not this to justifie the wicked that evill condemned Prov. 24.24 accepting them there for beleevers by administring that to the children of all or most of them that which they declare to be the priviledge of the Children of godly beleeving Parents Doth not this easily help them to conclude that whatsoever they say in preaching their Ministers by their practise declare them to be beleevers And have their Ministers notwithstanding so much talke of reformation at any time plainely solemnly and openly declared their repentance for this their sin or the sin of their predecessors in this thing whereby they have deluded thousands of soules Have they declared it so that the common people might run and read their meaning should not the playster be made as broad as the soare If so then 13. Would it not be a praise-worthy deed and that which would much tend to free the present Parish-Ministry from being guilty of the blood of their people for them to confesse openly the great sin of their predecessors and their sin so far as they have partaken with them in declaring the people to be borne againe in Baptisme and made inheritors of the kingdome of heaven discovering the danger of this horrid delusion giving them plainly to understand that they the generality among them who say they are Christians are not such but are of the world as appeares by their hatred of those whom God hath chosen out of the world And should they not doe well to informe the godly among them that they are in no visible orderly Church-state provoking them to arise and measure the patterne and sending them forth by the footsteps of the flocks in the primitive times and would it not well become them having thus borne their testimony in word against the aforesaid evill to back the same in their practise with a plaine deniall to administer any Ordinance of Christ to the common multitude more then such as are for conversion which belong to Heathen and Publicans Luk. 6.44 till they see them bring forth fruits meet for repentance Good and bad men must be knowne by their fruit Luk 6.44 The Parish people are a people of mans forming by such meanes whereby a man may probably know and warrantably judge them to be converted and brought to the most holy faith of Christ And as for their present profession taught them by the tradition of fathers and by the customes and precepts of men not by the mighty power of God through the Word what solid satisfaction can it administer whereon to ground a probable judgement that they are in the faith Considering that in this Land there is now no persecution as in the Apostles dayes but on the contrary many worldly advantages attending the common profession of Christ And except some such effectuall course be taken as is before commended in this Quaery can the Ministers of such a people by all their faire glosses and subtill arguings acquitt themselves from the blood of soules Is it not their duty to take up the stumbling blocks out of the way of their people Are not many thousands of poore ignorant soules by looking at such things as these their supposed Christning and Church-state together with their dead saith hindered from receiving Christ and strongly armed against the sight and sence of a lost estate to their eternall undoing Shall God make inquisition for the blood of mens bodies and shall he not one day make inquisition for the blood of soules and require it of those who have holpen them to and strengthened them in such delusions Woe to them that call evill good Isay 5.20 If that old saying Quod fieri non debet factum valet will justifie such an unlawfull act why may it not justifie any other act of will-worship when it is done 14. And if so Whether the Ministry and people in some Congregations seperated from the Parish way may not doe well to consider whether they be not found accessary to the aforesaid great transgression of the Parochiall Ministry in justifying the sprinckling of ungodly prophane and Popish Parents Children as a sufficient obedience to Christs command of Baptisme doctrinally discharging from the obligation of that command the consciences of such of their Members as have no other visible Baptisme Is not this to call evill good will-worship service to Christ and by mans tradition to make a command of God of none effect Doe they not by such a practise though themselves refuse to sprinckle such Children yet strengthen the hands of those who doe And whether this be not more then a touching even the retaining an unclean thing forbidden to those who come out of Babylon the command requiring to destroy her utterly Let nothing of her be left Jer. 50.26 Whilest this unlawfull sprinckling of the seed of the ungodly is thus set up may it not stand in their way as an obstruction to the sight and acknowledgement of the truth concerning the true visible Baptisme Can it be true Baptisme according to rule without a right visible subject And whether all their arguing to prove that sprinckling before spoken of which themselves say hath not warrant for it to be sufficient obedience to the command be not that which will be found wood hay and stubble when every mans worke shall be tryed by fire 15. Whether the unwarrantable mixture of Legall and Gospel-worship and worshippers accounting this Nation a Church after the likenesse of the Jewish Nation not by regeneration Antichrists device to forme a false Church but by fleshly generation gathering together into a pretended Church-body the visibly Godly with the ungodly withall promoting againe tythes offerings consecrated places Altars with many other such like Jewish Ceremonies which were typicall The Priesthood being changed there is made of necessitie a charge also of the Law Heb. 7.12 and to cease in Gospel-dayes the joyning with all these a shew of the Ordinance of breaking bread and Baptisme Whether I say may not such a mixt worship and the worshippers be fitly termed Babylon or confusion And whether to establish such a worship be not to deny in a Mystery as doth Antichrist Christs greatest professed friend that Christ 1 Joh.