are dis-inabled to discharge their Places or to do service By this means the Faith of the Nation is grossely abused and perfidiously infringed and broken and the Nation made guilty of defrauding and of oppressing its preservers guilty of most unnatural cruelty and injustice guilty of re-involving it self into this last new War wherein it was brought to the very brink of extremity to be utterly lost and destroyed By these means they are guilty of causing all the Treasure that hath been spent and all the Bloud that hath been spilt in this Nation to establish righteousness to be spent and spilt to no purpose or to establish oppression and unrighteousness By this means they make themselves and the Nation guilty of all the scarcity famine poverty persecutions cruelties bloudshed oppressions and sicknesses thereof ensuing which have been caused by this last War and yet these causes are not taken away and the means are not yet removed By these means they unjustly imbitter the conscientious and honest party and exasperate others and kill and murder them for being justly imbittered and exasperated They Level the object of their wicked and unjust Jealousies and Fears their real and best and most faithful friends supporâ—ers and preservers by aspersing and slandering them falsely as the men of Belial did Naboth to destroy them They Level them by with-holding straw their due pay the slender pittance and fuel of their lives and beings Howbeit these the true Israel the free born of God the object of Chams sons cursed fears and of their desires to Level and Destroy them have ever been under God their causeless persecutors levellers and oppressors preservers and the freers of them from all plagues and destruction at all times and they themselves the greatest oppressors persecutors levellers and destroyers of their own supporters and preservers but indeed of themselves that ever were in the world Lastly Pharoah and his servants were set upon their wicked purpose to oppress level and destroy Israel by believing the lying words and works of Sorcerers So these are set upon their wicked purpose to oppress level and destroy the true Israel by harkening to real Sorcerers and seducers The Sorcerers of Egypt resisted Moses sent to deliver Abrahams free born from Egyptian bondage These resist the true Moses Christ sent to deliver the true Israel the free born of God from real misery and bondage in body and Spirit The works of God by Moses were true Miracles real Righteousness and types of true Righteousness For example The Egyptians thirsting the bloud of their supposed Levellers but real Supporters drowned their Males in rivers therfore all rivers and waters of Egypt were turned to bloud that they and their cattel could drink no water but bloud and this work of God by Moses was a work of true Righteousness and a type of a more perfect righteousnes of the true Moses Christ 2 The Fishes which in these rivers are more various and monstrous then in any rivers in the world fed upon the flesh and bloud of the Israelites new born infants therefore in a type of Justice the fishes had rivers of bloud given them and nothing but bloud to drink and feed upon therefore the fish died and the rivers stank 3 The Egyptians regarded not the just Petitions cryes and complaints of the afflicted Israelites nor the pitious cryes of their perishing Male children whom they drown'd in the rivers therefore Frogs a helpless naked and unarmed also a clamorous and crying creature came up out of the Rivers into their houses and bed-chambers and covered their Land as it were so many millions of witnesses attesting to their faces and with loud voyces proclaiming their bloudy cruelties and oppressions As the naked and unarmed condition and helpless innocence of the new born infants cast into these Rivers was remonstrant to the eyes of the Egyptians in this creature so these creatures were a type of the helpless and miserably naked and stript poor 4 The Egyptians did eate up the afflicted poor of the Land like bread and did grind them to dust therefore the dust of Egypt a type also of the poor was turned into Lice and did eate the flesh of the Egyptians Where the peoples Representatives oppress and destroy the people of God the plague of Frogs follows and innumerable helpless and naked poor cover the Land and fill the houses and bed-chambers of their oppressors with loud clamours petitions cryes and complaints If oppressors will not hear the cryes of the people of God nor of their miserable murdered male children nor the cryes of the poor the plague of Lice follows and the dust of Egypt the poor of the Land turned into Lice eate the flesh of their oppressors Their corruption and cruel oppression bred them and they must feed them These plagues and all the rest were not upon Abrahams free-born the Israelites but upon the Egyptians their oppressors And these plagues in the truth and substance will not fall upon those that in sincerity seek Freedom from Bondage but upon their oppressors that seek to enslave level and destroy them These and all the Miracles which God wrought by Moses were true Miracles and likewise works of real Justice and types of true Righteousness tending to deliver Israel from the most bloudy and cruel bondage and oppressions that ever were But the lying miracles of the Magicians and Sorcerers were false and imposterous works tending to harden Pharoahs and his servants hearts in their wicked purpose to oppress and destroy their own preservers afflicted and oppressed Israel 5 The lying miracles of the Magicians and Sorcerers which they wrought before Pharoah and his servants falsely shaddowed forth the true Miracles of Moses and were miracles in shew not in substance seemingly not indeed in appearance but not in truth 6 The words and works of Pharoah and his servants by be lieving the lying words and works of Magicians and Sorcerers became like theirs falsely shaddowing forth the true words and works of Moses and were just and true words and works it shew not in substance seemingly not indeed in appearance buâ— not in truth For Pharoah and his servants were willing to leâ—â— Israel go seemingly but did indeed enslave and suppress them They repented and were sorry for all the evils they did to Israel seemingly but indeed endeavoured to oppress level and destroâ— them They were mighty forward that Israel should go out freâ— seemingly but did indeed pursue them to destroy them and 〈◊〉 take all that was theirs So the words and works of those that seek to level and destroâ— the free born and the words and works of their heart-hardeninâ— Sorcerers and seducers are sorceries falsely shaddowing forth thâ— true works of Righteousness wrought by the true Moses Chrisâ— and his members and are just and righteous in shew not 〈◊〉 substance seemingly not indeed in appearance but not in trutâ— They are forward to promote Justice and favour just me seemingly but indeed oppose Justice
tenents of truth but practique and executive truth which is righteousness then the people of God in her are in no wise to come out of her but they are to pray for the peace of Babylon and to seek it for in her peace they shall have peace Neither were the people of God ever called or commanded to come out of her until she be first fallen or falling in her righteousness her and their form and life of their being but if no address or agreement in righteousness whereby all just interests may be satisfied shall be endeavoured or shall or can be made and if Babylon be already fallen or falling in her supporting form her righteousness if she be an habitation of Devils a strong hold wherein every foul spirit is fortified Then God with a strong voice calls and commands his people to come out of her and then her plagues are coming upon her and her final destruction follows But it is to be feared that she is already fallen in her supporting form and become a strong hold wherein every foul spirit is fortified and that the plagues of her destruction have seized or are seizing upon her because she vomits up all antidotes which should expel her sins the poison of her plagues If a man infected with the plague be taken with a violent vomiting and casting it shews that the plague hath seized or is seizing upon the life When God sent all his plagues upon Pharaohs heart and upon the hearts of his servants they vomited up the antidotes of wholesom admonitions by Moses which shewed that those plagues had seized upon the life of Pharaoh and his servants and were the plagues of their destruction So Babylon is taken with a violent vomiting and casting If any wholesom means or medicine of faithful and sincere admonitions be given her she vomits it up If any thing profitable for her peace and safety be proposed to her or if any thing that should free her from her sins break her sickness and bring health be given her her stomack nauseates and loaths it it staies not there she casts it up again her soul loaths all cordial antidotes against the poyson of her plagues which shews that she is fallen or falling in her supporting form her righteousness and become a strong hold wherein every foul spirit is fortified and that the plagues of her destruction have seized or are seizing upon her Sixtly The people of God must come out of her because they al so are fallen from their righteousness which is their and her sole life and support and therefore cannot support her nor be supported in her They were once in her type that great Image in Daniel a head of gold compact and knit in Righteousness and had in and with her a Kingdom Power Strength and Glory Then they were in that Image as a little gold in its Breast and Arms of Silver which did not change the name and property of Silver yet did support the whole Body that it fell not Then they were as a little gold in its Belly and Thighs of Brass which did not change the property of Brass yet did support the whole Body that it fell not Then they were as a little gold in its legs of Iron not changing the property of Iron yet did they support those legs of Iron and the whole Body that it fell not Then they were as a little gold in its feet and toes that were part Iron and part clay not changing the property of Iron and Clay yet did they support those Feet and Toes of Iron and Clay and the whole Body that it fell not But now the Iron will not mix with the Gold but rejects it and thinks to rule by perfect force of the Sword alone and will have no power of the gold by Law and Righteousness mixt in its government and gold mixing with myrie clay is made weaker and more embased Therefore the gold in this Image that is the people of God in Babylon can now no more support her or themselves in her from falling Seventhly But the people of God in Babylon are so far from supporting her or themselves that they are if they come not out of her the first that must fall and be destroyed The two middle pillars in Dagons house upon which the house stood and on which it was born up fell first and then all the House fell So the people of God in Babylon are the middle pillars upon which she stands and on which she is born up and shall be if they come not out of her the first that must fall and be destroyed 8ly The people of God in Babylon must come out of her because she rejecteth God and them Saul rejected God and Samuel and God him and Samuel came no more at him but prayed for him unto the day of his death When Pharoah and his servants rejected the just Addresses of the Elders of Israel and the crys of the Israelits and drove out Moses and Aaron from their presence then their destruction and Israels deliverance from bondage was at hand so Babylon rejecteth all cals and commands of God rejecteth the crys of the poor and perishing free-born people rejecteth all just Addresses and drives out the people of God from her presence in Army and Nation therefore it may be feard the plagues of her destruction are coming upon her and therefore the people of God in her may justly and must come out of her 9ly They must come out of her because as the people of God in Babylon did by their righteousness ever suport her and themselves in her so if they come not out of her being called and commanded of God their sins of stubborness and rebellion against God shal be the only main cause of bringing the plagues of her destruction and her sal upon her and upon themselves as Ionas by his sin of disobedience was the only cause that the ship and all in it was ready to sink and perish until they cast him out into the Sea So the people of God in Babylon who by their righteousness have ever heretofore suported her and themselves from falling shal now being called if they come not out of her sink her and destroy her and themselves by their sinnes of stuborness and rebelion against God and it is not likely that they should preserve and support her or themselves in her any â—onger who by their sins of rebelion against God are the only main cause of her and their fal and destruction 10ly The people of God cannot support her nor subsist in her and therefore must come out of her because her Governors and Commanders are bruitishly violent and impatient and by impatience incapable of being convinced by reason and satisfaction Nabal as a foole railed upon Davids messengers that came in peace and sent them away empty with a churlish answer And Pharoah said to Moses get thee from me see my face no more for in that day thou seest my
people or persons that corrupt and abuse the Powers of God or that obey those Powers as corrupted and abused rebel against the Power of God and do not keep but lose and abuse the richest Talent of his goodness Lastly Just Powers in relation to the People are the breath of their life from God and the Form and Essence of their Beings without which the people are as they ever have biâ— dead carcasses of destroyd and slain men What power or force have dead men and what force and life have a people that want their own just power The want of just power is their chain of slavery unto all misery sin and death Esau to save his life sold his birth-right for pottage but that people that will sell their lives and birth-rights for misery sin slavery and destruction are miserably and slavishly wicked and profane Secondly That the People may improve their Talent of just power with all faithfulness to God whose it is and to themselves to whom for their joynt preservation from bondage and destruction it is commited they must consider that the people are many several or single and there can be no joynt improvement by many single or several A single file or hair of silk hath no strength and millions of files or hairs of silk single or several have no more strength than one single file If they let their Talent this power rest in every mans hand single they bury it in the earth and improve it not but bring infinite destruction upon themselves for where many are together single and untwisted there must needs be great dis-union and division from whence utter confusion and destruction to all severally must follow Therefore the peoples chief and speedy care must be to find out the fittest and best means and expedients to unite and twist them in this power The means and expedients that are best and fitest to unite and twist them in this power of God are Representors and Representatives freely chosen by them in such manner as I have already set down to which I refer the Reader Faithful and just Representors freely chosen are like the stalks in bunches of grapes that feed nourish and unite all the berries and they derive pure wine life and power to the people from the root and stem of the true Vine The people must be careful as God hath committed the richest Talent of his goodness their just power into their own hands that they do not set light by slight or profane it that they be not slothful wicked and unfaithful in improving of it nor chuse such as are slothful wicked and unfaithful to be Representors or Representatives lest they lose or abuse the Talent which God hath given them and God strictly require it at their hands and lest they mis-improve it against the people and destroy the people and themselves by it to avoid which let them chuse men most endowed with the spirit not of bondage but of Freedom just faithful fearing God dealing truly and hating Covetousness They are to chuse the rich so qualified as soon as the poor or midle sort and them as soon as the rich to officiate as their Representors in Parliament or in any other Representative God respects not the persons of men neither must they but in righteousness only why may not a poor man or the middle sort be as faithful and able in Parliament or in any other Representative as the rich neither must the rich if righteous be rejected because they are rich but if the poor and middle sort of people respect the persons of the rich and chuse them to be their Representors in Parliament or in other Representatives because they are rich then they misse their just ends and interests and the boule runs cross to all their â—imes because the bias is set the wrong way for how can rich men and oppressors be Representors of the poor and middle sort that are oppressed betwixt whom their is no shadow of similitude yee have dispised the poor saith the Apostle Iames 2.6 Therefore the rich do oppresse you do not rich men oppresse you saith the Apostle and draw you before the judgement seats Such Representors will rob the people of life and power render them wicked and unfaithful to God in wasting his talent and betray and destroy the people and themselves God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith Iames 2.5 So it is better for people to chuse the poor of this world rich in faith to God and them then the rich of this World poor in faith to God and them to be their Trustees Representors God offered the Gospel to the Iewes and such as were saved gladly received it but God cast off those that rejected it and the Apostles and people of God departed from them and turned to the Gentiles so an Agreement and Government in righteousness must be speedily and faithfully offered to the whole Nation that the whole Nation may be joyned as one man unto the Lord in an Agreement in righteousness as all Israel was gathered together unto the Lord at Mizpah such as shall resist or refuse such Agreement or Government or shall harden their hearts as Pharoah and his servants or shall sit still as the men of Iabish Gilead did or that shall reject such a government and Agreement as the Iewes rejected the Gospel are to be left to themselves and the people of God that they may be freed from Babels sins and plagues and from her fall and destruction must come out from them and turn unto such as shall freely close and joyn with them as one man unto the Lord in righteousness The direction of this constituted Government consists in a right regulating of it that it may reach and attaine the supreame ends and objects of its being this regulating of it and these supreame ends consist in a twofold action and an intermediate action of the people This twofold action is a moving and turning to or from the termini or bounds to which and from which they must move their intermediate action is a constant joynt perseverance in their twofold action this twofold action or motion in the people of God rightly constituted and to be constituted is a a moving or turning from darkness and error to light and truth from implicite faith in blinde guides to clear and free conviction in their own spirits from slavish obedience to the Wills of wicked usurpers and oppressors to a spontaneous and free concurrence with those that are faithful from being scattered as Israel was in Egypt to be gathered as one man unto the Lord in righteousness from cruel calamities burdens and oppressions the needless fruits of wicked slavery to the just power and liberty of a free people from the seat of the Beast the sourse of violence the seat of darkness to the white Throne which impartially dispenceth righteous judgement from the vallie of dead and drie bones of men slain by slavery to be a
life also Want is Vertues clog and the most violent spur and provocation to all wickedness It fits men for all vassallage and slavery It puts out the eys of reason and renders mens minds brutish It subjects their Spirits to all servile wickedness and their Bodies to all unjust burdens of corporal calamities and miseries It maketh Souldiers slaves to bloudy Designes Vassals of base and wicked enterprises to kill if commanded or not commanded one another or their best friends and to engage in bloud against any or against all the Free-born People to destroy them Extreme and unjust Poverty caused by cruel oppression is the iron chain of cursed bondage which makes men slaves to other mens wills and wickedness Slaves to their own sins slaves to all miseries slaves to their own utter â—uine slaves to destruction of Body and Spirit They that put the poor and the Souldiers and the middle sort of people in iron chains of unjust wrongs and oppressions and they that do not effectually endeavour to break their chains and to redress their wrongs and oppressions bring the guilt of the bloud of the poor and of the Nation upon themselves and upon the Nation The poor of the Nation for the most part are Souldiers undone in service turn'd out and deprived of their proper Rights the price of their bloud Many of the Nation are made poor in pursuing their and the Peoples Rights and Liberties and the rest of the poor for the most part are such as are undone by slavery and oppression I mention these things for no other purpose but that the bloud-guilty defilement of the Land if possible may be purged from it and for redress of it I propose First that the Foot may have 12. d. per diem from the begining of the Service as was promised or as due by a better right the just claim of Equity and Necessity Why should the Souldiers eat ashes and be clothed in rags by those for whom they have purchased by their hazard and bloud to be clothed in Scarlet and to eat the fat of the Land Secondly That the constant future pay for the Foot be at least and when things are as cheap as they have bin twelve pence per diem and that their present and future pay be as rates of all provisions are now and may be so much above twelve pence per diem as may competently maintain them and their charge in due health with honesty 3. That Troopers and Dragoons may have 2. s 6. d per diem from the begining of the Service and for future what more may justly countervail their necessities the deerness and scarcity of all things considered 4. That the sick and wounded Horse and Foot that for that cause are out of Service may have the same pay that they in service have but not pay for horses except they keep horses for the Service The Souldiers when sick and wounded have most need of their pay and they best deserve it who in discharge of their faithfulness have suffered most 5. That the sick and wounded Officers may the same pay which they had in service it being extreme hard and unjust measure that they or the Souldiers should be then most destitute when they have most need or that their faithfulness wherein they have hazarded their lives and bin wounded should be punished with privation or abridgement of their pay 6. That all Officers and Souldiers that have bin faithful to their trust and for that cause or otherwise unjustly turn'd out dismissed or cashiered may be forthwith restored to their respective charge and places of trust and have all legal and due administrations of Right and Justice and equal and answerable reparations given them in all just relations For it is unreasonable and unjust in the Nation and in its Trustees and Officers and dangerous to the Nation That they that have bin ever faithful to their trust and born the burden of the Service should be turned out or cashiered especially without due satisfaction and other Officers and Souldiers perhaps false to their present Trust or late enemies to it or newters or not fit for Service should ' be trusted with the charge and trust of the Nation Seventhly That all Widdows and Orphants or the next kindred of all such Souldiers or Officers if they have been faithful to their Trust as have been or shall be dead or slain in Service may have their Arrears Audited and paid them that the Nation may be free from the guilt and sins of bloud and oppression least God say to it or to many of it as Elisha to Ahab for Naboths bloud Hast thou killed and also taken possession or least God plead the Cause of the many thousands of Souldiers slain by cruel and unjust murder and oppression and the Cause of their desolate widdows and fatherless with the Nation and Representative of it and say Have you killed not one man as Naboth was but one but many thousans not who denied you their vineyards but gave their lives for you to do you service Have you killed them by keeping back the slender pittance of their deer purchase their due Pay which should have kept them alive Have you killed there by keeping back the price of their blouds who kept not back their own bloud that they might preserve your lives and Estates entire Did you enthral their bodies in all corporal calamities exigences extremities even unto death and did you kill their bodies did their calamities and extreme exigents enslave their Souls and Spirits in all excess of wickedness for â—so greater inforcement can be to all wickedness then necessity are they utterly cut of and killed Body and Soul in and by their and in them your wickedness And have you cut off and killed them in body and soul To keep back and bridle them from wickedness had been your duty and did you set your steely spurs of oppression in their sides and cause them to rush headlong into all wickedness and perish in it Did you kill them by keeping back the price of their hazard and bloud which had you paid them they had not perished or you had bin guiltless And have you taken possessian of it Did you possess the whole Land in peace and did you keep back when you had no need the price of their lives from their desolate widdows and forsaken fatherless Did you give possession of it to others that had no right to it and did dogs to whom it was not due lick their bloud Did you when you had power free the Nation from bloud or by not doing it plunge and re-involve it in a new bloudy War Did Ahab when sharply reproved humble himself and have you hardned your hearts when friendly admonished in the spirit of meekness Did you harken to corrupters and seducers and despise imprison persecute and destroy those that did faithfully admonish and friendly exhort you Let the Nation at least the Conscientious Party seriously consider these things as
was done to him and not redressed was done only to him and his private family yet all Israel was gathered together as one man unto the Lord at Mispeh and sent men throughout the Tribe of Benjamine to convince it and to be convinced what that wrong was and to redress it and to move Benjamine to joyn with them unto the Lord for redress of it But that Tribe harkned not and was therefore destroyed 600 excepted man woman and child with their cattel and their Cities were fired and God owned that Action The wrong done to the Levites family was vile and wicked yet in it self a private wrong but in Benjamine that did not redress it a Nation sin derived upon it by that Tribe from one wrong done to one single private family Nation sins properly are these wrongs trespassesr or sins that are committed by or against the major part of a Nation There were Egypts sins for which God judged that Nation Israels sins for which that People perished by Sword Famine and captivity Babels sins for which that Kingdom was translated And these are this Nations sins which will destroy it if the people of it do not vigorously stir up and call upon one another to joyn as one man to redress all wrongs and to satisfie all just Interests They that stir up and provoke the people and their Trustees to do Justice equal and impartial are looked upon as Disturbers and Traytors but they indeed â—upport the Nation and to that end must persevere in the same faithful discharge of their duties to God the Nation and themselves if they fail the Nation falls Sins political and universal are of like nature for which many Cities were and the world in a Type was and shall be in the anti-type destroyed If the Nation or part of it or the people whether few or many shall stir up one another to joyn as one man to pursue the Peace of the Nation by an Agreement in Righteousness to free themselves and it from their Nation sins All such so joyning shall be gethered together unto the Lord the Rock of their and this Nations deliverance as all Israel was gathered together as one man unto the Lord at Mispeh All Israel that were not gathered together with Israel as one man unto the Lord at Mispeh to free themselves and Nation from their Nation sin to wit the inhabitants of Jaoesh Gillead were all men women and children except 400 utterly destroyed So all in this Nation that shall not stir up and call upon the people and upon one another to joyn in an Agreement in Righteousness for the paace of the Nation and to free it and themselves from their Nation sins shall therein divide and scatter themselves from the Lord the rock of their and this Nations deliverance and be more guilty of and lyable to their own utter ruin and destruction then the men of Jabesh Gillead were because there can be no compare betwixt a Nation sin derived from a private family and a Nation sin derived from a Nation It is likewise just with God and men That all they of the Nation that sit still as the men of Jabesh Gillead did or that hinder the Nations deliverance from their and its sins and destruction that call not upon the people to joyn unto the Lord as one man in order to these ends or hinder others from calling upon them of that shall harden their hearts that are called upon That they that will not help forward but hinder Redress of wrongs and satisfaction of just Interests that will not help forward or shall hinder the causing of a new Representative and that will not help forward or that shall hinder an Agreement of the Nation in Righteousness should answer and satisfie for these wrongs and damages that bloud shed and these outrages and barbarous cruelties which are caused by their oppositions and obstructions in these relations All Israel fled and fell twice before Benjamine and Benjamine slew 40000 of them and the reason of it is conceived was Because Israel was not so circumspect and diligent to discharge all faithfulness of duty to one another in exciting and calling upon one another and because they did not excite and call upon the men of Jabesh Gillead to hearken and to joyn with them as one man unto the Lord to free their Nation and themselves from their Nation sin Fourthly That joynt endeavours of Agreement be made with â—ll wisdom of meekness and faithfulness the Reasons are 1 Because wisdom without meekness is but appearence without substance 2 Because there is not nor can be any effectual means of this Nations deliverance but by Addresses in wisdom with meekness 3 Because Gods Message unto Pharoah was meek and when neither the cryes of Israel nor the endeavours of their Elders nor Aarons eloquence could deliver them Moses sent with a meek Message did deliver them and left not a hoof behind him of all that appertained unto Israel 4 Because as Nadab and Abihu that offered strange fire weâ—â— destroyed by fire from Heaven so all wisdom of zeal without sobriety and meekness hinders our deliverance and as strange fire which God accepts not destroyes those that endeavour it 〈◊〉 such means 5 Moses Gods Messenger was faithful according to thâ— command of God in all his house and delivered no Message tâ— Pharoah and his servants nor to the Israelites but what God commanded He did all possible good to the Egyptians and purchased their deliverance from many grievous plagues which theâ— brought upon themselves neither did he nor the Israelites laâ— their hands upon the life of Pharoah or of any of his servants except when violently assayled wherein the Law of Nature aâ—â— all Laws of God and Nations require present resistance And iâ— this case only when an Egyptian and an Israelite strove togethâ—â— Moses slew the Egyptian So Gods Messengers sent to delivâ—â— his free-born from bondage are faithful according to the command of God in all his house They earnestly endeavour â— preserve and deliver their oppressors from all plagues and destructions and from the bloudy guilt of their sins and to preserve and deliver the oppressed from the destruction and miseâ— of their oppressions They delivered no Message to their aâ— Israels unjust murderers and oppressors but what God commanded Their Message and Gods command is only that whiâ—â—â— the just Laws of the Land Equity require This Message thâ—â— must deliver to both Egyptians and Israelites oppressors aâ— oppressed And if God command them to smite the Rivers aâ— Waters and turn them into Bloud they must do it They lay 〈◊〉 their hands upon the life of any Egyptian or other by wrongâ— or oppressing them in word or in deed neither do they unjustly assayl or resist any except when they or any other are violently and unjustly assayled and in this God commands them â— make what they can for their own safety present resistance that is All Laws of nature God and
face thou shalt die But these as Nabals servants said of him are such sonnes of Belial that the people of God cannot speak to them nor make any humble and faithful Addresses to them to undeceive and convince their judgements and cause them to see and forsake their bloody sins and oppressions or if they do make any such humble and faithful Addresses they do not only raile upon them as Nabal did and send them away emptie with churlish answers but add greater wrongs to their injuries and cruelty to their oppressions they answer their humble and faithful Addresses by doing double injurie and satisfie their just interests by making their oppressions so much greater as their thigh is thicker than their little finger they do not only threaten to kill them as Pharoah did Moses but do murder and kill them either by immediate stroak of lawless and wicked violence or by injury oppression and extortion But they will not believe that injuries oppressions and extortions wel hooded and masked under false formes of holy pretences can be murder as if Saul standing in the midst of the people was Saul but Saul hid amongst the stuffe was not Saul but Saul hid amongst the stuffe was Saul and the people ran and brought him thence and he stood before the people So injuries oppressions and extortions hooded and masked under formes of holy pretences are murders hid in the stuffe and the people must run as the Israelits did to fetch them thence and set them before the people Murders of the tallest statures are ever hid amongst the stuffe and these implicit massacres are most in number and the worst kinds of murder Lam. 4.9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger Therefore to murder the poor or midle-sort of people or the Soldiers by poverty or hunger caused by unjust oppression is worse than to slay them with the sword If the people do not seek out these sinister and implicit murders that are hiden amongst the stuffe and seâ— them before the people they cannot be freed from their Nations sins and their and its destruction 11ly They cannot support her because of the grand imposturies of her Sorcerers and Seducers who by her harkning to them do deceive and harden her heart The Kings of Egypt and their servants did once harken to the wholsome councel of the people of God then they exceeded all Nations in peace riches strength and glory but when they rejected their counsel and harkened to Sorcerers and corrupters creatures most vile and filthy they were led and fel into infamous sins and the plagues of their destruction came upon them But by her that is Babels Sorcerers all Nations are deceived Rev. 18 23. Her Rulers Commanders and Officers reject the people of God and hate them and their Councels and their own Sorcerers and flatterers vilest and most wicked of execrable creatures take up their the affections and understandings and entire beings as spirits take up little children and sel them for slaves into far countries And why do they dote so upon the Sorcerers because they cover their filthy sins and nakedness with the figg-leaves of their Libels cast stumbling blocks before them betray and destroy them but these Sorcerers must set no name to their Libels lest the vertue of their hocus pocus vanish like bloome colours as soon as it sees light these lead them and by these they are and will lead and hardned that the people of God cannot by any faithfulnes undeceive and convince their judgments that they might be freed from their sins and from the plagues of their destruction 12ly The people of God in Babylon cannot support her from falling because they themselves are fallen in the spirit of their forme which is love The Apostle distiguisheth man into body soul and spirit and the form of the new man into faith hope and love Spirits are the fiery living and executive powers of creatures so is love in the people of God But their love is fallen from all lively executive heat and become contrary to the nature of spirits cold The love of many saith our Saviour shal wax cold Coldness of love is the power of death in the spirit and sourse of life from whence universal defection in the people of God floweth their goodness righteousness and faith is cold dying and decaying their courage and constancy wavering as a wave of the Sea the Sun and the light and the Moon and the Starres are in them darkened Their faith to God and man doth but deceive and destroy themselves and others they are pillars made up of shadows and deceits dashing pitchers broken pot-sheards The stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig-tree casts her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind Rev. 6.13 They are the stars fallen from heaven to earth from heat to coldness from life to death or are dying They are Fig-trees that keep their leaves and cast their fruits They have left the power of Righteousness for appearances and embraced like Demas this present World Their Designes and Actions relate not to God nor the good of one another but terminate in their own corrupt ends and interests They are ignorant of true Righteousness and know not what it is nor wherein it consists but are zealous in their own Righteousness For the Jews the Type of the people of God had a Righteousness of their own wherein they were exceeding strict and that Righteousness was extreme wickedness So the people of God have a Righteousness not of God but of their own not of faith but of their own fancies and they are zealous in tihs their own Righteousness The Righteousness which the Jews had of their own consisted in Sacrifices refrainings from meats washings and in solemn fruitless Assemblies and Meetings Isa 1.10 and they were most hot and violent in pursuit of this their own Righteousness when they were most cold and fallen in their love to true Righteousness So the people of God being most cold and fallen in their love to true Righteousness are most hot and violent in pursuit of their own Righteousness which consists much in many Assemblings and fruitless solemn Meetings most needful were they well improved where they come together to serve God by jaring one with another What is true Righteousness the doing of that which is good and just unto all men they call moral and civil Righteousness and think it not essential in Religion whereas to give to every one their just right and proper due to evil doers their just reward to those that do well theirs and to all persons their own proper interests is the only expressive esential part of Religion and the visible life and marrow of all righteousness pure religion and undefiled with them is to abound in fruitless and needless disputes nice tenets and fond opinions They conceive that true righteousness and their obedience consists much in certain joynt solemnities of
would save their lives they will not allow them their own straw with such violent rigour do they make them serve in slavery therefore were the Israelites scattered over all Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw that the fires of their Briekilnes might not dy And for this cause the people of God are scattered all over their Egypt to get food and rayment to sustain them instead of their own which their oppressors keep back from them They are scattered in their persons and estates scattered in their resolutions and power in their executions scattered scattered in commutual help succour and assistance and inprudence direction and Councel scattered They are scattered and divided us the dry bones were in the valley of Bones Ezek. 37. which were an expresse figure of the people of God in Babylon the bones were scattered in the open valley they had no flesh nor sinnews upon them they were the whole house of Israel that is all the people of God and the text saith they were slain So all the People of God in Babylon are these dry bones their flesh is consumed that is they have no substance of truth nor sinnew of strength their marrow of true righteousnesse within is all wasted they are dry bones and they are all slain by slavery and therefore are as dead men in no power or capacity to be gathered or to be spoken unto or to hearken that they might be gathered their sins of slothfull unfaithfulnesse to those that have been most faithfull amongst them the guilt of their blood and their often breaches of their just Faith to God and man wherein they are so hardned that their hearts smite them not are breaches great as the Sea which cannot be healed The first heaven and earth departed away but the reason is given in reference to Heaven only The Sun and the Moon and the light was darkned and the starres fell from heaven as the figg-tree casts her untimely figgs that is the light of truth the knowledge of true righteousness departed from the people of God and they fell from the love of righteousness to the love of the world coveteousness sloth slavish feares sensuall pleasure and their own designes choak like thornes all life and power of God in them that none appeares they are barren figg-trees that bring forth figg-leaves and no fruits of righteousness or if they do there is no faith nor truth in them but they fall to the ground and are scattered before they be ripe the first earth departed because Heaven first departed from all righteousnesse their form and essence they let them fancie what they will have no order way guide or light how or which way to stand in Babilon Representers in the Army was their most likely and possible way to regain strength that they might stand but those Agitators that were faithfull were turn'd out and destroyed and they that betrayed their Trust preferred they cannot advize themselves nor be advised nor help forward but hinder her and their own support and as they are scattered and divided all they do or can do is but to contradict and divide and dash against one another and against that means most and those that offer it by which they might be gathered and united Many also are caused to trespasse and blaspheme through the rigour and cruelty of oppression therefore their oppressors are guilty of oppression and blasphemy and the Authors of it their passions indeed thereby provoked have been the bellows of these distempers and the right temper of the best mettal may be spoyled in an over-heated forge yet not the mettal nor the forge nor the bellows but the black Smith is the author of these distempers but the effects of their provocations in the yron furnaces of their oppressions and slavery are not light distempers but all composed order wisdom and sobriety and their spiritual endowments and righteousnesse which should support them are reduced through the vehemency of the fire and rage of their slaverie not into sindars but ashes like the ashes of the fornace which Moses took and sprinkled up towards Heaven which became small dust scattered throughout the land of Egypt and Heaven saw that scattered dust and turn'd it into a real Plague upon all the Land of Egypt When Israel was most falne to dust and ashes God then raised them when they were most slain he then revived them when most scattered he then gathered them and when they were most irrecoverable and desparately lost he then sought them out and that there might be no appearance of mans power in their deliverance he then saved them from bondage and destruction of body and spirit So his people being most fallen slain scattered and lost God will now raise and gather them out of dust and arm and unite them in life and power that there may be nothing of theirs nor of man but of God only in their deliverance and that his power alone may be made known by calling Israel out of Egypt and causing them to hearken was Israel delivered and by calling his People out of Egypt and Babylon the house of their bondage and destruction and causing them to hearken shall his people be delivered Lastly The second principal cause and end of their coming out of her is that they might with all speedy care and providence make and constitute such a Government amongst themselves as may by Justice absolute and impartial preserve the persons estates lives and entire beings of each other and of all those that close with and co-adhere unto them Such Government consists in a right constitution and Direction In a right constituted Government the power is to be for substance wholy in the people and not in pretense or title but really This power is the power of God the richest Talent of his goodness which he dispenseth to a people If they improve it well it brings the greatest Safety Peace Freedom and Prosperity that a People can have and if they improve it ill the greatest confusion ruine and destruction Therefore the people are seriously and advisedly to consider how they may best improve it to Gods glory and their benefit They are to consider it in relation to God in relation to it self and in relation to themselves This power in relation to God is the power of God demised and dispensed from him to a people for their Prosperity Peace and Safety Secondly In it self it is the richest Talent which a people can receive from God therefore God will require the strictest account of them for their improvement of it That servant that lost not nor wasted his masters Talent but kept it and return'd it back to his master was called a wicked slothful and an unprofitable servant and cast into utter darkness because heâ—â—d not increase and improve it All powers are of God therefore all Powers are good but some Powers are in relations evil wicked and unjust the evil and injustice in Powers is the abuse of them That
life in anti-type and truth shall then bring forth and not till then its first fruits of righteousness of life and freedom when the order of its mansions that is the prefigured mystical families there shall be compleated and full The righteousness which is now and hath bin is the righteousness of false appearance covetousness and filthy corruptions of bondage born and begotten by and for base designes and ends the off-spring of illegitimacy and seed of incest conceived like Moah and Ammon in the heat and zeal of blind and empty profession and bloudy hypocrisie the fruit of perfideous trechery and deceit If any righteousness of life and freedom hath bin or is that Righteousness or they that produce it have or hath bin or is the first fruits to God and the Lamb but the Text is express That the sealed Tribes or Families of Israel shall be the first fruits to God and the Lamb There was no righteousness of deliverance from the curse of destruction bondage and death of Adams sin in a type until those creatures that were saved the shadow of the free people of God came as it were by their families into the Ark after their kind and there hath not bin any perfect but dead spurious and illegitimate righteousness no righteousness of deliverance life and freedom from real destruction sin and death nor shall be any until the free people come into the true Ark by their anti-typical Tribes and Families and possess their proper mansions in truth and substance The people of God absolute free and their righteousness shall be equally legitimate in relation to God their father and in relation to the new policy or City their mother descending which shall be free And they and their righteousness shall be perfect as their heavenly father is perfect and as their mother descending from God out of heaven shall be perfect Perfect not of the essence of God but after the pattern and image of the mind of God as the Tabernacle was the figure of that pattern in the Mount and as the Rain-bow is the Image of the Sun so they shall be created and formed by the free Spirit of life in Christ after the Image of God For the Creator Former and Inhabitant is not the creature thing formed or house Howbeit God shall dwell in them more fully The perfection of a free people and of their righteousness consists in an impress intermediate and express act of Life and Freedom but the last gives their and its denomination and being and the first two without the third are properly the righteousness of bondage This perfect righteousness of a Free people is a commutative three-fold righteousness of deliverance from evil in evil and out of evil of bondage a figure of this righteousness was in Moses his visiting of his brethren three times the first time he went forth he seeing an Egyptian and an Israelite at strife slew the Egyptian and freed the Israelite in a Type from evil of bondage The second time he went forth he seeing two Israelites at strife sought to reconcile and unite them and so to releive and support them in the evil of bondage These actions were properly the righteousness of bondage for Moses was then in bondage and therefore it inslaved him and them and hazarded his life much more for which cause he fled and left them forty yeers Men may not be faithful indeed nor do impress or intense works of Freedom in bondage but extremely hazard their lives or estates they their righteousnes must be corupt by constraint or they must act if strictly faithful single For the people of God in bondage having no order nor unity deceive and betray each other Moses in his first visit acted but with one Israelite and delivered him and that one betrayed him The second time he acted but with two and one of them betrayed him and he fled for his life such are the perfidious treacheries deceits of the righteousness of bondage but Moses did not desist but sent came the third time and Freed Israel and their intire beings out of bondage all Israel therein joyned with him and this his and their joynt work was the proper righteousness of Freedom in a Type To avert evils of bondage in bondage or relieve and support those that groan under the rigour of it and rest so being works of bondage strengthens the power and rage of it and depresseth all means of deliverance So Moses did and fled for his life and left all Israel desperately helpless and worse inslaved than ever Ahimelech relieved David with the shew-bread and Goliahs Sword which was a very just and good work yet it occasioned that Ahimelech and all the Preists of the Lord and their City were cut off and destroyed man woman and child such are the violent evils of the bondage of corruption that the best and most perfect righteousness of bondage causeth through corruption the worst evils and effects because corruption of the best things is the most destructive corruption that can be It s the greatest and most desparate hazard of utter ruine to a mans life or estate to be conscientious and exactly faithful in bondage Also performances of impress and intense acts of righteousness in bondage without the express act of the righteousness of Freedom out of bondage is dead and imperfect righteousness and meer impostury which deceives and hardens like the works of Pharaohs Sorcerers all mens hearts in vanities and corruptions of bondage For whiles they follow and mind sorceries and deceits imperfect righteousness of relief or support in bondage they dream not nor once think of any legitimate or perfect righteousness of Life and Freedom out of bondage These rotten deceits destroy or hazard as in Moses and the Priests of the the Lord their Lives Families and Estates for the righteousness of relief and support in bondage and not of Freedom out of it rouseth up the power and rigour of it as a sleepy lyon to destroy them he that pricks a sleepy lyon must also kill him or be sure to be destroyed This corruption of bondage under which the Creation groans and travels in pain to be delivered out of it is briefly this The Creation was at first subservient to bruit beasts till man a figure of the Creatures Freedom was made the head of all creatures and thus far the creature was not properly subjected unto vanity under bondage of corruption Satan and the serpent the parents of all corruption of bondage sin and death co-inspired into the spirit of man the corrupt nature of bruit beasts from the bruit beast the serpent the mother of sin in a type and of fallen Angels from Satan the Father of sin and filthy corruptions of bondage So the spirit of man the head of the Creation became bruitish and divelish and then the creature was properly subjected unto vanity and bondage of corruption The corruption of bruitishness in man did corrupt and darken the Image of
is the strength of it Impress and intense righteousness of bondage reliefe and support from and against the evils of it without righteousness of Freedom out of it is like Sions strong Tower in the Iebusits hands which deceives and hardens their hearts that extend it destroys their lives Families and estates and is so far from all righteousness of Freedom that it ratifies and fortifies an opposit habit of spurious and imposturous deceits against all perfect and legitimate righteousness of Freedom it stirs them up to say Soul Soul take thine ease thou hast many parcels of good words and works too of releif support and refreshings done to oppressed imprisoned and undone Saints the people of God That Fool that put his confidence in deceitful riches for that cause lost his soul and his riches that night So the people of God for and by their puting confidence in rotten deceits of imperfect righteousness of bondage as the Iebusits did in their lame and blind gods 2 Sam. 5. lose their souls Families and their deceitful temporal riches and of supposed righteousness Their relief and support they boast of and confide in is straitned in its bowels and theirs it is their blood their Soul is in it and goes with it and by much strugling in their striving spirits t' is strangled a dead birth destructive to both its parents their Families and estates Blood and things strangled are forbidden Why should the people of God â—un such real hazards worse far than the curse layd upon women in bringing forth children to bring forth these straitned and strangled dead births of the bondage of corruption who requires it to what use let them pay not this mint and cumin of the righteousness of bondage but that only one necessary main debt of the righteousness of Freedom out of bondage due to God and to each other to the Nation to the whole Creation to their own Souls and Consciences Estates Families and to all their interests intire let them seale to God and to each other in perfect and legitimate righteousness of Freedom and there will be no need of this strangled and slavish righteousness of the corruptions of bondage Bondage and the powers thereof are inward and outward the righteousness of inward bondage is real wickedness of outward violence and unrighteousness both are destructive to their subjects and objects their Families estates and entire beings but inward bondage causally outward bondage occasionally Nabals bowels were straitned by inward bondage which brought imminent destruction upon him his Family and estate and he by it lost with his life both Family and estate This straitness of bowels by inward bondage destroyed Ananias Nabal Iudas whole Nations and the first world filled thereby with violence and this straitness of bowels by inward bondage hath filled the hands of the rich oppressors of this Nation and the rest are not free ful of blood and violence the greatest that ever was The miserable objects of this violence the poor wronged and oppressed are murdered meerly by their oppressors straitned bowels of inward bondage and are robbed of their most just Rights due not for keeping sheep or without indentment but upon better accompts of most deeply engaged Faith and extremest hazard Nabals words were churlish yet he did not destroy Davids messengers but the words of these are churlish and they also destroy those that come or are sent peaceably in meekness for their rights and for redress of their wrongs therefore these straitned subjects of extremest violence oppressors may much more expect destruction of their Lives Families and Estates then Nabal or the old world if they seek not free deliverance and full acquittance from this inward Abaddon this inward straitned spirit of bondage the destroyer of their Souls Families and Estates Ahimelech was not straitned by inward but outward bondage his relief to David a very good and just work could cause no evil effect but being in outward bondage of corruption under the power of Saul that wicked power took occasion by his good work and made it through corruption what in it self it was not the cause of destruction of the Priests of the Lord of his and their lives and of the lives of their Families man woman and child Such are the rage and cruelties of outward bondage of corruption that the people of God in bondage under these powers cannot so much as exercise the outward carcass of dead righteousness but their lives and estates are extremely in danger for it or destroyed by it A necessity from God binds all to provide for their Families He that does not denies the faith and is worse then an Infidel But no man in bondage can provide for his House and Family but by seeking Freedom out of bondage Providence of inward bondage is perfect wickedness of outward oppression There 's no Providence but of Freedom only Freedom and Bondage as Fire and Water eagerly cast out each others joynt Beings and Powers Cast out the Bond-woman and her son saith Sarah the Free-woman for he shall not inherit So bondage alternately suffers not the Free-born to inherit any thing no fruits of faithfulness industry providence not their lives nor goods What just providence goodness and justice builds Bondage casts out and destroys Aegypts bondage dis-inherited the Hebrew males of their lives cast them out of all so real bondage dis-inherits the true Israel of all they have or can provide lives liberties and goods yet they may provide things not honest but corrupt fruits of deceit and those inherit Gods people in bondage cannot provide but to destroy their own lives Families and Estates No Providence but of perfect Freedom out of bondage by possessing their mansions and Families prefigured by those in the Ark and in Aegypt can preserve their Lives Families or Estates All providence of men and creatures without this of perfect Freedom out of bondage deceived and destroyed utterly all creatures and men from the earth in a figure when the floud came The first fruit of Faith and ground of true Righteousness is providence of Freedom out of bondage The first object of providence of the Free-born in bondage is that they may have being and begining of right order matter and form as Families People and Churches It s preposterouâ— fondness and improvidence for a person or a people to act before they are or seek to be or have begining of form and power They that act or cease to act without or against providence deny the faith and destroy themselves without remedy The people in inward bondage are really wicked and they that are in outward bondage must be wicked or destroyed by constraint there 's no safety but in hypocrisie and deceit therefore a most urgent and pressing necessity is laid upon the people of God from God their consciences the creature and their duties to God and each other from their joynt Interests and just Liberties from their own Lives Families Estates as to their security entire