God Magnified MAN DETHRONED Presented to the PARLIAMENT And SYNOD of England Who sit as if Judges for Saints as if Leaders and Guides unto the Generation of Jesus Christ the Body of the Communion of God By W. BRAY. ISA. 9.15 16. The ancient and honourable he is the Head the Prophet that teacheth lies he is the Tayl. For the Leaders of this people cause them to erre and they that are led of them are destroyed MAT. 21.13 14 15 16. JOB 20.26 A Fire not blown shall consume him it shall go ill with him that is left in his Tabernacle The heaven shall reveal his iniquity and the earth shall rise up against him JOB 36.22 Behold God exalteth by his power who teacheth like him JOB 21.22 34. Shall any teach God knowledge seeing he judgeth those that are on high How then comfort ye me in vain seeing in your answers there remaineth falshood LONDON Printed Anno Domini 1647. TO The High Court OF PARLIAMENT Right Honourable HAving by experience beheld God and in seeîng God have seen man also I desire to speak a word or two unto you as not loosing my life unto the death for I desire more and more to be translated and transformed into the Image of Jesus manifested in the flesh and to live by the Faith of the Son of God in the Spirit I have now seen man the perfection of the earths Creation to be vanity and his wayes to be as mutable as the wind which is sometimes East and sometimes West sometimes North and sometimes South and now I desire to lie low before the God of the whole earth and to lay aside all voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels or men I have seen many writings and I have heard many tongues which have endeavoured to hinder the pure flamings of the Eternal God even the God the King and Judge The pure Scepter is in the hand of Immortality and Immutability that can make the light to shine in the darkness so that darkness shall not withstand or comprehend the power of its infiniteness There is much contending for victorie over one anothers censcience in the world the root of such endeavor for a present Conformity proceed from your Synod which you have chosen who would if they could fain be riding on others and making the Image of God in others a slave a servant to their fallible fallibly interpreted results whereas the walkings of the visible man should alone proceed from the pure power and teachings of the invisible God both as to God and to man if we walked as he also walked The Gods of the Nations they are all Idols vanity a lie and a shadow though I remember I have read it was an opinion of old Quicquid Humus Pelagus Coelum miserabile gignit Id dixere deos c. What ever Heavens Sea and Land begat Hils Sea and Rivers God was this and that Me thinks I see sensibly and experimentally praised be the Father of mercies that the Saints sit by the River of Babylon and weep when they have the remembrance of Sion and may yet still do if the Lord give power any longer to the enemie and oppressor then they that carry us away captive will require of us a song and they that made exile or banishment our portion as a Synodean Minister so called told me there was no other way for Sectaries will revile us exceedingly and say race race them even to the ground and they that waste us will require of us mirth saying sing us one of the song of Zion But if we have not the Lord with us God with us How shall we sing the Lords song in a strange Land Psal 137.1 2 3 4. verses Me thinks it should be a business of high concernment to you to offend one of the littele ones of the Father which you may doe seeing neither you nor your teachers are infallible lest you be found fighters against God as God is in Iesus and crucifiers of the body of love and complacency But if you are and if you are to me Crucifiers I desire to imbrace the Cross as my Fathers Crown to me I desire to see the Cross and Crowne from one supreame cause power and will I shall be glad if the Father will accompt me worthy when I have no ground to accompt my selfe so to suffer for his sake if you shall have the Crown any longer yet know this that your crown your dominion is not an everlasting dominion the people of the most high God shall appear more palpably as God with them in the inmost man and then God shall be palpably exalted and man dethroned The invisible God and substance hath carried me out to write these things and hath answered all objections though many of flesh hell and death so that to me to will and to do is God so that all or any thing shall be to me gaine and immortall advantage In fine is not particular fleshly interest the God of the world is there not a generall acting judging censuring and condemning without infallible judgment and Testimonys and have not men thrown downe Episcopacy to set up tyrannicall dominering Presbyterie mutato nomine tantum And is not formall Philosophie vaine deceipt traditions of men and rudiments of the world the great Argument that swayes witness many men who write many elaborate Volumes and the continuall man-teachings of preists to Counsells do not the Preists of the nation endeavour to blow the bellows of contention and to divide deare friends because of difference in judgment so that as one Augustine one of they Fathers Tempestate contentionis serenitas charitatis obnubilatur In the tempest of contention the serenity of charity is over-clouded may not Episcopalls Presbyterians and Independents sit all under their owne Vines and Fig-trees and yet live lovingly one with another one to another be contraries yet be contraries in the spirit of love and mekeness forbearing forgiving one another may not every one walk in the light of his God according to the prophesie And the Saints walke in the light of the Lord their God surely if all that talke of Christ of that anoinment were really possest in the glorie of it man would not be any thing but God would be all in all I cannot hold my peace I am Idem calamo quod in mente I desire you to excuse me if you can that I have been so bold according to the common denomination of boldness God hath condescended to speak to me and I have spoken to God and his Testmony is sure why should not you condescend peradventure God may give you an invisible dart to think on temperance and judgment to come So I rest Your Honours humble Servant if you walke according to the pure light of nature and if you shall stand for justice and mercy in the Land W. Bray Nationall Assemblie YOU that endeavour to make your selves renowned and to exalt God with your selves alone you
that consult and endeavour to make the places of Saints too straight and to binde up the spirit of God to your formality darkness and bounds You that hear the children that you have lost say in your ears the place is too straight for us give place to us that we may dwell Isa 49.20 21 22 23 24 25 26. You that say in your hearts who hath begotten me these seeing you have lost your children and you are and will become desolate and who hath brought up these these where have they been will you make the broad places straight will you comprehend God in a narrow compass of a man of a Synod will you compass the incompassable will you compare with the incomparable Oh you cannot Do you think that God hath no other Ornament then a Directorie to adorn a Nation which he means to reform If he hath such a minde surely he hath Do you think that he who hath rivers of all sorts and waters of glory and of varietie to change his Creation by Iesus Christ and according to Iesus Christ hath but your stream But that one current of yours which you intend to make to run in the veins of the heavens and of the earth if you can Surely you are deceived God will I am confident dry up your River and make your fish to stink and die for thirst If you have a Jasper do you think all must have Jaspers may not another have a Saphir Yes truly whether you have or have not a Jasper if you have a Saphir may not another have a Chalcedony If you have an Emerauld may not another have a Sardonyx If you have a Sarduis may not another enjoy a Chrysolite if you have a Topar may not another enjoy a Chrysophrasus If you have a Jacynth may not another have an Amethyst Rev. 21.19 If you have or be any of these surely it would be satisfaction enough to you If you have the light of the Sun freely given you will you endeavour to destroy him that hath but the light of the Moon will you despise the day of small things Have you freely received and will you force another to walk as you walk when he hath not received You that were overcome your selves if you have truly overcome evill and Heresie will you have another Conquerour then the brightness of the Fathers glorie Is it not your darkness and inconsiderateness to say in your heart who hath begotten these Do you think you must be perpetuall Fathers shall Saints be alwaies taught of fallible mutable vain man would you not have God to beget how he pleaseth and when he pleaseth Oh vain man why contendest thou with thy maker the holy one of Israel Thou canst not prevail thou never madest a hair of thine own head thou never addest a Cubit to thine own stature He that walks in the circuit of heaven laughs thee to scorn and hath thee in derision daily Doest thou think God can bring none forth but such as thou willest can teach no other way but such as thou teachest can have no other Terms but such as thou understandest comprehendest studiest and contrivest If that invisible God and eternall substance doth begin to set up his Standard to the people to lift up his hand to the Gentiles and to make Kings nursing Fathers and Queens nursing mothers Wilt thou instigate the Magistracy the Kings the powers of the world in the high places to binde the people of God though under another notion in chains of death and darkness Doest thou think that Kings Queens and Magistrates must be only nursing fathers and mothers unto you must honour the God of Heaven and earth only in you and lick up the dust of your feet In the consideration of these things I am cast into admiration of infinitie Oh boundless God and binding man Oh boundless God! that measurest all things comprehendest all things who hast infiniteness in all thy true variety let not thy Saints be ashamed to wait for thee Oh Super-superlative binding God! who art able to bind Synods Counsels Powers of the world in chains and fetters of Iron that have bound the people deceived the Nations a great space manifest thy self that thou bindest and loosest and art able to restrain the bindings of man as well as to unloose after thou hast given him power to binde And if thou hast an intent that this Synod shall be a scourge or means of a scourge to thy people as well as other Synods formerly called Convocations or other names do thou say to thy Saints in the spirit of understanding Where is the fury of former oppressors and am not I the Lord thy God and is not my name the Lord of Hosts who have divided the Sea whose waves roared Isa 51.15 Say thou to thy people as thou saidst of old Isa 52.3 4 5 6. Ye have sold your selves for nought and ye shall be redeemed without money though they that rule over you make you to howle and cause the ignorant of God to blaspheme the Lord every day But let thy people know it is thou that speakest even thou I am confident Synod the thoughts of God are not your thoughts neither are your waies the waies of the Lord for as the heavens are higher then the earth so are the waies of the triumphant God and the thoughts of the triumphant God higher then yours and you may miss of your aime in your generation but I rejoyce you keep your Crown Power Kingdom and Glorie so long as the Father will Synod reade perhaps you may know and understand 56 Isa 11. 57 Isa Whose Chapter may appertain to thee in thy own understanding and the 13 Ezekiel 14 Ezekiel 9 10. 41 Isa 10 Ieremiah 23 Ieremiah the 26 Ieremiah 29 Ieremiah 8 12 verses c. And also the 34 of Ieremiah 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 c. I can I thank the most High the invisible substance make parallels and the parallels aequipolent Therefore though you shall endeavour to scourge me and afflict me yet I shall see the love of the absolute Lord in scourgings and whippings Though you shall say as others before you have said Come let us scourge him and afflict him for he hath sinned against the Lord yet my glory is in the absolute God washer cleanser purger discerner informer reformer and acquitter and from him I have my Quietus est What though you make me an offender for a word What though you shall have the Nobles the Powers of the world the Parliament whom you instigate the People to say Come let us devise devices against him because he speaks of the things of God he being not Ordained The Law shall not perish from the Priest nor Counsel from the Wise nor the Word from the Prophet Come let us smite him with the tongue and let us not give heed to any of his words Yet the absolute Lord non-respecter of persons can
give a word to the poor as well as to the rich to the Carpenter to the Fisher as well as to the Prophet the Priest and the Levite I rejoyce in your instigation of Magistracy because of the Fathers will and because it causes this operation in me it makes me and hath made me to see if I might attain it how I am as really in the beauty of the Son of righteousness who is more beautifull then the Sun the Moon and the Stars And truly I am told of God as I am perswaded that I should not as yet one my self with you nor acknowldge you as friends to the wisdom and glory of God in Iesus Christ If I should not hold forth my contrariety as the Father hath made me contrary to you in love for God in love from God and to God I should have burning fire in my own breast Would you have me know any thing of God and not speak it if I should forget the Lord my maker and trust on you and upon you surely my Lord when he looks upon me and I see him would make me to lie down in sorrow and to weep bitterly therefore I had rather have your frowns who call your selves Teachers Fathers then my reall absolute immutable Fathers Will you scourge me or afflict me or instigate Magistracy if at any time I shall declare the sweetness of God Shall I be in the garden of variety and not speak of it would you have none be in the garden but your selves would you have none other but your selves though others are in the garden to speak of the things they see and hear Do you know the root and the ground of Gods wisdom Do you know all the branches of Eternity Do you know the God of Dominion Will you not let him save whom he will and condemn whom he pleaseth Will you assume to make a man know before he must truly know and understand before he must truly understand Are not the times and the seasons in the heavens and the earth for the fathers accomplishments Must not the heavens and the earth hear his voyce when he speaks with an intention that it shall hear know and understand I was lately cast into a consideration of the incomprehensible od even of God who is acknowledged by you generally to be Causa Causarum and also of vain weak inconsiderable Logical Sophistical formal in fine sensuall man I was thinking how small a particular creature of God I was and how little of the visible world I could comprehend in the hollow of my hand and then I considered and said surely it would be an admired thing if a Synod if a man if men if a few men should make a Law or procure a Law Ordinance or Declaration to be made that a man that could not comprehend the heavens and the earth or the glorious visible things of God in the hollow of his hand should be accounted an Heretick All rationall men in the world and those that are only rationall would think it a foolish Ordinance an inconsiderate Law Would you have a Law made then that he that cannot comprehend or comprehend as you would have him comprehend the invisible things of that invisible indivisible God shall be accounted an Heretick O surely if you had faith you would be glad to have it to your selves and you would manifest it with the glory of its pure self and undefiled being surely if you had faith to remove mountains you would have more love to Hereticks as you call them and less bitterness But it satisfies me that God can roul the heavens and the earth together like a scrowl and bring it into the narrow compass of a mans hand if he will and manifest himself to whom he will and when he pleaseth and you are not masters of him He alwaies comprehends and he can so be seen to mans capacity if he will and he can and doth comprehend not to be seen if he will he is not like to man one little particular of Gods varieties he can feel us and we shall not be sensible of it and see us and we shall not see him though he be within and without upon the right and upon the left before and behinde Suppose you have seen Lillies but another hath seen Roses and another hath seen flowers of other natures and kinds will you make a Law or endeavor to have a Law made that all must say they have seen Lillies and nothing but Lillies when they have not seen Lillies at all but Roses or other of Gods diversities Again suppose you have been in the garden of God did you get in by the sword by violence by power by sleight of hand by wit policie by Logick and Phylosophie what must others do that have not your Logick and Phylosophie but truly I think the flaming sword of the incomprehensible God will keep you out with your Logick and prevail with you and over your Philosophie and truly immutably and substantially cry Victoria Again suppose you have been in the garden of God and seen the fragrant flowers the sweet beams of Divine Light your names written in heaven suppose you have the witness of Jesus in your consciences will you endeavour to have a Law made that all that will not beleeve you may be burnt with fire may be imprisoned may be banished may be sawen asunder may not trade traffique in the kingdoms of the world which are the Lords Surely if you were truly taken up with those beauties in your selves you would not desire that fire should come down from heaven to destroy others much less make a fire your selves to consume them Again suppose that a multitude or many now in these daies should see Jesus Christ should enjoy the invisible teachings of God in the inward man should speak of it or preach it would it not be a Pharisaicall envious trick to endeavour to rebuke such Disciples if they should cry Hosanna Hosanna blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord in the inward man May not Christ say if these should hold their peace the stones would immediatly cry out Luke 19.37 38 39. When the incomprehensible pleasantness of the spirit is manifested from enjoyment it would be never the worse if it were by all the people if in the streets if upon the house tops But I know that Scribes and Pharisees and high Priests will murmur at this and pray and fast that Christ may rebuke this but Christ will not and therefore Assemblie though I have been held in chains of darkness a great while and though held in the grave as it were yet when the eternall God to my understanding and with his flame inflames and zeal makes me zealous and in his time makes me to serve him I desire it in that time when he wils and alone in that time when he wils and untill that time I may say from my self to my self and to you Ne sutor ultra crepidam
infallible and absolute Divinity but in the 58 of Isa you may see your Image even by your Nationall fathers before you when the absolute alone supream judge shall enter into judgement and give grinding to the grinders in giving eternall burthens to those that have temporarily burthened bound and oppressed O then let the mountains and Rocks fall on us and the Hills cover us from the presence of the judge Oh then Ministers Divines Teachers Instigators Instructers as you said of your selves in righteousness what hiding place shall we have But you say or think it may be that there is no such thing to be expected therefore you will take another mans word I wish I could truly say if it were the will of eternity much good may it do ye When the absolute supream shall fasten this to your Consciences which as yet passeth away as a tale that is told unto you 59. Isai Your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity your lips have spoken lyes you conceive mischief and you bring forth iniquity you hatch Cockatrice eggs and weave the Spiders webb but your eggs if they are eaten they that eat them die and if any with the power of life manifestation and understanding of the Absolute crush your eggs they break forth presently into a viper but when eternity will enter into judgement when the Islands shall flie away and the Mountains not be found when the hearing of this voyce shall be manifested Rev. 6.10 c. Oh Lord not Lords holy and true doest thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth shall the glorie of the heavens afford you any comfort they shall be roll'd together like a scrowl shall the Kings of the earth and the great men the richmen the chief Captains your servants the mighty men the bond men the freemen the Dens Rocks Mountains afford you comfort and succour Shall multitudes shall kindreds Nations Tongues shall power and authority shall a Ladie shall a Queen shall a woman arrayed in purple and scarlet colour decked with Gold precious stones with a Golden cup in her hand Rev. 17. Shall the Merchants of the earth with their Merchandise of Gold Silver and Precious stones shall the fruits that your soul lusted after shall the Shipmasters Rev. 18. shall the Parliaments shall the Synods shall the Committees No surely Lords Oh then happy is he whose God is the Lord. But Counsellors but earthly Polititians when you shall be arraigned in the interiour man by the interiorest the all-seeing Jehovah the infinite everlasting the absolute Lord VVhat are many Lords and what are many idolized false Gods when you shall be called Gods and Lords and come to be judged arraigned condemned by the absolute non-respecter of persons as men in the inwardest cogitations minde understanding with those aggravations that lie in the wisdome of eternity to make and manifest your Webs shall not become garments neither shall yee cover your selves with your works for your works are works of iniquity and the Act of violence is in your hands But in the midst of all my thoughts I was sore oppressed in my own spirit I was willing to give up my self even the exteriour the interior life to the supream absolute To live in the world I was unwilling yet willing for live I must and in this consideration live I would so long as the giver or the taker pleaseth let him do with me what seemeth him good in his own eyes But I saw man or the temporary Lords in the world contending to amend me thought I saw that which was mended by man was but amended with a fancy and that which was amended with a fancy was lacerated and torn with another one mans amending another in the world in relation to the supereminent divine changer amender translater is like a simple Cobler his amending a paire of shooes that may be for a fortnights or less not much more walking will weare them out so that it may be sayed as you were or rather worse then you were for these amendings perish with the using therefore I may say Ne sutor ultra crepidam But that which I beheld in the world I desired the supream to destroy in me for I thought with my self it may be I may contein all the innormities of the whole Orb therefore I was in fine made to reflect upon the supream and the absolute Lord and Lawgiver and when I by reflexion considered the foundation of all Generations and I had no satisfaction in the apprehension of the life of the Generations past or the life of the Generation that now is I was reduced into the foundation and that gave me some sweet solacing and some pleasant refreshing But in seeing I beheld and in my view I saw the Lords of the earth had inlarged and were ever inlarging their beds of pleasure to take pleasure in their excess and their temporary glories Methought I saw them resolved so far as mutable Lords could resolve to keep to their own Lawes Statutes Ordinances and to make them unto themselves and demonstrate it unto others as if it were the absolute true and infallible Sabbath of rest and commendable by the most high And when I did upon the Lords casting me into serious consideration behold the Lord by the glimmerings of the supereminent and everlasting glory opening the Seals I saw beasts in the shape of men going forth conquering and to conquer with bows in their hands Rev 6. And I saw and expected an Arrow to pierce all those who held the Testimony of Jesus I saw the Lords and the Potentates of the Aire those that had the power of Nations and Kingdomes so long as they had the Crown go forth conquering and to conquer But Lord if it be thy will make me also to will to receive if thou willest to give an Arrow from that Bow The life supereminent was no sooner held out the Seals were no sooner opened by the eternall supereminent judging word but presently another beast represented it self so long as it had the Crown to take peace from the earth and to kill with the sword But Oh Lord Absolute and Eternall I cannot say that thou wilt not reveale thy self to any one because thou doest not reveal thy truth to many a one but if thou wilt reveal what thou hast hid and hide what thou hast revealed thy will be done the generations of the world are servants to thy Mysticall glory and to thy incomprehensible Majesty draw me up unto that supereminent life in the truth of apprehension and understanding that so I may live in that life though I am kill'd with the sword Also I see a further accomplishment and in the accomplishing I behold even in the temporarie world a horrible persecution and affliction upon the exteriour formes and natures of things methought I saw violence on every side persecution and affliction under all formes to stifle the
what though their are many spirits gone abroad in the world Sectaries the divills of the world as you call them your rejoycing would be rather if you had such a glorious Apostolicall Commission power glory that your names were writen in heaven that you your selves are comprehended in the bosome of the Father But yet if you did so your selves and know your selves it would be questionable whether you have this Apostolicall power and glory if not the one surely not the other But you may have a Crown power and authority continued to you to scourge and crucifie It it is said in the 21. and 22 verses The eternall supereminent the Lord of Heaven and earth had hid wisdome from the wise and prudent and revealed it to babes Lords tell the people playnly and distinctly whether you can say that it seemed good in the sight of the Lord to alter his visible dispensations and to reveal his truth to Lords Potentates Counselours wise men prudent men Sattin men Purple and Diamond men that is to say those that go in gay cloathing and would sway the whole world those that have respect of persons those that must sit here and sit there because they are thus and thus Christ told his disciples that many prophets Kings did desire to see the things that they saw and did not see them and to hear the things that they had heard and did not hear them But admit there have been prophets Kings and Lords since that which have seene the things of God you may not be such men that are now in this Generation Christ said all the glories of the Father were delivered unto him and that no man did know who the Sonne is but the father and who the father is but the son and he to whom the sonne will reveale him even that sonne who hath power over all flesh to give eternall life to as many as the father pleaseth But Lords Synods Counsailes can you say all things are delivered unto you of the father though you have Crownes though you have power yet have a power of mutability your power is not that power of all that power of love of life of perfection of infalliblity do you know the sonne as well as the Father and the father as well as the sonne Doe you know how many and who if how many the father will give eternall life unto by Iesus Christ do you persecute you being fallible according to your owne confession because you would bring into the fold those that are not yet brought in but must be or would you be certain infallible powerfull assistants with Iesus Christ the absolute Lord or do you intend to persecute those that are not intended according to an eternall intendment to be of the body of Jesus Christ if so are you as certain as Christ is certain that this is the Harvest and are you as certain that you are the reapers that you your selves are not the tares are you the Thousands yea the ten Thousands of Saints by which he will come to judge the world Hath the Father altered his mind in relation to manifestation and told you that you must pluck up the tares before the Harvest Or was not that his minde when he declared that the tares should grow together till the Harvest Hath the Father or hath the Son revealed these things unto you in this generation if so tell us and when it was and how and it will be a greater glory unto you then to sit a great while bring out a few fallible contrivances Scholastick inventions But it is far more glorious and a greater matter of rejoycing to you to be lead if leade then to leade for the all-sufficient immutable Lord to leade the lords the people and Nations then for blind lords and Priests to leade poor blind people How would the supereminent be exalted here Admit that the Sectaries of the times those that are called Divels incarnat by you Potentates of the world should in their journey to or from Jerusalem fall amongst theeves and should be stripped of their rayment and be wounded should yield to the temptations of that raging divell in the world in and since the Apostacy or since that Satans Minestery Magistracy hath had and continued their power in the world Is it commendable in the Priests and Levites to see them so and to pass by on the other side or is it commendable for these Priests to add or cause others to add afflictions to their bonds But these Priests and Levites God will not honour so much The Samaritan must come and see also and have compassion Oh Good Samaritan for the poor wounded stripped and torn man this is an excellent similitude the supereminentness and gloriousness consists in the subsistance But Oh! unmercifull High Priests and Levites when God hath sent a messenger of Satan to buffet a man and to have power over the bodie may be the understanding in temptation will you buffett and imprison much more looke to your commission may not God say to a Synod in this case as Christ said to Peter in another Get thee behinde me Satan Are you better then Peter was if you are or if you thinke you are dare not Christ say so as well to a Synod as to a Peter But this is your pity if wee were wounded and naked and if you were as you are not the true loving compassionate judging discerning persons I think you had need to have the most glorious infallible Commission for your security that may bee so to persecute and prosecute if it were lawfull so to doe What cruelty is it in you who made not your selves to destroy your selves you that are not able to make a man to destroy a man starve a man for that which is in the conscience even for that which a man himselfe is not Lord of when you nor he are truly able to add one Cubit to his stature unlesse that you goe to a Shoomaker for a paire of Heeles Indeed what ye make you may marre but 11 Luke 40. Ye fooles did not hee that made that which is without make that which is within also Profecto testificamini quod consentitis operibus patrum Vestorum For ought you know God hath sent a few mechanicall illiterate fellowes as you call them that the bloud and cruelty of all Generations may be set on the score of the continued successiue persecutors as wel as upon those who slew and dealt injuriously with the Prophets and Apostles But this will not excuse you to say you had power to binde heavy burthens on others shoulders and not to touch them your selves with one of your fingers This will not exuse you before the Supereminent life glory Lord absolute discerne judge to say what tongue or Lord shall controul us Surely I think if Christ Iesus the head the anoynted of God in peculiarity were in the world now as he was in so despicable manner to his enemies you
would scarce afford him to write or seeme to write upon the ground If he did we should have a gangraena made presently to condemn this Heretick this Belzebub this friend to publicans sinners But Lords But Counsailes but Synods in fine but men when the absolute Lord and supereminent God shal tell you though a poore man it may be that is iudged and condemned before you may not neither doth that you who were or are called Lords in the sublunary Visible Kingdome glory did endeavour to cast a moate out of anothers eye you had a beame in your owne and that you having a beam are no competent judges of a mote But it may be you will say that you are infallible in this and also say that that saying of Christ doth not appertain to you Let him that is without sin cast the first stone when God shall discover himself and manifest you what you are even that you that judge other are Cast-awaies your selves are Hereticks your selves you would not be very willing to finde a stone for another When the Lord shall say though you cried Templum Domini Templum Domini yet the everlasting was not in your esteem even he that can when he will both cast out Beam and Mote But thus it is when the Lord is not or will not be understandingly supereminently in the Lords thoughts though he be neer and sees yet he will not be seen but they say how doth God know can he judge through the dark Cloud thick Clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not and he walketh in the circuit of heaven Job 22 23 24. But Oh Immortality thy righteousness thy seeing and thy seeing to be seen thy knowing to be known and thy understanding to be understood shines not upon all Thou hast O Lord set the world in my heart so that no man can finde out the work that thou hast made from the beginning to the end Ecclesiastes 3.11 Therefore Lord if thou wilt give a Crown Power and Authority to Temporarie Lords to excercise their Dominion and power even upon me if thou shalt manifest me and make me a little flame of thy self thy will be done It is only in thy self to comprehend the works that thou hast made from the beginning to the end if man indeavours to comprehend endeavours to inthrone himself in a state of comprehending others and persecuting others from an apprehension that he comprehends when he doth not in deed and in truth and though I shall if thou comprehending incomprehensib e willest be afflicted scorrned contemned by that generation yet let me in particular lie down and be satisfied that I am apprehended and comprehended of thee and that I know see and speake according to the true and reall nature of knowing seeing speaking living and injoying as comprehended let me see before I say I see know before I say I know and be spoken to before I speak Oh! thou immutable knower see'r and absolute speaker as to the things that thou hast made capable of seeing knowing and speaking let thy loving spirit of righteousness and wisdom uphold me and though thou deliverest me to the ungodly and turnest me over into the hands of the wicked let me say truly knowingly and understandingly my witness is in heaven and my record is on high in love Job 26.19 But Counsellours of the Earth Weak Contenders of the Earth with the absolute Lord I see and consider oppressions though I see not all oppressions under the Sun But a comfort it is that the absolute Lord sees Eccles 4.1 2. But it may be Lords you will say when you persecute there is no remedy in the death of a man it is sutable to conveniency and the constitution of a Kingdom to destroy a man so as it was indeed to crucifie the Son of God who was known is known to some not to be held of the grave But you it may be will say you have not known any man to returne it may be you will say men are born at an adventure and shall be hereafter as though they had never bin that the breath of your nostrils is as smoake a little spark in the moving of your Breast which being extinguished your body shall be turned into ashes and your spirit shall vanish as the soft Aire therefore you will lie in waite for the righteous because he is not for your turn he is clean contrary to your doings because he professeth to have the knowledge of God and he calleth himself the child of the Lord he is made to reprove your doings therefore he is grievous to behold because his life is not like other mens his waies are of another fashion because you are esteemed of him as counterfeits and he abstaineth from your filthiness and because he maketh his boast that God is his Father And therefore you will examine him with despightfulness and torture to know his meekness and prove his Patience But Potentates I shall present a few things to your consideration paradventure you may see with your eyes and heare with your ears and when you are converted if ever you shall you may set to your seals that these things are true to the praise and glory of the absolute infallible God Judge power wisdome and true glory 1. God is the alone supream King of kings Lord of lords and God may as well as he hath already give the Nations or those to whom he intends to shew and manifest himself unto a light and glorious understanding to see that Lords by speciall authority and power formerly constituted are but types and shadowes of the absolute supream immortall God and Judge but this is true though the Lords and Kings see it not themselves for I know they will say you Prophecie not good unto them in these things 2. Christ the perfect pattern of the Fathers manifested perfection to men never gave any such power or kingly authority to any that then were in the world either Magistrates or Apostles he never gave the Apostles power to exercise themselves with scourgings whippings imprisonments banishments or oppositions of such a kind therefore there is no such successive Magistracy 2 Cor. 11.3 4. verses If he that cometh Preacheth another Jesus whom we have not Preached and if ye receive another Spirit whom ye have not received or another Gospel which ye have not accepted ye might well bear with him Likewise there was power given or the manifestation of the most High in a way supereminent that the Saints should do great things by the power of the Spirit and in the name of the Lord Jesus that supereminent name that name above every name In whose name the seventy returned with joy and said the Devils were subject unto them by it Luke 10.17 I know no other authority power or glory given to any that should profess that name according to the spirit 3. Christs commanding the Apostles to give Caesar his due and God
give forth some way or other to discover the thoughts of all hearts Oh Lord Supereminent Thou hast made all men almost to differ one from another and thou hast set the world in their hearts to some thou didst give the gift of prophesie it may be in some measure to some Tongues to some discerning of spirits to some working of miracles to some wisdom to some knowledge to some Faith if thou givest me but the glimmerings of love in the least of these or in any one let me not despise him that hath more or judge him that hath more nor yet despise him that hath less or judge him that hath less if any have less then my self in relation to capacity or understanding for thou art the same let me not pretēd to know above what I really know though the powers of the world would have me do that I am not convinced of or leave undone that which I cannot because I am thine not their servant Oh then the absolute Lord over-rule the lords in me and let me see thee and walk before thee in the understanding yet if thou wilt have a Nero a Domitian a Caligula or any power of the visible world to scourge me Give my back to the smiters and let me know and see thou givest it and then let me take pleasure in it For oh Lord me thinks I see that a man may have a vision of God and may see a star to arise out of Jacob and may be convinced in his conscience that the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and that God is the alone Lawgiver Judge and absolute supream as many or most of the Nationall Priests and Lords confess yet at the request of a base sensitive lust and divilish desire will endeavour to have Altars built yea Altar upon Altar to see whether they can curse the Israel of God Let us proclaim a Fast that so God may hear our Prayers and grant our desires the longing of our souls But Lord how far is this from the true life of Saintship and love in the World But O Lord refine me and then let me walk as refined Thirteenth The mandates of the Scripture even the Scriptures from which the Potentates and powers of the earth have and do maintain persecution and violence to others do all of them extend to the Magistrate and if he were in a Christian constitution as he pretends he ought not in that relation to use carnall weapons neither will he unless he supposes himself wiser then ever Christ or an Apostle was or hath received the Spirit more then an Apostle had or hath received the Spirit to maintain and defend such a practise as the Apostle could not neither did 2 Cor. 10.4 Christ saith when they were persecuted should pray when cursed bless Christ could have had twelve Legions of Angels to defend him in this visible world but he would not take any invisible glory or visible excellency of God to defend him And if the Magistrates will tell us plainly that they have that power given them as considered in a constitution of holiness and truth which the Father would not give Jesus the Son or which he would not assume or exercise nor give his Apostles power to assume or exercise Let them prove that they or this or that particular Magistrate had or have that which neither of them had neither Jesus Christ nor Apostles And let those whom they are pleased to call Hereticks and to banish imprison and afflict see their Arguments that they have in themselves as in the presence though they think it not nor perceive it or know it or though knowing it will not acknowledge it of the Eternall incomprehensible Judge non-respecter of persons the interiorest discerner that can describe that which man describes with a fuller description and judge with a fuller judgement then man or any visible glory or rationall intellect in the world who is without the exteriorest and within the interiorest and indivisible in himself who judges with a more absolute judgement then all the Councels Potentates Lords Synods or Parliaments of the earth And when he enters into judgement the flesh of a Lord is no more then the flesh of another man nor shall more be justified by him or be able to justifie it self But I beleeve if things were demonstrated in the world according to the spirit of truth reallity and non-confusion the Lords Potentates and Counsels of the earth would appear to be the greatest Anti-scripturists though in words they would not have it so expressed or so express it themselves Fourteenth Is it not a case of conscience or is there not necessity that every particular man should be perswaded in his own minde for what he doth or for what he is commanded to do least he call good evil and evil good least he call oppressing persecuting Lords Magistrates Counsels Synods followers of the God of heaven in love light and truth Citizens of the New Ierusalem Saints of the most high God livers in the Spirit those that walk with God when indeed they are not so but grinders of the faces of the poor Idolaters carnall sensuall and divilish having not the spirit having mens persons in admiration because of advantage making a prey of the poor and needy having wisdom yet are not wise unto God but to themselves oppressours though not of their friends or themselves of the Saints of the most High or those that are not perswaded in their consciences by the Divine Supream God It is not strange to say know and think that magistrates and ministers so called have been so are and may be so The Scriptures of the most High God testifie it the saints have witnessed it and still do witness it with their blood and bodies Are there not men magistrates and ministers of such mindes as Caesar Caligula was of that wished that all the people of Rome had but one neck that he might destroy many at once Many can apply this But Hell must inlarge her self Gods design must be accomplished in Hell as well as in Heaven Saints give your backs to the smiters In this my last Demonstration and apprehension I was in the conclusion desiring in my own spirit of that eternall Jehovah and everlasting God that I might be so swallowed up into that eternall glory wisdom power will that I might not manifest my self with my self but that my self or rather himself might be manifested in me by me and from me then though the mutable Lords of the Aire oppose me yet my alone substantiall ever-remaining supereminent Lord remaines If I live he is if I die those that live after me shall not truly say he is not but he is the same I also desired that I might be so swallowed up to the life of the Lord that in seeing of that Lord in the things of that Lord I might not respect persons that it might be all one to me to be hated and to be loved to
Letter as he pleaseth would you not esteem it an indignity when the supream Judge shall come to judge the world as the Apostle saith according to his Gospel when the supream God shall averr in the interiorest and say that indeed he sent his Son and anointed him with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows and gave him the spirit not by measure so that unmeasurableness and mysticalness was manifested in him and by him and he spake to a few Saints and gathered by the power of the Spirit a few poor men to teach the mysteries of Christ but there was one William Pryn Esquire a Lawyer I will not say Saint Pryn and the Lords of the earth and the Synods of the world proved interpreters with their own lusts according to their formall artificiall terms of distinction and so they said this must be the meaning to day this must be the meaning to morrow Procul dubio Lords is this not indignity But Christ will not be for ever crucified in his body the Church crucifying will be over may be in time but surely will when time shall be no more 19. If the Scriptures were so plain that he that runs may reade he that barely reads may understand to what purpose is the spirit promised to lead into all truth since the Ascention If I may absolutely knowingly understandingly infallibly Aopstolically Christ like know and understand all that I see and heare concerning my self and others But truly Lords and mutable Potentates though you reade hear see as you say you do you may say as the Eunuch how shall I understand without a guide But remember this the guides say and confess they are not infallible 20. If you do confess the spirit was promised to be given after the Ascention if it be given to ye it is a greater glory for you to tell us of it then laugh at it to tell of it how it came to you and when then to tell us what you have done for us if any thing in relation to civils Paul was not ashamed of it 21. If you confess that the spirit was promised to be given after the Ascension you had need to averr justifie and prove that it was promised to be given to Magistrats Lords and Synods not poore men not Fisher-men that the spirit went from the poore to the rich from those that the honourable count base to the honourable And though it were so it is no good Argument to convince a man even to strike him to imprison him and defame him as the false prophet did the true when he said when went the spirit of the Lord from me to thee 22. If you prove that the spirit was to be given to Magistracy Lords Nationall preists both you and the people had need know whether you in this age that now is more then any other are the Magistrates and the Preists For it was not promised to Magistracy in all Ages if it had it would have been performed for he promiseth nothing but what he performeth And that precedent Magistracy have been enemies and persecutors of the Saints of God under the notion of Heretiques or those that have been contrarie minded it is playnly apparent Historie declare it and you your selves confess it are convinced of it in your own hearts as you say therefore let that Magistracy as well as other men let that Synod that thinks he stands take heed least he falls or is already fallen or that he takes falling for standing in himselfe and standing for falling in others and so judges condemnes and persecutes 23. Me thinks I heare in my eares a urge saying and a voyce to my understanding declaring that there was a Nation or multitude of people met together as Episcopalls Presbyters and Independents so called and did convene from remote parts the East West North and South and these chose some to consult and debate what should be for the good of that Nation and kingdome and gave them power and honour and externall glory so much as they could or was in their power but the prevayling party tooke upon them the things of God and the place of God as much as in them lay and beat and wounded those that were contrary minded in their minds as to God though they still continued loving and affectionate to them Is this good Oh! sad requitall may not you say woe to your owne soul for you have rewarded evill to your selves Isa 3.12 Oh! my people they which leade thee cause thee to erre and destroy the way of thy paths 24. Suppose that a multitude of faire complexioned men of straite deportment should choose and elect a companie and place them in honour and dignity above themselves but these poore creatures or some of them may be Iob in the paralell should have an affliction upon them their faces should be changed their bodyes should grow crooked and this should be inflicted by the God of all natures mutable glories and excellencies or suppose God should send Sathan to tempt them or some of them that they may consent to the temptation and whereas Iob had boyles and sores even from the Crowne of the head to the sole of the feet would it not be sad now that one should come and lay Iobs affliction more heavie on him whipp the man sting him with scorpions But would it not be as sad also to see two that were full of boyles and sores wounds of Sathan temptations of the Devill that contrarie that roaring Lion in the shape of man to whip one another and lash one another for I have heard many of the nationall preists confess themselves publiquely that they have been full of wounds and sores and putrifactions even from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot Oh! Preist it is better for thee to tell who healed thee then to wound another that is in thy former condition if thou art out of it and truly translated But would not this make a man to breake out after this manner and say O inhumanitie had I knowne this should I have been so inhumane to my selfe I am scourged because I am sore wounded because I have boyles because I am in temptation because I am in errours because Sathan that politique Devill that contrarie hath deceived me and I am deceived though I have boyles and sores from the sole of the foot to the crowne of the head sent me of the God of Gods and Lord of Lords the Ruler of Princes yet after the manner of men I might have spared the rending and tearing my owne bowells I cannot comprehend the heavens and the earth much less him that is greater then both I cannot change my selfe nor make him change me till he will But the will of eternitie be done why should I contend with the God of all changes when I did choose them I was weakness it selfe I was the weaker vessell and I am despised for being so yet I made not my selfe so neither can I add one Cubit to my stature reade 1. Isa 29.30.31 25. Admit that those that are generally called and doe call themselves Ministers of the Gospel and prophets of the most high God in an eminent and a supereminent manner have communion with God and should be told of God as the Prophet was what they should do 13 Kings reade the whole Chapter must we goe forward and backward because the Prophets do so But surely I hope there is the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah in the way I who am weakness desire of thee O Immortall strength that I may more and more walke as comprehended of thy divine will that I may neither goe backward and forward and forward and backward to the right hand and to the left hand because the Nationall preists and Prophets do so but that I may walke as became a child to thee the Father of spirits and the God of all consolation and therefore let me live to the willing life and living will of thee O supersupereminent God 26. Magistrates and ministers of God so called you are but men subject to like passions that other men are as well as an Apostle was as he confesseth if not much more and you were not long since under Episcopacy and owned it as of God many of you if not all did did you satisfie your selves or were you satisfied of God if you were can you or we that are contrary minded draw God to us to satisfie us when you or we will our selves your selves 27. You Magistrates and ministers so called are but at the most or the most you can say of your selves in your own applause is that you are but wise and prudent men But saith Christ Father I thank thee thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent Scribes Pharises Lawyers chief Priests and revealed them to babes but may be you will say now as Lloyden said the case is altered but many Scriptures will prove this 28. Magistrates and ministers so called you shall die as well as other men the King and the Beggar the Fool and the Achitophel the master and the servant ye shall go to one Tomb that contains all generations mystically in it self But I will not say you think you shall have a Pardon or a Purgatory or both 29. Magistrates and minsters so called the Kings the Priests and the people the beggar and the rich the wise and the foolish the abased and the abounding person the Lawyer with his terms fallacies and term-pleadings and the Divines so called with their formall Sophistical Criticisms shall appear if there be any judgement as indubitably there is and shall before the absolute perfect Tribunal all the restitution of all things when all things shall be brought forth according to the will powerfull Excellencie and minde of the supream Cause when the things that are mystically unsearchably brought forth and are again mystically hid in its proper center in a way of mutability shall be brought forth in everlastingness but this is a mystery of eternity at which time and in which appearance you Lords of the earth shall be judged in those things that ye judge questioned in those things that ye question others and be your selves examined whether you are in the faith in a supersuperlaive manner And so farewell mutable dying vain unholy unnaturall temporarie judging inconsiderable man FJNJS