AN EPISTLE To all the Christian MAGISTRATES And Powers in the whole CHRISTENDOM And Professors and Teachers and Christians that witness the end of the Law and the Levitical Priesthood and confess Christ Jesus the substance the Rest of the People of God the substance the Sabbath that ends the Day which was a Sign and likewise that owns the Doctrine of the Apostles c. LONDON Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate 1659. AN Epistle to all the Christian Magistrates and powers in the whole Christendom and Professors and Teachers and Christians that witness the end of the Law and the Levitical Priesthood and confess Christ Jesus the substance the rest of the people of God the substance the Sabbath that ends the day which was a sign and likewise that owns the Doctrine of the Apostles To such I say that owns Christ Jesus the substance and his Doctrine and the Apostles Doctrine I say do not persecute one another about dayes Sabbath-dayes Holy-dayes Festival-dayes Fasting-dayes or in meats or drinks which the Kingdom of Heaven stands not in but in power for the Sabbath which the Lord gave unto man a sign to man and the Creation Ox and Asse six dayes the Lord saith shalt thou labour the seventh thou shalt rest and keep holy to the Lord Which seventh day he that did transgress was to be stoned to death read Numb 15. 26. And every one that did not keep the Sabbath but did work therein should be cut off from among the people so according to the Law of God which was given forth that they should keep the Sabbath day which is the seventh day which ye keep Markets and Fairs on in most of the chief Towns and chief Markets of the Nation ye are all by the Law of God to be cut off for this Law was given to the Children of Israel this Law and Commandement which was a Covenant a perpetual Covenant and a sign between the Children of Israel and the Lord for ever the Children of Israel found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day the seventh day on which ye keep Markets and Fairs and they brought him unto Moses the chief Magistrate and unto Aaron and unto the Congregation and they put him in Ward for it was not revealed what they should do to him the Lord said unto Moses the man shall be put to death and all the Congregation shall stone him with stones Now if ye go according to the Law of God which ye do pretend and keep Markets and Fairs and buying and selling and your work upon those dayes both ye and your cattel and horses which is contrary to the Law of God Are not ye dead men all by the Law of God and men to be stoned to death according to your own Judgement as ye may read Numb 15. 35 36. The Law of God which is for the breakers of the Sabbath day the seventh day which was not for the first day of the week And ye do not read that there was any punishment by any Law for working upon any other dayes but for the seventh day the Sabbath day which God gave as a sign and a Covenant between him and the Children of Israel before Christ was come into the flesh the substance of all signs Do you own Christ come in the flesh the substance that ends the signs that persecutes people about the Sabbath Are ye not according to the Law of God to be stoned to death not to strain their goods but stone them to death that transgress the Sabbath day And did not the Prophets cry out often when the Children of Israel had transgressed the Sabbath and broken the Sabbath and kept not the seventh day they did not cry out against them for working on the six dayes And have not ye broken the Sabbath and keeps Markets and Fairs upon it And the Sabbath was not given to the Gentiles from the Lord but if the Gentiles and strangers came among the Jews they were to rest within his Gates that had the figure and his man-servants and his maid-servants and cattel it was a sign and a Covenant between God and the Children of Israel of the everlasting rest of Jews and Gentiles and the whole Creation Christ Jesus the rest and the giver of rest Now the Gentiles the Jews was not to stone them to death that kept not the Sabbath without them six dayes the Children of Israel was to gather Manna the seventh they was to rest from gathering their meat and if they did gather it it stunk Now do not you gather your meat on the Sabbath day And have not ye broken the Law of God And are ye not finding fault with others that breaks the Sabbath But where was any Sabbath dayes commanded by Christ or the Apostles to be kept by the Christians if not to fine or imprison them shew me that Scripture that Christ or the Apostles gave forth such a Law upon record then ye will not be found usurpers of Authority and Ministry and so is not this doctrines of men and Commandements of men to set up a Sabbath-day and your own precepts which are taught and no Scripture can shew of Christ or the Apostles for it And Nehemiah the Tenth If the people of the Land bring wares or any victuals on the Sabbath day to sell they was not to buy it of them on the Sabbath day the Holy day Now do not you sell victuals on the Sabbath day open your shops on the Sabbath day and drive your cattel to the Markets on the Sabbath day the seventh day and set open your shops of all sorts which by the Law of God was to dye to be stoned to death and will you persecute or imprison and fine such as open their shops on the first day one of the six dayes Who gave ye this Law Where is it written in the Scriptures by Christ or the Apostles that professeth the substance is come that ends the Sabbath the Jews Sabbath Then men should be fined or persecuted for working on the six dayes Did not they prophane the Sabbath in the tenth of Nehemiah that bought victuals on the Sabbath day and fish and such as trod the Wine-press These polluted the Sabbath day the seventh day and broke the Law of God Do not ye reap down your Corn on the Sabbath day the seventh day till your ground and buy your wares and meat and sell it again upon the seventh day which was the Lords Sabbath which was a Covenant and a Law between him and the Jews and death to the transgressor to be cut off and stoned to death And so was not there a Command among the Jews that the Gates should be shut up when it began to be dark till after the Sabbath that no burden should go in or out that no Merchant or seller of any kind should sell that day among them Now this Law was among the Jews but not among the Gentiles it was not
given to the Gentiles Did not Isaiah cry against them that polluted the Sabbath the seventh day but not the first day Isaiah 56 The Lord said to Ezekiel they greatly have polluted my Sabbath and so broken his Commandement he did not say they have polluted the first day and they walked not in his Statutes see 20 of Ezekiel So they that wrought and do work upon the Sabbath day the seventh day prophaned it and broken the Statutes of God 12 Ezekiel and 13 Ezekiel Now the Jews that had the sign as kept the Covenant of God that was a perpetual Covenant with them the outward Jews Now Christ when he came the substance they accused him to be a Sabbath-breaker and his Disciples who was the everlasting Covenant of God that ended the first that Covenant of the Sabbath day Christ the rest Now Christ did not bid the Jews take his Disciples and stone them to death when they plucked off the ears of corn when they were walking up and down Sabbath dayes journeyes they was not fined or imprisoned or goods strained by the Jews as the Christians do now such as go up and down to the service and worship of God for the Jews said it was not lawful for the Disciples to gather meat to gather corn on the Sabbath day And Christ asked them whether they had not read what David did when he eat of the shew-bread Matth. 1â— 4 5. and was blameless And what the Priests did in the Temple and was blameless And told them again that he the Son of man was Lord of the Sabbath that he had power which was as much as to say his Disciples were blameless and did not find fault with them nor did not rebuke them And the Jews did not accuse Christ for doing any thing on the first day of the week nor the Disciples And then after the Jews had accused Christ and his Disciples for plucking ears of corn on the Sabbath day and then after Christ himself healed a man on the Sabbath day they accused him as a Sabbath-breaker see 12. Matth and 2. Mark and so he said unto them was it not lawful to do good on the Sabbath day And this is just now like our Professors and Teachers and corrupt Magistrates that will persecute friends that go to Meetings to edifie one another in the things of God on the first dayes and tell them that they break the Sabbath and the Jewes laugh at them and know that that was never commanded and they keep Markets and Fairs on the seventh day which was the Sabbath day the Covenant between God and the Jewes Which Covenant Christ the everlasting Rest ends And those Jewes who were so mad about the outward day and did not know the everlasting Covenant Christ Jesus they took up stones to stone him as ye may read the 8th of John and the Jewes said it was not lawful for the man that was healed to carry his bed upon the Sabbath day Now the Law had forbidden the carrying of burthens dressing of meat and kindling of fire on the Sabbath day the first Covenant between God and the Jews But the second Covenant was come the Lord of the Sabbath that healed that gave rest and said take up thy bed and walk Is the day made for the man or the man for the day Is the man above the day or the day above the man The Son of man also is Lord of the Sabbath Therefore the Jews went about to slay him and persecuted him for doing good on the Sabbath day the seventh day Not the first day as the Christian Magistrates do now Fines and persecutes such as go to the worship and service of God on the first day and sets open their shops and keeps Markets and Fairs on the seventh day the Sabbath and keeps them shut on the first day The Jews sought to kill Christ because he had not onely broken the Sabbaths day but that he had made himself equal with God see Joh. 6. And this was a great crime accounted that he who was the substance broke the Sabbath day which was the seventh day which the world calls Saturday the Heathen calls it Saturday and all the Christians that be in the Heathenish nature and Fryday and Thursday and Wedensday and Tuesday and Monday that day they worship the Moon and Sunday that day they did worship the Sun Here is the old Heathens Nature and names that knew not God nor Scriptures nor the Law of God For they are onely the Heathen not Christians nor true Jews that calls the dayes Sun and Moon and Twes and Woden and Thur. and Fryday and Saturns day for the true Christians said first day and second day c. to the seventh and that they call Sabbath the Jews But the false Christians they call the first day of the week Sabbath which they call Sunday and Moonday the Christians that is in the Heathenish nature since the dayes of the Apostles as ye may read in the Almanacks And so ye may see how after the Jews outward to whom the first Covenant was the Sabbath the sign outward of Christ the everlasting Covenant John 7. And they said this man Christ he was not of God and a sinner because he kept not the Sabbath therefore was a sinner John 9. 16. Christ Jesus the Covenant who came to end the first Covenant and the day he that did give rest who was the everlasting Covenant of God between God and the people strangers Jews Gentiles and the rest to servant men and maides and cattel and strangers Christ the substance of the first the everlasting Covenant though the first was given not to the Gentiles but onely to a particular people the Jews the Covenant of God between him and them which was to observe a day which was a sign of the everlasting Covenant Christ Jesus so Christ who was the Covenant of God that gave rest unto the Creation did not set forth to the Christians that they should keep another Sabbath day and imprison strain the goods of such as went up and down to private meetings to worship God or as laboured on the first day of the week He did not set up Lawes to oppresse the Creation but he brake them and ended the Law and the first Covenant Christ who Rules himself and hath all power in Heaven and Earth given unto him of the Father And now all ye Christians Teachers and Magistates and Professors If ye will have a Sabbath and cry up a Sabbath ye must offer on the Sabbath dayes two Lambs of the first year without spot two tenth deals of flower for a meat-offering mingled with oil and a drink-offering thereof And this is the burnt-offering in every Sabbath besides the continual burnt-offering and drink-offerings So where is your offerings if ye will have a Sabbath why do ye not cry up offerings as well as the Sabbath why do ye not cry up the day and do none of the work that is to
bestowed on you in vain that observe days and persecuce others that will not observe dayes Did not the Apostles tell the Galatians that they were bewitched that went into Circumcision and observation of dayes and Monthes and years And what are not all you bewitched now that observe dayes and Monthes and years And the Apostles labour is in vain on ye all bestowed and his Epistles Now if ye say that John was in the Island Pathmos upon the Lords day tell me which is not the Lords day whether first second third or fourth c. whether all be not the Lords dayes Now if ye say the Saints met together on the first day of the week which Christ rise on we own that and so we do meet together on that day Acts 20. 7. 1. Cor. 6. 2. but the Apostles did to give a Law that the first day of the week should be called a sabbath and they should be fined and imprisned that laboured in the thing that was good needful things now if ye call it a sabbath then ye must be crossed as the Jews was if ye make an idol of it The Lord God in his power to the exalting of his Son who is the rest of his people will confound your sabbath which ye have made and invented who calls the first day sabbath and say they must do no work that day and yet many of ye will hardly go to your worship on that day without horses drawing of you in your Coaches And your Cooks labour that day and dresseth meat for money on that day But if any man open his shop that day he must be fined or imprisoned which is for meat too and for money now what confusion is this Is not the Cook working for money the other working for mony all one And the porters working for mony by carrying people in their Sedans to their worship and have not the Parliament sat on the first day which ye call the sabbath day to do the Nations work Therefore now that people should be so scrupling calling the first day sabbath day wch is not proper And how many hundreds of pouuds hath been taken from the people called Quakers for travelling to their meetings on the first day and how many 100 1. doth your Priests get on that day and have as much for that dayes work to maintain their families the whole week is not that his shop and Market day which the Apostate Christians calls sabbath who have had their goods taken away horses taken away hundreds of pounds worth for their going to meetings to the worship and service of God and no where in the Scripture it doth speak that the first day of the week is the sabbath day nor gives it that name Nor did they give forth Ordinances that they should be fined and imprisoned and their goods strained for going to meetings on that day or if any one did other things on that day Which some of your Tradsmen may labour and get money on the first day your sabbath day and others must not Dresse meat for money and others must not sell meat for money which be things that be necessary and commendable And therefore if one thing be tollerated and yet do not another ye transgresse your own sabbath they were not the Jews to gather their meat on that day ye gather your meat on that day They were not to make fire on the sabbath ye make a fire on your sabbath They were nor to bear a burthen on that day ye are carrying burdens your women in their Sedans running up and down with your meat from the Cookes shops and drawing of your Coaches up and down about the streets that people can sometimes hardly passe up and down for them so the seventh day was the sabbath day where the Ordinance of God was that no manner of work was to be done on it The first day Christ rise on who ended the Jews sabbath and that Covenant and was the substance of that figure to the whole Creation to the man-servant and maid-servant and stranger And the Christians that believed in him Christ that rose on the first day of the week they met together on the first day Christ rise on he appeared amongst them though there is more in that and so they Apostles did not give forth a Law that they should judge one another about dayes or that they should fine one another about such things he that did esteem all dayes alike and he that did esteem one day above another they should live in peace For one that was not come through dayes and he that was come to see the end of dayes every one must stand or fall to this own Master the Spirit that made them free Christ that made them free and not to Judge or lay a stumbling block before his Brother As the hard-hearted Christians now will fine and imprison one another about dayes They that do observe a day one above another they will Judge and fine and imprison them that account every day alike and so they will not let him stand or fall to this own Master and will not own the Apostles Doctrine but throw it away who saith they should not Judge one another about the such things So all Friends of the Lord God that be moved to set open your shops or do any work on the first day which the false Christians call their Sabbath and yet break it and not keep it as a Sabbath contrary to Scriptures Do not ye Judge all as do not as ye do that be not moved to do the service as ye are to do that day And all that doth not do that service on that day as ye do as are not moved by the power of the Lord God do not Judge them that doth such a service on that day But all dwell in the power of God that ends the shadows that ye may feel one another in that which will confound the world which is run into the witch-craft in observing of dayes times months years as Christ-mass Michael-mass Lammass Candle-mass c. and in which ye may have Unity The Apostles did not Command such things but they invented them since the Apostles dayes and persecute one another about them such as would not observe them but remained in the Apostles Doctrine and observe it Therefore now who are come into the power of God the Apostles were in and come to fathome the false church the beast the false prophets Anti-christ the Dragon and his authority false prophet false church lawes and authority fathoming this by the power of God and come to see the true Church coming out of the Wilderness and the Lambs Marriage witness the time that the Apostles were in seen and the life and power enjoyed and substance as they did possess which brings to the beginning before dayes was in which is no shadow Anne Goula Robert Hasle Humphrey Bache Mary Web. Daniel Baker PAul told the Counsel the Magistrates when
Sacrifices every year it was remembred again Heb 10. And so while they lived in the Sacrifices the changeable shadows of good things to come living in the words out of the the power they will persecute the good thing when it is come as the Magistrates and the Jews did Christ and the Apostles and Saints If a man bid thee to a feast if thou be disposed to go whatsoever is set before thee thou maist eat asking no Question for Conscience sake But if they say it is offered to an Idol eat not for his sake that shews it thee and for Conscience sake for the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof Conscience I say not thine own but of the other for why is thy liberty judged of another mans Conscience Now here is the state now where the Conscience is pure where the Mystery of Faith is hold and things pure to it which destroyes Idols And where the Conscience is defiled and not pure whose minds yet be in the Idols such Friends must take heed of coming too nigh them least they imbolden them to eat those things that will harden an evil Conscience And such as be in the evil Conscience will persecute where it is not made pure such as have an evil Conscience to Idols will persecute them that do exercise themseles to have a good Conscience towards God which the Mystery of Faith is held in So where this evil Conscience is that will eat things offered to Idols there they be weak and is defiled and this is for want of knowledge Now that which must give them the knowledge the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus is the light that shines in their hearts to bring them to eat of the Offering Christ Jesus of his flesh and drink of his blood And here in the light which gives the knowledge they see Christ the Authour of their Faith which is held in the pure Conscience are them that are come to the exercise of themselves to have alwayes their Conscience void of offence towards God c And not to go along with him eating things offered to Idols for those are Heathens indeed and weak and defiled indeed and for want of knowledge indeed that eats of the offerings offered unto Idols they eat nor or the offering Christ Jesus And these be from the light which should give them the knowledge See 2 Cor. 4 2 3 4 For our rejoycing is in the testimony of our consciences that in simplicity and godly sincerity and not in the fleshly wisdom Now mark and take notice Here is the Saints rejoycing in the testimony of their consciences in simplicity and godly sincerity and not in the fleshly wisdom and this differs from the world whose rejoycing is in the fleshly wisdom not in simplicity nor in godly sincerity not in the testimony of a good conscience of a pure conscience but their rejoycing stands in the testimony of an evil conscience that while they are upon earth they must have sin in it those are the persecutors so here is the good and the evil Cain and Abel here is Isaac and Ishmael here in Esau and Jacob and here is the bad persecuting Jews against the Prophets and against Christ and the Apostles that had the form of godliness but denyed the power And here is the Beasts and false prophets work great whore Mother of Harlots false Church Antichrists inwardly ravening Wolves in sheeps cloathing who drink the blood of the Martyrs Prophets and Saints and kill them that be in the power of godliness the evil consciences full of dead works serving not the living God their consciences unpurged such cannot own the blood of Christ within them nor the light within them nor the word of God nor the power of God within them nor the Spirit of God within them such their sacrifices God never accepts So all the true Saints who are subject to the power of God the higher power not onely for wrath but for conscience sake mark the good conscience is subject to the higher power which is of God that goes over all transgressors and answers the transgressed principle in every man that exerciseth the conscience of every man towards the higher power to which his soul should be subject to Now all the evil consciences of the Heathen and whatsoever they was not being subject to the higher power which was over all the transgressors Therefore the Jews which were in the higher power was to trample down them heathen that was in their evil consciences so who are subject not onely for wrath but for conscience sake they have unity with the Power the power doth not turn against them But where the higher power turns against them the transgressors and so they are not subject to it for conscience sake but onely for wrath the power forceth them down whether they will or no for wrath the terror of the Lord cometh upon them these are not for conscience sake subject nor they are not one with it the power the Gentiles that did the Law did the things contained in the Law by nature which shewing the work of the Law written in their hearts in their consciences so the doers of the Law were justified by the higher power So he was a Jew that was one inward in the spirit not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God So the Gentiles was not the Jews in the Letter but the Jews was the Jews in the Letter that did not the things contained in the Law but the Gentiles did by nature having not the command the things contained in the Law but the Gentiles did by nature having not the command the things contained in the Law And so the uncircumision kept the Law this was accounted for circumcision And shall not the uncircumcision which is by nature if it fulfill the Law judge thee who by the Letter is the circumcision and transgresseth the Law And this may judge all the outward professors upon the earth that lives upon things so without them And ye may see the Apostle who did exercise his conscience to keep it void of offence alwayes towards God c. brought the Jews and Gentiles here and how the Magistrates was in a rage against him and called him a pestilent fellow and one that turned the world upside down and a mover of sedition a ring leader of Sects and a man not fit to live upon the earth and how the Apostle confessed before Magistrates and Rulers and Kings how he exercised himself to have his conscience void of offence c. now was he ever persecuted till he came to that confession And do ye ever persecute any till they come to that confession G. F. THE END