hard dealing to your Tenants and Servants and have laid heavy Yoaks upon such with whom you have dealt and that have made your selves great and rich in the Earth by such means Wo unto you Misery is coming upon you weep and howl ye earthly greedy covetous Wretches of this World who have sought Riches more than the Lord and gotten Gain by Oppression and Over-reaching your Neighbours your Riches so gotten shall never prosper nor be blessed to you but shall be a Curse to you and your Children and your Covetousness will God plague Ye that have gotten Goods and not by right shall leave them in the midst of your dayes Wo unto you Carnal minds all the treasures of them are corruptible your Lands Gold and Silver are fading treasures the day of the Lords Judgments are at hand upon you and the Rod of his Wrath will smite you and ye shall have Poverty and Want instead of Fulness and Excess and ye shall have Leanness and Barrenness and God will plead with you in the way of have sinned against him The time of your Visitation draws near Wo unto you Merchants Traders Buyers and Sellers that have been double-dealers and double-tongu'd and dealt deceitfully in your Commodities with your Neighbours VVo unto ye that have got Gain by double-dealing and by feigned and flattering speeches have beguiled one another and sought to out-reach in your barganing every man his Brother These things have ye done O ye Covetous men ye have even robbed the Poor by your craft and guileful dealing by your smooth and flattering tongues and if any amongst you could not use fraud and dissemble such have been your prey and scorn and it 's your use to discommend a Commodity when you buy it and to praise it when you sell it and ye make a fair outside to please the eye and ye use multitude of words and fair speeches and deceive the Simple and get Gain by Oppression Craft and Deceit Wo unto you Repent of this your sin Cleanse your hearts ye Sinners and purifie your hearts ye Double-minded I charge you by the Lord give over your double-dealing and deceitfull merchandize cease to lye and defraud cease your flattery and feigned words and speak the truth every one to his Neighbour and come out of your Iniquities use not a bad conscience any longer for it 's a fearfull Abomination against the Lord but minde the Light of Christ in you which will convince you in your Consciences of your naughty and sinful wayes and that Light will exercise your Consciences to do the Truth and speak the Truth to your Neighbour in all things and this is blessed and the Gain that is thereby gotten is not a Curse for ye ought in all your wayes to reverence the Lord and respect him that he should lead you and guide you in your exercise of all earthly things For the Earth is the Lords and the Fulness thereof and it ought to be exercised to his Glory and there is sufficient in this Creation for all People And therefore covet not earthly things one from another neither oppress nor over-reach one another about them neither treasure up earthly things while the Poor want for if ye do ye hide your selves from your own slesh laying field to field till there is no place for the Poor and wo unto such the Day of the Lord will be upon you but learn the Wisdom of God how to be ordered and how to order all things of this Creation and be in unity and good agreement amongst your selves and do not fall out nor strive not contend nor envy one another about earthly things but if ye have much or if ye have little be contented with what you have and do not grind the hearts and consciences one of another to get earthly things for they will fade and perish away and seek not after that which perisheth but after that which is unto eternal life for the Day of the Lord is at hand and his Judgments upon all Oppressors Double-dealers and false hearted Flatterers that are covetous of earthly things Wo unto all ye Drunkards and Swearers Whoremongers and Prophane Persons the Judgments of the Lord are upon you unawares ye that destroy the Creation upon your Lusts that are run into the Excess of Wine and Beer and that cover it excessively and that drink till ye inflame your selves and spend your time in it ye are like the Beasts of the field and like the Swine that wallows in filthiness ye pervert the right use and end of the good Creatures of God and spend them upon your lusts and have not regard unto the living God and one sin even begets another Drunkenness begets Swearing and Prophane words and VVhoredom and beastly Affections and thus you adde sin to sin and heap up one sin upon another contrary to the Light in your own Consciences and thus ye serve the Devil and Satan committing Iniquity with both hands as it were by Drunkenness and Swearing and taking the Name of the Lord in vain and Cursed Speaches and falling out one with another and your minds are erred from the Lord and ye abuse your selves and your own bodies which were made for the Service of God and not for Whoredom and ye slay your own Souls by your own Iniquities and many times provoke the Lord to destroy both soul and body VVo unto you the Plagues of God are your portion and Misery your end here and hereafter Repent of your Iniquities and turn from them lest the Lord find you in your Iniquities when he comes to Judgement for if you continue in them you can never be pardoned but you sin unto death and the Lord will come upon you suddenly for ye that follow Drunkenness and Prophaness you live contrary to the Light in your own Consciences and you sin against your knowledge against that knowledge that God hath given you and this is your greatest sin even because ye do the things which ye know ye should not do and the Light in your Consciences doth shew you that these things are evil before you do them but ye doing the things contrary to the Light in your own Consciences this makes your crime heinous and your sin unpardonable if ye continue in Sin and Prophaness contrary to the reproof of Gods Spirit in your own Consciences VVherefore ye prophane persons cease to do evil lest the Lords Judgments come upon you suddenly to your destruction and the Lord smite you and you never be healed VVo unto all ye hypocritical and deceitful Professors of Religion that hold the Truth in Unrighteousness that have a talk and a shew of Religion and that have the name of Church-members and of Worshippers of God but are dead in sins and trespasses ye that are Christians by name but want the nature who are wolves in sheeps cloathing that have Christs words the the Prophets and Apostles words but want their Spirit and Life VVo unto you the Day of
the hearts of the People but the Seed of Corruption brings forth fruit in them and your Vineyards are like barren and untilled ground that is unplowed and undigged and unplanted with Trees of Righteousness Oh ye have been unprofitable Vineyard-dressers and ye have laboured for your selves and not for the Lord as is manifest and ye have been idle and lazy and the God of Heaven is weary of you and the time is at hand he will pluck you up by the roots and visit you with great destruction and your name shall be a Reproach amongst men for ye have not sought the Lords honour but your own and ye have been changable in your wayes for your own advantages ye have preached for filthy Lucre and through Covetousness made merchandize of People and ye have traded with the Scriptures and made a Trade of Preaching the Gospel and ye have made Traffick of the Souls of men and these things have you done and the Lord hath kept silence and he hath forborn to smite you and therefore have you been hardened the more in your Transgressions as though the Lord took no notice and you have filled your hands with dishonest gain in your unrighteous wayes and your sins are increased every day against the God of Heaven you repent not when you are warned but reject reproof and go on without fear ye are a company of proud men heady and high-minded men ambitious and self-seeking persons even such as the Prophets Christ and the Apostles marked forth for Deceivers and your fruits and works do prove it ye have been covered with the Sheeps cloathing in your unrighteous natures and your Iniquities are almost full and the Lord will bring unresistable destruction upon you in a day when you cry Peace peace then sudden destruction will come Wo unto you because of your Iniquities the Earth is weary of you which ye have corrupted through your false wayes and the Kingdoms groan under your Oppressions and the Earth will spue you out and the People whom you have deceived shall rise up in Judgment against you the dreadful Day of the Lord is at hand upon you ye Apostates from the Life and Faith of Christ Jesus for of that race you are even of them Apostates that went out in the Apostles dayes that went in Balaam's way and Cain's way for ye are of the spirit that kills and persecutes people about Worship and Sacrifices and Religion as Cain did and ye go for Gifts and Rewards even as Balaam did These things are so the Witness of God in your Consciences shall answer and all People shall acknowledge the truth hereof in the day when God pleads with all the wicked All People Return and Repent of your Iniquities the dreadful Day of the Lord is at hand ye Sinners and Transgressors ye hypocritical Professors and prophane Persons the Day of Vengeance is at hand Whither will you fly and where will you leave your glory where will you seek a defence or where can you be hid the Mountains will not cover you nor the Rocks will not fall upon you the wrath of the Lamb you cannot escape even the long-suffering of God will be turned into a flame of anger and patience will be turned into sharp rebuke the wrath of the Lamb will utterly smite you and the Cup of Gods Indignation you must drink all the Earth must tast of it and the Wicked shall drink the dreggs Wherefore all ye Inhabitants of the Earth forsake your Transgressions that the Lord may not cut you off for ever but let God arise to destroy your Iniquities and to save your Souls let him take vengeance upon your Inventions that he may forgive you Oh! why will you dye why will you perish the Lord would have you to return that he might save you And this is the day of your Visitation the door of Mercy is yet open for a little season and the Lord yet calls unto you for a moment but the time is at hand that he who is filthy shall be filthy still and that determination shall be passed Come ye Blessed and Go ye Cursed the doleful sentence shall be pronounced to all workers of Iniquity Into everlasting Burning must they depart prepared for the Devil and his Angels and shall not see the Countenance of the Lord to refresh their souls but in the presence of the Lord and of the Lamb shall the Wicked be tormented Wherefore hear and tremble all ye Transgressors that live and act contrary to your knowledge and against the Witness of God in your own Consciences and this is your great sin for which the wrath of God cometh not because you have acted in Ignorance and without knowledge but because you have acted against the Light in your Consciences and sinned against your knowledge and done the things which you knew were evil before you did them and because hereof you are not to be excused but the burden of your own sins and the guilt of them will fall heavy upon you in the Day of the Lord For this is the Condemnation of the World that Light is come into it but you have loved Darknesse rather than Light and followed evil deeds and loved them and this contrary to the Light that is come into the world and which hath enlightned your own Consciences Certain Propositions of Faith laid down which every one must believe or else they cannot be saved I. NOw none can be saved from the Wrath of the Lord but they who are saved from their Sins for Sin brings the Wrath of God upon the Consciences of men and Anguish upon Soul and Body and who are not saved from Sin cannot be saved from Wrath for Wrath pursues the Guilty and he that doth evil sin lies at his door and continual anguish upon his spirit because of sin and the load and burden of the body of death oppresseth his soul and anger from God kindleth in his breast because he hath sinned and he knows he is guâ—â—â—y of Transgression and the Lord wounds him in his Conscience and no man in that state can speak peace unto him nor can any save him from the Wrath of God because he is not saved from his Sin nor from the guilt of it but his grief and burden is because he hath sinned against the Light in his own Conscience And therefore whosoever will be saved from Wrath must be saved from Sin and Christ must purifie his heart and the Blood of the Lamb must sanctifie him and his Conscience must be cleansed from the guilt of Transgression and Christ must live in him and he must live the life of Faith which gives victory over all Sin or else he cannot be saved with the Salvation of God eternally II. Again Whosoever will be saved with the Salvation of God must own the Light of Christ Jesus in his own Conscience and he must believe in this Light and walk in it even the Light in his Conscience that convinces him and
and all flesh must be silent from speaking of the things of Gods Kingdom which they have not seen handled tasted and felt by the working of the Spirit of God in their Consciences and this is to witness the Scriptures fulfilled when you have experience of the same conditions and of the same operations and manifestations which the Servants of the Lord passed through and had experience of and so that you may speak what you have heard and seen and handled and tasted of the Word of Life All that will be saved must come to this and witness it IX Again Whosoever will be saved must believe in Jesus Christ and receive him and they must take up his daily cross and follow him and must know him to mortifie and crucifie them to the world and he must work the same things in you by his Spirit spiritually as he wrought without you in his Person or else you have no part in him nor salvation by him For it is not enough unto eternal life only to believe that there was such a one as a Christ and that he did and spoke such and such things at a distance without you for many may make a belief and a profession of this and yet perish but Him that was of whom you read without you must you receive and witness within you and you must know Him as he was before Abraham was and before the world was and He himself by his Spirit in you must give you the knowledge of Himself what He was before the beginning what he is now and what he shall for ever be X. Again Every one that will be saved must come up out of the Apostacy into which all Christendom hath been fallen and must come into the same Spirit Life and Power as the Apostles were in from which Life spirit and Power all Christendom have been Apostates and they have held the words and practices of the Apostles without the same Life and Power and made Sects Churches and Ministers but out of the same Life and Spirit as the holy men of God were in and all that will be saved must be restored and recovered into the same Spirit and Life in their Churches Ministry and Ordinances as the Apostles of Christ Jesus were in and this is Restoration when People come again into the same Life and Spirit of God which the Apostate Christians have all wanted and been in the Form of Ministry Churches Religion and Godliness without the Power And unto this is the Lord God restoring People his Day is dawned and his everlasting Light is risen and his Name will be known in the Earth And none can be saved with the salvation of God but who believe receive and understand these things A general Objection answered Object 1. And whereas there is a great cry by some people of late That there must be no more Private Meetings but all People must come to Church as they say and that there must be no more Conventicles c. Answ. As for Conventicles I understand you mean Meetings out of Publick Steeple-houses and that there must be no private Meetings for Preaching and Prayer but all People must be forced to come to Publick Places of Worship Now I say if the Authority that is now set up and hath the Power doth exercise it self in this way then the God of Heaven will be provoked against it to overthrow it and confound it if it proceed contrary to the End of just Rule and Authority ordained of God which is for the punishment of them that do evil in things between man and man but not to impose upon mens Consciences in things relating to the Worship and Service of God But the Lord God is wholly Judge in such matters and not any man and if any men should erre in their minds concerning Faith and Doctrine and the Worship of God that belongs to the Lord to punish and not to any Earthly Authority And what must not the People of God come together to worship the Lord in Spirit and Truth Must not People conveen together in this Age as the People of God did in Ages past Did not Christ many times preach in the Desert and sometimes in a ship by the Sea-side and sometimes on a Mountain as you may read in the Scriptures And did not he often preach unto the Pharisees and sometimes to his Disciples out of the publick Synagogues And might not the Iews have called those Meetings Conventicles because they were not in their Publick Synagogues And also did not the Apostles and Saints after the Resurrection of Christ when they returned from Ierusalem meet together privately for they went into an Upper Room and waited upon the Lord and continued with one accord in Prayer and Supplication And again at another time they were about an hundred and twenty in number that were in one place to wait upon the Lord and Peter preached unto them and were these Meetings Conventicles because they were not in a publick Synagogue but in an Upper Chamber and in a private place And thus the Saints of old met together as ye may read Act. 1. and worshipped God in Spirit and in Truth and preached and prayed and must not the People of God now meet together to pray and wait upon the Lord but they must be reproached with the name of Conventiclers and threatned and punished for so doing Oh how blind is this Generation and how contrary to the true Christian Spirit in their practices And did not Philip preach Jesus unto the Eunuch in a Chariot as they went on the way and this was not in a publick Synagogue as in Act. 8. And did not Peter preach to Cornelius with many others in Cornelius his house and this was a Meeting and not in a Synagogue Acts. 10. And did not the Apostles and Saints meet together in an Upper Chamber where Paul preached until midnight amongst the Saints Act. 20. and was this a Conventicle and an unlawfull Meeting Might not the Iews have said this was an Unlawful Assembly being in a Chamber and not in a Publick Synagogue And again Did not Paul preach in his own Hired House for two whole years together and received all that came in unto him Act. 28. And here were Private Meetings out of Publick Synagogues But did the Iews threaten them and inflict sufferings upon them because they met in private houses and would not come to their Synagogues and Publick Worship or did they reproach them with the name of Sectaries and Conventiclers when they met together to wait upon the Lord sometime in praying and sometime in preaching And thus you may see by many Examples that the Saints and true Christian Churches in the dayes of old met together sometime on Mountains and sometime in Deserts and sometime in Upper Chambers and sometime in their own hired houses and not in the publick Synagogues but they were gathered from the Temple and first Priesthood and from the Worship which God had
after Covetousness and the love of this World they have gone though there hath been a great profession of Worship and Religion in thee much Preaching and Praying Sabbath-keeping and professed Church-fellowship Ministry and Ordinances and a Sect here of one sort and there another that have cryed Lord Lord and have made a shew of Worships and Duties towards him yet notwithstanding Hypocrisie False-heartedness Covetousness Double-mindedness and the spirit of Pride and Ambition and vain Glory have possessed the hearts of both Teachers and People in all the false Sects and divers kinds of Religion though they have had a shew as if they were the Lords People and a pretence of Worship and conformity of Church-fellowship c. yet their hearts have not been right before the Lord but of these it may be said even they have professed God with their mouths and with their lips honoured him and in the very time their hearts have gone after Covetousness and been far departed from the Lord and though they have cryed The Temple of the Lord and we are the Church of Christ and Members of him and have Gospel and Ministry and Ordinances yet these people have walked in Pride and Arrogancy and Covetousness and their hearts have been Corrupted in the sight of the Most High and all their Religion hath been but as the fig-leaves by which they have sought to cover themselves but it cannot be For behold ye Professors and People of Ireland God hath beheld your Hypocrisies and the Deceitfulness of your hearts and your nakedness doth appear for though you have professed much of the Spirit and Spiritual Things yet you have walked in the Flesh and brought forth the fruits thereof and your garments of feigned Prayers and Practices and your profession of Church and Ordinances will not cover nor hide you from the Wrath of the Lamb Oh People of Ireland many of you have been corrupted in your hearts and polluted in your minds and from the highest of you to the lowest you are sound Transgressors against God even from the Professor to the Porphane the Lord hath found no good fruit amongst you well-pleasing to him but four grapes and bitter fruit have you brought forth even fruit of a bad tast and loathsom smel unto the Lord and now the Lord hath found you out in your wickedness and the cry of your Iniquities call for Vengeance for of you it may be said Ah Nation laden with Iniquity ah sinful People a seed of Evil-doers corrupted from the crown of the heal to the soal of the foot these things are so and they cannot be hid But now the Lords purpose is to deal with thee because of thy sins seeing he is provoked against this People by their Iniquities who have been disobedient to the living God Therefore will he renew his Judgments of old and withdraw his Mercies and he will plead with the People in his Justice his Judgments are at the door and he will punish the stout-hearted and proud and arrogant till they learn meekness and humility he will correct the Transgressors with his Rod of heavy Wrath till they turn to him by Repentance and all that will not bow and kiss the Son and cease from evil and learn to do well they shall be broken and cut off and perish in his anger and he will never heal them even the Feller will come upon thy People O Nation who will hew down thy Cedars and cut up thy strong Oaks the Fanner is coming upon thee to sift thee to preserve the good Grain and to separate the Chaff into the fire thy Strength will be made weak and thy Crown will be toden down and thy Beauty shall be marred and all thy Glory and Might shall fade like a flower in that day when the Lord of Hosts pleadeth with thee and when he rewards thee for thy Wickedness Then Wo unto thee and unto all the Wicked and workers of Iniquity and he will cause them to remember what they have done thy Sins O Nation shall be set in order before thee and thy Persecution of the Lords Servants shall be charged to thy account and the Rod of Affliction shall reach close unto thee because thereof and as thy Rulers have done to others so shall it be done to them into Captivity shall they go and the Spoyler shall come upon the Land for Iust is the Lord and his Iudgments altogether equal and though he be long-suffering and of great forbearance yet he forgets not to plead with his Enemies and to plague the Ungodly nor to shew mercy to them that trust in him And doubtles there is a Cup of Wrath prepared for the Wicked to drink and it seemeth to be near even a day of great Wrath Tribulation upon Sinners and Transgressors who have rejected the Lord and despised his Reproofs and would not receive the Message of the Light of the World that they might be healed Wherefore Repeat Repent all sorts of People all Sinners and Transgressors tremble before the Lord ye stout-hearted and rebellious Children Wo unto ye unjust Rulers and Judges that have exercised unjust Judgment in the Land that have judged for Gifts and Rewards and that have turned aside just Judgement Mercy and Truth and that have persecuted the Innocent without just cause Wo unto you that have been Oppressors of the Poor and Needy ye that have not judged for the Lord as ye ought to have done but have been ambitious and vain-glorious and puffed up in the flesh by high Titles and Places of Honour ye that have exalted your selves above your Brethren and sought Honour of Men and loved the Honour of this World more than the Honour of God Wo unto you for the day of the Lords Judgment is at hand and an account of your Stewardship must you give Ye that should have judged in Mercy and Truth and Equity but have perverted just Judgment and made the Innocent Offenders and have not been a praise to them that do well nor a terror to evil-doers as ye ought to have been Wo unto you and to the Oppressing and Falshearted Lawyers and that Train who have been greedy of Gain and served your own Ends and sought Riches to your selves and the Cause of the Poor hath not been freely pleaded by you Wo unto all ye that have made a Trade of doing Judgment and Justice and have been exercised in the Laws for your own Ends and not singly for the Lord Tremble ye sons of Wickedness ye that have exercised the Power of Antichrist and the Beast for the Judgments of the Lord are at hand to be executed upon you Wo unto you Great and Rich men ye covetous and earthly Worldlings ye that have made your selves rich by Oppression and grinding the faces of the Poor that have got Gain by hard dealing and added Land to Land and Field to Field and that have over-reached the Ignorant and oppressed the Widows and Fatherless and that have exercised Cruelty and
the Lord is at hand upon you ye Hypocrites ye that serve God with your lips and with your mouths profess much love when as your hearts are full of Envie Covetousness and Earthly-mindedness ye are the Apostate Christians that have taken the Form of Godlinesse upon you but want the Power ye preach and pray and hear Sermons and keep sabbath-Sabbath-dayes and perform Duties but ye are not changed in your hearts but the old nature is alive and the old birth lives in you and ye are unlike unto God in nature and ye walk in the Flesh and not in the Spirit and ye take Christs words and the Apostles words and use your tongues when God never spoke to you O ye Hypocrites ye have a name to live but are dead and ye think ye are Rich when as ye are poor miserable blind and naked and your souls are lean and want the Bread of Life and ye have not put off the body of Sin nor have you overcome your Souls enemies but the burden of Sin lyes upon your Consciences and Temptations overcome you daily and though you say ye have Faith in Christ yet your hearts are not purified but the Old Man with his deeds is yet alive and the New Creature is not brought forth in you nor is Christ living in you and speaking in you the day of the Lord will come upon you you false-hearted men ye Apostate Christians that hold the Profession of Truth and Church and Gospel and Ministry in your unrighteous minds your Sacrifices are not acceptable to God nor your Offerings well-pleasing to him for your hearts are not aright before him and your Hypocrisie will God judge and his Wrath will go out like fire to consume your glory and God will cloath himself with Zeal as with a Cloak and with a Garment of Vengeance and he will slay you with his Sword and wound your Consciences with the Words of his Mouth and your Religion will not save you nor your Garment cover you from the Wrath of the Almighty Wo unto you the Mighty Day of the Lord is at hand upon you ye Earthly Professors who would be heirs of two Kingdoms who would enjoy God and this World too and love its Vanities and Profits and Pleasures and Honours and live in strife and contention one with another about earthly things and about your Religion too and are not of one heart and mind and soul but are strangers to the New Covenant of God though you hear Sermons and say a Form of Prayer and keep Sabbaths and Lecture-dayes and perform Ordinances and Duties and yet your hearts are hard and the body of Sin and Death lyes upon your Consciences and you are not changed into the Divine Nature this Religion will not save you away with it all it 's of Antichrish and his spirit leads you while you walk in the Form of Godliness without the Power the Lord will come upon you suddenly therefore Repent ye of your Hypocrisies and turn to the Spirit of God within you hear its Reproofs and obey it and walk in the Spirit and be ye Changed or else you can never be Saved VVo Wo unto all ye false Teachers and blind Leaders of the People ye Diviners and false Prophets and Day of the Lord is at hand upon-you ye have deceived souls for dishonest gain ye have run and were never sent of God and ye have not profited the people at all and ye have taken the name upon you of Ministers of Christ when he never sent you forth and you have kept a prating and preaching up and down and run for Gifts and Rewards and Hire ye have deceived the World and the Bloud of Souls rests upon you O ye Generation of Serpents poyson hath lodged under your tongues your hearts have been rotten and your tongues feigned and full of flattery and you have been as Canker-worms in the Earth and have corrupted the whole World Whom have not ye deceived by your Lyes and false Divinations Whom have not you cryed Peace unto if they would but give you Gifts Money and Hire What Form of Religion would not you take up for advantage to your selves how often have you turned from one way to another Oh ye false-hearted men the God of Heaven will shew you no mercy ye are the men that have made the Earth drunk with false faith and false doctrines and with contention and distention sometime preaching up one Government sometimes another and sometime being for one way of Worship and sometimes for another Treachery hath lodged in your hearts above all others ye have eaten up the sin of the People and cryed Peace unto the Ungodly Wo unto ye that have gone in Cain's way that have bread Contention Persecution Strife and Emulation amongst People and that have gone in Balaams way for Gifts and Rewards and would do any great man a pleasure and even curse the people for Money ye have been such as all the holy Prophets cryed against your fruits and works declares it ye have sought for your Gain from your Quarter and could never have enough such as Isaiah cryed against Chap. 56. and such as Micha cryed against Micah 3. That preached for Hire and divined for Money and leaned upon the Lord and cryed Peace to them that would give Money and prepared War against them that would not and these things have you done some of ye Teachers and Priests and ye have been blind Watchmen and ye have been idle and lazy Shepherds such as Ezekiel cryed against Chap. 34. that ruled over people with Force and Cruelty and killed them that were fed and did not heal the diseased nor strengthen the weak but pusht with the horn at such as went astray from you and idle and lazy Shepherds have you been who have not sed the Flock with living food but you have caused them to drink of the foul waters and their souls are lean and barren under your Preaching Oh look into your Flocks and see what fruit is brought forth by them and what may be gathered from them Oh the abundance of Pride and Wickedness of Ambition and Vain-glory and Covetousness and the love of this World lying and double-dealing and all the fruits of the flesh How do they abound amongst the flocks of your fold who are in their fruits and by their works not the Sheep of Christs Pasture but are like Goats and VVolves under your Teaching Can ye behold this and consider of it and not be ashamed of the fruit of your wayes VVhat have ye brought forth these many years or what profit have the People received from you who are yet in their sins unturned from them and not converted to God whereby it appears you have run and never were sent because the People are not profited at all and it grieves the heart of the Righteous to look into your Vineyards and to see such bad fruit growing you have been sloathfull Tillers and have not sown the good Seed in
once commanded which stood in outward things and Ordinances and when they had received the substance they denyed the shadows types and figures and did not uphold them any longer And they were gathered by the preaching of the Gospel into the second and new Covenant and they met together in private Houses and upper Chambers and by the Sea-side to preach and pray and to worship the Lord and we do not read that the Iews persecuted them for so doing And will you that have the name of Christians persecute the People of God though they meet together in private houses and their own hired houses and cannot come to your Temples and Steeple-houses And will not you suffer such to meet together out of your Publick Places but you will persecute them and call them Hereticks and such like Is not this worse than ever the Iews did to the Apostles And so you are out of the Example of the true Christians who met together and preached and prayed often and not in a Synagogue or Publick Place but you cry against them that do so and threaten to persecute for it and thus you shew your selves out of the true Christan Example and in this you are worse than the Iews and more cruel if you should persecute People for meeting together to wait upon the Lord in their own houses or in what place or time as the Lord should move their hearts but if you proceed in this way and will not permit the People of God to meet together in their own houses and not in your Idol-Temples then the Power of the Lord will confound you and God will break you to pieces and you will feel his heavy Wrath upon your Consciences and God will smite you with his Judgments inwardly and outwardly Now for your restraining of people from one way of Worship and forcing them to another and compelling them about Religion by cruel Laws and Commandments of men this is of Antichrist for you to do and of the Devil for all forcing of People to this kind of Worship and from another and imposing upon their Consciences in matters of Gods Kingdom this is also of Antichrist and contrary to Christ and his VVay for he won People by sound Doctrine and by Love and by a good Conversation and so did his Disciples for they never forced any by outward violence to their Worship nor to their Church-government and Ordinances but it was the practice of the Beast and the Dragon that first forced People and compelled them to worship since the dayes of the Apostles Rev. 13. It was Antichrist that first imposed upon People in the Ignorance of their Consciences and contrary to their Consciences by the Commandments of men false Faith false Worship false Ministry false Doctrine and false Religions so that now if you should force any contrary to their Consciences to your Steeple-houses to hear and say your Form of Prayers we shall say then you are Antichrist and of the Devil if so be you should endeavour to compel any either against their Consciences or in the Ignorance of their Consciences to your way of Worship or Religion Therefore take heed how you meddle in these things lest God confound you and as for us we are the People of God we fear his Name and worship him and cannot bow to the Devil and we need not be forced to worship the Lord for his Spirit leads us into all Truth and we need none of your outward Prescriptions or Form of Prayers for the Spirit of God teacheth us in all these things when and where and how we should worship the Lord God who is a Spirit and will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth which is free and not by outward force and all the Worship that is otherwise and not in the free Spirit of Christ is of Great Babylon whom the Lord will confound and destroy Another general Objection answered Object 2. Again Whereas it is said by some Now there must be no more private Preachers Unlearned men and men not Ordained must not now preach any more Lay-persons must not be Preachers that are not so qualified nor so and so ordained and this is the present talk among some people Answ. To this I also answer and say VVo to them that would stop or quench or limit the Spirit of God in Sons or Daughters for such are denyers of the Scriptures and the Power of God and such bring guilt upon their own Consciences and work fearful Abomination against God And what must not the Spirit of the Lord speak now where it is in this Age as it did in the dayes of old as you may read in the Scriptures for was not Elisha a Plow-man and was not he called from the Plough 1 King 19. and became a Prophet of the Lord unto the House of Israel and had the Spirit of Elijah poured upon him and would not you have said he was a Lay-man a Plow-man unordained not fitting to preach if you had lived in his dayes And was not Amos called from following the Flock who had been no Prophet nor no Prophets son but an Herds-man Amos 7 14 15. and it was lawful for him to preach the Word of the Lord though he was but an Herds-man and had been no Prophet nor Prophets son which if he had lived in your dayes you would have called him a Lay-man an unfit person unlearned and one not ordained for the Ministry and you like Amaziah the wicked Priest of Bethel would now quench the Spirit as he would have done in Amos who was a Trades-man and such an one as you now call Lay-men who are not as you say fitting to preach And did not Christ Jesus himself chuse Fisher-men and sent them forth to preach the Gospel and such as were men of Trades and unlearned in Books as it is written Act. 4. 13. When the Rulers saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived they were Unlearned they marvelled and these were Ministers of Christ and preached the Everlasting Gospel whom you would have called Lay-men and men unfit to preach had you lived in their dayes And Paul himself by occupation was a Tent-maker it is said and he laboured with his hands and yet was a Preacher of the Gospel and there are multitudes of Witnesses in the Scriptures of these things how that men of Trades and unlearned in Letters and Books and never were brought up at Schools and Colledges but followed the Plough and were keepers of Cattel and some followed fishing such as these in old time had the Spirit of God given them and they preached the Gospel And what if the Lord at this day give his Spirit to such as these and send them forth to preach the Gospel even to such as were brought up and educated it may be at Handy-craft Trades and are labouring-men and are not learned at Schools and Colledges will you limit the Lord and quench his Spirit and reproach his Wayes and Servants and