or Rector when he or they begin dinner and when the Senior Doctor will have him leave off he sayes to the boy Tu autem and the boy must answer Domine miserere nostrum that is Thou Lord have pitty on us This last was practised very lately in the University but whether they are shamed out of it I cannot certainly affirm But at this day in Queens Colledge the Junior Schollers whom they call Tabitors repeat a piece of Aristotles Logick Is this Popery yea or nay and do ye think that there is so much done to the Pope himself and do not these wretches at this day set themselves in Gods room and are worshiped as Gods but indeed they are nought but belly-gods and if these Poperies and whoredoms do not stink and are rotten ripe for destruction let the simple-hearted of the whole Nation judge without book kneeling upon their bare knees to the Fellowes at dinner holding their hands a-cross which signifies in the name of the holy crosse to defend them from all danger Where is the Jesuite and Popery these brawlers talke of is he amongst the Quakers so called or amongst the Colledges and Priests in Oxford In some Colledges after dinner they drink one to another or one table to another bowing and putting off their Hats and doing their honours to each other as they call it and this they call a grace cup or cup of charity and say it was first instituted and is a good custome to maintain charity amongst them This drink is allowed to each meal gratis After Disputations are ended on Ash-wednesday the determining Batchelours make a But the supper of the Lord and the bread which came down from Heaven they know not but except ye eat his flesh and drink his blood ye have no part in him and he that eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood shall hunger no more Feast in every Colledge at night which they call Aristotles supper In some Colledges in Oxford as New-Colledge All-Souls Colledge c. the Schollars and Junior fellows must go bare-headed in the Court or Quadrangle and that if no body be there or in fight and though it rain never so much under pain of not being fellow and yet it may be this fellow will bable to others tell them that the Hat is an indifferent thing and may be put off or kept on and is but a civility but himself is so uncivil that he puts it off to stocks and stones and in obedience to a Popish Law At the place called Christs-Church Colledge the Schollars and Batchelours are not suffered to go out at the great Gate or come in that way in Honour and Reverence to the Dean and Canons Lodgings though their Coaches * and Horses Quaery Whether Coaches were not one of the greatest crimes against the late Prelacy and did not the man called Dean Owen mouth and roar against them and it 2. Quaery Is not the man called Dean Owen far more fantastick and ridiculous in his habit then any of the the old Prelates were provided he have on his ranting Band-strings his velvet Gippo with silver or gold Buttons his treble Cuffs his Gloves with gold fringe and imbroidery his Breeches with two or three setts of poynts one above the other insomuch that they make him straddle and throw his legs like a Ranter his great lawn boot-tops I say cloath him with this Harness or with that which some in Oxford calls his thanksgiving sute and set him on a Stage and let his name be obscured let sober men judge whether he be most like a Mountebank a Stage-player or a Priest but to make him more uggly let him bring in his hand his fannatique Pamphlet which he hath lately put forth against the people of God called Quakers in which scornful railing piece he calls them fannatique and being it is in the Roman tongue it may be the Pope hath given him an allowance for it Quaery Whether he did not write his Pamphlet in Latine on purpose to strengthen the Pope and the rest of his fraternity beyond the Seas he being by his name of Dean the onely Elâ—e and Popeling left in this Nation and knowing if any maner of truth take place so as to go thorow with Reformation Deans must down in the particular as well as in the general and although he snort swagger and snuff and would be as big as Cardinal Woolsey his late Predecessor who built the Mass-house of which this man is Dean of I say quaery that in his heart However honest men bring him upon the Stage for his Deanery in the first place and let his fantastique habit serve afterwards for a player if he will not work though at the present he have the Popes allowance and is more then full of scorn and dirision against the innocent but the haâ—d of the Lord is against him and the hurter of Israel shall not want his reward Quaery If that Dean Owen and the rest of the fatlings with and about him be not idle droans Why do not he and they go among the Infidels and there preach the Gospel if that which they preach be Gospel I am sure it is not selfish chargeable nor tyed to a place and saith the Apostle so have I strived to preach the Gospel where Christ hath not been named but this man is so far from stirring out of his Popish den that he hath done what in him lyeth to hinder those that freely receive and freely declare the Word of the Lord and the Gospel of Jesus Christ where he is not known or at least forgotten since and in the dark night of Apostacy when Danes and all the Popish Priests who preach for hire were set up Oh! let their names be cast out as evil-doers even so be it Lord God most Holy Just and True pass through it and it is a common high way through it at this day for the Town and this is alwayes put in execution The Doctors besides the distinction of facing of their Gowns with velvet do constantly every first day and more especially when they preach wear many yards of black silk scarcenet about their necks over their Gowns which besides the great breadth of it reaches down to the very ground on both sides And some of them preach with great treble Cuffs French Band-strings of 6 or 7 s. a pair half Shirts ruffled out velvet Gippoes plain or with silver Buttons great sets of poynts round their knees diamond Rings Gloves with rich gold fringe and embroidery Canonical Coats and much more such trumpery which I believe few that lives in Oxford can be ignorant of As also their wife 's gorgious apparel the whole City takes notice of to be very excessive Concerning their Preaching and paying their first fruits c. WHen any Parsonage falls to the gift of the University it is conferred on him who hath or can get most votes amongst the Masters but if the Parsonage be not good there
calls it the Word of God and he must not be contradicted upon pain of six months imprisonment although half his discourse consists of what Ovid Plato Aristole and Diogenes c. did which they call Heathens and yet what he saith in that place must pass for sound doctrine and they call it the Word of God for when he steps into his stall and hath spoken some words which he calls prayer he bids them hearken to the Word of God and there like a Lawyer or a Trumpeter he sells them his The false Prophet steals the word from his Neighbour and boasts in other mens lines own breath and the words of the forementioned heathenish Authors with many more that he hath thieved together stollen from his neighbour which with his title of Master is an infallible mark of the false prophet Yet your divelish law is such that none must speak to him in the time of his false worship his going to or coming from the Mass-house and at â—is own house he will not be seen so that as far as in you lies 〈◊〉 â—â—use the people to perish for want of knowledge but that wâ—â—â—h limits the Holy One must be cut off for he speaks where he will and when he will and by whom he will although it be by the Carpenters Son or Peter a fisher-man who hath no Letters and was no Orthodox man upon your account yet it shall break all your bonds asunder and shatter all your contrivances to dust Why will ye believe a swearing Priest that desperately and wickedly breaks the absolute command of Christ and teacheth others so to do Christ says Swear not at all mark not at all What not a Judicial oath before a Magistrate being called thereunto by the Authority of the Nation Nay Swear not at all neither by Heaven nor by Earth nor by any other Oath Judicial or whatsoever thus said the great Prophet the Everlasting Priest the Son of God the Saviour of the World and it very shortly comes to passe that he that will not hear him shall be cut off from amongst the people and no swearer or liar can possible enter the Kingdom and he that will swear will lie and the liar is for the lake and shall have his portion without with dogs witches and sorcerers Paul who was a Minister of Christ he exhorted the people saying so walk as ye have me or us for an example I leave it to all that have any sobernesse and have not made a bargane with Hell and Death if it be in the least safe for us to walke as we have the hireling for our example that will swear and teach others to swear and say its lawful and strike with his fist and knock men down and imprisons men to death for their bellies as many of the Goals in England can witnesse proud covetous heady and high-minded undeniable they are and are these men to be learnt of surely nay with my very life I deny them to be of God or Christ who saies Learn of me for I am meek and lowly and He nor none of his Ministers did ever imprison any stock whip or murder any but their own backs they willingly gave to the smiter and their cheeks to have the hair pluckt off and were accounted as the off-scouring of the earth their names cast out as evil doers and were shamefully intreated persecuted and killed as false yet true and were called pestilent fellows subverters of the Law and turners of the World up-side down ring-leaders of Sects c. So suffers the servants of the living God at this day and as they have done unto me so will they do unto ye saith Christ The servant is not greater then his Lord and he that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution And all this was done to them of old as is to us at this day even by the same Generation of high-priests high in profession and spoke as big swelling words and made as much ado about their New Moons Sabbath-dayes Tithes Temple Circumcision Bull Goat Ram and heifer all which were but a shadow of good things to come as the Priests of England do about their Masse-house Gleab-land Tithe-sheaf Lamb Calfe Wooll Goose Pig Mortuary Peter-pence Bread Wine and Baby-baptism but as they did these do now hate the Light but it was and is because their deeds were and these are evil and did as these do now deney to hear the prophet in all things and it came to passe that they were cut off and these inevitably shall be And my dear friends if ye share with their iniquities ye shall partake with their plagues search your selves and consider with that of God in your consciences for there truth will speak And see if many amongst ye are not run and running headlong into the unbelieving state seeking honour one of another ones a Knight and another is a Lord and another angry because he is not a Lord but amongst ye all the heritage of the Lord God is neglected Which amongst ye that most of all quarrels for these bubbles that hath not said it would never be a good World so long as there was a Lord in England and likewise swore against a house of Lords and yet love and retain the name the nature and the same thing Oh! deny your selves of these nothings and take up the crosse which will crosse nothing but your lusts and see if it be possible for ye to be re-discipled once again for verily at the present ye are not so much as in the way to please God Was there any of this stuff amongst ye some years since remember your selves have ye paid your â—ows and kept your integrity the lying lips and the deceitful tongue the Lord hates and think ye the Lord will not visit for these things ☞ Yea His dread and terrour will fall amongst ye shortly if not suddainly and although ye may hate to be reformed and laugh me to scorn or persecute me to death yet it s the truth of the living God to every individual amongst ye there was once a praying spirit amongst ye that would have said Lord honour us with successe and victory and we will honour thee with doing of justice and relieving the oppressed and liberberty of conscience was promised with hands lifted up with tears in your eyes erected to heaven-ward with many a true sigh and groan which could not be uttered and if ye did not promise to the Lord before the battel at Dunbar that that grand Idol and oppression of Tythes should be taken off if the Lord delivered ye that day then say I am a lyar The Lord hath performed but ye have failed and instead of giving all power all glory and all honour to God ye honour one another with blaspemous titles the hireling being your example who write to one another at this day by the name of reverend Brother reverend Sir and reverend Master which is blasphemy for reverend is the
is none of them will stand for it When any benefice falls to any private Colledge in the University it is proffered by the Rector or his Deputy at the meeting of the Fellows or else at dinner or supper to the Fellows according to their seniority and they presently ask what it is worth a year which if it be two hundred pound or thereabouts per annum the Senior most commonly accepts of it If but four score pound a year or very far off from his Friends or in a factious place as they call it amongst Anabaptists Quakers Army Independants or the like then they accept not of it but say send it down and so when none of the fatlings in the Colledge accepts of it some serviture or other whose friends or allowance cannot maintain him longer in the University is necessitated to accept of it and hence it is a common Observation that they that have good Friends or good fellowships seldome go out into the Countrey unless he get a very fat benefice They who intend to get a personage learn to write short hand to furnish themselves with Sermons go to hear all that preach buy good store of practical Divines conform themselves in their habit sit in a place in the Mass-house where they are sure to be seen by the great ones which by way of jear some amongst them call being of the Visable Church and all this they do to get the Doctors hands to their certificate without which they cannot pass the Commissioners but I never read of any but the Pope and his off-spring here in England that did so much as pretend to know God that used any of these practises to make their Ministers but these are of man and by man and not of the Lord Jesus and they infallibly run when he never sends them and as themselves are so are their converts for at the best they can but beget their own image which may plainly be seen to be the very quintensence of the mystery of iniquity They who desire rather to be chaplains to great persons and Ladies learn to dance and sing and do their honours hamsomly study polite and humane learning the better to please their Masters with fine words and elegant expressions and these things they presume will make them acceptable and these are not called by them plain Priests but Gentlemen of Divinity At the Act and Commencement most of the book-sellers in town writes upon a great piece of boord a catologue of the In London the Priests works are stuck upon the posts and pissing places the Reverend D. W. works And next to it sticks a paper intimating where is a stage play interlude or opera under it the works of Mr. such a ones direction for prayer or preaching with such ribaldry c. and on the side hand of that sticks the paper of a wide-mouth'd Montebanck who saies hee 'l cure all the World of all diseases but he deceives and kills more then he cures as doth the Priest who murthers for his belly names and titles of all such Sermons preached at Funerals on thanksgiving dayes fast dayes and the like occasions also all tracts treatises meditations controversies translations out of other Authors also all Catechisms and the like which have been lately published imprinted or reprinted which the Country Priests buy off and carry home so that thereby they may be prepared and ready to preach almost upon any subject or occasion in a short times warning three or four years after Nay are not there some Countrey Priests who allow stipends to their Friends in the City who write short hand to take such mens Sermons who are counted best preachers and every week to send them down by the post or Carrier into the Country against the next first day Let every Priest exaamine his conscience for this hath been practised in some places It was used not long since in the Mass-house which is called Saint Maries for him that preached to say in his prayer good Lord blesse the right honourable the Chancellour the revered the Vice-chancellors all the Doctors both the proctors c. and this was done to the Vice-chancellors face for he is not to be absent but this prophane custome the Independents did nibble at about a year or two since by which some of the most Popish did begin to imitate but whether it be left or at this day practised I cannot Justly tell At the Act on the day called Hen. 8 as soon as he had renounced the Pope took to himself the Priests first fruits which before were payable as an offering to the Pope From Whence all the Kings Queens and chief Magistrates have and do at this day assume the same And the office where these first-fruits are received and by the Priest at this day paid or offered is kept in a house belonging to the Palace in Westminster called by the name of Hell I say in Hell the hirelings offer their first popish fruits But from the eternal Hell there is no redemption Therefore beware offerer and receiver for that offering was and is Popish and Hellish Saturnday a prophane fellow whom they call a Terrae filius makes a prophane Atheistique obcoene filthy speech in the Mass-house where the next day the Drs. preach and the day after again another Terrae filius comes up and does like his predecessor and this is the fruit of them called Ministers And although this cursed practise is constantly performed with as much filthinesse as it is possible any one thing can be of that nature yet the University will not consent to lay it away so that the next year the same abominations are like to be committed Whereas reading of Homilies which were the Sermons of the Fathers translated into English was cried out against in King James and Charles's reign by the then called Puritanes Now they write the same out in paper which is cut according to the bignesse of their Bible and put into the midst of their book and this they read to the people and is called the Ministers notes or expounding All the Colledges in Oxford except two or three at most keep up their painted windows and * Martial Bristol Breviaâ—orbi in his Apologetical History Bertius and others have seemed to justifie the Romish Church by saying that it was an evident sign that the rulers of England did in their consciences like the Romish Religion because they liked and maintained their pictures and ceremonies wainscot with the pictures of the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Martyrs so that it is said by Travellers they are not inferiour to them in the Jesuites Chapel in Antwerp And although in some colledges a piece of a window was taken down yet in most Colledges they are not touched under pretence it would be very chargeable to put up new glasse and that now none did reverence them c. Besides I doâ— believe thay cannot space so much of their pride and out of
whilst ye seemingly live thus doth many of you consume yourselves substance and precious time And do ye think to live Dives his live and not dye his death Can ye think to sow to the flesh all manner of corruption all the dayes of your lives and not reap the same in the day of the Lord And do ye think as the tree falls it will not lye and as death leaves Judgement will not find and from Hell there is no Redemption Oh friends I can truly say my bowels ernes for ye who are called Nobles and are great in the earth above any sort of people that are without Also I know and feel that the witness of God lyeth near in very many of ye although the lofty and surly nature is not willing to bow nor sink down and become one with the witness which is meek and â—owly and calls upon ye in secret for purity in your inner parts Oh! let the consideration of Eternal Life constrain and even necessitate ye to turn in the eye of your mind to within and consider what ye shall do to be saved for verily the eye of the Lord is pure and runs to and fro thorow the whole earth and all that 's earthly and cannot behold your present iniquities Wherefore in the fear of the Lord cease to do evil and learn to do well and let the time past be sufficient least the Lord forthwith dash ye in pieces and sweep ye from the face of the earth and your memories utterly rot Therefore seek the Lord with all your hearts whilst he may be found for this is the day of your visitation but your day passeth away and the night swiftly cometh wherein no man can work yet a little while and the Light is with ye I say commune with your own hearts and be still and in the cool of the day when your lusts boilâ— not sink down willingly joyn and adhere to the measure of God in your consciences which is given to man to profit withall Oh take it for a leader for it is the true Light which doth enlighten every man that cometh into the World that all men through Him might believe the same is a swift witnesse for the Lord against all the evil of your doings and cannot nor ever did consent to sin the same is truth leads into all truth was before the man of sin the house of Ham the stock of Nimrod the cunning hunter Ishmael the scoffer Lord Esau of the Mount bloody Cain or the Dukes of Edom were and is before all invention or the ridiculous Tythes about which many of you fight kill boast and rend many a bloody oath and when ye have all done it may be prove your ancester an ancient murtherer come into England with William of Normandy killed an English man and took his possession and as your selves sprang from blood rage and cruelty so in the same many of ye continue but beware that your latter end be not worse then your beginning great quantities of earth ye have and the Lords hand is in no wayes shortened towards ye But verily very many of ye spend it wholly upon your lusts and that 's not the end for which it was given but ye are to honour God with your substance and whatsoever he hath given ye he that defiles his body defiles the Temple of the Lord and him will God destroy Therefore whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do learn to do all to the praise and glory of God and do not Lord it over Gods heritage in the General nor in your own particulars for Christ is in ye except ye are reprobates and this know that no man was or ever shall be heir of two Kingdoms and God and Mammon ye cannot please and if ye truly serve the one the other with all his lusts ye must deny Mark all his lusts ye must deny and a death ye must feel upon your present lives that ye may come to know the birth which is immortal seek to know the Lord if it be but as a consuming fire to burn up and consume your lusts which separates between ye and your maker for he that envies is a murtherer ‖ For love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment because as he is so are we in this present world there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love If any man say I love God and hate his Brother he is a lvar For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loves his Brother also 1 John 4. 7 12 16 18 20. and he that lusts after a woman hath committed adultery and I say unto ye all above men and all things swear not And to see a great man a good man is a rare thing even an ornament in his Countrey a strength to the righteous a sinew to the feeble a nerve to the oppressed a help to the helpless and of all men if ye could but see and trust in the truth as it is in Jesus how transcendently happy might ye be even in this life beloved of God and good men and all evil men maÌ„de to fear ye And I do believe many of ye cannot but see the hireling and his covetousness deficiency and deceipt and in some measure see the truth and the vessel to be good but to sea in it ye dare not go for if the greatest of ye deny the hireling his ungodly gain a war he will prepare and the waves will beat the billows boil and the stormes arise But help us Lord and we cannot perish although the greedy man may toss us from one Goal and Dungeon to another and if there in faithfulness to the Lord we lay down or lives yet we live for ever and have life Eternal And that 's much better then the airy title of Duke Lords Knights c. which put them all together will not buy a morsel of bread in this very life and in the life to come the Beggar as the King and his Nobles and Tophet is not prepared in vain and it is well if some of yee who are called Noble-men and cals your selves Christians be not found in the day of the Lord more ignoble to the now despised Christians then Festus Agrippa or Claudius Lycias were to Paul who were called heathens but were truely Noble to Paul and such Nobility I own who puts no man to death nor hurts no man tell the accuser and the accused comes face to face
upon him that for many dayes and nights he could not forbear quaking and trembling the Divels trembled I â—n â— in most dreadful horror that many people wondred at him who though he had food looked as if he had been almost famished and could not die until his flesh rotted away in many places and he most gastly to behold he often uttered horrible words from the pit of darknesse at last dying in a sad and miserable manner terrible to the beholders James Munden Priest of Burton having some Queries delivered to him by Francis Taylor he said he would go and fetch a warrant to have him before a Justice that day but the Justice not granting it he sent the Queries back to Francis Taylor and when his wife came unto him she in a rage tore the paper of Queries and said to him that as she did tear that paper so the Devils should tear his soul in hell hereafter a bad answer to the Queries and other times she abused friends in their meetings and her children threw stones at them Not long after this Priest was suddenly strook dead and never spake word more though he had been preaching two several times that day or rather deceiving the people words and the wages of unrighteousness being cursed to him he died in debt and left his wife and children in poverty and misery Also a young man of the same Parish and a follower of the same Priest being very bitter to friends and sought occasion against his own brother Upon him also the Judgements of the Lord came and after he had been speechlesse for a time hee roared and howled in a loud and hideous manner being in a distracted condition and had many to hold him he shortly after died and many were amazed at him Edward Ireland a tithing-man dwelling in South Periot who scoffed at friends and persecuted them with much cruelty and took some out of there houses and carried them before some called Justices and in the eleventh month 58. he went to Blanford Sessions with Jeremiah French the Priest of South Periot who went there to lay in false information against John Gundry who was cast into prison by Jeremiah French the said Ireland also having a hand in it and at that Sessions Iâ—hn Gundry was brought forth and so fined fourty shillings to the Protector and fourty shillings to the Priest but Ieremiah French and Edward Ireland rode away from Blanford towards South Periot before those called Justices had really fined Iohn Gundry or remanded him to prison again and yet as they rode homeward through Evershot Edward Ireland boasted that Iohn Gundry would be sent to prison again who came home to his house but within two days the Lord strook him dead suddenly in his house which struck a dread in many which had a hand in persecuting the Lords people but especially one Richard Farnham who had also been a great persecuter of the Lords people in that place who came in to see Edward Ireland at the cry of the people and when he came into the house he fell down as dead and many of the people there ran about him and did shake him up and did strive much about him so he recovered life again but the dread of the Lord lay upon him that he was sick for a time after and then for a short season the Lords people had rest from their persecutors Dâ—VOâ— When I was prisoner at EXETER a Murtherer being condemned to die was brought into the Chamber to us and his hands unbolted and a naked knife in his hand and so left with us but the Lord preserved us from any hurt by him and he was afterwards hanged for killing a man with a knife The Mayor of Tiverton in Devon-shire by whose order many friends had their goods spoiled and taken from them and many were put into prison was about the fourth or fifth month in the year 1658 cut off by the hand of God in a miserable manner his bowels consuming within him and as one Fowler of the same Congregation and fellowship with him and of the same Town told a friend it lay upon him to go to see the Priest and to acquaint him that it was the hand of God upon him for his cruel usage of those people called Quakers One of the Constables of EXETER a notorious Professor hanged himself in his own house The Bridewel-keeper who had done very much wrong to friends who were under his custody and to others that came to visit them in prison making several lies against them soon after hanged himself by his bed side It is reported that many of the Professors in Exon have hanged and drowned themselves since first that place begun to persecute the people of God As Thomas Salthouse and Miles Halhead were travelling towards Plymouth in obedience to the Lord were apprehended at Honington and sent to EXETER by a guard of Musqueteers from thence to TAâ—NTON with a sealed letter a guard to Colonel Buffet who as he was enioyned by the said letter wrote another to send them from Tything to Tything until they came to their own Countries but the officer that had the passe and was to be their convoy to the next Tything had not gone above a mile until he fell down in the mire and could not stand upon his feet although they lefted him up thus the Lord made way for their enlargements and manifested his Righteous Judgements upon the Persecutors of the innocent so the Justice seeing the hand of the Lord against their formed weapons and instruments employed against the servants of the Lord released them The first that rose up against the people of God in this County was one Thomas Pentlow called Justice that in two years space committed 9 of the servants of the Lord to Prison and not one of them was proved transgressors either of the Law of God nor the Nation and some of them kept above a whole year in Prison and immediately after the beginning of his persecution the Lord smote him with an incurable disease in his body that he never went forth as formerly he did many times but lay roaring night and day near two years and when he lay thus in torment he committed every one of the people of the Lord to Prison that was brought before him though not any Law was transgressed and never repented to the day of his death Next one John Brown called Justice committed one Henry Williamson to Prison for going into Kettering Steeple-house though he never spoke one word but stood peaceably all the time and as soon as the Priest had done the people dragged him forth by the hair of the head struck him on the head face with their Bibles and he never speaking one word and John Brewa was an eye witness to this barbarous usage of him and never reproved the rude people for it but committed him to an Ale-house with a charge that none of his friends should come near him and
A VVord of Reproof And Advice to my late Fellow-Souldiers and Officers of the English Irish and Scotish Army With some Inrhoad made upon the Hireling and his Mass-house University Orders Degrees Vestments Poperies Heathenism c. With a short Catologue of some of the fighting Priests And for just cause given have given them a blow in one of their eyes pickt out of the whores head which they call A Fountain of Religion but is a sink of iniquity Also a word to those old Creatures who are old in iniquity and in the fallen estate yet deny falling away Likewise a word to those Magistrates and Rulers who whip or suffer to be whipt or imprisoned the Saints of the most High as Vagabonds amongst whom there is no Begger As also a word to that bad Generation of people who in their reprobate minds and with their unwholsome tongues blaspheme and belye the dreadful and just God in saying that he hath created some men intentionally to be damned and a particular number to be saved and damn'd Wherefore then doth the Hireling preach and for what hath he his hire Mark the decrees of God are yea Amen and unalterable A word to these who are called Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Lords Barrons Bannerets Baronets Knights of all sorts Esquires and Gentlemen so called Also let that Generation that desire a signe read some of the Examples that have befallen the Persecutors of the Innocent By a lover of good Men good Laws good Governments and Governours good Judges and Ministers as at the beginning Who hates nor fears no man and is a lover and honourer of all men in the Lord but cannot give flattering Titles or respect the person of any man E. B. LONDON Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate 1659. And I said hear I pray you O heads of Jacob and ye Princes of the house of Israel Is it not for you to know judgement Who hate the good and love the evil who pluck off their skin from off them and their flesh from off their bones Who also eat the flesh of my people and flay their skin from off them and they break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot and as flesh within the cauldron Micah 3. 1 2 3. FRIENDS I Do believe that very many among you are not unsensible of your own unfruitfulnesse and unfaithful dealing to God-ward and I know that ye may not deny but if ye had stood in your former integrity that is to say when ye were little in your own eyes when compassion was no stranger and tendernesse was well known amongst ye then was the hireling and all his Jewish and Popish trumpery sentenced and liberty of conscience vowed I say if ye had stood in that integrity ye might have been instrumental to have saved much of the innocent blood that hath been shed for which I know the Lords hand will be speedily and eminently revealed upon some amongst ye who have connived at cruel murthers when as the blood of the innocent hath been laid before ye as James Parnels in the first place was but since him many others have drank of the same cup even to death And I am sure the Lord will rebuke princes for our sakes and let the most sturdiest oak amongst ye know that the indignation and fierce wrath of the dreadful God is kindled and his righteous judgement is nigh even at the door and a sudain and terrible breach will he make amongst ye at unawares when ye look not for his coming for verily his righteous spirit is grieved at the cruelties that are done although ye hedge your selves up with many spears and think to surround your selves with battleaxes yet the same spirit which ye have many of ye like fools gone about to limit will suddainly break through all your contrivances and a day of mourning will overtake ye although for the present ye are not troubled like other men but suffer the Prophets and messengers of the living God to be slain before your faces yea I know the righteous have perished and none of ye have laid it to heart so as to remedy it and if any of them be moved of the Lord to come among you some of ye have even shamefully and cruelly entreated them madly resisting the holy One in his way but let the most surliest among ye know that the blood of the innocent hath reached heaven and he will not spare ye And now that none of ye from the General to the meanest sentinel may be ignorant what innocent blood I mean It is the blood of such who did believe and declare that Christ is come in the flesh and so durst not uphold a Jewish or Popish priest-hood by paying of them tythes and some for going into a Mass-house and desiring the hireling to fear the Lord and turn from the evil of his wayes or asking a sober question and for not swearing which is the breach of an especial command of Christ who sayes swear not at all many others dragged out of their peaceable meetings without the breach of the least Popish law whatsoever and thrown into dungeons and nasty holes amongst theeves and murtherers other being upon their knees at prayer have been taken up by the hair of the head some thrown into prison without so much as a Mittimus there kept for many moneths others have been stoned knockt down with clubs and stones mangled with swords and run into the body and abundance of such cruelties I might name besides the exceeding great number of our friends that have been whipt as vagabonds and committed to prison for vagabonds and yet be it known to the whole World we have not a begger amongst us One and the same woman hath been committed for not coming and coming to the Steeple-house although she spake not a word to either Priest or people others have been invited by the Magistrates in my hearing to the Steeple-house to have a dispute and yet afterwards was committed to prison but the cause of the innocont which of ye have pleaded or what Justice hath there been done to the poor Nazarenes when any of us have been falsly and contrary to all manner of Law imprisoned for the space of a year more or lesse there is some would have us call it a favour when as for shame they are forced to deliver us When some of the Lambs of God have been brought to the bar the Judge hath asked the plaintiff what he had against the Prisoner he answered he abused me he abused me wherein why said the plaintiff he bid me fear the Lord and this he called an abuse and many such rediculous absurdities I might name that hath been committed by the Anti-christian Romish Clergy and those upon whom that beast rides in these our yet bad-reformed times but I shall wade further into that Sea anon Friends It is not unknown to me the exceeding largeness of your borders in
name of him and onely him that made heaven and earth may it please youâ— worship may it please your Lordship may it please your honour c. Now if all honour mind the word all which will not admit of the word some to be joyned with it in that place doth belong to God alone as I am sure it doth there is not the least of Room for your fond appellations which ye give and receive one of another How can ye believe that receives honour one of another Oh! Let Moab come down before she be compelled to serve and the Lord stain all your honours in one day for I am sure some of ye he will overtake with speed and their memories shall rot but the name of the just shall live for ever therefore let every soul of ye be subject to the higher powers which is higher and above the transgressor and see if yet there be any remorse in ye towards your poor brethren who as I said before are languishing in nasty holes and several dead most of them dead and alive being such who have freely offered up their lives with ye in the actual service for the Common-wealth in the heat of It is the same man that was called Round head that is called Quaker therefore let all that are in authority be ashamed to see us thus dealt with the day and I am sure we have not forfeited our right in the least or purchased your indignation by either plots or rebellion against ye although ye have sufficiently provoked us by suffering far more to be laid upon us then as we are men could be borne and me thinks our peaceable patient and innocent carriage cannot but smite ye to the very heart I am sure it hath reached Heaven and if ye were not in the deepest slumber even the sleep of death ye would not lame your selves to uphold the interest of a company of gormandizing Priests who creep into the Mass-house and there speak a devination of their own brain or make a plot in the week days and there discover it and bid others keep holy upon that day upon which they keep market and tell the people if they do not pay their Tythes they rob God and it may be threateneth those that are behind to sue them or send them to prison forth-with so that upon that day which he exhorts others to keep holy he doth all manner of work that tends to his quarterly gain Can that be the Ministry of Christ that murthers men for their bellies Nay it is impossible for the Ministers of Christ laboured with their own hands and took by violence from no man neither were they so much as burthensome to any much lesse stocked caused to be whipped imprisoned or smote with their hands but with them laboured and knocked down no man nor imprisoned any man to death for their bellyes but in this some of these at this day do glory And yet if any be moved of the Lord to tell any one of these cruel men that their glory is their shame or their belly is their God it s much if some Priest-ridden Justice or another do not send him to the Goal for it I shall also shew ye the rope of sand wherein many of these Priests have been wrapt Henry the 8. was a Papist the same Henry the 8 was a Protestant and called himself Defender of the Faith Edward the 6 a Protestant Queen Mary a Papist Queen Elizabeth a Protestant again King James was both for and against Bishops King Charles he was called a Church-Papist yet loved Bishops and Book of Common Prayer so well that an open war was declared against him which hath cost an innumerable quantity of blood and treasure he and his Bishops extirpated swore vowed and declared against and others have taken possession yet I shall seal it with my blood That there is 1200 Priests in England that are as bad as those 12 Bishops were so that at the best we are but where we were after all this fighting killing and being killed pulling down and setting up and all men may plainly see that have not done away reason and sold themselves to the spirit of prejudce that the best of their religion is but till further order and the change of a King or the change of a Queen or the alteration of a goverment puts them out of order and to seek for their religion tell they have received further order from man or at least till they have studied what religion the King or Chief Ruler adheres to and there they will seemingly imitate There they were and there they are tell further order and the best of their Religion will reach no further but tell further order See what the Ploughman in his complaint saith of these wicked men in the Reign of K. Edward the third here followeth somewhat subtracted forth of his complaint the thing being too large to insert verbatim AH Lord though that the Plowman may not have so much silver for their prayers as other men for See the plowmans complaint in K. Ed. thirds time Foxes Acts and Monuments Vol. 1. p. 524. they know not so well to prize their prayers as these other chapmen But Lord our hope is our prayers be never the worse though they be not so well sold as other mens prayers They turn thy words into songs and tales and so men do now they sing thy words merrily and that singing they call thy service but Lord I trow the best singers thou hearest not most but he that fulfilleth thy words he thou heareth full well though he weep more then sing and I trow that weeping for breaking of thy commandements be more pleasing to thee then singing of thy words and forsaking of travel which God commands and give their selves to idleness that is the mother of all naughtinesse Lord Mary thy blessed Mother and Joseph touched often times thy body and yet wrought with their hands and lived in as much cleannesse of soul as our Priests do now But Lord men make now great stonen houses full of glassen windows and calleth them thine houses and Churches but thou saist those that did worship in such had been worthy of death Lord in thy Gospel thou sayest that true worshipers of God worship him not in the Hill beside Samaria nor in Jerusalem neither but true worshippers of God worship him in spirit and in truth And Lord God what a worship is this to build thee a Church of dead stones and rob thy quick Churches of their bodily livelyhood to cloath stocks and stone with See pulpit cloaths and many guilded coats painted windows with pictures of many a monstrous beast silver and gold and other good colours and I see thine own images go in cold and in heat in cloathing all to broken without shoon hosen and hungred and athirst feeding themselves and not thy flock hiding Thee that art our light and those that were fed they slew and
those that were broken they knit not together but rattled them with sternship and with power And Lord these hired men they nefeeden thy sheep in thy plenteous Leasow but feeden thy sheep with sweines and false miracles and tales but at thy truth they ne come not For Lord I trow thou sendest them never And of these hired men speaks Jeremiah and thou saiest in that word by him I ne send them not and they run quickly but I ne spake unto them For if they had stood in my councel The Spiritual man is locked in Prison by those that have the Key of Cunning. they would have turned people from the evil of their wayes and their evil thoughts For Lord thou saiest thy Word is as a fire a hammer breaking stones but from the least to the most they study covetousness and from the Priest to the Prophet all they have done guile And Lord this is much mischief and matter of sorrow and yet there is more For if a lewd man that is a lea-man teach thy people truth of thy Words as he is upholden by thy Commandment of Charity he shall be forbidden and put in prison if he do it And so those that have the key of cunning have Tho. Cromwell Earl of Essex and Sr. John Old-castle testified against Tithes and it is verily believed that both were put to death for their Testimony locked the truth of thy teaching under many Wards and hid it from the children But Lord sith thy teaching is come from Heaven above our hope is that with thy Grace it shall break these Wards and shew him to thy people to keel both the hunger and thirst of the soul And then shall no shepheard nor no false hired man beguile thy people no more Lord thou givest us a Commandment of truth in bidding us say yea yea nay nay and swear for nothing and truly Lord I trow that if thou were now in the World and taughtest as thou didst sometime thou shouldest be done to death for thy Teachings is damned for Heresie of the Wise men of the World So that by this ye may plainly see that the hireling in former ages was testified against and the Lord was not without a witness though oppressed then as at this day And as for the Tithes which Antichrist the Pope vomited forth of his mouth and was first introduced by Augustine one of his Fryers here in England I might say something in particular of it but being a Christian and believing and knowing that all shadows and types whatsoever must give leave to the substance and also knowing that the good thing is come and the great Prophet heard And others who believe in Christ having more then sufficiently refell'd what is possible to be said in honour of that Idol Therefore I set my feet upon that dunghill being with my self by all the reasonable and unconcerned men in the Natons troden upon in their hearts And for such as are yet unsatisfied I refer them to Anthony Persons Book and The book is sold by Giles Calvert at the sign of the black spread Eagle at the west end of Pauls the price about six pence I do not question but it may satisfie settle and establish all men against the very foundation birth and bringing in of that bad thing except I say the greedy receiver who is so greedy of filthy lucre that he can never have enough and is unsatisfied unsetled and unstable in all his wayes For when a Priest dyes and the Parsonage be great Oh! how the rest will swarm about the Donator and hunt like dogs that runs for the carcase of a dead horse and it may be ten of them at least shall pretend a call and if by whining flattery symony or subtility any one of them can procure it it s much if in his very first Sermon he be not so prophane as to begin with a lye in his mouth and tell the people being called amongst ye by the Lord and brought into this place by his Providence Whereas indeed it is the gain of that quarter which its like may be much bigger then that from whence he came and it is theirs and not them for which he really came or hunts and that 's his call Yea I know some of them may fitly be compared to Crows Dogs and Rooks that when the Beast is sick the Ravens will pick his eyes out before the dogs shall get him so some of them in my knowledge have been trying for the Parsonage before the incumbent hath been quite dead Now from the bottom of my heart I do believe that the Cut-purses and Goal-birds are not more disingenious towards one another as men then some of these men are in case a fat Parsonage be to be parted by the teeth amongst them so that their godliness is not great gain but their great Parsonage is their great gain and their quarterly gain is their God And that they are very disingenious hear what I have farther to say of them I have many times asked several of these hired men why they did pillage and take away from those that did not hire them set them a-work nor come to hear them Their common answer was and is Their Church was open So doth â—â—e gates of Hell who as will may enter and who as will may come and it is not our faults say they if they come not I answer so is every trades-mans shop in the Nation or very same Parish and he may as well say to those which are not his but another mans customers My shop stands open and I have as good ware as another thou mayest have it if thou wilt it s my trade and my goods are to be sold Answer I like them not I will not have them Now I appeal to any reasonable man upon earth if he the said trades-man should lay hold on me and take away my cloak coat bed-cloaths brass pewter cattel corn c. for his goods which I like not and by me refused and by him undelivered to me Admit him to be a seller of good books as the Bible and other Just mens works and writings I say I appeal to the whole World whether this man that so takes away my goods be not as real a thief in the sight of God and good man as him that robs upon the high way And by this all true men may plainly see the unjust afflictions persecutions bondage and oppression the seed of God lyeth under at this day by the seed of the evil doers and cruel men who lye in wait to devour widows houses and destroy the innocent Even as a troop of Robbers lie in wait for a man to murther in the way by consent they hunt every man his neighbour with a net And that they may do evil with both hands earnestly some of us they did distrain and sue in the Exchequer for one and the same matter Where the greedy Lawyer asketh for
name of the beast or the number of his names read Rev. 13. and if the present Rulers of the earth have not drunk of the whores cup how came these Priests by this Law I say is not the Popish Queen out-done and her three months imprisonment made six so that these have a Law at their command and I am sure a terrible Law hath it been to us-ward Such a Law the Jews had and by our Law said they he ought to die for he is a blasphemer and what was his blasphemy Why say they he sayes he is the Son of God So as false yet true they put the holy One to death and the English Priests Original was set over the Originals head by Priest-ridden Pilate Oh my dear friends perish not with them nor for and with their gain-saying generation but like wise men keep your eyes in your head and let that woman which hath so fowlly transgressed be silent and let not transgression plead for and uphold transgression and transgressors But ask your husband at home for the wo-man is not permitted to speak in the Church nor about Church matters but the the Daughters of the Lord as well as his Sons shall and at this day do prophesie and God is one in the Male as in the female and the Womb that is barren is accursed as well in the Male as in the Female but the Woman is to be silent in them both But the seed and birth which is immortal which sins not doth and may speak if the Lord open the mouth in the Female-man as-well as in the Male-man and if the Lord open the lips let the whole creation shew forth his prayses but let Eve for ever be silent And I know from the Lord God the barren womb is cursed and such who cannot in some measure witness the marriage are undone but the true Virgin that hath not many lovers is a holy state and she which is begotten of God as the Lord moves may utter words and Minister to the seed in others that all may be edified the deaf made to hear the blind to see the sick healed and the saving health made known the dead raised the Lame walk and the dumb made to sing for joy and in this Ministry and Gospel Phaebe and Prisâ—illa may labour with Paul or any other the holy Women at this day a seal of whose Apostle-ship I am and if you keep your eyes in your head and behold the Original in ye and ask that Husband at home ye will seal to and witnesse with me that God is truth and is one in the Male and in the Female for it is the fools eye that is abroad but the wise mans eye is in his head and the head of every man is Christ Jesus and he gives to all men and women a measure of himself to profit withall and all his gifts are good and perfect and leads to no other thing but unto perfection but no Bastard nor the thief who steals the words from his neighbour and boasts in the lines of other men shall never inherit though he be as goodly to look at as Ishmael and as Orthodâ—x as the high Priest yet he is the son of the bond-wo-man within from whence death immagination and brain-study speaks a devination of its own there the merchants of spiritual Babylon trade wch is called confusion but all this while the royal seed is in bondage and the voice of the King is not heard within without which the children of the Kingdom cannot live and the voice of a stranger the sheep will not hear and the thief or spiritual vagabond although it be Cain or Lord Esau himself with the Son of the free and first-born must not co-habit for the life of the one is the death of the other and that must become a servant which hath caused the seed to bow they who know the Original know and feel what I say and the simple hearted that are among ye may understand me right well but for those who are withered under the name of professors and are onely old in profession and iniquity who rise up early to contrive for self in whom the earth hath choaked the seed by them I do not expect to be rightly understood or justly construed for their life at the present is not in that wch discerneth and judgeth all things and in the Lords work they have been very unfaithful I shall not say much but it is very much if oveâ— the Lord trust some of them again but rather suffer a stranger to take and do that which was once in their posession and will it not be just if he who formed them doe shew them no favour but smite them as they have suffered others to be smitten and will it not be equal if the Lord reveal himself most eminently against them â—uite racing down their magnificency and for ever lay their honour in the dust And if any who are in authority be yet indeed really affected with the wayes and false worship of the hireling and offended with me for this my Testimony for the Lord and against the false hireling We who are called Quakers shall in the fear of the Lord be willing to meet them or a chosen number of them face to face before the chief Rulers Parliament or Councel and there approve our selves in our practise for religion by the words of the Scriptures and the example of the holy men of God and if we refute not the common hireling and whatsoever he is possibly able to say for himself or against us proving what he saies by Scriptures let the reasonable magistrates be judge I say if we do it not let us be used more bloodily and cruelly then we yet are if possible and we shall in that matter freely submit unto and be convicted by the Scripture which some of them are so impudent to say we deny and is their own rule though that which gave them forth is our rule and is not contrary to the Scripture so far as they are not polluted by false meanings put upon them which in their purity in themselves do not own But however there is sufficient to silence the brawling hireling for warrant from them he hath none for his preaching for hire or a set maintenance by a Law I say again let us discourse our Religion with the false hired man before ye and if then it be found that we hold any thing for Religion which is contrary to sound Doctrine or in the least derogatory to Scripture and if our practice faith hope and order be not according to the command of the Lord Jesus the example of the Prophets the Apostles the holy men of God and Ministers of Christ then countenance or discountenance as ye shal see cause And till then in the fear of the Lord God I warn you all from him that sits upon the throne to the meanest officer of peace or war Souldier or Subject whatsoever speak not evil of
him that made heaven and earth and onely him who abhors your blasphemy do supplicate or humbly beg your Reverence to be present at congregation on the morrow And then the Vice-chancellor must answer Intererâ— That is I will be present The Masters and Doctors are bound to wear their formalities as long as they stay in the University A Doctor of Sacred and holy Theologie as they call it for sect 6. par 2. his degree is to preach a Latine Sermon dispute in the Divinity School and to read six Lectures expound any part of the Scripture or any of the Apostolical Epistles T is ordered that all Doctors heads of Colledges Fellows Studients Schollars and all that are initiated into Orders Tit. 14 par 1. do wear black or sad coloured cloaths as it becomes those of the Clergy to do Their outside is a true figure of their inside That no Schollar go to a Conventicle under pain of expulsion Mark that That none swear but when he is lawfully required to it under the pain of paying four pence So that there they may swear cheaper then any where else in England When any one goes out Doctor of Divinity he hath the Bible given to him and a Ring of gold put on his finger and after that the Professor must give him * a kisse before the whole The kiss is in imitation of the Patriarchs who fell upon one anothers necks and kissed and Pauls saying to the Church of Corinth Greet ye one another with a Holy kiss mark it was to be a Holy kiss The square cap which is worn by this Popish brood signifieth the helmet of Salvation which they wear against the enemies of Christ The Ring which the Doctors give in the University signifies with what inviolable infidelity they kept the Spirit of Christ The Gloves signifie that they are to keep their hands undefiled from all worldly matters but it is most evident that they are the wordlings of this world and for cruel hearts and bloody hands who may be compared with them Oh mankind consider them and be not deceived by them for verily they are not of God Much of their orders and now practised fopperies are related by Hospinian in his Book concerning Monks and other Popish orders page 270. University The Senior Master of the Act who represents the rest does receive a book of Aristotle and a kisse from the Proctor as Clemens Roman in his 1 Book cap. 6. It s said Abstain from all books of the Gentilts what hast thou to do with other mens sayings and Lawes or false Prophets which truly turns weak men from the true faith and in the councel of carthage a Cannon said that a Christian shall not read a Heathen or Gentiles Book Gratian saith the Priests of God we see have omitted the Evangelists and Prophets reading comedies and love or lust books and have turned them into singing verses Gregory Magnus prohibited all prelacy in general from reading heathen Authors Gaud. de mor. Sec Just part 2. c. 26. page 90. True Christians we never read they learnt Philosophy in Schools but rather turned all from it Scip. Amirat Dissertat Pollit Lib. 3. p. 92. After Constantine c. had taken off the persecution from the Christians he left it simply to every mans choice what form of Religion he would be gathered in the same Eusebius teacheâ— in his â— book cap. 59. that none may be burthened Tertul. ad Scaâ—ulam saith the law of man hath power onely upon the natural part but every man is to fear that which himself knoweth and not another mans Religion neither is it Religion to think on Religion to take up the form and not the life as also saith Lactant. Oper. Lib. 5. de just pag. 353. Oh! What an honest mind these sufferers had and felt even that nothing humane was to be weighed or valued with their religion and they chused in it rather to die then to kill others to defend it see likewise Themistius his 12 oration made to Jovinian the Emperour all which oration was in commending him and exhorting him to continue to give tolleration in religion Also see Julian the Emperour as bad as he is made what he did for the Christians very justly said he I have statured in favour of all the Gallileans that none bring a matter against them neither draw them into the Temple nor from any other thing but let them have their own liberty and they that wrong them or contems this law let him die for I would have none forced or drawn beyond their own Rock Therefore again I often admonish that none do injury to the Gallileans but suffer them to use their own Religion in the truth according to their own mind rather using them with mercy then with hatred for they are worthy who have so exceedingly endured calamity with patience pledges of his being admitted Master The Doctors of Physick and Law do receive a Ring a kisse and a Book of Justinian or Galen Besides when any Master or Doctor takes his degree he must first kneel down to the Vice-chancellor then afterwards rise and kisse him and he must kisse both the Proctors and the Dean who presented him and this is done before the whole University in the Congregation When any one gives testimony that such a man is worthy of a degree without which none can proceed he must kneele down before the Vice-chancellor and Proctors and speak Batchellours for Batchellours Masters for Masters Doctors for Doctors all kneel on a cushion in their formalities before the Vice-chancellor The three Esquire Beadles at the Act and upon any solemn occasion besides their round velvet caps and guilded staffs have each of them a chain of gold about their necks which reaches four double below their middles The other three Yeomen Beadles go more plain with Prunello or Calimancho round caps and silver staves When any preaches at the place called Saint Maries Church one of the esquire Bedles who is called the Divinity Bedle Was there any of this foppery when Christ or his Apostles went into the Temple or Synagogue and I am sure he that is a Christian is like Christ and he that is at this day his Minister is found in their steps out of all these inventions immitations sorceries and witchcrafts Take with ye neither staff nor scrip nor money and go and teach all Nations and when they come back lacked they any thing and lo he is with his Ministers to the end of the World and doth not change but is the same yesterday as to day and for ever with his gilded staff is to fetch him that preaches from his chamber and wait on him to the pulpit and so back again Tuesdayes and Thursdayes in Lent by reason they dispute then onely tell eleven are called gracious dayes In some Colledges the Beadle-clerk doâ—h read by vertue of his office a piece of a chapter in one of the Gospels to the Doctors
is not all this and very many other things which ye use Popish Jewish and heathenish and yet ye would force the innocent whom ye know for conscience cannot swear at all to take an oath to abjure the Pope which would be to swear against your selves but because of oathes the Land mourns And if I hear a wicked wretch swear and many times blaspheam the name of the dreadful and living God with bloody oathes and if I complain of that wicked man to a Magistrate that he hath in my hearing sworn many oathes to the grief of my very soul and dishonour of my maker but except I will also swear and enter into the same sin the guiltless make himself guilty he which did in the first place offend the pure God shall not be punished but on the contrary if the true man do but speak to this man called Justice in plainnes of speech such as the servants used to the Lord of liâ—e and the same Lord to his servants or do not put of my hat to him and bow which I dare not do leâ—st my Maker should take me away I say its much if I go not to prison my self or at least exceedingly rebuked which I my self am a witnest off and this is turning of Justice backward so that except a man will break a positive command of the Lord Jesus the sword will not be laid upon the evil doer but is born in vain and not for the praise of them which do well the wicked Magistrate bids me â—wear and sayes I may swear or take a judicial oath the Papists he sayes bow down to an image and wear a crucifix or an agnus dei about thy neck it s but to put thee in mind and for a remembrance but Christ the oath and hope in me who was before judicial oathes or images were says swear not at all and above all things my brethren sayes James swear not and I had rather be accounted as one of his brethren by keeping the commands of the Lord Jesus by not swearing then by swearing to be made a friend to Caesar or a companion to the Prince the command of the most high God is thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image nor bow down to them and so let the Papists and yee part this matter between yee for yee are a like guilty the one breaks the command of God the other of Christ and he that breaks one is guilty of all The King bid or commanded that all should bow to his image which he had set up the three children refused and obeyed God rather then the accursed Edicts of a King the King gave command that they should be thrown into the fire and into the fire they were cast with their hats on were they Rebels yea or nay and whether is it better to obey God or men judge ye But except I will rebell against the Lord and make my self a transgressor of the royal Law I shall not have the benefit of your Law and except I will swear I cannot desend or come by my own nor hardly keep my self out of a Goal So vile are your Lawes and many the Ministers of them and the guilty do go free and the heart of the righteous is grieved and the righteous man doth perish and few or none layes it to heart but the Lord our God treasureth up all these things with many more of your iniquities and if yee think he will not visit for these things yee deceive your selves and are deceived because the truth doth not guide yeâ— The good Magistrate is worthy of double honour but it consisteth not in my hat for that waxeth old as doth my oâ—her garments and may be burnt and turned to ashes and become dong or I may throw my hat upon the ground and set my feet upon iâ— is then the Magistrats honor in the dust do I tread upon his honor when I tread upon mine own hat Nay the good Magistrate is still worthy of double honour and for a good man some will dare to die and so I dare for the good Magistracy â—ut to sawn câ—ing to any mans person I may not It is the good Magistrate that 's worthy of double honour the office good Magistratâ— in the man not the bad man because he is in the office and to every ordinance of man I submit am no rebell therefore let me and all Gods people have the benefit of your best Laws And your worst doth not require me to put of my hat swear or appear by an Attourny my self being in the Nation and willing to appear but admit ye had a corrupt Law or an act for every violence which is acted I believe some of ye heretofore when ye lived under the oppression of wicked Magistrates and unrightâ—ous Lawes which are yet standing would have said that the welfare of the people was above the Salus populi suprema lex Law Paul says that an oath is for the end of strife among men mark but the same Paul says walk not as men but as Saints and although they of old time sware to the Lord and performed their oathes to the Lord and the Lord performed THE substance to them which oathes was a type of and the oath and vow is come in the flesh who sayes swear not at all but if Paul or John who was the greatest born among women should should affirm or had affirmed it to be lawful to swear I le not believe John but rather chuse to hear believe and obey the great mighty Prophet in all things but the persecutor and he that will not hear this Prophet and bring all his deeds to the light and to the witness of God in him and there try if they be wrought in God shall be cut off Notwithstanding he may pretend to have an Edict or a law from man for what he doth And if he commit murther and all manner of wickednes most greedily man can pardon one another by an Act or call it chance-medly man slaughter petti-laseny c. and Hang another man for the fame fault because he cannot read and this amongst the rest is persecution and is not equal nor doing as a man would be done unto And like a naked and simple hearted man I shall hear declare unto all the world the words of the living God to me when I was but onely able to die for the truth and not able to write dispute or controvert for it when as heretofore I have met with an able skilful cunning deceiver This was the word of the Lord and thus said the Lord unto me If an Angel should pretend to come from heaven and should affirm unto thee that that Ministry is of God or Christ which in the least persecutes stocks whips imprisons strikes or causeth to be strucken sweares or causeth others to swear for his dishonest gain believe him not For they obey not the great Prophet and they shall be cut
Souls for his dishonest gain Oh! who is able to reckon up their deceipts or the number of the innocent that hath and are at this day deceived by them but the Soul which sins shall dye the death for the potter hath power over the clay and though he hide himself in the remotest part of the Garden he will find him out and a vessel of dishonour he shall be and yet after they have sinned he desireth not the death of a sinner although he be dead in sins and trespasses but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live For as I live saith the Lord I will not the death of a sinner Mark of a sinner but the persecutor and he whose tongue is at liberty who defileth his body which is the Temple of the Lord him will God destroy although he be the fattest Bull in Basan or the mightiest Cedar in all Lebanon he is but clay in the hands of the Potter and a vessel of dishonour he will make him But he that liveth in his fear and standeth in his councel and is obedient to the Fathers Commands which are all possible and in no wise grievous him he makes a vessel of honour and he is to him as the apple of his eye Be Holy be Perfect be Just in all your doings all men and let all Mark all that are athirst come and buy milk freely and take of the water of Life without money and without price Oh! Come all and it is in vain to invite them that are predestinated from all Eternity to be damned What I say unto one I say unto all watch and those that are decreed to Hell need not watch but the Lord willeth that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth and he is not like Pharaoh who willed the people to make brick without straw Oh! the Creator doth not so for a measure of himself he hath given to every man to profit withal Mark to all so that if he require the full tale of brick he doth Justly and his doings are Just and he is equal in all his wayes and let not him that is formed though a subject or a King say to him that hath formed Why hast thou made me so But come unto him or look unto him all the ends of the earth and be saved and the Gospel hath been preached to every creature under Heaven and it is he that knowes the Fathers Will and doth it not which shall be beaten but it is impossible that he can do it who never knew it but knowledge is a delitious fruit and pleasant to the eye upon which the reprobate feeds and whom I will I haâ—den but first he willeth that all men should be saved or else he might have said except Judas except Pharaoh except Esau except Pilate the Priests friend but Gods enemy Christ knew from the beginning who should betray him Mark he knew it but he did not wil him to do it for if he had it could not have been called treachery in Judas Nay he willeth not the death of a sinner but he willeth that all the ends of the earth should look unto him and be saved that is his Will and purpose for which purpose he hath and doth enlighten every man that cometh into the World that all men through him might believe and be saved Mark and note that he willeth all men I say he did not except Judas Pilate and Pharaoh if they were alive and had not sold themselves to do wickedly for which cause they were given up to a reprobate minde but there is and was some that will not come unto him that they may have life Wherefore such are ordained to condemnation of old but they that come unto him he will in no wise cast off and whom he loves he loves to the end and he that loves him keeps his Commands and he that keeps them not is of the Devil and he that is of the Devil hath no part in him for God and Belial are not one in any one thing neither do they live together and where Jerusalem is Babylon cannot stand and where the Light with which every man is enlightened bears Rule there is no darkness at all and when it is disobeyed if heeded the darkness may be felt Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated before either of those two children had done good or evil Yea the thing Jacob he loved and the thing Esau he hated before either of those two children were begotten or born after the flesh and those two seeds he onely loves and hates at this day and see that there be not a Cain nor an Esau be among ye but let the worm Jacob be cherished for it loves the Light and is the heritage of God but let murtherous Cain although he hath been Prince of the whole City and all hath been called by his sons name and Lord Esau of the mount come under for though there was a time when the seed bowed Jacob's got past and let the elder serve the younger for he sold his Birth-right for his belly Mark he had it A Birth-right or a Right-birth but he sold it and afterwards sought it with tears It was not the earth he wept for although he sold his Birth-right or Right-birth which was immortal for that which was earthly divelish and sensual The great God who created Heaven and Earth willeth that all man-kind should come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved and willeth not the death of one soul of his whole handy-work and the work of his own hands he cannot destroy and that is the infallible and true light the Son of the Father who enlighteneth every individual man and woman that commeth into the World that all through him may believe and be saved it is the particular sins of every particular man and woman that is the cause of death reprobation and câ—ndâ—â—nâ—tion and that soul which sins shall die but for the word Original fin I do not find it in the whole Scriptures but is a contrivance of the false Prophets like unto their baby-baptism but he that believes in the Light of Christ which he is enlightened with and brings all his deeds to the light and dwells and abides in the light and hath the hope in him He purifieth himself as he is pure and the wicked one cannot touch him Again and again I say if a certain and set number from all eternity be predestinated to be saved and damned What doth the hireling preach for or for what hath he his hire I am sure the decrees of the living God are yea and Amen and unalterable And there is another vaine sort of people who are as ignorant as they who say that the Scriptures is the word of God and Mathew Mark Luke and John the Gospel and that the Latin Greek and Hebrew is the Original as for the word which the Scriptures of truth truly declares of he was in the
beginning before the Scriptures began and Heaven and Earth may passe away with which the Scriptures must passe but the Word lives and abides for ever the Letter killeth but the Word gives Life and is quick and powerful and sharper then any two edged-sword and divides assunder betwixt the joynts and marrow and he that hath the word hath life and Simon Magus could not buy the Word for money but â— man may buy learn and have the Scriptures and be a Judas and quote them as the Devil did to Christ and yet be a devil and the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us and His Name is the word of God and his vesture is dipped in blood and the Word is the Light the Hope the Way the Gospel the Door the Vine the Shepherd the fairest of Millions the Original the Kinâ— and Kingdom the way to the Kingdom and this Way this Word this Door this Hope this King and Kingdom this Christ this Original is above aâ— and all in all and in ye all except ye be reprobates for the Kingdom of Heaven is within ye and that which may be known of God is manifest in ye and these manifestations within doth the Scrâ—ptures of truth truly declare oâ— the same is the Original and not the Lat. Gr. and Heb. neither is it so much as a help to know the true and Living God for a man may have the tongues of men and Angels and yet be without God in the World and Pâ—â—ate may understand the Latin Greek and Hebrew full well and set it over the Originals head and go to hell with his understanding and those that have the tongues may be mad and at this day do wrest the Scriptures to their own destructions for want of learning as Peter said they did of old calling the book-learnt men an unlearned generation and himself had no letters and it is like Christ spake to none of the meanest letter-men when he said they had at no time seen the shape of God nor heard his voice and I am suâ—â—â—â— was because they were not good Schollars nâ—r willing to learn for I am the Lords witness that he is found of all that truly learn to seek him and learnt of all those that fear him for his very secrets are with them that fear him and to know and believe in him and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent is absolute life eternal and he that believes not is condemned already and to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts for it is the same voice within that calls to ye for equity and truth in your inner parts as did to them of old it is not another then what the Scriptures truly declareth of and let him that preaches or brings a Gospel contrary to that which they delare of be an athema maranatha so it is not sufficient to have the Latin Greek and Hebrew and be accounted Orthodox and an able Diviner when the womb is barren and the eye not kept in the head and that which brought the wo-to-man or the wo-man prevail which is not permitted to speak in the Church but is to be silent and ask the husband at home whether they be married or unmarried according to the flesh and happy and onely happy are they who are espoused to the Lamb and can witnesse the eternal mariage the unseparable tye which neither heights nor breadths nor depths nor lengths nor tribulation persecution principalities or powers whatsoever can separate And he that hath the word of God abiding in him which was in the beginning before the Scriptures Prophets holy men and Apostles were by whom the World was made before it was made He deserneth all things judgeth all things Mark all things Orthodox and non Orthodox Pilate and his Original and himself is judged of no man And the grace of God which brings salvation hath appeared to all men and that is the true light that doth enlighten every man that cometh into the World And this is the condemnation that light is come into the World and men love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evil for every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light least his deeds should be reproved but he that doth truth cometh to the light that his deeds might be manifest that they are wrought in God John 3. And this is my testimony for the Original the Lord Jesus and is according to the word that Original which was in the beginning before the Scriptures began to and against all Babilonians from whence came and is derived all confusion and diversity of tongues but in the beginning it was not so for God was the Word and the Word is God E. B. THE END A VVORD To those who are called Dukes Marquesses Earles Viscounts Lords Barons Bannerets Baronets Knights of all sorts Esquires Gentlemen and to the women who are called these mens Ladies upon which rabble of appellations depends and hangs most of the bad people of this Nation And who is the deboicher and vitiator of women-kind I leave it to that of God in the Conscience of these who are called Lords and Ladies Gentlemen and Gentlewomen to judge AH Poor men and women repent repent repent for the Lords righteous Judgement is nigh even at the door to be poured forth against many of you who even hate to be reformed but like evil men and deceivers wax worse and worse being as it were rivetted to all manner of sin grown old in iniquity And although you are called Lords Ladies Gentlemen and Women yet for the most part ye are ungentle untame without the yoke your tongues at liberty to blaspheme the Name of the dreadful pure and living God and Ishmael-like scoff and speak evil of dignities and things ye know not cursers swearers fighters and killers one of another fierce despisers of them that are good many of you are and yet calls yourselves Gentlemen c. When as patience and long suffering is the thing ye truly know not and soberness with many of ye makes no long tarrying and with your lusts ye are led captive at the Devils will and amongst many yea very many of ye oppression is your constant in-mate envy cruelty lust exaltation and pride the very beloved of your bosoms and in your own particulars ye hurt the innocent ye grieve that which would be righteous ye slay and make merry over the witness swallowing down the cups of pleasure and iniquity as the Ox drinketh water ye oppress the seed ye put the Lord of Life to open shame ye crucifie him afresh and that continually In spiritual â—â—â—ne and Egypt all the day long ye are content to dwell and in the night season lye down in your beastialities and in the morning ye rise up early to drink wine take pleasure and commit sin with greediness boiling in your own lusts overwhelmed in gluttony wholly swallowed up in all manner of worldly delight being dead
and sends no man to prison nor keeps any in bonds without signifying the cause and having a just Law from the Lord for his or their detention that 's equal and just which the Lord help yee to know and obey for its the just which suffers in yee and the seed is oppressed and kept in bondage in your own particulars So wait upon the Lord in his fear which is the beginning of wisedom and yee shall hear a voyce behind yee saying this is the way oh walk in it and if ye be obedient ye shall eat the good of the Land and obedience is better then sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of rams although your sins be as scarlet and for number as the sand upon the Sea shore yet if ye believe in the Light and love the Light and bring all your deeds to the Light and see if they are wrought in God Iâ— so it s a good deed do it and that Light is truth and is no lie oh dig deep for it for its within though the Inne be thronged with other guests and a vast quantity of iniquity is above the seed and the whole lump is sowred with the wrong leaven But the grain the seed or lost groat is there therefore seek diligently and ye shall find and having found it sell all and buy the Pearl and follow the Lâ—mb whether soever he goes thorow good report and bad Oh! believe in and love the truth and abide in the truth and the truth shall make ye free and purge away all your drosse and Tynne then are you free indeed and the blood of Jesus shall cleanse ye from all sin and filthiness both of flesh and spirit and if you forsake your sins he is faithful and just to forgive ye your sins and your transgressions he will remember no more And ye who are called Dukes Lords Knights Gentlemen c. for the most part have your Education at the same fountain from whence comes the hireling and there have them for your Tutor Teacher and as yet few or none of ye exceed or are much wiser then your Teachers to salvation Neither indeed are ye like to learn of him who receives the wages of unrighteousness and stands not himself in the councel of the Lord For if they had stood in my Councel saith the Lord they would have turned many from their evil wayes and had they been the Ministers of Christ the World had not been so full of wickedness as at this day it is but indeed their converts are like themselves proud covetous high-minded and guilty of all manner of evil as the best of them will confess themselves to be and that their best doings is sinful and full of sin and if so which indeed they are it is impossible they shall convert one Soul to God for the prayers of the wicked are abomination to the Lord and the very best sacrifice that can be offered by the hands of an unclean persecutor who hurts or envies his Brother or imprisons for his belly is but as the cutting off a dogs neck for he that envies is a murtherer and it is natural for every father to beget a child after his own image and to speak to the very rational part in ye all If a man were to teach another man a science or a trade he cannot neither is it possible for him to teach another to do that which himself cannot do neither thinks possible to be done Mark the best of the Priests prayers and teaching are sinful as themselves confesse and their imperfect prayers may beget imperfection lust and uncleannesse which shall never enâ—â—r the Kingdom nor dwell with the holy true God So if ye exceed not the wisdom of your tutors and Teachers and learn of the light and believe in the Light which was before Pope Colledge or Priest was although every man of yee could preach and pray as well as they can which is not hard to do I say both ye and your prayers are abominable in the sight of the pure God who hath no regard to the preaching and prophecying of sinful Prophets and themselves as well as their hearers may be cast-awayes And this is a great evil among ye who are called lords knights c. who have great estates upon which account poor men oftentimes lends ye great sums of money and those great estates for the most part ye entail or passe away by some private dispossession and by wicked fraudulent wayes and in this the wretched Lawyer befriends ye undoes many poor men and at your deaths your heirs takes the benefit of the wicked Laws and sayes to their fathers creditors he possesseth nothing but what he was born to but the Lords curse is upon that birth and heir-ship so that when ye dye your names stink and generations curse ye and the childe that is unborn is occasioned to speak evil of ye and in defence of this birth-right as they call it to be sure the wretched Lawyer will take your heirs part although he knows the whole matter to be unjust and it may be himself had the greatest hand in the former cheat so they do not help your sons to heir your estates onely but your iniquities also And if I should be accounted a sower of sedition or a subverter of the Laws a turner of the World up-side down a pestilent fellow or a Ring-leader of the sect of the Nazarenes and thought not worthy to live and should be put to death for it Yet I freely declare that I trust in and steadfastly believe and hope in my God that he will asswage the pride allay the malice quite confound for ever entinguish and utterly make rotten blot out the name of Pope at Rome Tithe-monger or Hireling in England with his Mass-houses and all that is Popery whatsoever devouring Lawyer Dukes Lords Knights Courts of honour and the thing that is now called Gentility But a Noble-man or a Gentle-man I truly love who are truly so By a true lover of a True Just Meek Gentle Noble-man who hates nor fears no man and cannot give flattering titles or respects the person of any man E. B. POST-SCRIPT DVkes and Marquesses I deny but the Millitary chief or inferiour Captain or leader I own Earls I deny but when we have a King like David or Moses let that king have his companions but let not an evil doer live in the Court and such companions will need no Esquires neither desire their sons to be lifted up with the title of Lords or Barons where the whole houshold serves the Lord and are believers such seeks no honour one of another Viscounts I deny but let there be many good Governours in every County for they are very much wanting notwithstanding there may be a Vis-count two or three Bannerets Baronets Knights of all sorts I deny but the just Souldier whether he be horse or foot I own in his place a place for whom I find for when the
Souldiers came unto Christ and askt him Master what shall we do Be content with your wages and do violence to no man accuse no man falsly But for the whole rabble of Duke Marquesse Lord Knight Gentleman by patents I find no room place or example or allowance for in Scripture but that onely declares of as I do believe one Lord one God over all blessed for ever amen who made all kindreds tongues and Nations of one blood and all these earthly Lords and who exercise unjust dominion are come up since and in the Apostacy for in the beginning it was not so and those who are redeâ—med from the earth and risen with Christ and onely seeks the things above Fathoms and comprehends all these things and are come to the beginning are in that which was before false Prophets Anti-chriâ—â— Babylon Pope or Whores cup was of which the Kings of the earth have drank and been made drunk in which drunken fiâ— and when all the Nations reeled under the persecution of the beast and false Prophet and the Saints and Martyres blood was swallowed down as other cups of pleasure and the woman was fleâ— into the Wildernesse and the man-child was caught up to God I say in that black dark night of Apostacy when none was able to make war with the beast when the Kings of the earth fought for the earth was created and by the beasts power at this day is created Lords Knights c. and having lost the Cross of Christ the power of God within a painted cross is borne in your ensign without and that is the sign of your Christianity and so into sects and opinions and the Irreligious have and do kill one another about Religion precedency names titles and the earth and all this is earthly Devilish and sensual THE END Here followeth a relation of some signs examples and judgements for the accursed Generation who desire a sign for many to my face have temptingly said shew us a sign but they are miracles to those that believe and let such reach hither their hands and with me feel and see the wounds that the Lord of life hath received in his members by this unnatural and unparaleld Generation to whom and upon whom these examples are and have been shewen as it is written the wicked shall not live out half their dayes but let the despisers behold and wonder and perish for the work is wrought in their dayes although they cannot believe EXAMPLES ESSEX John Clerk Priest for 20. l. Tythes by him demanded of Robert Nicol of Coln-Engain by warrant from Dioâ—ysius Wakering and William Harlackenden Justices so called took and drove away from him Cattel worth 50 l. and his greedy mind not therewith satisfied sought after his body to but those his persecutors aforesaid being at London at that time he threatened to go to London to get a Warrant from them to put him in prison but the Lord prevented him for he came home and died in few dayes after SUFFOLK Robert Newton Goaler of Edmund-bury and his wife who had been very cruel to George Fox in the 55 weeks imprisonment he suffered under him by beating him very often and taking from him his bed cloaths and a coat and after his release detained him twenty eight weeks more for as he pretended a years sufficient lodging both the goaler and his wife not long after was cut off by death SUSSEX Priest Cussinâ— who caused Thomas Leycock to be imprisoned a whole year in Horsham Goal for speaking a few words to the people in love to their souls after he the said priest had done soon after this persecution he was cut off by death John Chatfield Priest of Horsham who caused Thomas Leycock and Bryan Wilkinson to be imprisoned and caused Thomas Patchins Cattel to be drove away soon after fell into a dropsie and remained in a miserable condition half a year and then died Priest Cuffly of Arundel who was a chief instrument in Thomas Leycocks persecution and did strive with the Magistrates of Arundel to have had Joseph Fuse who had faithfully served the Parliament in the wars 11 years sent over Sea as a bond-slave suddenly after this he died The Priest of Green who caused Alice West to be sent to prison for speaking some few words in the Steeple-house suddenly after died Edward Haughton Priest of Nuthurst who was the first in this county that caused friends to be robbed for Tythes was soon after cut off by death Priest Channel called a Doctor one of the chiefest high Priests so counted in this Nation a great opposer of truth was striken with madnesse and is out of his natural senses A Tythe-monger in the Parish of Beding who wickedly and malitiously trod out the corn of Minion Brocket making havock of the same within a week after was cut off by death John Gurden a Justice so called an eminent persecutor of the innocent people of God in this county whose name hath spread to New England among his brethren of the inquisition there hath been smitten by the Lord in a great weaknesse of body and dimnesse of eye-sight and hath appeared as one likely to pine away under the hand of the Lord which is evidently turned against him since he became such a cruel persecutor Roger Gratick a Magistrate and Priest Snelling consenters to much of the persecution of this county both slain with a thunder bolt in one day NORFOLK John Benton being one of Priest Claphams witnesses of Wramplingham whom he procured to swear against Benjamin Lynes in a matter concerning Tythes who was so evidently forsworn and his partner with him that the Justices themselves would not accept of their testimony and soon after which time the said John Benton got into the Steeple-house of Wramplingham and there hanged himself in a Bel-rope Edw. Humt keeper of the prison of Norwich who after Geo-Whitâ—head was discharged at the Sessions brought his action against him for 4 d. a night and although he had layn on the floor most part of the time yet was by him unjustly detained but the Goaler was soon after cut off by death HARTFORD-SHIRE Geo-Fage an unmerciful Bayliff who for 5 s. Tithe took away goods worth 4 l. from Richard North and entered into his house none being within but two poor children ransacked the poor mans house and took the very covering from off the bed of the children and exposed them to sufferings in the midst of winter for which the Lord God visited him and cut him off suddenly before he had made sale of the goods GLOUCESTER-SHIRE The first three friends that were committed in the County of Gloucester the two Justice of peace which did commit them the one called by the name of Justice Webly the other called by the name of justice Raymond these three friends did all live in or about Thornbury and were called to the Bar that Assiâ—e next holden for the County of Gloucester one of these Justices which did commit
be kept from his Wife and six small children and from his trade and employment to the ruining of him and his Family Just seven dayes after the Lord strook his Wife with death made 7 or 8 children of his motherless and in one week his Family were all disperced and his children put forth and his house left desolate to this day So our God is known by his executing Judgement and the wicked are trapped in the works of their own hands and thus in all ages hath the Lord been known and it is left upon record and in this age all the children of the light see the Lords footsteps praises be to him for ever Also one Wyat living at bugbrook a great professor for many years hearing that a Neighbour living in the same Town owned Truth and began to go to Friends Meetings he wrote a whole sheet of paper against the Truth of God and most blasphemously belyed the people of God which he in scorn called Quakers and sent this his Letter to his Neighbour aforesaid and challenged him or any of his Friends to give him an answer unto it but in a few weeks after before a friend could return him an answer the Lord answered him by taking away his life Also one John Palmer whom the World calls Quaker sent a book which was set forth by a friend to a Priest living three miles from Harborrow and desired him to read it the Priest was troubled at what was written in the book and said that he would write another to confute it and while he was writeing against the truth the Lord struck him with death suddenly that he died and never finished that work Also one Thomas Hensman one who was Warden so called of Willingborrow and when any friends were moved to go to the Steeple-house he would be alwayes ready at the command of the Priest there to hale them forth of the Steeple-house and he did once at the desire of the Priest swear falsly against one Elihu Hunt that she disturbed the Priest when she did out ask him one question after he had done and by his swearing Thomas Pentlow committed her to Prison presently after the Lord smoâ—e the said Thomas with an uncurable disease and when he lay upon his death-bed he declared to Neighbours that nothing troubled him so much as swearing and persecuting the said Elihu and wished that he had never had a hand in it and at the same time died Henry Wood of Bury in Lancaster riding to Manchester market Priest Bradsham rod up to him and called him knave and took away his hat At Boâ—ton the said H. Wood was much misused had his hair pul'd off his face by T. Tislesly Dol Hodgkin was strook by the Priest of Wakefield and had like to have been killed with a hammer by a black-smith YORK Priest of Warsworth strook and punched G. Fox The same Priest took away Thomas Rawlinsons hat LONDON Priest Griffin of Bred-street strook Robert Ingram sorely over the head with a Cane many blows The Priest of Heburn strook Jo. Sley several times over the brest And those things have happened for the Admonition of the children of those who have persecuted the innocent without cause and are written for the encouragement of such as may hereafter be persecuted for the testimony of Jesus that they may look unto him and be saved who hath delivered us out of six troubles and in seven he will not forsake us A Catologue of some few of the fighting Priests PRiest Shaw of Aldingham beat Anna Clater Priest Roulands of Areloth beat Robert Cooper because he would not speak to him Priest Willon of Kerby struck Luke Benson till he broke a thick cane therewith Priest Bennet of Cartmel came out of an Ale-house being in drink beat Richard Raper and boasted that he beat him and struck up his heels Priest Brook of Cartmel-fell came drunk into the house where Thomas Rollison dwelt beat him violently would have cast him into the fire Priest Wait of Gargrave stood by while his wife burnt eighteen sheets of paper holding it to the face of William Waâ—kinson to burn him with but the Priest never so much as reproved her or restrained her Priest Dorton of Shape being drunk drew his Tuck at Daniel Tompson in the street as he passed but being horsed he fled and escaped he beat Richard and William Stray pulled them by the hair luged his ears and came to William Strayes house with his tuck to seek him and threatened his wife therewith Priest Ripling of Crosby came rideing into the meeting where the people of God was meet and rid through them with violence Priest Nichols of Acton beat James Parnel and broak his head against a stall Priest Warwick of Aspeater beat John Grave and his wife and shed the blood of Jonah Person at a meeting Priest Burton of Sedburg beat John Blackling and pulled him by the hair of his head in his high place He also beat Richard Speight and John Hall as is said at Huperam Chappel Priest Cowleden of Langsterdale beat Edward Edwards and shed his blood upon the high way Also he beat Iames Tenart Priest Atkinson of Granton beat Bernard Addisom in the high-way and broke his staff over his face Priest of Marrick beat Christop More and also he beat Ioseph Longsdale in Richmond market-place for reproving him for it Priest More of Richmond beat Christoph. More with a flayl insomuch that its like he had killed him if help had not come Priest Confit of Barton beat Dor. Tod for coming to visit his wife I Christo Iron upon a first day was coming from a meeting of Friends and comming along the High-way I lighted of one Parson Feak of Standrop in the county of Durham who did rageingly fall upon me and did beat me and so passing along the way and my mouth never opened nor one word said he came again and gave me a great blow and made me stagger and struck off my hat and had a Rapier-staff that he had at Steeple-house which he drew a part forth of the Scabbard but put it up again and thus the Parson did to me and not one word and thus we parted This same Feak beat Thomas Taylor Christopher Atkinson and Thomas Aâ—ery coming along the high way coming from Ravensworth Castle Priest Feak of Staindrop beat Christo Atkinson trailed him at the horse side by the hair of the head by the high-way and his wife behind him bunched him on the face Lewis Floid Priest of Otteringam did tear William Dewsbuâ—ies hair off his head and struck him as they passed together near Oteringam in much rage and fury Thomas Andrews Priest of Wellingborow laid violent hands on Anne Ellington and drew her to the fire to have caused her to have burned a letter she carried to him and bruised the sinnew of her arm Priest Tho. Shaw of Aldingham beat James Lancaster for speaking to him in private he also beat Miles Falhead and shed his blood Linc. Flecher Priest of Dean in Cum bad the people fight for the Gospel and caused Thomas Stubs to be extreamly beaten Mathew Bakeâ— a great High Priest who said that Adam before he fell had a dark light of nature in him that shewed him sin c. A friend in the truth bid him prove it but he could not his lyes being laid upon him he got up in a great rage and struck F. Ellington As Rob. Chintin was going to a meeting Priest Fortrey asked him why he run after other mens wifes there being a woman or two before going towards the meeting and with many other obscene unclean words rayled at him and beat him with his staff so that for a moneth or more his hanâ— was Iame. Thomas Curtis of reading being in the Steeple-house there asking Priest Web a question was sorely pulled by the hair of the head by the priests adherents The aforesaid Curtis was also abused and smote by the priest of Causham until the Mayor himself came and took him forth of the Steeple-house Priest Feak of Stanethrop beat Christopher Jones of Barnard Castle Priest Jenkins with four men to whom he gave bond to save harmlesse for whatsoever they did who by false warrant seized upon and drove away 100 sheep and other Cattel from Captain John Elliot his shepherds wife owning one sheep and desiring to have it one of this priests men knocked her down and broak her head in two places and for some time she lay for dead continuing deaf unto this day the aforesaid Captain Eliots wife being there also the priest bid one of his men knock her down and kill her and he would bear him out at which command one of them struck her on the breast with a great staff which might have killed her but she having a young child which did suck preserved her but the child sucking the putrified milk took a vomiting and died and this is murther in the sight of God and men And no murtherer nor striker shall inherit the Kingdom THE END