are rendred nearer to the Greek who have spoken to you the Word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation what 's that Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever And Vers 17. he bids Obey such Leaders and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls they break their sleep and ease for your Souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you See they were such men whom the Apostle bids remember and follow and submit to as were of an exemplary Faith and of an exemplary Conversation which had Christ the Meek Lambe of God for the end of it Now such Leaders as these the Lambs are ready to follow and to submit to and obey them that thus go before them leading them by an unblamable Conversation and by the wholesome word of Truth But a Stranger they cannot follow they cannot follow a Proud Man a Scornfull Man an Earthly-minded Man a Deceitfull Man a Lording Spirit that seeks an Earthly Kingdome and Dominion and to have preheminence here Such they cannot follow As they are Babes and Little Children themselves so a Little Childe must lead them And so the Scripture of the Prophets is fulfilled which Prophesying of the Kingdom of Christ saith A Little Childe shall lead them Isa 11.6 One that 's Innocent Humble Meek Lowly in heart like Christ Pure Faithfull Unblamable in his conversation Such a One shall lead and such a One must he be that 's a Leader in the Kingdome of Christ Not a Great pufft up proud Lord. For he by his Example leads quite from the Kingdom of God whither the Lambs are going and leads into the Pomp and Vanities of this present world from which they are flying and against which he made others to promise and vow though he be the forwardest to lead into them How should the Lambs follow such a one judge you and judge as you will be judged Again further The Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ which is the evidence of things not seen and the substance or being of things hoped for This Faith I say is not consistent with Exaltation and Greatnesse and Lordship among the Ministers of Christ Therefore saith Christ Jesus to such How can ye believe who receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh of God only John 5.44 You may see he looks upon such as out of the Faith For observe the ground of it lies thus His Faith or the Faith that he works which is the Faith of his Kingdome is not a dead blind thing such as the Faith of the world is But it is a clear sight Evidence or Demonstration of things not seen even of the things of his Kingdome which the carnall eye sees not nor the bodily eye Now where doth a man come to this Sight or evidence this open view as I may say of things spiritual wherein the Faith of Christs Kingdome consists Christ himself hath told us It is in a Low Place that is in a Low Condition the state of a Little Childe as of one new born And except a man come to this He cannot see the Kingdome of God For while the minde and heart of the Creature is pregnant or filled with desires and affections that are of this world there is no room for things spiritual and eternal to enter Neither doth he obtain the sight of them from the Lord for It 's to Babes that he reveals them Therefore a man must be emptyed and brought down as a Childe before God open to him the Treasures of his Kingdome God hides the things of his Kingdome and keeps them back from the High and Lofty who are big with Wisdome and Prudence and Learning and reveales them unto Babes praised be his Name therefore He replenishes the Humble and Hungry with Good Things but the Rich he sends Empty away The Proud he beholds a farr off his Eye is upon such a one to bring him low and abase him So that as men grow great and high and lift up themselves they go out from the place or condition of seeing the things of the Kingdom of God they go from the condition to which God shews them and to which he gives the evidence and demonstration of them inwardly by his Spirit and so this is to go out from the Faith of Christ which consists in this evidence or sight or demonstration shining into the soul and giving possession of the thing seen unto the soul And therefore how can ye believe who receive Honour one of another and go up into Greatnesse out of the sight of the Kingdom which is Spiritual The lower that the Creature becomes the more capable he is to receive of the Spiritual Treasure and the further he enters into the Kingdom that is Spiritual and not of this World but the higher he grows in this Worlds Pomp and Greatness and Glory the further off he goes from the Faith of Christ So that one may say to such How can ye believe And here we stand upon firm ground in denying the POPE who takes the title of Vniversal Bishop and in denying all other Lording Bishops followers of his steps I say we stand upon firm ground in denying them all as men gone far far far off from the Paths of such Bishops as the Scriptures own and are fallen under the temptation which Satan presented before Christ even the glory of this World And whither then can they lead us by their Example Consider it well The Kingdom of God consists of little Children saith Christ and a little Child must lead them and not such as are great and seek preheminence such are gone out from the Faith and follow the steps of Diotrephes who loved to have the Preheminence that thing which Christ had forbidden 3 Epist Joh. ver 9 10. shews you what he did He began to be a Wolf in the Church of Christ when he had entred into the love of Preheminence And so it must be with those that follow his steps It cannot be otherwise especially now since the Mystery of Iniquity hath formed and founded a Politick Kingdom for their great spirits to rise in in the similitude of the World though under the pretence of Christs Church And so they cannot be Examples to the Flock if they would but must be Devourers thereof The very Mystery that they have given up themselves into will force them to be Devourers and Scatterers of the Flock though some of them may have a pitty arising sometimes in their hearts and would not yet the Mystery of Iniquity is so deeply founded that it carries them on who come into it whether they will or no to help to bear it up against the Lambs of Christ As a Wheel in a Clock is forced on by the motion of other Wheels So it is in this great Mystery And so the Lambs cannot look upon any that manage a
Mark can she not wipe off since many have perished in Prisons even of late years through her Persecution But if any will contend against it and defend her to be out from the Mystery of Iniquity and in the Truth walking in the Truth as a True Church of Christ We are able to prove to the contrary through the strength of the Lord even from her Teachers from her Ordinances and from your Lives and Conversations all which demonstrate you to be gone astray from the truth as it was delivered by Christ and his Holy Apostles and are in the Fornication of the great Whore are yet drunk with the Wine thereof and shall also drink of the wine of her wrath if you repent not Your Teachers teach for hire as the False Prophets did of old against which the True Prophets cryed out for so doing Your Ordinances none of them will abide the measuring line of the Scriptures and so are but the outward Court left out for the Gentiles who tread the holy City under foot Your lives are carnal Your Conversations earthly in the Lusts of the Flesh in the Lusts of the Eyes in the pride of life yea Your Solemnest Meetings are full of that sin for which God drowned the old VVorld Gen. 6.11 even full of Uiolence witnesse the violence done to any that come in to speak a sober word of truth among you and to inform you of your condition Oh sink down into your selves and think Is such a Company the Spouse of the Lamb Christ Jesus Is this his Church his Body the Pillar and Ground of Truth were such things abound Take this VVord home to your hearts and consider it well namely that you are not got out of this Mystery of Iniquity till that from whence it grew be dissolved That you may understand this saying take notice that the Mystery of Iniquity grew from hence even from the Earth unsubdued in Mans heart which covering it self with a Profession of Truth outwardly formed that Profession or Religion to its own Lust or Liberty that the Earth might still be saved alive in Man and live and he enjoy his Lusts therein And here in this state stood Balaam and in his way did the first Hereticks run in the Apostles times loving the wages of Balaam for reward and in his steps do they walk to this day and those that are one with them in the root and ground though differing in outward appearance For to this day its the same The Earth standing in Man's heart and a Religion or Profession raised up over that forms a Mystery of Iniquity and begets an Antichrist It forms a Mystery of Iniquity or a myst to hide Iniquity with it raises a smoke out of the Pit of Mans heart to blind the eyes of men with and begets an Antichrist a Spirit of Persecution seeking to blast the True Spirit with Reproaches which is Blasphemy And so under the name of Hereticks and such like to slay them to rid them out of the way because they strike at the root in which they live by their holy Conversation and by their chaste Mind to the Wisdom of the Lord abhorring the smoak and myst of mens devisings which arises out of mans heart More particularly to deal with you and to set before you your own state or standing let us compare you a little with the Primitive Times and see whether you answer to the Church then or to the World which hated it and persecuted it The Church of Christ then suffered by the World being distinct from the World called out of it and therefore hated by them of the World Ye suffered joyfully the spoyling of your goods saith Paul to the Church Heb. 10.32 33 34. 1 Thess 2.14 15 16. 2 Thess 1.4 So then in that time there was the Haters and the Hated the Spoilers and the Spoiled the Abusers and the Abused the VVolves devouring and the Sheep devoured Now compare your Church with them Are you the Sufferers or those that put others to Suffering for Righteousness sake Did not the people of tender Conscience who could not worship God after the Traditions of men suffer under your Church both formerly when the Antichristian Lording Bishops ruled it and so fled some to New-England and others to other Places And sinc they were put down still you have been the same What haling pulling pushing abusing of people hath been in your Congregations and by them of your Congregations what beating in your Synagogues stoning in your Streets stocking whipping imprisoning persecuting spoyling of goods c And nowthat those Antichristian Prelates are coming in again you are still the same and the same measure hath been met withall from some of you already If any say Those that did so or do so are but the Rude Rabble and are not to be counted for our Church I Answer These things have been done among you and by them that are of you unrestrained If by the Rude Rabble then behold the Rude Rabble are the strongest part of your Church if they do such things and you cannot restrain them from that violence If you say Yea we could have hindered them if we would but we did not because we look upon those they abused as Seducers Answ Then see you consented to their violence and so made your selves Partakers with them as Saul did when he consented to them that stoned Stephen But say you They were Seducers they were Hereticks that were abused and our Ministers spake against them I Answer So did they stone Steven as a Seducer and all the violence done to them that feared the Lord was in such like thoughts of them they thought they were Seducers and their Ministers spake against them But where did ever the true Church use violence even to Seducers and Hereticks Consider that They suffered violence themselves but never used violence to others So see your selves now on what part you stand For whatever they be that you use violence to for conscience sake whether they be in the Truth or be Seducers yet your violence to them declares you not to be the true Church but to be the World where the persecution is found You are on the Persecuters part not on the Persecuted You are not they that the VVorld hates but you are they that do hate others for Conscience sake such as Paul said they Themselves were before Conversion hatefull and hating one another Titus 3.3 and so others suffer under you for Conscience sake even those against whom you cannot justly complain for any wrong done to you by them and so they suffer innocently as to you although they should be Seducers So see your selves now That your Church resembles not the Church of Christ in the Primitive time but You fully resemble the World that then abused the Saints and Servants of the Lord. And for your counting and calling them Hereticks and Seducers that suffer under You and your Ministers This makes the Sufferers more resemble the true
mindes Only take heed of those things that caused many to fall in the way and be not discouraged though Pharaoh seem to pursue you with an Hoste For the Egyptians may be hardened to pursue to their own destruction and to prosecute the Seed as if they would swallow them up Look to him that led you out and hold on your way follow the Pillar of smoke and of fire the Power and presence of God that his wing may be over you and take heed of murmuring at the difficulty of the way as some murmured and perished for Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto Life Take heed of unbelief for that enters not into the Promise It 's Faith that overcomes In that go on and make war with the enemies of your souls that are in the way spare none suffer no secret lust to remain alive in your hearts but let the sword of the Spirit come over them to mortifie and slay them and do not satisfie your selves because you have got into this or that Forme for What will that avail you if you go no further It 's the life and power that the Kingdom of God consists in See that you sit not down short of that Are you come to Truth and Faithfulnesse in your hearts so that the world finding your honest plain faithfull Conversation dare trust you and commit any thing they have to you in assurance that they shall not be defrauded or deceived by you If you be not but live in Covetousnesse and Deceit it s neither your departing from Egypt nor sitting down under any Form whatsoever that will do you any good For you are not yet come to the Kingdome of God which is in Righteousnesse and Truth Are you come to an unblamable conversation before men so that they have nothing justly to charge you with and to a good conscience before God which answers to the Light of the Lord in you and so accuses not Are you come to Mercy and to a tender compassionate heart that delights in it and seeks to save your fellow-creature and not to destroy the life of any but only to deliver it from that which would destroy If not the nature of the Saviour is not yet formed in you Are you come to the Light which lets you see your hearts and all the secret thoughts and intents and purposes of them and to love it and turn to it and follow it Are you come to the New-Covenant to receive the Law of God in the Spirit from Christ the Mediator thereof who is the Lord that Spirit that ministers it and so to hear the word that 's nigh you in the mouth and in the heart Are you come to feel the Anointing abiding in you which keeps you abiding in Christ as you are taught thereby and which discovers to you Seducings and Delusions of that spirit of Antichrist that works to lead you from it Are you come to that inward fellowship and communion with God which the Apostles of the Lamb enjoyed and sought to bring the babes of Christ unto Are you come to feel the vvorking of that Spirit of truth in you vvhich mortifies the deeds of the flesh which would hinder your communion with God Are you come to that spirit that renewes and sanctifies and changes your hearts and casts out the old man with his deeds and brings forth love instead of hatred patience instead of frowardnesse and hastinesse lovvlinesse of minde instead of loftinesse harmlesnesse instead of hurting pitty instead of hard-heartednesse gentlenesse instead of roughnesse faith instead of fear and distrust faithfulnesse instead of guile and deceitfulnesse temperance and sobriety instead of excesse and such like wholsom fruits as these instead of the contrary Are you come to that which thus strikes at Iniquity when it would appear in you and cuts it down and brings forth the contrary Are you come I say to that spirit vvhich is the Root from whence all good fruits do spring which is that good Land which flowes with milk and hony that Promised Land that true Resting-place If you be not come to these things How can you think your selves at a period How can you think that you are come to Canaan spirituall where such fruits as these grow How can you sit down as if you were already got into the good Land Come gird up the loyns of your minde and go forvvard vvith us Let us presse on to perfection having our faces still forward in that Kingdome the Treasures of which have no end And clogg not your selves with the love of this present evill world for that will presse you down and keep you back and be a weight to you Minde the one thing needfull and presse toward the mark of the high-Calling of God in Christ Jesus Will it satisfie you to break off from Egypt if you perish in the Wildernesse and fall short of the promised Land the Land of Peace and Rest even the Promise of the Father The Spirit of Truth the Comforter which leads into all truth and into that righteousness the work of which is peace and the effect of which is quietnesse and assurance for ever Isa 32.17 Will you make that a Possession for ever where you had but a Lodging place as it were for a night or two while the Pillar of smoke and fire stood over it Will you stay behinde the cloudy pillar when it is lifted up and gone forward Will you not go along with the power in which the Kingdom of God stands Doth not the Apostle call out of the Form when the Power is gone Come Let us go forward together not looking back again to Sodom as Lots Wife did who was therefore turned into a Pillar of Salt nor as they did who said Come let us make a Captain and turn back to Egypt whose carcasses therefore fell in the Wildernesse Remember Caleb and Joshua who followed the Lord fully with all their heart whom the Lord therefore set into the Land of Promise who pressed still forward when others began to hang back through fear of the lofty Giants whose Faith follow And take heed of lusting after evill things as they lusted who fell by the way Come down out of all Exaltation from any Form that you are got into be it what it will and come into meeknesse lowlinesse of heart humblenesse of mind gentlenesse in the fear of the Lord and become as Little Chidren for in plainnesse of Speech this is the way that our Captain is gone before us and hath left word for us to follow him in Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me saith he for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall finde rest for your soules for my yoak is easie and my burthen is light Bear with me in my pleading thus with you For we would not have you lost who have borne the abuses of the world and the fury of a wicked and untoward Generation for Conscience sake Be not weary nor faint in your mindes nor say in your hearts Where is the Promise of his coming for one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day In his time he will come and not fail Happy is he that endures to the end waiting for him He shall reap that faints not My Affections are towards you who have seen the great Whores Cup of Fornication and have through sufferings broke off from her with us If you be low enough for our Company we would not lose you Is it not the same God that we presse after Is it not the same fellowship with him inwardly in the soul Is it not the same bread that comes down from Heaven which you would feed upon to the inward satisfaction and content of your souls which is the strength of our hearts and which we feed upon every one in his measure And do you finde it in your Form where you stick If not minde the footsteps of the Flock and which way God hath led them and where he feeds his Lambs and minde that which leads them and must lead you into the fresh Pastures where they finde food which satisfies Let go your partition Walls so as not to bear up your selves in your thoughts above others thereby as the Pharisees did and come into the unity of the Spirit where the everlasting Unity stands and which knits all the members of the body together and even from the highest to the lowest though scattered in many appearances So that our bounds lye not in form but in the spirit and where we feel the life If the Kingdome which you seek be not of this world but of another that 's invisible if it be within not without then you must come to that inward guide to lead you into that inward and invisible Kingdom which leads out of the things that unite you to the world namely the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life and him must you follow out of these things into the Kingdom Call that Guide by what name you will Wisdom as Solomon did or the Light which enlightens every man that comes into the world or the Spirit or what other name soever it is named by in the Scriptures That you must obey and follow out of that which defiles and corrupts into that which is pure and holy and eternal For without holinesse no man shall see God nor come to have fellowship with him THE END
A Word of Information To Them that need it Briefly opening some most weighty Passages of Gods Dispensations among the Sons of Men from the beginning And insisting a little upon the State and Condition of the Nations wherein they now stand and particularly of ENGLAND For this end That Men may remember themselves and turn unto the Lord and seek to be delivered from the Mysteries of Iniquity to walk with God in Fellowship and Communion To which as pertinent hereunto is annexed An ADDITION concerning LORD-BISHOPS and COMMON-PRAYER-BOOK With a Tender ADMONITION to those called PRIESTS or MINISTERS And also A Loving EXHORTATION to those that have SEPARATED from their SUPERSTITIONS By W. T. LONDON Printed for Robert Wilson at the sign of the Black-Spread-Eagle and Windmil in Martins Le Grand 1660. A Word of Information To Them that need it c. GOD made Man at the first Upright and Innocent and Pure and Holy walking with him in his pure Nature in perfect peace and in boldness before him having his Understanding filled with Light and Knowledge from the Lord and his spirit possessed with the Spirit of the Lord. And therein he walked before the Lord in great liberty only in one thing the Lord laid a Restraint upon him Thou shalt not eat saith he of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil neither shall ye touch it for in the day thou eatest thereof dying thou shalt dye Gen. 2.17 and 3.3 Now there was no way for that old enemy Satan to rob Man of this happy peaceable innocent Condition but by getting him out of the bounds where God had set him for where no Law was there could be no transgression and where no transgression was death could not enter for death came in upon Man by sin Rom. 5.12 Therefore Satan that old Serpent sets upon Man here to allure and entice him and flatter him into a tryal of that which God had forbidden him by presenting a pleasurableness and profitableness in it Man yeelding the bound was broken that kept Man with the Lord and kept out death and misery And now Sin entering that is transgressing of Gods will and pleasure here with Sin Death entered and another spirit than before had possession in man even the spirit of the Serpent that got in and became Ruler in the Disobedience And now Death came over all in Man and over all Men. The flourishing state of his soul in Righteousness and Innocency that dyed a spirit of shame and fear that covered him and he now fled from the presence of the Lord. And death also must now come upon his body as well as upon his soul for to dust that must return Thus dying Man dyed according to the Word of the Lord. Yet now the Lord's mercies were not clean shut up from his Creature which he had made so excellent and given dominion unto over all other Creatures upon the Earth Gen. 1.28 but he leaves a way open still for Mans return unto himself thorow a promised Seed which was contrary to the seed of the Serpent and should bruise the Serpents head that enticing spirit that leads to Disobedience Gen. 3.15 So then here 's no returning now for Man back again from Death to Life but through that Seed that breaks the head of the winding disobedient spirit Now in this faln state Man lives and begets Sons and Daughters and multiplies and replenishes the Earth Thus the Earth is filled with Men and Women begotten in the faln condition And so as Men encreased and multiplied Sin also that encreased until the Lord repented that he had made Man and so drowned every living Creature wherein was the breath of life that lived and moved upon the face of the Earth Gen. 6.5 6 7 17. Yet in this sinking dying condition a Seed there was from the beginning that served and obeyed the Lord whose hearts were after him to return again unto him who wrought works of Righteousness and walked with the Lord as righteous Abel and Seth and holy Enoch who was translated that he should not see death And besides these a Generation that called upon the Name of the Lord and so were called the Sons of God Gen. 4.26 Yet these also in process of time wore out after that they began to corrupt themselves mingling themselves with the Daughters of Men Gen. 6.2 So that in the dayes of Noah only Noah was found Righteous in his Generation Gen. 6.8 9. whom the Lord therefore with his family reserved from the Flood to plant the Earth with after he had drowned the old world of the ungodly Gen. 7.1 Then again after the Flood as Men began to multiply so they corrupted their wayes again before the Lord so that in Abraham the eleventh from Noah which was about three-hundred sixty seven years after the Flood God began to gather to himself a People again out of the rest of the world who should bear his Name and so he called Abraham out from his fathers house and out of his own Country to walk with him where he would appoinc him Gen. 12.1 When Abraham was come out then the Lord blessed him and promised him to make of him a great Nation and that he would blesse him that blessed Abraham and curse him that cursed Abraham And said furthermore to him In thee shall all families of the Earth be blessed Gen. 12.2 3. So his Posterity in Isaac and Jacob were counted for the Lords Inheritance and owned by him above all the World and called his Son his First-born And by that name he required them of Pharaoh when he sent to deliver them out of the house of bondage Exod. 4.22 23. Then when the Lord had delivered them by an out-stretched Arm from under Pharaohs Bondage to lead them into the Land of Canaan which he had promised to Abraham When he had separated them from Egypt and brought them into the Wilderness of Sinai There he gave them Statutes and Ordinances a Miuistration of Laws written in Tables of Stone Of this Ministration Moses was made the Mediator between God and them and it was confirmed by many mighty Signs and Wonders The Miracles done in Egypt by the hand of Moses their passing therow the Red-Sea as on dry land Moses his fasting forty dayes and forty nights The terrible and dreadful Presence of the Lord on the Mount besides his going before them in a Pillar of Cloud by Day and in a Pillar of Fire by Night And many other Signs and Wonders all confirmed this Ministry given in the hand of Moses Notwithstanding all this and many moe great Signs and Wonders which they saw yet this People rebelled against the Lord and did not walk with him with all their heart but grieved him continually as he complained of them by Moses and afterwards by all his Prophets So that in the fulness of time God sought out another People to bear his Name and turned over the Promises made to Abraham to a spiritual Seed Children
of the Faith of Abraham and brake down this partition-wall standing in outward Ordinances which he had put between the Jews and Centiles because they were all alike And so out of both he gathered a People to himself and made his Son the Captain of them and gave to them another Ministry Not a Ministration written in Tables of Stone as the first was which was outwardly presented before their eyes to look upon But a Ministration which was inward written in the Heart by the Spirit of the living God Of this Ministration the Son was made Mediator and so this Ministery was confirmed also by great Signs and Miracles which he did in healing all manner of sicknesse and infirmity among the people and raising of the dead and such like This Ministry was of a New Covenant the Ministry of the Spirit into the Heart and therefore it was needfull that the Mediator thereof should be such a one as could enter the spirit of the Creature even the Lord that Spirit who could stand at the door of the heart to minister Revel 3.20 And so here came forth this great Mystery hid from Ages and Generations namely CHRIST in you the Hope of Glory And under this Ministry the Apostle affirmed That if any man have not the Spirit of CHRIST he is none of his Rom. 8.9 for that is his Ministry to minister the Spirit and therefore his Servants and Ministers said plainly that they were not Ministers of the Letter but of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3. Therefore see where all they are that partake not of the Spirit of Christ Jesus nor have any Testimony thereof in themselves witnessing with their spirits that they are the Sons of God nor feel the operation thereof in their own hearts drawing them after Righteousness and Holiness but deny it and scoff at it in others that acknowledge the same being guided and taught thereby as usually Persecuters of Christians have done in the Reign of Antichrist Now after this Ministry came forth here arises the Great Mysterie also of Iniquity against it namely an Antichrist against Christ in his Ministry a carnal worldly spirit clothing it self under a Form of outward Observations and yet setting it self to keep down this Ministry of Christ Jesus even to quench and keep down this Spirit of Christ with the Outward Form void of the Power This Mystery began to work in the Apostles dayes Therefore they called the Saints out from a Form without the Power 2 Tim. 3.5 But it could not grow to the height till that which letted was taken out of the way That which letted then was something that letted the Outward Form which it grew up under and that the Persecuting Roman Emperors did a long while for they persecuted and killed such as did but profess themselves Christians so that under them the Mysterie could not come to its height till they were taken out of the way But then after they were taken out of the way and the form of Christianity had scope then it grew apace till at last it was headed with an Universal Bishop which name the Pope took to himself and so still it grew adding one Superstition to another and one Abomination to another and prevailed greatly against the Saints of the Most High Revel 6.9 10 11. and 7.14 and 13.7 So here the holy City was troden under foot by this Outward Court that was the Gentiles gotten into an Outward Form but came no nearer Revel 11.2 And so the Mysterie prevailed until it spread over many Waters that is Peoples Multitudes Nations and Tongues and reigned over the Kings of the Earth Revel 17.1 15 18. And so here that which the Papists make one great mark of their Church namely the Universality and Consent of Nations is plainly a great mark of the Mysterie of Iniquity which overspread multitudes of Nations for a long time Revel 17.2 and 18.3 And under this Great Mysterie the Portion of the Saints hath been that they have been persecuted and slain Revel 17.6 and 16.5 6. and in great Tribulation The VVHORE making the Nations believe that they were HERETICKS and so killing them because they Dissented from their Universal or Catholick Church as they called it Now here is one chief end of this Writing to put men upon this Consideration Whether you be yet under this Mystery or come from under it Whether or no you have got victory over the Beast over his Image over his Mark over the number of his Name as the Saints do Rev. 15.2 Or you be yet drunk with the Wine of her Fornication Rev. 17.2 Are you on the Persecutors part who are many or on the Persecuted part who are few in comparison Are you drunk or are you sober are you drunk with mens Inventions and with blind Zeal and Ignorance and wrath to defend them or are you come to sobriety to hear the voice of the Spirit and of the Scriptures Do not think that because there was a breach from grosse Popery in England formerly that therefore you are out of the Mystery For you did but break off from her in some things but the Life of that Mystery is not yet slain among you so long as you Persecute and tread under foot the Servants of the Lord if you retain the Spirit of the Mystery that marks you for her Servants reform as much as you will in your outward Observations One thing I would have you consider of Whether do you think that England did step at one step out of the depth of the Mystery of Iniquity back again into the pure Truth as it was once delivered by Christ and his Holy Apostles Consider it well Nay verily there have been many stepping forward and you who in outward appearance had removed one degree yet you persecuted all that saw more of the Mystery than your selves and seperated therefore from you Whereby it is apparent that the Spirit of the Mystery was still in you And you prosecuted them with the names of Blasphemy as the great Whore doth that Mother of Harlots and your Mother therein teaching you to call them Hereticks that is such as separate from the Truth because they separated from you making them odious by your Names of Blasphemy which you fix upon them that they might be hated of all men and persecuted by you without pitty Such measure have all they met withal who have seen your Errour in Worship or Doctrine or Life and have therefore witnessed against it so far as they saw Thus it hath been with your Mother your Church of England and this hath been her manner of dealing with all that have stept out from her Errours She hath retain'd the Spirit of her Mother the Mother of Harlots in this her Fornication and she cannot clear her self of it The Imprisonments Whippings and Persecutions of all those She calls Hereticks will jointly witnesse against her That the Spirit of the great Whore is yet retained in her whose Mark is Blood This
by steps as they have been able to bear Who have tryed their wayes by the Word of Truth and tryed also the false deceivable wayes of mens Traditions and Inventions Take heed I say of speaking evil of the things thou understands not and if thou hast been guilty hereof formerly repent of that wickednesse and pray to the Lord to forgive the thoughts of thine heart and the hard speeches of thy mouth uttered against the wayes of Truth in the time of thy Ignorance And rest not until thou hast got out of those Mists which have risen out of the bottomless Pit and which have darkened the Sun in the firmament that is the pure shining of the Light into the Conscience Haste haste out of that which the Wrath and Indignation of the Lord must come upon and fly to him in the humility of thy soul repenting of thy errour and blindness and hypocrisie and evil state and course of life thou hast been in and come down to be guided and led of that pure Light which leads to Eternal Life and so to come to the Covenant of God the New Covenant which all are in that are owned by him For this is my Covenant saith the Lord In those dayes I will write my Laws in their minds and put them in their hearts And whosoever is not come into this Covenant he is not owned of God For all his from the least to the greatest shall all be taught of God by his Spirit And therefore saith the Apostle plainly Rom. 8. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Now this is that which The ANTICHRIST by the Mystery of Iniquity hath held you off from for his working hath been against the New Covenant which we now clearly see and by what means he doth it eternal praises be given to our heavenly Father who hath made known his wiles and deceivings For it hath been with a golden Cup that the Anti-Anointing or Anti-Christ hath deceived the Naitons even a fine spun outward Form of Religion of some kind or other So keeping their minds still outward from that New Covenant keeping them busie with this Form or that Form outward that they might never come to mind God in the way of his Covenant For whereas the New Covenant comprehends all the Worship of God inwardly in it self Circumcision inward Baptism inward viz. the answer of a good Conscience to God which is that that saves Temple inward House of Prayer inward Worship inward in Spirit and in Truth Contrariwise The Mystery of Iniquity hath kept mens minds still outward and pleased the carnal spirit with abundance of Outward Observations thereby resting it in them by blessing them in their diligent Observation thereof So that they have not been stirred up to seek after the knowledge of God in themselves and to feel the Communion and Fellowship inwardly with him in the way of his New Covenant in the Spirit which CHRIST was made the Mediator of And so about these Outward Forms and Ordinances so called they fight and quarrel and seek to kill and destroy and so still are kept in the murdering spirit And so lot this be A Sign unto you to let you know in what State that Spirit holds you that makes you zealous for outward formes Is it not in the murthering State where Cain was and yet you see not his wiles for he that murthers is the same from the beginning In the New Covenant it s otherwise for there 's a Spirit that delights to seek and save that which is lost and that is of God and conformable to the Image of his Son To whom be Glory and Honour for ever Amen An ADDITION concerning LORD-BISHOPS Let the Light in every ones Conscience who have any acquaintance with the Scriptures judge Whether Our Lord Jesus Christ allowed of that Lordship and Dominion which those called Lord-Bishops take upon them or exercise when as he reproved the very first appearance of such a thing among his Disciples read Matth. 20.25 26. Mark 10.42 43. Luke 22.25 26. saith he The Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are great exercise Authority upon them But it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be great minde that 's the thing he reproves whosoever will be great let him be your Minister that is servant and then he repeats it over again in other words And whosoever will be chief among you let him be your Servant And in Luke it s thus exprest Let him be as a younger As if he should say carry quite contrary to such a one in the thing that he would have Whereas he affects Greatness carry to him as a Servant and as a Younger give him not the honour of an Elder Now where 's their Obedience to Christ who dare take upon them such a thing which he hath so plainly forbidden Yea and forbidden others also to receive them as such if any will be so bold as to exalt themselves among them and become great For faith our Lord If any will get up and be great among you let him be your servant and as a younger Wherein the words of Christ is implyed That Dominion and Greatnesse cannot grow up among them except they concurre with him that seeks it and give it to him Therefore as laying a charge of keeping down such a spirit upon the rest of his Disciples he bids them not to concurre and consent to such a thing nor to give that greatnesse to any of his Disciples among them if they should seek it but to carry to such as to a Younger and not as to an Elder and to let him be as one that serves and not as one to Lord it and Rule and have Dominion And so to keep down that spirit that it may not be among You as it is among the Gentiles that know not me to be the one Lord. Honour is in him that gives it If you give it not they cannot have it To open the thing a little further for the simplicity's sake that is in some who think That because there is the name Bishop in Scripture that therefore such Bishops as have the Name now in these dayes have their Authority from Scripture To such I say Minde but the Scriptures well and you will find that the Name Bishop was not given to one that Lorded it over the rest but to the several Pastors or Teachers or feeders of the Flock of Christ read Act. 20.17 and so on to the 28 and 35. The place is so translated that it may be you will discern little in the bare reading of it I shall therefore open it a little plainly according to the Letter of it not by giving you another meaning or Interpretation then what it sayes but by letting you see what it sayes In the 17 Verse its said that Paul sent from Miletus to Ephesus to call the Elders of the Church of Ephesus When they were come he puts
all those called PRIESTS or MINISTERS O Ye that are called Priests or Ministers who preach to the people for hire and keep them in a Forme without the Power Is it possible that a Word of experience shewed me in the spirit being kept low with the Lord and in his fear may reach any of you I could willingly tell it you for my heart pitties you as you are men and I should rejoyce in your Salvation as well as of others But I see you stand in greatest danger of all men both by reason you have strengthened your selves in your holds by seeming Arguments and Interpretations of Scripture and Opinions of Men And also because Truth strikes directly at your Diana by which you subsist and have your livelihood as you call it Therefore it s hard for you to lend an ear to hear the Voice that calls out or to open your eye to let in a glimpse of that light that discovers it For if such a thought or motion do but offer it self I know Satan followes it immediately with this at the heels What then will become of us Oh that there were faith in you to trust God for your outward being and supply and a contented heart to live at Gods allowance Then would the Teachings of Truth more easily enter and finde place And verily trust him and let your eye be open to see the light which would shine into your own Consciences if your unbelief did not stop it and if your loving this present evil world and the deeds of darknesse did not keep you back from coming to it For he that loves truth comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God Trust God I say for your outward subsistence and he will not forsake you utterly and let the light arise in your consciences concerning your wayes and seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousnesse thereof and you have the words of Christ for it which is above the word of any King who is Truth it self and cannot lye that all these things shall be added unto you I have found his word true by experience everlasting praises to his name And Oh how could I rejoyce to see your hearts brought down out of your formall wayes into the Obedience and power of Truth That you might not stand as a stop in the strait way hindring your own and others return unto God in the way of his Covenant My heart envies you not I speak in the presence of the Lord but in a tender Compassion to you I speak thus plainly and familiarly to you longing even for your Salvation also that if it be possible you might be delivered out of that deep pit in which you are faln For I have seen your horrid darknesse in which you stand God in mercy shewed it unto me and kept me out of it And I saw plainly that if I had entred into your livings as they are called I had entred into it But blessed be his name that kept me and allured me into the wildernesse there to feel his love and made me to sit down weeping in remembrance of ZION which I saw to be farr off and troden under foot by the Gentiles which had got into the outward Court and were there glorying in their Ordinances and crying out upon others as Seducers and Deluders and Hereticks while the HOLY CITY was troden under foot among themselves But the Lord hath shewed me upon whom the strong delusions are sent and for what Cause It is upon the disobedient who have pleasure in unrighteousnesse and for that cause because they love that and chuse unrighteousnesse to live in rather than the fear of God Therefore doth the Lord send them strong delusions even to believe a lye Come down to become as little Children and you will see the same also And I tell you plainly untill you do come down to become as little Children you cannot see God you cannot see the Kingdome of God you cannot judge righteously of the things of the Kingdome of God For how should you judge right of things that you cannot see Therefore humble your selves under the mighty hand of God and fear him who will make all bow before him and stoop to his will one way or other And stand not upon your Learning or Parts or any such thing For such things are of light account in the sight of God but come down to the place where God feeds his Babes even a low place it is a place of poverty of Spirit a place of mourning a place of hungring and thirsting And I tell you till you come thither you shall never feel any thing of the presence of God to your everlasting comfort And if you misse this what good will your Learning with all your vaunting do you Will it not all vanish away with vexation when an evill conscience arises and torment there enters and abides tormenting you in the presence of God and his holy Angels because you have neglected the one thing needfull even to walk with him in his fear in his pure light and so in a good conscience kept clear in the sight of God For without this the blood of Christ cleanseth you not from your sins Mind that lest you daub up your selves with untempered mortar I say the Blood of Christ cleanseth you not in the way of an evil Conscience in walking contrary to the Light of Christ But saith John If we walk in the Light as God is in the Light then have we fellowship and the blood cleanses But walking contrary to the Light there is made shipwrack of a good Conscience and the Conscience condemns and God is greater than the Conscience to condemn Consider it deeply for it is writ in Love and Faithfulnesse to your souls by one that yearns after your good and not after your destruction AN EXHORTATION to Those that have seperated Themselves from the SUPERSTITIONS of the PRIESTS YOU that have turned your backs of AEGYPT spiritually so called and have suffered hard Speeches and Reproaches and Injuries of Wicked Men in coming out of their grosser Abominations and Superstitions There is a tender respect in my heart towards you who have done this in obedience to a Principle of God in your hearts And my Desire for you is That You may not lose your Reward by looking back again to AEGYPT or by turning aside to this present evill World or to any of the hurtfull Lusts therein or by taking up your Habitation short of the Land of Rest But that you may be preserved in that tender Principle that led you forth that therein you may go forward and not backward But now do not think that you are come to the end of your journey because You have stepped out of Egypt Remember the many Journeys and Removes the Israelites had after they came out of Egypt before they arrived at the good Land of Promise and faint not but gird up the loyns of your