best of the creation which in obedience to the Lord I continued in about 20 dayes without any natural sustenance except water which did so amaze them that they themselves could not but confesse it to be more than a natural thing seeing I was well and in good health every way at the end of the time which thing was so taken notice of amongst them that they could not endure to detain us longer after insomuch that the Lord making way for us we were released and we took our journey towards France where in the Power and Authority of God I was drawn forth to warn both Rulers Priests and People in Town City and Country until I came through the Nation and being ready to take shipping for England I spake unto two Priests of the Popish Order unto whom I declared as I had done unto many more destruction and a final end of all Idol Priests Idols and Idolaters for which Cause I violently was halled away and committed to prison in a Court called Bucke De Ault which was between Deap and Abbuilly about 20 Leagues from Dover where I continued about the space of 2 Moneths and after publick Examination and Tryall the Prison doores were set open from whence I passed to Callis continuing still to warn the People for which Cause I was had before the Magistrates and being examined by them they let me pass away toward Graveling where I was at the English Nunnery where I warned them though they would not let me see their face and after some threatning I had from their Priest I departed from thence toward Dunkirk where I was presently taken up by the Governour 's Officers and by him retained as Prisoner in his own house until the next day he sent me away in a Friggot of the Kings for England alleadging for his so doing that it was because he feared I would make a disturbance amongst the Papists saying to this purpose that there was Articles of agreement betwixt them and that they were not to be disturbed which thing he feared I would do and I being landed at Deale I passed towards Dover to visit my friends after this my sore tryal and travel amongst the Papists and e're I was in that Town 24 houres I was by the Mayor of the Town taken from a friends house of mine and committed to prison for a Jesuite where I remained about 7 Moneths and after my release from thence I took my journey towards London where I had not been long but I was apprehended by the Magistrates of the City as they were sitting at a Court in the Old Bayly who espied me only as a beholder of other transactions against my Dear friends who are called Quakers for which they sent for me and tendred me the Oath making that the same snare to ensnare me as their manner was and is still to doe to the innocent and from thence I was Committed to New-gate where I was with many more of my Brethren kept about the space of 4 Moneths until I was so weak that I was carried out in a Chaire And upon my recovery from this weaknesse I went unto one of our publick Meeting-places neare Alders-gate in London where I was taken again with the Lords innocent People under the pretence of Plotters which thing we were wholly cleere of for the thing then intended or pretended against us was a plot which was afterwards found to be intended by a people contrary-minded unto us both in their lives practises and principles for which some of them suffered death who were wholly strangers unto us and woe unto such kind of plotters Notwithstanding many of us suffered imprisonment until death in and about London for this Cause amongst whom I was a deep sufferer until the last though the King himselfe did confesse to mine and our innocency And all this as for mine own particular I could have buried in oblivion and never have made mention of it more were it not for the cleering of the innocency of that Truth of God which I professe and live in from the scandalous reproaches of Ishmael's stock at whose hands I have suffered such things as would be both long and hard to utter it now being the sixth time I have been committed to Prison by the hands of unreasonable men since I have returned from Rome once at Dover and four times at London All which sufferings imprisonments nothing was or ever could be proved against me as the breach of any Law save that by which mens Consciences are restrained from worshipping of God according to the perswasion of his Spirit in their own Consciences and also because I would not break Christs Commands who saith Swear not at all to obey the Commands of men to swear And though for those two things I have so suffered I have this day a Conscience void of offence towards all men who are of honest hearts and am cleer also in the sight of God concerning them both and am at this instant Justified in his sight and he knoweth how that I seek the good of all men though an open enemy to all deceitful works hireling Priests and Deceivers upon the face of the Earth whether in Pope or Prelate or what sort degree or denomination soever I had not been 3 Weekes released out of London Prison of Bridewell before I was committed here In which Prison I was committed by Richard Brown only for speaking a few words in the street because they did hinder me and my friends of going into our hired house I being committed to the Counter but the Week before for the same Cause and released about the middle of the week by Robinson then Mayor of London and but 3 dayes before that I was released out of New-gate upon the death of Deare E. B. with whom I was a prisoner severall Moneths as both in one Prison though not in one Roome but a little time before his death in which the Lord did Everlastingly Crown him with Glory Honour and blessing For this I shall leave upon record concerning him that as he was honourable in his life so he was in death and his seed shall praise his noble Acts for ever in which he was Renowned And now upon my release in London I tooke my journey towards this City where I had been but a short time to the number of two or three dayes before I was cast in Bonds here only for speaking to two Priests of this City telling them the blind led the blind and both would fall into the ditch and as it happened one of them was blind which was more than I know for I had never seen their faces before but these men being guilty inwardly of the Charge soone proved it by their fruits and actions who presently caused me by reason of their complaints to be had before their Rulers who being willing and ready to satisfie their malicious desires did soon tender me the Oath as there being not any seeming just cause
men are degenerated from God I say that if thou find and feel but such a thing in thee prize it above all for it is of the very life and restorer of all things by which Moses was acted in the dayes of old when he did forsake the pleasure of sin for a season and chose rather to partake of the suffering and afflictions of the afflicted than to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter for it was that in which he wrought the wonders of God and will also do the like in thee if thou obey love and follow it it will be thy guide leader and preserver and teacher in all states and conditions whatsoever through which and in which thy immortal soul will come to be saved and so satisfied for I will tell thee plainly that except man comes to be acquainted with something in himself which is more glorious than all visible and transitory things without him he can never come to forsake all for the Lords sake For this I have seen and experienced through deep travail and sorrow how that if I had not had something in my own self which was more desireable and amiable than all things I could never have been made willing to have forsaken all things else besides it but enjoying the life and presence of my Creator in my own particular all was well enough without me though in hunger in cold and in nakednesse or prisons or bannishment or travails both by Sea or Land I did still find satisfaction and refreshment in the enjoyment of Gods presence and this I say not because another hath said it but because my soul hath found it so in the time of need even since the time that my God separated me outwardly from my Brethren in Virginia who were more neer and dear to me than all my outward kindred because they were such as did the will of my father since which time something of my travail may be seen in my following discourse very briefly of my travels outward but of my travels and sorrow inward in all those travels and prisons I shall leave it to the upright in heart to feel for truly I may in the truth of God say how that the dayes of my sorrow and fastings passed the number of my remembrance Besides the many assaults which the cursed Popish spirit of Inchantments Sorcery Witchcraft did make against me to destroy me cannot be given to be understood by Tongue Pen Ink nor Paper but by those who have undergone the like tryal with me for this I testifie in the Lord and shall leave upon record under my hand how that a deeper spirit of Necromancy and deceit is not upon the face of the whole earth to be found so deep in working in the mistery of iniquity as it is amongst them and this is the testimony which I give for the Lord God of life against them which shall stand for ever For as to my very outward they have sought my death and destruction by this means and I have been almost strangled in the night and day season by that cursed spirit of Witchcraft which hath sought to stop my mouth thereby to have deprived me of my natural breath which thing they would certainly have done had not the Lord preserved me and rebuked them for they have often come into my Prison with many hundred sorts of shapes and likenesses and have sought every way of Inchantment against me and had it been so that it had been possible for them to have prospered against me to the utter destruction of me they would have done it but when the Lord had suffered them every way to try me then he wholly rebuked them and sent his ministring Angels to comfort me every way as those poysoning spirits had every way assaulted me in which day of his everlasting love he sealed up my soul in his everlasting Covenant of love for ever for which cause I cannot forsake the Lord whatever betides me Now though tryals remain yet on every hand yet my God knoweth I can never leave him nor forsake him nor decline from his living testimony in my heart neither in life nor death but must and shall say unto all love fear dread and honour and obey the Lord above all who is worthy to have for ever all the glory honour and praise even him who is God over all blessed for ever and ever Amen And this is the end why my God separated me from my fathers house in the time of my infancy that I should be a true and faithfull witnesse against that spirit of persecution murder and envy in whomsoever it be And seeing the Lord hath thus long preserved me out of many eminent dangers I know he will do the like for ever as he hath spoken it unto my soul that he will never suffer his faithfulness to fail concerning me therefore I shall never be moved and if it were not so my soul would long ere now have sunk under the floods of deep sorrow which yet come upon me without ceasing rowling over my head the Lord rebuke them as I know he will do for his name sake even he who hath heard me out of the Whales belly and answered my request once and again in the day of need for which I say my soul magnifie blesse and praise his holy name for ever Charles Bayly Written in Newgate Prison in Bristol the first of the third Month. 1663. AND now the Magistrates of this Nation through whose hands I have passed thus from Prison to Prison may see what they have done if it be so they are not yet quite heart-blind in the persecuting of a man so unreasonably as they have done who hath been so far drawn forth as in relation to the very natural part as to render his life and body for one of their naturall Countrey men who had been in long captivity in Rome out of their Nation even one who was not himself a natural English man though born in it I say surely following Generations might well say the Heathen in America would not have thus rewarded a man upon the return of such a service as this done for any one of their Nation I am sure they would not have done it And what right can any man expect to have at or of the hands of such men who are thus lead by a spirit of wrong judgement as for to persecute in such a nature their friend in the stead of their enemy especially such a man as hath in this sort jeoparded his life to witnesse against the Popish Religion and not onely so but hath undergone all and much more than the aforesaid miseries rather than to embrace and own it Of these things and concerning these things I shall in the uprightnesse of my heart leave it and commit it unto God the judge of all for to judge of this matter between us A true and faithfull Warning unto the Inhabitants of Bristol as a loving visitation of Gods tender
still And what think you of this is it not high time for you to be awakened and look about you seeing the day is so far spent of your lives and you know not how soon the Lord may call for your breath out of your nostrils and what can ye in righteousness think will become of you seeing the Scripture saith As the Tree falls so it lyes and There is no Repentance in the Grave and If ye dye in your sins where I go ye cannot come saith Christ And if ye do but confess him to be a man of truth and these sayings true then ye may soon passe the sentence of eternal condemnation in your selves seeing that tribulation and anguish is to come upon every soul of man that doth evil even to Jew as well as Gentile And the Apostle in plain words without wresting saith Nothing that worketh abomination or maketh a lye must enter into the holy City And Paul saith Let no man deceive you with vain words for such as ye sow such shall ye reap Now see if your Priests be not the very men who are deceiving you with vain words who tell you that you can never be freed from sin yet say it shall go well with you They call you good Christians though ye do bring forth the Devils work Or which of you in or amongst you will deny to partake of that which they call the Seal of the Covenant though they are never so wicked and ungodly in all their words and actions Surely surely the Lord is highly displeased with these things Therefore is this Warning sent amongst you that you may come away from such a devilish Priesthood as preacheth up sin unto you for tearm of life that is till ye can sin no longer Surely they who made a Covenant with Hell and Death in the dayes of old were never more lead into the Mysterie of iniquity than these And thus the Devil hath his Kingdome by consent both of Priests and people Oh horrid wickedness is this that ever men should thus sell themselves unto the Devil for dishonest gain and filthy lucres sake to preach up sin unto people these are they who trample upon the Blood of the Covenant and say in effect that its uneffectual and unsufficient to purge the creature from all sin and uncleannesse but such people ye must cease from for they who were real and true Ministers of Christ said The wages of sin is death therefore laboured to bring people therefrom whose Ministry was powerful and effectual enough in that work to accomplish the same For Paul when he writ to the Romans amongst whom he had laboured to turn them from darknesse to light and such came to be turned from Satans power to Gods by whose power they came to be redeemed and made free from sin and so became Gods children And this was the fruits and effects of those who were sent of God and were not hirelings for such run and are not sent therefore saith the Prophet they profit not the people at all no more than yours do now for I say as you love and prize the salvation and redemption of your immortal souls consider these things Is the wicked man returned from his naughtinesse amongst you is not a Lyar a Lyar still a Swearer a Swearer still and so likewise all others whatsoever And if any should go to your Priests to be eased of his burden which come upon him by reason of sin what ease can he have seeing his Priest is a sinner as well as himself if not a worse and in effect will tell him he cannot be without sin while he is in the body of flesh and so by this means as you were born and conceived in sin so ye live and so ye dye And this is the fruits of your Ministry and yet you have the liberty of the reading of the Scriptures which saith and sheweth how that the true Christians are to be redeemed from their vain conversations and did witnesse a purging and redemption therefrom not with the blood of Bulls and Goats but with the Blood of the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the World Mark that people and see if ye are not wholly strangers to this thing and to the very end and coming of Christ who was made manifest in flesh to the end that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in all those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit and to such there is no condemnation But unto you who are following your blind guides and are strangers unto this thing condemnation from the righteous God the Judg of all will for evermore be seated upon your heads except ye repent even on you who are strangers unto the Spirit of God and are walking in the flesh and are fulfilling the lusts thereof and are resolved so to do until your dying day in which thing I warn you to repent in Gods pure power and dread and turn unto the Lord God by forsaking the evil of your wayes which if you do not as sure as God hath set Sodom for an example of his eternal wrath and Judgment so sure will this come upon you if you slight this the day of your visitation which is now over your heads I say repent before it fall upon you and the night overtake you in which no man can work And this is a true and faithfull warning unto you all from the Lord God of love who desireth not the death of a sinner but that he would turn from his evil wayes and live and if you do this then blessed will you be for ever but if ye refuse then will you be left without excuse and I shall be clear of your blood before the Lord who required this of me to do and to say unto you which in faithfulness I have done without respect unto persons time or place as the free Spirit of God hath given me utterance thereunto without hatred or dissimulation at all Therefore live or dye my peace is and will be with the Lord for ever And now if any should say amongst you What shall I do to be saved Why unto such I say in the tender bowels of Gods love turn unto the Light of Gods own son which shineth in your darknesse even in your dark hearts and receive it love it follow it and obey it with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength and then power will be ministred unto you whereby ye will become the Sons of God and to be born of him which birth sinneth not but in it there is power over the man of sin which hath born rule in the first birth which was according to the flesh in which none can please God forasmuch as it lusteth against the Spirit continually and will do until it be wholly crucified with the lusts and affections thereof If ye come to receive the Gift of Gods Grace and Spirit in your own hearts a measure of which
A TRUE AND Faithful VVarning UNTO The People and Inhabitants of BRISTOL AND Unto the Rulers Priests and People of England in general that they might prepare to meet the Lord whose Judgments are even pouring out upon the Head of the Transgressour Also some QUERIES which deeply concern all who are in Authority in the Nation to consider of With a brief Account of some Tryals and sufferings which the Author hereof hath suffered and sustained at the hands of unreasonable men in his Travel and Pilgrimage since his youth up until this day VVhereunto is added a Declaration briefly treating of his Travels and sufferings in Rome and the Popes Dominions in and for the Truth of God which may be both seasonable and profitable unto the unprejudic'd Reader who simply desireth to know the Truth from the lies and slanders which are cast upon us who are called Quakers as having been falsly accused of being Romanists or popishly affected Given forth in Newgate Prison of Bristol by a sufferer for the Truth of God called CHARLES BAILY LONDON Printed in the Year 1663. TO THE Upright-hearted unprejudic'd READER In any place where this may come FRIEND THE occasion of my writing of this which ensueth is this I being a man of sufferings bonds and afflictions attending me on every hand these several yeares as one who turneth not his back from the smiter nor his check from him that plucketh off the haire having indeed learned of the Father how to be a Companion and fellow sufferer with the man of sorrow who was well acquainted with griefs as being rejected of all that was and is of this world I say it being so that the Lord hath separated me from my mothers womb hath made me like minded unto the Son of his love by revealing him in me though few there be which know it which is the very cause why I have been so reproached and rejected on every side some saying one thing of me and some another and for the most part the Cry of the blind worldlings and Priests is that I am a Jesuite or a Popish Priest though it is not unknown unto many thousands in this Nation how that I have been a deep sufferer in Rome my self by the hands of that Idolatrous Crew who earnestly sought my life and not only mine but those also who were of my perswasion and had not the Lord stopped and limited their bloody minds and intents we had never escaped their hands for as farre as they were suffered to act they did not spare but did hang one of my Deare Brethren whose name was called John Luffe who was a fellow-traveller with John Parrot whom they also did use very cruelly not beseeming modesty to utter the substance of which I know that the King and and many of the Nobles of this Nation so called are not ignorant of and of his long Imprisonment which was neer the space of 3 Yeares wanting but some few Dayes for whose sake in the bowels of Gods Everlasting love I was drawn from the Indies where I was a sojourner neer 14 Yeares and being drawn from thence as I said in the bowels of Gods Love I had not rest in my spirit night nor day until I arrived at Rome where I was made willing to tender my life for his though I had never seen his face with my natural eyes for which cause I was by reason of my importunity in that businesse to the Cardinal cast into prison in their Inquisition house where I was securely kept and strictly examined concerning the ground and cause of my coming there and also of our Practises and Principles unto which I did give answer in great simplicity of heart which would be too long here to repeat They much questioned who was our head and who was the first that preached our Religion and whether we had any thing as from Calvin and Luthe and how long our Religion had been I answered nay we held not nor had not our Religion from them but Christ was our only teacher and head and we are all Brethren As for the antiquity of our Religion I said it was since Abel the first that suffered in innocency though one of the Jesuites was so blind as to say that Abel was before Christ in his answer to me before many witnesses for which I reproved him This is but little as a touch in brief of what passed between us for I do believe that it tooke up the writing of several sheets of paper And when they saw that they could not insnare me then they went to their old murthering question about their Sacrament I told them that in the Scripture there was no such word truely translated And when they saw how that I saw their deceit in it they proceeded no further in that particular And it being so that this writing may happen to come into the hands of those deluded people I may here in brief shew their deceit in that thing it being the thing for which many simple in heart have been barbarously murdered massacred And here this bloody generation ground their deceit in this particular thing in the Scripture Where the word Mistery is spoken they translate it Sacrament and when I questioned them about it they said how that Mistery signified a holy thing which I proved to be false for I told them there was the Mistery of Iniquity which was neither Sacrament nor holy And after they had tryed me many wayes in that bloody City in which time I was kept for the most part with so little of their natural sustenance that much notice was taken of it for it was so that after I was removed from the Inquisition to the hospital of mad men I was put in the publick view of all scorners and Jeerers as one who was mocked and derided of all as they said I was a strange kind of man come out of England of the Sect of the Tremolantes that was as much as to say of the Sect of the Quakers which people I did with a Cheerful heart there acknowledge to be the only people of the Lord which thing I can never dissent from whether in life or death though reproachfully called by the name of Sectarians as of old the true Christians were And after I was thus publickly viewed and known by means of the many people that came to that place to see the distracted men amongst whom I was also held in Chains I say after this the Lord required me to fast as a witnesse against their murthering of my Brother for after they had murthered him they said he starved himself to death for as they themselves said he did and dyed even so the Lord caused me to do and live which thing for ever stands written in the book of Heaven as a witnesse against them and all that bloody Generation where-ever they are and also against their hypocritical Fastings for whilest they pretend to fast they feast themselves with the choycest
some of these Papers might come to the hands of those who may in like manner be inflictors of such misery upon others that so if there be but any remorse or place of repentance left in them that they may yet repent of their evill for it is very great for though the man whom I served was approved and received a Member of an Independant Church in those parts yet he was unconverted as to the Lord which shewed their light and discerning but little worth for indeed I never saw any change or alteration in the man at all But I shall return unto the thing intended by me which is to speak of the goodnesse and love of God unto my soul that so all those who might be like-minded with me might not come to despair in any condition whatsoever they may fall into if they do but love and fear the Lord he will bring them out of the sixth trouble and also the seaventh in the end For when I was out or this hard servitude I could not for all that return to or own that dark and devilish worship whatever did become of me for then I was come to a riper understanding and growth both in years and knowledge in which I saw and confessed unto a hand of Divine Justice against that people and also to a hand of Divine providence in bringing me there where I heard and understood both outward and inward that the Sword of the Lord was drawn against the wicked in this Nation of England and also I did observe in that day how that the Parliament party did and would most of all prevail because that there was something raised up in them against the grosse Popery and Idolatry and wickednesse which was then on soot in the Nation which thing was the cause I did indeed mostly affect them then beyond any other people though they were called Puritans in derision But in a short time the chiefest of those people who were amongst us lost their first integrity soon especially when the Lords hand had given their Brethren great rest and victory from their enemies and so soon turned that little liberty they had gotten to a wrong end and made use of it as an occasion to the flesh by which means they became as much in bondage as ever every one seeking his own and not anothers good which thing I did in that day observe though few knew that it was so with me but outwardly I did in that day frequent and indeed loved those most who were the most honest amongst men But it being so in the main that nothing but rioting drinking singing and dancing was amongst the best of men I knew not what to do but to be one of them which I judged better of the two than to return unto the Romish stuff for my very soul did abhor it therefore I did rather choose to labour with my hands and so get my bread with painfulnesse than to return or make my self known unto my nearest relations any way for I said in my heart their sorrow is over concerning me But in the midst of all this my soul in secret did mourn after a holy life of love but could not see it born up in any living amongst whom I did converse or had any thing to do with And as in relation to my own condition I did often lament it in secret and would often say unto the Lord Hast thou created me thus to destroy me for I saw how that I was still ingrievous bondage unto sin and lead thereunto at the Devils will and I felt in my self how that the wages of sin was death because of the terrours of the Lord that came upon my soul by the reason of it and whilest that I was in this state my grief was more than could be uttered or indeed seen by any for I would often seem to do away sorrow with laughter lightnesse and vanity yet still in the very midst of all this I continued seeking in my heart a man of love or a people in whom one might put confidence which thing I was drawn unto by the good which was of God in my own heart and as God did raise it me so in the end he did answer it to me outwardly by sending one of his dear servants into those parts whose name was Elizabeth Harris who soon answered that which was breathing after God in me by which means I came with many more to be informed in the way and truth of God having a seal in my heart and soul of the truth of her message which indeed I had long waited for And then when I had found this beloved life and people I was like a man over-joyed in my heart not onely because that I heard that God had raised up such a people in England but also because I saw the sudden fruits and effects of it both in my own heart and in others insomuch that in a short time we became all to be as one entire family of love and were drawn together in his life which was his light in us to wait upon him in the stillnesse and quietnesse of our spirits like so many people which desired nothing but the pure teachings of Gods Spirit in which we were often refreshed together and one in another And when this I had found and clearly understood how that that which judged me and condemned my soul for sin from my youth up untill that day I say when I came to see that this was the very way to God I was as a man that had found that which his soul loved and then had I had ten thousand Crowns I could have laid them all down at the feet of them who then went forth to declare such good and glad tidings of peace and good-will which was freely extended unto all the Sons of men then happy man was I if that I could but have served or have been any way serviceable unto such of those who went forth to declare who were ministring servants in the hand of the Lord to us whose pure life I loved and honoured in them above all and then I was not onely made willing to have forsaken father or mother and all outward Inheritance and favour of men but also to have laid down my life for the Lords sake such was the love that was raised in me that I had rather have been a Prisoner with the deepest sufferer in the greatest sorrow and counted it more happinesse so to be than with the Princes of this world in their greatest joy and dignity And this was of the Lords own begetting in me though few saw it then And this I can tell thee Reader whoever thou art by true experience that if thou find but such a thing in thee which bringeth a remorse upon thee by reason of sin and draweth thy heart into tendernesse and pitty unto the oppression and captivity which is upon all creatures which they lye under by reason of sin in which and by which
into Tophet where the breath of his nostrils shall for ever kindle up the unquenchable fire of your endlesse torments except ye repent with speed the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and it shall surely and shortly come to passe in a time and hour when you shall not be aware of it for as the lightning comes from the East and swiftly passeth unto the West so shall the day of your destruction be except you amend Amend therefore and cease preaching unto others until you come your selves to be converted and changed from that corrupt cursed nature of wickednesse which lodgeth within you O ye hypocrites are you not or at least may you not be asham'd to get into a high place amongst people and speak against sin and iniquity seeing you your selves are not purged from it May not that saying be justly turned upon you which the Apostle Paul spake saying Vnexcusable art thou O man whosoever thou art that judgeth seeing that no man was to judg another whilst he himself was guilty of the same thing O ye deceitful workers first pluck out the beam out of your own eyes and then may you come for to see the clearer in others conditions Until then this is a sure and certain warning unto you all to cease from the evil of your wayes and repent for as sure as God lives if you go on in your stiff-neckednesse and hard-heartednesse against him his righteous Judgments will assuredly overtake you And this I have written as one that feareth the Lord and trembleth at his word in which I cannot respect the persons of any but must reprove the sins of all whether in Kings Princes Rulers or Judges Priests or people of what sort or condition soever that thereby they may take warning and repent O England England many have been thy Warnings and precious have been thy Visitations to those who have prized them and glorious hath been the day of Gods love unto those Who have believed our report and to whom the Arm of the Lord hath been revealed which hath led them out of darknesse into his marvelous light therein to live and to walk safe out of the snare of the crafty Fowler hireling Priest and deceivers which thou O England hast embraced as it were anew after thy long day of blood sorrow and anguish O consider this O ye Heads of the Nation to what end and purpose did the Lord empty the power of this Nation from vessel to vessel and from man to man was it think ye that it should settle again in this bogg and reliques of confused Popery nay surely nay this was not the end of the Lord concerning thee but his end and purpose concerning thee was and is that the Son of his own bosome should be raised over all in thee to Reign as he hath appointed and decreed which decree is impossible to be altered or changed but shall and must be accomplished not only in this Nation but over all Nations and in all Nations and people of the earth shall this his glorious work be compleatly finished for he hath sworn by himself saying it shall be so that he shall reign over all the Kingdomes of the world forasmuch as I have appointed him to be heir of all things both in Heaven and Earth They that have an ear let them hear and blessed will be that eye which seeth and that heart which understandeth the things which belong to their everlasting peace before they be hid from their eyes and there be no place found for their Repentance And this I shall further say in the Spirit of the Lord concerning thee O England what the Lord intended should be thy lot 't was that thou shouldest be the first fruit unto God in this latter day that so thou mightst become a glorious example unto other Nations giving light unto them who yet sat in darknesse and in the Region and shadow of death that such I say might have received light from the glorious Sun of righteousnesse which the Lord raised in the midst of thee in thousands and this the Lord hath already in measure done Glory be to him for ever O! might not my soul take up a Lamentation over a foolish people saying O how are your hearts becom blind O inhabitants of England in whom the voyce of the Turtle is plentifully heard as in the Spring time after this dry long Winter which hath been in thee amongst whom it is on every hand said and confessed that the Lord liveth who hath brought his Seed out of the North and caused the beauty of its life to appear surpassing the glory and beauty of this present world And plentifully hath the word of his own life been declared and is still spoken forth in thee and yet for all this like an inchanted people ye turn your backs upon it and fly unto your hireling Priests whereas thou mightst have received the word of the Lord plentifully and freely at the hands of his precious Servants then wouldst thou have no need of the teachings of men nor to have gone into the Idol Masse-houses there to have taken the words of David and others to have sung but in the Spirit of the Lord ye would have all been gathered by it through which ye would have been ever praising the Lord in the land of the living Neither would you have needed to have gone to your Priests to have taken bread and wine at their polluted hands which feedeth but the natural and will corrupt but you would have been come to the High-Priest and Shepherd of your souls and have received living bread at his hands as your daily food and nourishment O England might not well my soul say that thou hast changed beauty for ashes and hast chosen chaff instead of wheat so that instead of well set hair thou hast baldnesse for if it were not so thou neededst not to have gone to the Idol-houses now for to hear a compounded parcel of words called Common Prayer read by a wicked man but instead thereof thou hadst been filled with the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication which the Lord would have showred down upon thee without measure which thing some few who are despised in thee do witnesse to the everlasting comfort of their immortal souls And also thou mightst have had a free Ministry instead of hirelings even you who might have fed on living bread at the Table of the Lord instead of taking it at your Communion-Tables which the Popes ordained for you who might have been baptised with the Holy Ghost and with fire by which ye would have been cleansed who might have walked in the light of the Lord instead of walking in the dim sparks of your own kindling who might have been satisfied with Gods presence instead of being enquiring in your minds where and what God is who might have been purged washed and made clean from sin by the blood of the Lamb instead of a vain hope as you are in now that
ye shall be freed but you know not when who might have come to have witnessed your bodies to have been the Temples of God instead of seeking as ye do now in the Temples made with hands O ye foolish and unwise people what might my soul say unto you of these things Ye have refused the teachings of God and seek after the teachings of men ye have slighted the true Shepherd who hath laid down his life for his Sheep and have followed the false Shepherd whose the Sheep are not but an hireling he is and fleeth because he is an hireling when the wolfe and florm cometh For hath not this been manifestly seen in thee O England that when the forcible powers of the Earth was for them then they cryed woe woe unto us if we preach not the Gospel and we preach not for hire as we are falsly accused by these reproachful Quakers but a necessity is on us so to do and if we had not any thing for so doing yet we could not hold our peace but seeing the Law of the Nation gives us yearly maintenance we take it as our due and though it be a Popish constitution we take no notice of it seeing the Property of the thing is changed as being taken from them who were no Ministers of the Gospel and given unto us who are truly so unto whom not onely the Tenths of all things belongeth but all things should be laid down at our feet as it was in the Primitive time and this hath been the general cry of your Priests unto whom you give ear and not unto us who told you the truth in that day as we do in this day saying take away but their compelled maintenance and cease putting into their mouths and they will soon prepare war against you if the Powers of the earth will but help them if not then their God they will trust no longer and soon their necessity of preaching will be taken off them and they will fly into their holes like Dragons wishing for another nights season that so they might come out upon their prey afresh And in this which is here said there is no wrong done unto them your by-past Priests have themselves by their words and actions largely proved the truth of this matter And now unto you Priests unto whom I was made to speak the word of the Lord woe and misery will assuredly be your Portion if you slight Gods tender love unto your souls For that which I now speak and that which I formerly spoke unto you is not God knows in contempt nor in any way to divide you but in tender love to warn you from the evil of your ways that so by turning from the evil and cleaving to the good ye may come to escape the dreadful Judgments of God which are nigh to overtake you And that you are and were manifest to be such as I said you to be is true to wit That you were blind guides leaders of the blind inasmuch as ye are hireling Priests made by the will of men who forceth a people by a Law for to take your stuff which makes you worse than a common hireling who are far from being Ministers of Christ Jesus called by him to his own work for such minister freely as they received freely of their Lord and Master And so as Christ said By their fruits ye shall know them so do we know you who have nothing you have freely given neither can you freely give nay you have not so much as the Sheeps cloathing but you are out wardly and inwardly ravened and gone into the Wolfs nature of tearing and devouring and persecuting like the Pope your chief head and leader in this work though some of you are ignorantly blind yet many of you are wilfully blind which will not serve your turns Awake awake and consider do you think it shall serve any of your turns to cry out against Popery in words and in nature to be found all one in Persecution Malice and Envy as one of you told me I should not have liberty to speak after he had accused me openly before the people and the other of you told me he did forgive me after he had delivered me into the hands of men and I was to be sent to prison O shame will come upon you for these things and the dreadful rod of Gods anger will overtake you for it And tell me what you have at best to give to the people for your yearly maintenance which you have of them but what is already made ready to your hands of other mens lines partly by the Pope and his Adherents who steal the words of Apostles and holy men of God and mix them with their own inventions and this is made a plat-form for you to pray and preach by and at the best this is your stuff which you confidently force upon the people to say and to speak after you for which they must give many hundred pounds unto you and your Generations of hirelings even for this which profiteth them not at all but people under your teachings live and die in their sins whilst their Priests preach unto them for hire and they love to have it so This is their very end and the very end of these things and while people are giving ear unto you it will never be otherwise For it s thus the Papists they steal the words of the Prophets and Apostles and of Jerome and Ambrose Augustine and the like and you steal it from them and the people from you and so what they have of you is at the third and fourth hand though in another misformed and disguised shane whenas in the ground it is but the Bastard of the same whore which the Roman Catholicks so dandle upon the lap of the Beast as though he were the true born heir of the Kingdom of God whenas he is no more like him than light is like darknesse or Christ like Belial And if people must needs be so in love with this which you so cry up amongst them they need not go to the Pope nor come unto you for it but at an easier rate than they give unto you they may have as good of their own but freely they may have of the Lord that which is quick living and powerful and will abide for ever Therefore this is the advice and counsel of the Spirit of God unto all people whatsoever for to come unto Christ the light of the world who hath enlightened them with his true light which makes manifest sin and evil in their own hearts to the end that thereby they might be taught led and directed in the way of God which is the way of true peace and holinesse which is none of the hirelings wayes for they say men cannot tread out of uncleannesse all the dayes of their lives And so from the Lord this is a warning and tender Visitation of love unto you all in this City or elswhere where this
may come who are not yet disentangled from this cursed yoak of soar bondage which men of corrupt minds have laid upon your necks for filthy lucres sake and dishonest gain with whom you will suddenly be cut off if you repent not with speed AND now you who are the Magistrates of this City of Bristol is it not a heart-resenting matter unto the upright soul for to see and seriously consider the sad event which this imposing of Oaths hath wrought in this Nation insomuch that few there be in it who have had any considerable name or respect therein either in Civil or Ecclesiastick affairs but have been for the most part of them perjured men yea few there are in this Nation of one sort or other but are so except it be a few people who are called Quakers who stand as your only mark to shoot at and whom you are seeking every way to ensnare in this thing in matter of swearing though most of you are not ignorant how that for conscience sake they cannot swear at all because they durst not break Christs command nor the Apostles Doctrine which was according unto it who said above all things my Brethren swear not at all as well he might because his Lord and Master forbad it and though it is so that both by word and conversation it hath been shewed often to you by us yet you cease not daily to seek to ensnare us thereby so oft as opportunity comes into your hands for that purpose And now let me tell you concerning this spirit that doth thus unto us it is but the same which was in the Marian time in which they were made to suffer death rather than to defile their consciences to the uttermost as to what they knew and was made manifest in that day unto them for when their bloody adversaries could answer them no way or at least when they would make short work with them presently they would question them concerning the Sacrament of the Altar as you do unto us concerning the Oath of Alleginnce and Supremacy all which in the ground is but one and the same spirit that acted against us and them though under several prerences for which God did plead with them and brought them down suddenly out of their bloody Prelatical Seats which I desire may be a warning unto you for I did never see the Lord acquit the guilty and condemn the innocent for he is just and righteous altogether And surely I do believe ye cannot be so blind as not to see the Prelatical Lordly spirit intruding it self amongst you when your high Priest stands fast in your Hall before you and all the people laid hold on me with his own hands and said I should not have liberty to speak there You may see by this whether he that is so devoted to a Surplice would not also come to wear a Cardinals Cap and so would turn black into red if that way were but made for him let the upright in heart and unprejudic'd Reader judg And now I shall in the fear of the Lord propound some few Queries unto you and shall leave and recommend them to Gods witnesse in you all to judg and also to answer the truth of them 1. And first seeing Christ saith The Tree may be known by its fruit whether or no this hath not been an evill fruit brought forth by an evil Tree to wit the imposing of Oaths upon a people or Nation seeing that few that be in this Nation did ever keep them by which means they come to be worse than the Pharisees of old who are reputed only to be sayers and not doers but these swear and do not by this means they become not only false sayers but swearers also against whom the Lords hand is 2. Whether this be not another Branch springing forth of the same cursed Root That honest upright men should be in danger of losing their Estates by the Oaths of them who matter little where and what they say or swear and whether many more have not been wronged by this way of proceeding than have been righted otherwise let Gods pure witnesse in all judg seeing the evidence of such as will but swear though a common swearer in Whore-houses and Taverns and in his familiar communication will sooner be taken than the Testimony of him who fears an Oath because he fears the Lord and keeps to yea and nay in all his communication 4. And seeing that so many have sworn for and against the King and others in Authority in this Nation how can you put confidence in such seeing it hath bound men so little as this Nation above all other Nations hath seen to their sad experience And it being so as the Apostle Paul saith That an Oath was amongst men for the ending of strife whether then it doth not plainly betoken a people not to be out of strife who are found in that practise and so consequently no Christians for they love him and keep his Commandments who saith Swear not at all and if any man sue thee at the Law for thy Cloak give him thy Coat also And if all were come to live in this Christ-like life and Doctrine what need would there be of swearing seeing that evil is not to be overcome but by this good and patient life in which if one be smitten on the Cheek there is readinesse to turn the other also And lastly I query this of you all Whether or no it be not an evil in all those who willingly go to ensnare any upon this account seeing and knowing beforehand that they cannot swear To you who are Bishops Arch-Bishops Prebens Priests or others who are counted as the Heads and Teachers of the people now in England I shall in the fear of the Lord propound unto you a few Queries for you to answer how where and when you can that so the people might come to understand how and by what means you are set to be their Teachers and your Commission thereunto Quest 1. FIrst I query of you why and wherefore ye seem to make such a difference between the Pope and his Ministry and yours seeing that both your Call and Maintenance are one in the ground that is to say made by the will of man and maintained both by one Law and manner of maintenance and if it be not so prove the contrary and you will put and remove doubts out of the minds of people and will also satisfie many concerning you 2. Shew us who are your Authors for these things you now practise in your Churches if the Pope was not to wit your Childrens Baptisms Sacraments Bels Surplice Organs and for your singing Davids Psalms answer plainly without any evasion seeing you say that mens salvation depends thereon and also concerning your Letany Collects and your dividing the Scriptures in pieces parcels to be read at such such times I say if they come not from the Romane Catholick shew us from whence then