Serpents and Vipers that are in our own Bowels who will suck out our very heart blood if some Remedy be not sought The Grand Conspiracy which we conceive those two remarkable Scriptures doth discover Rev. 12. 17. Psal 83 now on foot amongst the Popish Parties in Europe against a poor despised Remnant in England ought to awaken every man from the sleep of security For no doubt the Devill and the Pope hath at this day a great Design upon England And we are very much perswaded that there is now on foot amongst the Popish Parties and Jesuits a very great and bloody Design to bring in Popery in England to take the Gospel from us to root out the Name and Interest of our Lord Jesus Christ and all the gathered Churches in the Land And Episcopacy and Common Prayer is but the door to someting worse And it seems to us a thing very rational that this cursed design of the Papists is already formed in England hath life moves strongly and is even struggling for the Birth in the Womb of the Mistery of Iniquity if we weigh but in the balance of Reason the Interest that they have in the Court the great number of Popish Lords in the House some of whom have suckt in more of the Venom of the Serpent beyond the Seas that their Sting is the Poyson of Dragons and the cruel Venom of Asps to poison and destroy the precious despised Interest of our Lord the multitudes of Papists about the City of Westminster even of the bloody Irish Rebels who cut the throats of the Protestants there many thousands of innocent souls and are now said to be many thousands If withall we consider the high favour those Irish Lords who were chief Actors in the Rebel lion and Massacre are in at Court the enlisting of the Papists and old Cavaliers whereby they are put into a capacity to act the greatest Villany the Popish Queens coming over the putting of Papists and old exasperated Malignants into all places of Power and Command which are as so many symptoms of a generall and bloody Massacre for it is evident that their design is not so much against Persons as Interests neither will the blood of a few particular Persons such as the Kings Judges satiate their cruel inraged blood thirsty mindes which is set on fire by Hell but they thirst for the Blood of us all that they might drink Blood as the Desert doth Rain And their Design which hath a deeper Original then Rome is to give so great and effectuall a Blow to the Interest of Christ and the People of God in England that it may never Revive again which makes them prepare so great a Sacrifice and drive all to one head that they make a short and thorow work of it And now will not this mighty confluence of the Papists and Popish Interests to England as all the Rivers to the Sea awaken us How can we promise our selves any security whilest we see the most implacable venemous Serpentine Enemies as Vipers creeping into our Bowels who cannot merit greater fame and praise from holy Church as they call it then by spilling the blood of Protestants We see what multitudes of the cruel bloody Spaniards under the pretext of Attendants on the Prince and Ambassadour of Spain is not onely come into our Land but advantageously placed in the heart of the City of London And what unwelcome guests to England the old Queen Prince Robert the German Ambassadour will bring may easily be imagined Certainly the Popish Parties have some great design upon England We fear the Poison and deadly Sting is in this Tail of the Dragon and also the coming in of these forreign Princes and Ambassadors at this time and with such Triumphs as some Ages past have been strangers to we can look at as no less then the fulfilling of that most wonderful Prophecy Rev. 11. 10. We know the Papists Principle No faith is to be kept with Hereticks Let us remember France and Ireland and not forget Piedmont whose wounds bleed yet fresh in our memories They are making our Throats bare to the Knives of their Butchers and they know well and we shall feel if we should longer sit still what advantage an armed united Interest has of a naked dispersed one And were there no more to be said then that the Law of Nature and Nations hath ordained to fly to means of preservation in threatning and emergent dangers we are highly concerned at this time to take up Armes And if we look abroad which is wonderful to ponder that the whole state of the Christian Interest should be conformed to England upon the face of things in all Europe we can see nothing but the ruine and destruction of the Protestant Cause and Reformed Interest both in France Savoy Bohemia Poland c. And it is very observable that every where the Popish Interest gets ground and the design of the universal Peace is even now perfecting and the top-stone is laying and things of late have wrought strangely but providentially in order thereunto in the death of the late King of Sweden and Prince of Transilvania as also in the coming in of Stuart into England which can in humane probability produce nothing but bloody persecutions of the Reformed Churches But this consideration that God turns a wheel within this wheel and that the Churches of Christ and poor despised People of God in other Nations are but by this dispensation brought into a state of conformity to and sympathy with the death of the Witnesses in England is a supporting one And now to suffer all these things and lose our Birth rights and to entail Persecution Slavery Popery and Idolatry to our Posterities for ever which will leave our names for a curse and stink to them is grievous but to suffer them from the Cavaliers an old beaten Enemy and that without striking a blow or bleeding in the Field for that which is much better then our Lives for as a Romane could say There is no necessity that I should live but there is a necessity that Rome should be relieved is the Aggravation For how did this old Enemy come in did he beat us in the Field did he win it with his Sword is our Cause lost or is our God dead no! how then why by lies of which the Devil is father and so through divine permission of their conquest by hellish plots and contrivement clad in the robes of our dead cause as Jacob in Esaus Garments Well then it is but an old conquered Enemy he has been beaten in the Field times often of whom now shall we be afraid of a broken serpent of a spiritless Enemy We have not onely considering what we have said a sufficiend primary original special cause and call from the Covenant of God Prophesies of the Scriptures and time of the end for an offensive war to take the Kingdom and bring these Nations into subjection to the right Scepter
of Jesus Christ but we are necessitated from secondary providential aggravating causes to be defensive on behalf of Gods Name liberties of Saints common-safety and preservation of our Families Wives Children Lives Liberties and Estates And whoso loveth God his Countrey or his own Rights which Christ purchased for him by his Blood and cannot sell his Body Soul and Conscience to the Devil to wicked men and their lusts to commit sin with greediness and run with them to the same excess of all manner of filthiness and wickedness must now take up the Sword against this beastly crue as the last remedy God has left us for such is the unparallel'd iniquity of this day we hope the Devil is playing his last game in England that a man that hath but sobriety in his looks can scarcely pass without the brand of Fanatick And these men themselves have set us free from the Bonds of Subjection for we have no benefit by the Government of this bloody Family neither are we comprehended within the Verge of their Protection Wherefore they cannot justly challenge any Obedience from us by the Law of Nature or Nations For a man is not bound to pay him Subjection who seeks his Destruction But although The Children are brought to the Birth there is no strength to bring forth the hour is now come and we are travelling in pain to be delivered for the Name of our God the Noble and Precious Interest of his Christ and the Deliverance of his Saints and People and O how are we straitned till it be done We have been with much fear and trembling in this work and much wrestling have we had with the Lord for so far as he has revealed our selves unto us we had rather suffer all things not onely to the loss of our Names and Estates but even our very Lives for his sake who since we believed is made precious to us then dishonour his great and holy Name and our souls are sweetly quieted in the Lord and abundantly satisfied in the time and certainly if we be deceived God has deceived us And now the Love of Christ has constrained us to appeare in the face of the greatest perills and dangers none of which move us so we may finish our course with joy and serve our Generation in the Work which God hath committed to us according to his will And we profess we have nothing but the naked Arm of the Lord to trust in and if we perish we 'l perish in believing his promises in serving and promoting his Cause in contending for this Noble Truth of the Kingdom of his dear Son And this is our joy that our God has bound himself by his promises in his fear we speak it and with Reverence to appear for his People And if God should not appear for the poor Remnant of Jacob but suffer them for whom his precious blood was shed to fall before Papists and Cavaliers and prophane drunken damning swearing Idolatrous Adulterous wicked and ungodly men and should suffer the Cause of the Papists of the bloody Family of the Stuarts of the old bloody Popish wicked Gentry of the Nation of the drunken dumb Popish scandalous Clergy to get the upper hand of his own Cause and should suffer all our Reformation to be lost then what would become of his great Name It was because he could not bring them into the good Land will the Enemy say that he has destroyed them in the Wilderness What will become of his promise to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and their Seed How will the New Covenant sealed with the Blood of Christ and the Oath that he sware unto David in his holiness be verified Now therefore to come to the matter of our Declaration that we may lay the Ground-work of so great a Building and stir up and provoke our Brethren in all the Countries as also in the City of London to share with us in this honour and be partakers in this work and now to prepare themselves and in all points to be ready in order to a general rendesvouzing on Mount Zions bottom We Declare 1. That we will not have one stone of Babylon for a Corner or for a Foundation Jer. 51. 26. We will not have any thing to do with the Antichristian Magistracy Ministry Tythes c. which are none of our Lords appointments but the cheats and counterseits of the man of sin and mystery of iniquity We will not make any league or joyn any affinity with them Rev. 14. 9 10 11. But we Declare for and exhort unto a final and strict separation from the National Parochial Church Worship Ministry way and Idolatrous high places as none of Christs but Antichrists as false and Babylonish Rev. 18. 4. And we cannot but look upon the National Ministry even in its greatest reformation and purity in the time of the late O. C. and his Tryers as Antichristian and that which ought to be disowned and separated from by all the true Churches of Jesus Christ in their Foundation Call standing in the Parish Assemblies and Maintainance And we contend for a righteous Magistracy that may be a terrour to evil doors and a praise to them that do well and for a true Gospel Ministery with their Maintainance And we own and declare our Lord Jesus Christ unto whom and whose Laws we will alone submit as unto him who is the Fountain and Original of all just and lawful Power to be the Supreame Head and Law giver of these Nations the alone LEGISLATOR who has right to make and give Laws for the governing of the Common-wealth and who is King of Saints and Nations whose royal Laws and Precepts must be submitted unto in Church and State and Tyranny Monarchy and Antichristianisme destroyed and rooted up in both his Laws and Statutes contained in the Holy Scriptures and remaining in force since his death to be the Law by which these Nations shall be governed and judged and his Saints without respect had to any particular from or judgement on whom shall rest the spirit of councel and wisdome shall be the Administrators thereof or shall have the executive Power So shall we have Magistrates like Job that will be eyes to the blinde and feet to the lame and Fathers to the poor that will break the jaws of the wicked and pluck the spoil out of his teeth Job 29. And we shall be the blessed of the Lord whose habitations shall be full of the blessings of heaven and earth and full of Peace on the foundation of Truth and we shall be the happiest people in the world having the best Laws and the best Governours Deut. 4 6 7 8. And as Babylon will be destroyed and the false Antichristian Church will be no more so the true Church and Spouse of Christ will be brought out of the wilderness from all her dispersions darkness and confusions and will be purged and purified from all her corruptions both in matter and form and from the
secure that they shall not be moved for ever ver 10. Nevertheless it seems to us they shall not effect or accomplish any great or weighty matters but the greatest part of their little time will be spent in Rejoycing Feasting taking pleasure making merry and sending gifts one to another for their supposed new and great Victory and that until the fatall day come upon them 5. Towards the end of this time which the Lord hath every where set a mark upon as that which shall period the Sufferings and Captivity of the Gentile Churches some bloody and cruell design will be laid by the Dragon against the Remnant of the Womans Seed who appear for Christ and the Truth in the time their Brethren the Witnesses lye dead either of a Massacre Banishment or fiery Persecution Psal 83. which just upon the point of the three years and a halfs expiring he will attempt to put in execution Rev. 12. 17. but shall never accomplish it chap. 14. 1. These signs most of them are also in M. Till Knowl of Times whose Method we have in part followed Now some for want of light in these Prophecies may think that in these things there is a great likeness of the Witnesses Slaughter and that they do not as indeed they do as will be found of him who diligently searcheth immediately go before their Rise but is rather the slaughter of them or something in order to it But that cannot be for this Reason because then must we come to persecution and their death would be a corporall Death for it is not the Beasts clemency or mildness but want of time that cuts him short in this point But that their death will not be a corporall death but civill and spirituall we could prove by many sound and unanswerable Reasons And that we are not to expect any more persecution unto blood or suffering for Gospel Truths after the Witnesses death is as plain The present distress being rather a Nationall Quarrel then any thing else And now unto these things that are transacted on the Stage let us adde these two 1. That these things are of great use unto the people of God that have kept their Garments in any measure For by these Trialls God is taking the Precious from the Vile blowing the chaffe from the wheat raising up a new Generation and making of them a new sharp threshing Instrument with teeth and separating some for his own service by the marks of Non-conformity all which look very like that Prophecy Rev. 14. 3 4. Christ is gathering his first ripe Fruits redeeming a precious Remnant from the Earth and severing them from among all men that they may follow him with another spirit as Joshua and Caleb did and not come short of their work through temptations of Honour Profit and worldly Vanities as some have done to their shame 2. That this blessed strong lively supplicating wrestling pulling groaning travelling praying Spirit among the poor dry Bones the scattered despised Stones and Dust of Zion which takes hold of Gods Arm i. e. Christ Covenant Oath Promise Faithfulnesse and Word is a great token and Symptome of Deliverance Zech. 10. 1. Thus much to the second Point 3. That O. C. kill'd the Witnesses and that the place of their lying dead is England 1. That O. C. kill'd them proved by two Arguments 1. This last War of the Beast against the Witnesses is altogether different from that which hitherto he had waged continually against the company of the Saints Rev. 13. 7. 1. It is not of the same kinde the former was alwayes with sword fire and fagot this a certain kinde of spirituall War in that they dy'd corporally in this civilly and spiritually and in the latter sense lies the blacknesse of the day as Tillinghast well observes In the former War the Beast could never get the Victory in a spiritual sense for they alwayes dy'd Conquerours and triumphed over him in the midst of Flames maugre all his rage which bred in him a certain kinde of torment but now being more old and cunning and withall such a Day-star of Reformation being Risen through the Witnesses prophesying as made him that the durst now appeare in the day in his old bloody blasphemous hue and finding himself also much weakned through the continuall War that now had been all along between him and the Witnesses and being just upon the expiring of his 42. moneths or Reign of darknesse and finding that he is not able to come unto blood he takes unto him weapons of another Nature which proves more effectuall and advantageous to his Cause For this Quarrel between him and the Witnesses being about the Finishing-Testimony and the Cause of Reformation he is now enforced unlesse he will lose all to use his utmost policy and craft 2. This War is declared as peculiar unto the last time of the Beast and a speciall Note set upon it to distinguish it from that which had been familiar to him in the times of his 42. moneths 3. It is one kinde of War which the Beast waged universally against the Saints another which in his last declining estate he shall wage with the Prophets which had begun now to put off their sack-cloth and to end their Propheticall mourning Answerable to this is that of the Woman in the 12. of the Rev. touched before where at the end of the 42. moneths there is a shew of coming out of the wildernesse ver 10. But this sad and sudden and indeed unexpected news of the losse of the Field and Witnesses slaughter coming she is forced suddenly to flie to her old place again her Champions being gone for three years and an half longer ver 13 14. 4. This last War is not universally over all the Beasts Kingdom but is peculiar to some one place or Nation where the Witnesses had gained upon him which in the Text is called the street of the City i. e. one street or dominion of the 10. ver 8. 5. The event of this War however the Cause may seem at first to go on his side and he may think the field won and the day his own is very lamentable In his former Wars Power was given him over all Kindreds Tongues and Nations Rev. 1. where he procures to himself a sudden and fatall ruine and he will never be able to rally or make head again in that Nation so notably is it levened with the Witnesse Doctrine Most of these distinctions are found in Mede Now this last War against the Witnesses and their Death and Slaughter being of another kinde from what was common to the Beasts Reign it must needs follow that it be managed by a subtill hand and one that can handle a spirituall weapon well and do it with a notable profession of Religion and seem to differ from the Witnesses in nothing but time And certainly if we depart not from the plain sense and meaning of the Text we must needs conclude that O. C. was the man for the whole limits of the Beasts Kingdom could not parallell him 2. The main ground of this Quarrel is about the Finishing-Testimony By the Finishing-Testimony we cannot more fitly understand any thing then the great Truth of the Kingdom of Christ Now that which doth enrage the Beast and against wich he makes this War is against this precious Truth of the Visible Kingdom of Christ as it is the Truth of the Generation and that which the Witnesses in their Finishing-Testimony was going about to cause to take place in that Nation The which neverthelesse they shall not do for it is said When they shall be about to finish their Testimony so Mede renders the word the Beast shall make War against them and overcome them and kill them which Victory of the Beast makes the Witnesses Cause never a whit the worse But O. C. persecuted no Truth but this Truth of the Kingdom of Christ and he persecuted not that neither but as it was the Truth of the Generation and that which the Witnesses would immediately have to take place so that they going about to finish their Testimony he was necessitated to make this lamentable War unless he would have his Government over-tun And two things of him are very considerable 1. That about a year and a half before his death this Prophecy of the Witnesses seemed to trouble him very much and he was very earnest with two of us to know what we thought of the Witnesses the which he seemed to speak with a convinced guilty minde and some kinde of regret 2. We have sometimes thought from the last clause of the fifth veise And if any man will hurt them he must in this manner be killed that this Finishing-Testimony of the Witnesses however he seemed to have the better was the death of him gave him the wound he could never claw off But 2. That England is the place is yet to be proved for which we shall name two Arguments and leave it 1. This War and Slaughter must be where a notable Work of Reformation has been on foot where the pure Doctrine of the Reign of Christ is powerfully and effectually preached where there is a people that are the choicest and forwardest of all others and may be said to be the first fruits of all the Antichristian World But if Germany it self or all Europe can parallell England in this which is as a Garden of choice Plants then will we consider further 2. It is called in the Text the Street of the City that which is the very Stage of Action or Market place of the world and whether England has not been so for these twenty years even in the account of other Nations as witness what that German writes in his Clavis p. 100. and Manasseh Ben Israel the Jew in his Epistle of his Hope of Israel to the Parliament of England we leave to sober and judicious men to judge Thus much to the third Point 4. And lastly In all probability the great Day of the Witnesses Rise will be in this present Year 1660. AMEN FINIS
we may encourage the persevering Remnant in the words of Moses Your eyes have seen what the Lord did because of Baal-Peor for all the men that followed Baal-Peor the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you but ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive every one of you this day Deut. 4. 3 3. Here is the faith and patience of the Saints And indeed we cannot but admire the grace of God and to his praise we would speak it that we were preserved from the wicked Apostacy of O. C. against which we spared not to contend to the loss of our Liberties and to the hazard of our Lives the which we cannot but look on as the door and inlet to all this that is now come upon us Psal 81. 11 12 13 14 15. And all those unfaithful servants that complyed with him and his Interest and continued in a sinful perseverance as highly guilty of betraying the Righteous Interest and Cause of Christ and the Liberties of all the Saints of sin against God and the work of their Generation whereby they have made themselves unmeet for any place of Power and Trust and others must take their Crown neither will they any more finde acceptance with the Lord or his People but upon unfeigned Repentance which they may best testifie by making themselves nothing that Christ may be all and serving him in the lowest and meanest capacity For those that Christ will delight to honour in this work are Virgins Rev. 14. who never were espoused or marryed to a worldly or defiling Interest and except our names be found in those blessed distinguishing Characters as in the Kings muster Roll we shall never follow the Lamb with another spirit as Josbua and Caleb did We conclude with David instead of thy Fathers shall be thy Children a second Generation whom thou mayest make Princes in all the Earth Psal 45. 16. We therefore freely of a ready minde and with a most chearful heart accounting it an honour too great for us poor worms who are the meanest of men the greatest of sinners and the least of Saints to gird on a Sword for Christ Give up our Lives and Estates unto our Lord King Jesus and to his People to become Souldiers in the Lambs Army abhorring Mercenary Principles and Interests And for this works sake we desire not to love our lives unto the death neither will we ever if we may speak so great a word with reverence in the fear of God sheath our Swords again untill Mount Zion become the joy of the whole Earth a Mountain of holiness and a habitation of justice untill Rome be in Ashes and Babylon become a hissing and a curse the border of wickedness and the People against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever there being left unto her neither Name nor Remnant Son nor Nephew For that we are not purposed when the Lord shall have driven forth our Enemies here in these Nations and when we shall in a holy Triumph have led our Captivity Captive to sit down under our Vines and Figg-trees but to go on to France Spain Germany and Rome to destroy the Beast and Whore to burn her flesh with Fire to throw her down with violence as a Milstone into the Sea that she may be found no more at all Rev. 18. 21. Jer. 51. 35. to bring not onely these but all the Nations to the subjection of Christ that the Kingdome may be the Lords and to perfect the deliverance of all the Saints the Remnant of the Waldenses and all the Children of the Free-woman who are yet groaning and crying under the Tyranny and Persecutions of Antichrist and to avenge the blood of all the Martyrs which we earnestly remember and which is an especial motive unto us the cry of which is very loud in our ears and much more in the ears of God unto whom vengeance belangeth And this is much more then a National Quarrel that which is the Test now being the Interest of Christ the blood of the Butcher'd Murder'd Martyr'd and Massacred Saints the interest of the good People the Liberties of all men and the undoing of all the sinful oppressions and yoaks of the whole Creation The Controversie now therefore lies between Zion and Babylon Christ and Antichrist and therefore we assert That it is lawfull for the true spiritual Seed the legitimate Heirs of the promises and the World Rom. 4. 13. To RISE VP against the carnal serpentine accursed seed who are the destroyers of the Earth Rev. 11. 18. To possess the GATE of their Enemies to binde their Kings in Chains and their Nobles in Fetters of Iron And we being called of God and cut out without hands or humane contrivement in whom is shewn forth his Power RISE UP on Gods behalf free from the guilt of the breach of Oaths and Covenants upon our Consciences to conflict with this prophane persecuting Spirit of the Dragon and the Worshippers of the Beast that dwell on the Earth And we Call all that have a life to lay down for their King and Saviour to come forth against them with the Sword and execute upon them the Judgements written Are you a poor despised Remnant why God has formed you for himself As Christ was a tender Plant and a Root out of dry ground so may his Kingdom arise out of a poor obscure illitterate and such as the world calls Fanatick People And out of them shall come forth the Corner the Nail and the Battel-bow we look for a righteous spiritual Magistracy out of the new sharp threshing Instrument And to the end we may not lay a stumbling-block to shut out any for this good and wholesome Principle of Christs Government is so large that it involves every honest Interest and this bottom can onely secure our Cause as we could prove but that we write not in an argumentary way who are against the same abominations and enormities that we are own at least the negative part of our Cause and in the main are substantially and really for the same good things with us we also declare that whoso hath a heart to appear for God for his Christ for Reformation Justice and Righteousness for the Cause of Truth and for the good People of these Nations under so much reproach and sufferings whose Lives Estates Liberties and Posterities are ready to be made a Prey by the cruellest and worst of men who in the Properties of their natures are beasts against Popery Prelacy Common-prayer Organs Superstitions false prophane forms of Worship Idolatrous Ceremonial Typical Antichristian shadows and vanities such as is Sirplices Lawn Sleeves Hoods Tippets and such whorish trash and Trinkery Altars Bowing Kneeling and Worshipping a piece of Wood and Bread and a Wax Candle a filthy base Idol for the true God against Idolatrous Pictures and Images the seeds of Superstition and Ignorance we say whoso hath a heart to rise up for God against the Pope his Bishops and