upon him that for many dayes and nights he could not forbear quaking and trembling the Divels trembled I â—n â— in most dreadful horror that many people wondred at him who though he had food looked as if he had been almost famished and could not die until his flesh rotted away in many places and he most gastly to behold he often uttered horrible words from the pit of darknesse at last dying in a sad and miserable manner terrible to the beholders James Munden Priest of Burton having some Queries delivered to him by Francis Taylor he said he would go and fetch a warrant to have him before a Justice that day but the Justice not granting it he sent the Queries back to Francis Taylor and when his wife came unto him she in a rage tore the paper of Queries and said to him that as she did tear that paper so the Devils should tear his soul in hell hereafter a bad answer to the Queries and other times she abused friends in their meetings and her children threw stones at them Not long after this Priest was suddenly strook dead and never spake word more though he had been preaching two several times that day or rather deceiving the people words and the wages of unrighteousness being cursed to him he died in debt and left his wife and children in poverty and misery Also a young man of the same Parish and a follower of the same Priest being very bitter to friends and sought occasion against his own brother Upon him also the Judgements of the Lord came and after he had been speechlesse for a time hee roared and howled in a loud and hideous manner being in a distracted condition and had many to hold him he shortly after died and many were amazed at him Edward Ireland a tithing-man dwelling in South Periot who scoffed at friends and persecuted them with much cruelty and took some out of there houses and carried them before some called Justices and in the eleventh month 58. he went to Blanford Sessions with Jeremiah French the Priest of South Periot who went there to lay in false information against John Gundry who was cast into prison by Jeremiah French the said Ireland also having a hand in it and at that Sessions Iâ—hn Gundry was brought forth and so fined fourty shillings to the Protector and fourty shillings to the Priest but Ieremiah French and Edward Ireland rode away from Blanford towards South Periot before those called Justices had really fined Iohn Gundry or remanded him to prison again and yet as they rode homeward through Evershot Edward Ireland boasted that Iohn Gundry would be sent to prison again who came home to his house but within two days the Lord strook him dead suddenly in his house which struck a dread in many which had a hand in persecuting the Lords people but especially one Richard Farnham who had also been a great persecuter of the Lords people in that place who came in to see Edward Ireland at the cry of the people and when he came into the house he fell down as dead and many of the people there ran about him and did shake him up and did strive much about him so he recovered life again but the dread of the Lord lay upon him that he was sick for a time after and then for a short season the Lords people had rest from their persecutors Dâ—VOâ— When I was prisoner at EXETER a Murtherer being condemned to die was brought into the Chamber to us and his hands unbolted and a naked knife in his hand and so left with us but the Lord preserved us from any hurt by him and he was afterwards hanged for killing a man with a knife The Mayor of Tiverton in Devon-shire by whose order many friends had their goods spoiled and taken from them and many were put into prison was about the fourth or fifth month in the year 1658 cut off by the hand of God in a miserable manner his bowels consuming within him and as one Fowler of the same Congregation and fellowship with him and of the same Town told a friend it lay upon him to go to see the Priest and to acquaint him that it was the hand of God upon him for his cruel usage of those people called Quakers One of the Constables of EXETER a notorious Professor hanged himself in his own house The Bridewel-keeper who had done very much wrong to friends who were under his custody and to others that came to visit them in prison making several lies against them soon after hanged himself by his bed side It is reported that many of the Professors in Exon have hanged and drowned themselves since first that place begun to persecute the people of God As Thomas Salthouse and Miles Halhead were travelling towards Plymouth in obedience to the Lord were apprehended at Honington and sent to EXETER by a guard of Musqueteers from thence to TAâ—NTON with a sealed letter a guard to Colonel Buffet who as he was enioyned by the said letter wrote another to send them from Tything to Tything until they came to their own Countries but the officer that had the passe and was to be their convoy to the next Tything had not gone above a mile until he fell down in the mire and could not stand upon his feet although they lefted him up thus the Lord made way for their enlargements and manifested his Righteous Judgements upon the Persecutors of the innocent so the Justice seeing the hand of the Lord against their formed weapons and instruments employed against the servants of the Lord released them The first that rose up against the people of God in this County was one Thomas Pentlow called Justice that in two years space committed 9 of the servants of the Lord to Prison and not one of them was proved transgressors either of the Law of God nor the Nation and some of them kept above a whole year in Prison and immediately after the beginning of his persecution the Lord smote him with an incurable disease in his body that he never went forth as formerly he did many times but lay roaring night and day near two years and when he lay thus in torment he committed every one of the people of the Lord to Prison that was brought before him though not any Law was transgressed and never repented to the day of his death Next one John Brown called Justice committed one Henry Williamson to Prison for going into Kettering Steeple-house though he never spoke one word but stood peaceably all the time and as soon as the Priest had done the people dragged him forth by the hair of the head struck him on the head face with their Bibles and he never speaking one word and John Brewa was an eye witness to this barbarous usage of him and never reproved the rude people for it but committed him to an Ale-house with a charge that none of his friends should come near him and
Dignities and Powers and things ye know not but at least stand still and behold the salvation of our God and lend not your power to the slaying of the innocent Lambs of Christ for verily if the Rock fall upon ye or ye upon it it will grinde ye all to dust Therefore my dear friends do not presume to sin all the dayes of your appointed time and clap hands with the oppressor and uphold a bad generation to do wrong to the innocent but be ye holy and do equally be ye perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect and as he is so be ye in this very evil World that when ye come to die ye may have nothing else to do but to die and enter into the rest Wherefore be wise in heart for the Lord requireth truth in the inward parts and that ye do unto all men as ye would be done unto Nicodemus saith unto them Doth our law judge any man before it hear him and knoweth what he doth Jo 7. 50 51. And I would have ye to exceed Nicodemus or at least be as noble as he was who came to Jesus but by night the Officers answered never man spake like this man Then answered them the Pharisees Are ye also deceived have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him but this people who know not the Law are accursed John 7. 46 47 48 49 Shouldst thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord Therefore wrath is upon thee from before the Lord and Jehosaphat went out again thorow the people from Beer-sheba to Mount-Ephraim and brought them back unto the Lord God of their fathers And he set Judges in the Land thorowout and said to the Judges take heed what ye dâ— for ye Judge not for man but for the Lord Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon ye take heed and do it for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God nor respect of persons nor taking of gifts And he charged them saying Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord faithfully and with a perfect heart 2 Chron. 19. 2 4. 5 6 7 9. And the Lord will shew himself strong in the behalfe of them whose hearts are perfect towards him I say Joshua went through the Land and set Judges in every City and brought them back unto the Lord God of their Fathers he also overthrew the high-places burnt up the groves destroyed idolatry raced down the Images and stamped to powder the things and places which were polluted though once commanded of God and that it is as needfull for some to go thorow England and our Cities to place and set Judges as at the beginning I shall here lay open and before the World some few of the Idolatries and heathenish customs that are in use and practice in one of our Cities namely Oxford which ye hirelings call one of the famous Universities nurceries for Religion springs fountains or eyes of the Nation from whence cometh the blind guides who leadeth the blind and blindeth too too many but I think if the Nation were blind of that eye and that spring were dryed up which indeed is but a standing puddle that deceit might no more issue out of her happy were it for many pretious souls which are ruined by the breath and stinke of her nostrils And if she hath not need to be visited read some few of her statutes which are as followeth and then judge her and her trades-men and when thou hast read them if she be worthy of life let her have it if of death let her die for there is thousands of witnesses against her and her Popish off-spring in this the day of the Lord everlasting praises be given to his Name who hath made known and revealed his truth to babes and the contemptible and despised ones of the World and hath hid it from the wise and vultrous eye In the first place see what the Independants in King James his reign had against the Universities and their brood for which they were called Brownists in the Book entituled An Apologie or defence of such true Christians as are commonly but unjustly called Brownists Printed 1604. The third Petition pag. 58 59. The seventh Position That the due maintenance of Ministers should be of voluntary and free Contribution and not by Popish Lordship and Livings or Jewish Tithes and offerings And that therefore the Lands and like Revenues of the Prelates and Clergy yet remaining may be taken away and converted to better use as those of the Abbies and Nunneries have been heretofore to the honour of God and great good of the Realm Whereunto are subjoined the proofs of the Scripture and several Arguments deduced from Scripture to prove the unlawfulness of them The twelfth Position pag. 75 76. That all Monuments of Idolatry in garments or any other things invented or dedicated heretofore by the Heathens or Anti-Christians to their false worship ought to be raced and abolished and not suffered to remain to nourish superstition much less imployed to the Worship of God Whereunto are added proofs of Scripture to enforce it The thirteenth Position pag. 77. That Popish degrees in Divinity and the studying of prophane Heathen writers with other likâ— corruptions should be removed With proofs of Scripture and several reasons to confirm the same And if any now say what are Idolatrous Popish ceremonies and degrees to us of England I answer There are the same now in use which were of old For instance in Oxford all the formalities and habits which were formerly counted superstitious by all the then called Puritans are now again not only in fashion and credit amongst them of the University but also accounted necessary so that if any Schollar of the University for Conscience sake cannot wear them he must loose his vote and priviledge and not take any degree T is true that while the Army continued in Action it was thought necessary to lay them aside at least for a time for fear of scandal and provoking tender conscienees but since the Army have forgot to look after them they are a licking up their old vomit and all the vestments and formalities appointed them by their father the Pope in use and credit defended in their speeches at the Act and those men counted factious who witness against them though of their own fraternity And if any one will compare the Oxford statutes with the discription of theirs in other Anti-christian Popish Universities beyond Seas he may see that there are not onely the same superstitious ceremonies and Idolatrous habits but far more in number and greater in pomp then there are in the very greatest Seats of Antichrist beyond Sea And for their sakes who cannot come to see them or it may be never heard of them I have subjoined a little Catalogue of them which are yet in practice to omit the more notorious which are not observed since the Wars to satisfie the World what Reformation
their bellies But the Idolatrous Jews might have said far more for their calf which was made of gold that it was of exceeding great vallue and we are loath to burn it or have it burnt and loose the good gold though it offended the Holy God or might they noâ— have said their groves were pleasant shades in so hot a Country as their's or might serve to build houses or at least for fuel in the Winter but since once abused the Lord commanded that they should be burnt Mark since they had been once abused and Idolatry had been there committed and they were set apart and dedicated for a wrong end they must be thrown down and burnt and if the Scripture be your rule by what rule stands your Mass-houses which were erected consecrated and dedicated by the Pope where sacrifices to Divels hath been offered and the Name of the pure and Holy God been blasphemed and thousands of poor souls have been deceived But the Lord raised up himself a Josuah in our day here as heretofore to have executed his commands upon the Idolatrous high places in England which were built for Idolatry and they and their Images and Prieâ—ts should have been thrown down For the neglect whereof the Lord is angry and our Joshuah hath been unfaithful or at least too too long defered it for down they must and if they were as high as the mount besides Samaria they shall become a heap or if they were as deep as Iacths well because their water stinks and is not bought without money and without prize but is a standing puddle therefore they shall be dried up or if they were as ancient as Ierusalem it self where the Lord of life was crucified by a cursed Law as bad as that which upholds the Priest and his Mass-house I say if they were as high as the mount or as deep as the Wel or as ancient as Ierusalem or as tall as Babilon the tower of confusion yet they shall become an utter Chaos and a confused heap and the confusion which is preached in them is their figure and although there were in them a brasen Serpent of Moses own making having been once polluted it must be broken in pieces and he that stands for them cannot stand and he that stamps them not to dust shall be broken to pieces Come up Priest with all thy trash parts Read these Scriptures Micah 1. 4 5 6 7 8 9 Deut. 12. 2. 3. 2 Kings 18. 4. and 23. 6. Lev. 18. 3 4. 25. 27. Exod. 23 24. Deut. 12. 4. 2 Corin. 5. 17. Rev. 18. 4. Gen. 35 4. Num 33. 52. Deut. 12. 2 3 4. Isa 27. 9. Zeph. 1. 4. Rev. 2. 14. Deut. 7. 25. 26. 9. 21. Zech. 13. 2. Hos 2. 16. 17. Isa 1. 29. and 2. 20 21 22. Jug 2. 13 14. Isa 30. 22. 23 and parcels thy Jewish Tythes and Popish vestments bring all the Orders the Pope hath left thee fetch with thee thy cannonical weeds bring all thy stuff upon thy back if thou comest which God hates Bring all thy dark deceit under thy black long robe and put all thy bloody persecution into the Scale and yet thou art to light and by and in the light seen to be lighter then vanity it self shew thy Masse-house inside and out with all her christened bells which jangled the Papists to her to hear their Mass and now you called Protestants to hear the hireling speak a devination of his own brain who killeth men for his belly Bring all the Popish crosses upon her top and sides with all her painted windowes whited walls thine own image leave no part of her fair outside behind thee And although she hath been salted blessed consecrated by thy Antecessor and many a goodly monument is in her and very many pounds thou gets yearly by her yet be not grieved to see her fall or made a dung-house your their mother Church Grandum Pauls the temple of Diana of whom these whelps were born wherein the hireling preaches trades gets vast summes by boasting in the Saints Prophets Christ the Apostles and holy mens words which were not given forth to be traded in in the idolatrous Mass-houses by these hired men I might also ask the Priest why that so many of the Scriptures are left out of the Bible or whether the Pope did give him the same authority to tythe the Scriptures and keep them to himself as well as mens estates and whether they are not wilfully omitted because they make against the Hireling or which of the copies we are to believe since there is fifteen of the New-Testament Or what translation we are to give most credit to since that of the Genevah differeth from that of King Jameâ— and Brâ—ughton the great Linguiâ—t sayes that the translation of the old Testament is perverted in eight hundred forty eight places so that it 's plain we must neither believe Priest of England nor Pope of Rome for the interpretation of Scriptures but even that which gave it forth which was before they were which is the interpretator one of a thousand Here followeth a Catalogue of those Scriptures which are mentioned but not inserted in the Bible The prophesie of Enoch mentioned Jude 14. The book of Jehu mentioned 2 Chron. 20. 34. The book of the battels of the Lord mentioned Numbers 21. 14. The book of Nathan the Prophet the book of Iddo The Prophesie of Ahijah mentioned 2 Chron. 9 29. the book of Hosai conserning Manasses 2. Chron. 33. 19. the book of Shemajah the Prophet mentined 2 Chron. 12. 15. the book of Jasher mentioned 2 Sam. 1. 18. the book of Gad 1 Chron 29. 29. The first Epistle to the Corinthians mentioned 1 Cor. 5. 9. The first Epistle to the Ephesians mentioned Ephes 3. 3. The Epistle to the Laodiceans mentioneded Colos 4. 16. The books of Henoch mentioned in the Epistle of Thaedeus Origen and Tertullian The Books of Solomons three thousand Proverbs and one thousand songs with his Books of the nature of Trees Plants Beasts and Fishes mentioned 1 Kings 4. 32. 33. The Epistle fathered upon Barnabas the revelation of Peter the Doctrine called the Apostles mentioned in Eusebius Lib. 3. cha 22. So that I say it is very possible that what did not make for the Pope and the advantage of his hirelings was and is on purpose left out for it is like the first Cannon that warranted the books of the New Testament to us was made by a councel at Carthage which was subservient to Popery several hundred years after the death of Christ many parts of the New Testamant which are now allowed being till then in dispute and denyed as Eusebius sayes namely the revelation of John the Epistle of Jude the last Epistle of Peter the second and third Epistles of John the Epistle of Iames See Eusebius Lib. 3. chap. â—2 So that if the Councel of Carthage did not distinguish those Scriptures which were written by devine inspiration from
is not all this and very many other things which ye use Popish Jewish and heathenish and yet ye would force the innocent whom ye know for conscience cannot swear at all to take an oath to abjure the Pope which would be to swear against your selves but because of oathes the Land mourns And if I hear a wicked wretch swear and many times blaspheam the name of the dreadful and living God with bloody oathes and if I complain of that wicked man to a Magistrate that he hath in my hearing sworn many oathes to the grief of my very soul and dishonour of my maker but except I will also swear and enter into the same sin the guiltless make himself guilty he which did in the first place offend the pure God shall not be punished but on the contrary if the true man do but speak to this man called Justice in plainnes of speech such as the servants used to the Lord of liâ—e and the same Lord to his servants or do not put of my hat to him and bow which I dare not do leâ—st my Maker should take me away I say its much if I go not to prison my self or at least exceedingly rebuked which I my self am a witnest off and this is turning of Justice backward so that except a man will break a positive command of the Lord Jesus the sword will not be laid upon the evil doer but is born in vain and not for the praise of them which do well the wicked Magistrate bids me â—wear and sayes I may swear or take a judicial oath the Papists he sayes bow down to an image and wear a crucifix or an agnus dei about thy neck it s but to put thee in mind and for a remembrance but Christ the oath and hope in me who was before judicial oathes or images were says swear not at all and above all things my brethren sayes James swear not and I had rather be accounted as one of his brethren by keeping the commands of the Lord Jesus by not swearing then by swearing to be made a friend to Caesar or a companion to the Prince the command of the most high God is thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image nor bow down to them and so let the Papists and yee part this matter between yee for yee are a like guilty the one breaks the command of God the other of Christ and he that breaks one is guilty of all The King bid or commanded that all should bow to his image which he had set up the three children refused and obeyed God rather then the accursed Edicts of a King the King gave command that they should be thrown into the fire and into the fire they were cast with their hats on were they Rebels yea or nay and whether is it better to obey God or men judge ye But except I will rebell against the Lord and make my self a transgressor of the royal Law I shall not have the benefit of your Law and except I will swear I cannot desend or come by my own nor hardly keep my self out of a Goal So vile are your Lawes and many the Ministers of them and the guilty do go free and the heart of the righteous is grieved and the righteous man doth perish and few or none layes it to heart but the Lord our God treasureth up all these things with many more of your iniquities and if yee think he will not visit for these things yee deceive your selves and are deceived because the truth doth not guide yeâ— The good Magistrate is worthy of double honour but it consisteth not in my hat for that waxeth old as doth my oâ—her garments and may be burnt and turned to ashes and become dong or I may throw my hat upon the ground and set my feet upon iâ— is then the Magistrats honor in the dust do I tread upon his honor when I tread upon mine own hat Nay the good Magistrate is still worthy of double honour and for a good man some will dare to die and so I dare for the good Magistracy â—ut to sawn câ—ing to any mans person I may not It is the good Magistrate that 's worthy of double honour the office good Magistratâ— in the man not the bad man because he is in the office and to every ordinance of man I submit am no rebell therefore let me and all Gods people have the benefit of your best Laws And your worst doth not require me to put of my hat swear or appear by an Attourny my self being in the Nation and willing to appear but admit ye had a corrupt Law or an act for every violence which is acted I believe some of ye heretofore when ye lived under the oppression of wicked Magistrates and unrightâ—ous Lawes which are yet standing would have said that the welfare of the people was above the Salus populi suprema lex Law Paul says that an oath is for the end of strife among men mark but the same Paul says walk not as men but as Saints and although they of old time sware to the Lord and performed their oathes to the Lord and the Lord performed THE substance to them which oathes was a type of and the oath and vow is come in the flesh who sayes swear not at all but if Paul or John who was the greatest born among women should should affirm or had affirmed it to be lawful to swear I le not believe John but rather chuse to hear believe and obey the great mighty Prophet in all things but the persecutor and he that will not hear this Prophet and bring all his deeds to the light and to the witness of God in him and there try if they be wrought in God shall be cut off Notwithstanding he may pretend to have an Edict or a law from man for what he doth And if he commit murther and all manner of wickednes most greedily man can pardon one another by an Act or call it chance-medly man slaughter petti-laseny c. and Hang another man for the fame fault because he cannot read and this amongst the rest is persecution and is not equal nor doing as a man would be done unto And like a naked and simple hearted man I shall hear declare unto all the world the words of the living God to me when I was but onely able to die for the truth and not able to write dispute or controvert for it when as heretofore I have met with an able skilful cunning deceiver This was the word of the Lord and thus said the Lord unto me If an Angel should pretend to come from heaven and should affirm unto thee that that Ministry is of God or Christ which in the least persecutes stocks whips imprisons strikes or causeth to be strucken sweares or causeth others to swear for his dishonest gain believe him not For they obey not the great Prophet and they shall be cut
the next day contrary to all Law committed him to the common Goal and there he hath continued 42 weeks and never any accuser appeared against him And it was observed that just forty weeks after as it was accounted it being the just account of women his Wife brought forth a man-child into the World so deformed in many parts of the body many of the members being out of order as hardly ever any was seen to be the like and as soon as it was born he would not let it be seen by Neighbours but by those that were there at her delivery and so keeps it priprivate to this day and it is observed that he used all the members of his body to act wickedness against the innocent so the Lord visited his sin upon his child which that night might be begotten This Brown called Justice committed Marmaduke Storr and one John Whitehead one week after the committing of the other because they could not for Conscience sake swear to the Oath of Objuration though they denied what was contained in it and kept them 41 weeks in Prison And another time he and one Robert Buyclrek of the Peace came with armed Souldiers where there was divers of the people of the Lord assembled at a meeting in Isham on a first day and came violently into the house and haled the people forth of doors and struck some of them and said they would break up their meetings and committed one Thomas Stubs to the house of Correction from the Meeting with a strickt charge that he should be severely whipped which was done and since hath committed divers other friends to Prison and said to one Iohn Garret that he hoped to have a place in Heaven at Gods right hand for his punishing of the Quakers and wished he had more power in his hand this deformed child of his is never able to go while it lives and all his other children were very sickly and this hath been healthful and lusty and is above three years of age and kept privately One Peter Whaley Mayor of Northampton who was mad to persecute Friends in the year of his Maiorality did many wicked actions as committing some Friends to Prison and much abusing Friends that came to visit Friends that were in Prison he making them passes and sending them from Constable to Constable and in the middle of his year he went forth of the Town and the Lord struck him off of his horse and he died and one that lay in Prison for speaking to a Priest that he had formerly committed was as soon as he was dead immediately released One William Somes a Carpenter in Willingborrow a lusty young man was at the Towns end a sawing with another one evening as William Dewsberry and Francis Ellington and another Friend was passing to a Meeting William Dewsberry seeing him spoke these words to him Fear God and repent and give heed to the Light of Christ in your Consciences or else you perish eternally with some other words to this effect the said William Somes began much to laugh and to jear at him but William not regarding that passed away and immediately he was struck with lameness and pains that instant and so hath continued near â— years and can hardly speak any plain words and hath lost the use of his limbs of the one side One Oliver â—letsoe â— Draper in Wellinborrow having much enmity against Friends as Friends have passed by his shop to Meetings he would encourage his son about 12 years of age to abuâ—e them by throwing dirt and stones at them as they passed by presently after the house that he lived in being a stone built house one morning about eight in the morning the house over his shop fell down to the ground and his son that formerly abused Friends with his servant was accidentally in the street not knowing any thing that the house fell down to the ground and one of the stones fell upon the boys head and had very nigh slain him much wounding him and great loss came to his father the house falling upon all his goods and much of the goods were buried so under the rubbish that they were never found until they were rotten One Squire Willmor so called of Syweâ—l having one Richard Brown Tenant to him and Rented a farm of him and his predecessors 30 or â—0 years the said Richard owning truth and having meetings kept at his house in Sywell the rich man sent to him and told him that if he would not give over having meetings kept at his house he should not stay any longer then until his year was up he saying to him that he coâ—ld find no other fault with him in any thing but the said Richard would not yield to him to deny meetings he put him forth of his farm and immediatly after this great man having but one son and heir the Lord struck him with death and that as he would not suffer an Heir of Heaven to dwell in one of his houses except he would deny his God so his son and heir should not live in any of his fathers possessions but in the house of darkness was shut up to the great grief of his father One Robert Guy who is Clerk of the Peace who hath been one of the greatest enemies to the people of God in this County and hath dealt subtilly with the servants of the Lord and have stirred up the Magistrates against Friends when they have been brought to Sessions before them did say to Francis Ellington one day that the false prophets that Elija slew might as well plead they were persecuted then as the Quakers in England The said Francis was brought to the Sessions and there two wicked men did falsly swear against him and say That he did curse and deny the true God that made Heaven and Earth at a Meeting and though they swore this yet as soon as the Jury-men were gone forth they did in the presence of the Court one of them deny it again and confessed the truth and yet Robert Guy would take no notice of it neither would he suffer one of the said Francis Ellingtons witnesses to declare what he did speak being 5 of them except they would first swear which he knew they could not and so suffered the innocent to be committed in Prison and he himself did afterwards charge the Goaler privately to whip him once in two weeks or else he told the Goaler he should loose his place which the Goaler confessed to the said Francis but this was observed that the said Francis one day meeting with the said Guy upon the road was moved of the Lord to speak to him and bid him give over persecuting the people of God otherwise the Judgement of the Lord would suddenly overtake him and this was three dayes before the Sessions and he not believing but suffered the said Francis to be cast into Prison and there to be by his private order whipped once a fortnight and to
be kept from his Wife and six small children and from his trade and employment to the ruining of him and his Family Just seven dayes after the Lord strook his Wife with death made 7 or 8 children of his motherless and in one week his Family were all disperced and his children put forth and his house left desolate to this day So our God is known by his executing Judgement and the wicked are trapped in the works of their own hands and thus in all ages hath the Lord been known and it is left upon record and in this age all the children of the light see the Lords footsteps praises be to him for ever Also one Wyat living at bugbrook a great professor for many years hearing that a Neighbour living in the same Town owned Truth and began to go to Friends Meetings he wrote a whole sheet of paper against the Truth of God and most blasphemously belyed the people of God which he in scorn called Quakers and sent this his Letter to his Neighbour aforesaid and challenged him or any of his Friends to give him an answer unto it but in a few weeks after before a friend could return him an answer the Lord answered him by taking away his life Also one John Palmer whom the World calls Quaker sent a book which was set forth by a friend to a Priest living three miles from Harborrow and desired him to read it the Priest was troubled at what was written in the book and said that he would write another to confute it and while he was writeing against the truth the Lord struck him with death suddenly that he died and never finished that work Also one Thomas Hensman one who was Warden so called of Willingborrow and when any friends were moved to go to the Steeple-house he would be alwayes ready at the command of the Priest there to hale them forth of the Steeple-house and he did once at the desire of the Priest swear falsly against one Elihu Hunt that she disturbed the Priest when she did out ask him one question after he had done and by his swearing Thomas Pentlow committed her to Prison presently after the Lord smoâ—e the said Thomas with an uncurable disease and when he lay upon his death-bed he declared to Neighbours that nothing troubled him so much as swearing and persecuting the said Elihu and wished that he had never had a hand in it and at the same time died Henry Wood of Bury in Lancaster riding to Manchester market Priest Bradsham rod up to him and called him knave and took away his hat At Boâ—ton the said H. Wood was much misused had his hair pul'd off his face by T. Tislesly Dol Hodgkin was strook by the Priest of Wakefield and had like to have been killed with a hammer by a black-smith YORK Priest of Warsworth strook and punched G. Fox The same Priest took away Thomas Rawlinsons hat LONDON Priest Griffin of Bred-street strook Robert Ingram sorely over the head with a Cane many blows The Priest of Heburn strook Jo. Sley several times over the brest And those things have happened for the Admonition of the children of those who have persecuted the innocent without cause and are written for the encouragement of such as may hereafter be persecuted for the testimony of Jesus that they may look unto him and be saved who hath delivered us out of six troubles and in seven he will not forsake us A Catologue of some few of the fighting Priests PRiest Shaw of Aldingham beat Anna Clater Priest Roulands of Areloth beat Robert Cooper because he would not speak to him Priest Willon of Kerby struck Luke Benson till he broke a thick cane therewith Priest Bennet of Cartmel came out of an Ale-house being in drink beat Richard Raper and boasted that he beat him and struck up his heels Priest Brook of Cartmel-fell came drunk into the house where Thomas Rollison dwelt beat him violently would have cast him into the fire Priest Wait of Gargrave stood by while his wife burnt eighteen sheets of paper holding it to the face of William Waâ—kinson to burn him with but the Priest never so much as reproved her or restrained her Priest Dorton of Shape being drunk drew his Tuck at Daniel Tompson in the street as he passed but being horsed he fled and escaped he beat Richard and William Stray pulled them by the hair luged his ears and came to William Strayes house with his tuck to seek him and threatened his wife therewith Priest Ripling of Crosby came rideing into the meeting where the people of God was meet and rid through them with violence Priest Nichols of Acton beat James Parnel and broak his head against a stall Priest Warwick of Aspeater beat John Grave and his wife and shed the blood of Jonah Person at a meeting Priest Burton of Sedburg beat John Blackling and pulled him by the hair of his head in his high place He also beat Richard Speight and John Hall as is said at Huperam Chappel Priest Cowleden of Langsterdale beat Edward Edwards and shed his blood upon the high way Also he beat Iames Tenart Priest Atkinson of Granton beat Bernard Addisom in the high-way and broke his staff over his face Priest of Marrick beat Christop More and also he beat Ioseph Longsdale in Richmond market-place for reproving him for it Priest More of Richmond beat Christoph. More with a flayl insomuch that its like he had killed him if help had not come Priest Confit of Barton beat Dor. Tod for coming to visit his wife I Christo Iron upon a first day was coming from a meeting of Friends and comming along the High-way I lighted of one Parson Feak of Standrop in the county of Durham who did rageingly fall upon me and did beat me and so passing along the way and my mouth never opened nor one word said he came again and gave me a great blow and made me stagger and struck off my hat and had a Rapier-staff that he had at Steeple-house which he drew a part forth of the Scabbard but put it up again and thus the Parson did to me and not one word and thus we parted This same Feak beat Thomas Taylor Christopher Atkinson and Thomas Aâ—ery coming along the high way coming from Ravensworth Castle Priest Feak of Staindrop beat Christo Atkinson trailed him at the horse side by the hair of the head by the high-way and his wife behind him bunched him on the face Lewis Floid Priest of Otteringam did tear William Dewsbuâ—ies hair off his head and struck him as they passed together near Oteringam in much rage and fury Thomas Andrews Priest of Wellingborow laid violent hands on Anne Ellington and drew her to the fire to have caused her to have burned a letter she carried to him and bruised the sinnew of her arm Priest Tho. Shaw of Aldingham beat James Lancaster for speaking to him in private he also beat Miles Falhead and shed his blood Linc. Flecher Priest of Dean in Cum bad the people fight for the Gospel and caused Thomas Stubs to be extreamly beaten Mathew Bakeâ— a great High Priest who said that Adam before he fell had a dark light of nature in him that shewed him sin c. A friend in the truth bid him prove it but he could not his lyes being laid upon him he got up in a great rage and struck F. Ellington As Rob. Chintin was going to a meeting Priest Fortrey asked him why he run after other mens wifes there being a woman or two before going towards the meeting and with many other obscene unclean words rayled at him and beat him with his staff so that for a moneth or more his hanâ— was Iame. Thomas Curtis of reading being in the Steeple-house there asking Priest Web a question was sorely pulled by the hair of the head by the priests adherents The aforesaid Curtis was also abused and smote by the priest of Causham until the Mayor himself came and took him forth of the Steeple-house Priest Feak of Stanethrop beat Christopher Jones of Barnard Castle Priest Jenkins with four men to whom he gave bond to save harmlesse for whatsoever they did who by false warrant seized upon and drove away 100 sheep and other Cattel from Captain John Elliot his shepherds wife owning one sheep and desiring to have it one of this priests men knocked her down and broak her head in two places and for some time she lay for dead continuing deaf unto this day the aforesaid Captain Eliots wife being there also the priest bid one of his men knock her down and kill her and he would bear him out at which command one of them struck her on the breast with a great staff which might have killed her but she having a young child which did suck preserved her but the child sucking the putrified milk took a vomiting and died and this is murther in the sight of God and men And no murtherer nor striker shall inherit the Kingdom THE END
A VVord of Reproof And Advice to my late Fellow-Souldiers and Officers of the English Irish and Scotish Army With some Inrhoad made upon the Hireling and his Mass-house University Orders Degrees Vestments Poperies Heathenism c. With a short Catologue of some of the fighting Priests And for just cause given have given them a blow in one of their eyes pickt out of the whores head which they call A Fountain of Religion but is a sink of iniquity Also a word to those old Creatures who are old in iniquity and in the fallen estate yet deny falling away Likewise a word to those Magistrates and Rulers who whip or suffer to be whipt or imprisoned the Saints of the most High as Vagabonds amongst whom there is no Begger As also a word to that bad Generation of people who in their reprobate minds and with their unwholsome tongues blaspheme and belye the dreadful and just God in saying that he hath created some men intentionally to be damned and a particular number to be saved and damn'd Wherefore then doth the Hireling preach and for what hath he his hire Mark the decrees of God are yea Amen and unalterable A word to these who are called Dukes Marquesses Earls Viscounts Lords Barrons Bannerets Baronets Knights of all sorts Esquires and Gentlemen so called Also let that Generation that desire a signe read some of the Examples that have befallen the Persecutors of the Innocent By a lover of good Men good Laws good Governments and Governours good Judges and Ministers as at the beginning Who hates nor fears no man and is a lover and honourer of all men in the Lord but cannot give flattering Titles or respect the person of any man E. B. LONDON Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate 1659. And I said hear I pray you O heads of Jacob and ye Princes of the house of Israel Is it not for you to know judgement Who hate the good and love the evil who pluck off their skin from off them and their flesh from off their bones Who also eat the flesh of my people and flay their skin from off them and they break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot and as flesh within the cauldron Micah 3. 1 2 3. FRIENDS I Do believe that very many among you are not unsensible of your own unfruitfulnesse and unfaithful dealing to God-ward and I know that ye may not deny but if ye had stood in your former integrity that is to say when ye were little in your own eyes when compassion was no stranger and tendernesse was well known amongst ye then was the hireling and all his Jewish and Popish trumpery sentenced and liberty of conscience vowed I say if ye had stood in that integrity ye might have been instrumental to have saved much of the innocent blood that hath been shed for which I know the Lords hand will be speedily and eminently revealed upon some amongst ye who have connived at cruel murthers when as the blood of the innocent hath been laid before ye as James Parnels in the first place was but since him many others have drank of the same cup even to death And I am sure the Lord will rebuke princes for our sakes and let the most sturdiest oak amongst ye know that the indignation and fierce wrath of the dreadful God is kindled and his righteous judgement is nigh even at the door and a sudain and terrible breach will he make amongst ye at unawares when ye look not for his coming for verily his righteous spirit is grieved at the cruelties that are done although ye hedge your selves up with many spears and think to surround your selves with battleaxes yet the same spirit which ye have many of ye like fools gone about to limit will suddainly break through all your contrivances and a day of mourning will overtake ye although for the present ye are not troubled like other men but suffer the Prophets and messengers of the living God to be slain before your faces yea I know the righteous have perished and none of ye have laid it to heart so as to remedy it and if any of them be moved of the Lord to come among you some of ye have even shamefully and cruelly entreated them madly resisting the holy One in his way but let the most surliest among ye know that the blood of the innocent hath reached heaven and he will not spare ye And now that none of ye from the General to the meanest sentinel may be ignorant what innocent blood I mean It is the blood of such who did believe and declare that Christ is come in the flesh and so durst not uphold a Jewish or Popish priest-hood by paying of them tythes and some for going into a Mass-house and desiring the hireling to fear the Lord and turn from the evil of his wayes or asking a sober question and for not swearing which is the breach of an especial command of Christ who sayes swear not at all many others dragged out of their peaceable meetings without the breach of the least Popish law whatsoever and thrown into dungeons and nasty holes amongst theeves and murtherers other being upon their knees at prayer have been taken up by the hair of the head some thrown into prison without so much as a Mittimus there kept for many moneths others have been stoned knockt down with clubs and stones mangled with swords and run into the body and abundance of such cruelties I might name besides the exceeding great number of our friends that have been whipt as vagabonds and committed to prison for vagabonds and yet be it known to the whole World we have not a begger amongst us One and the same woman hath been committed for not coming and coming to the Steeple-house although she spake not a word to either Priest or people others have been invited by the Magistrates in my hearing to the Steeple-house to have a dispute and yet afterwards was committed to prison but the cause of the innocont which of ye have pleaded or what Justice hath there been done to the poor Nazarenes when any of us have been falsly and contrary to all manner of Law imprisoned for the space of a year more or lesse there is some would have us call it a favour when as for shame they are forced to deliver us When some of the Lambs of God have been brought to the bar the Judge hath asked the plaintiff what he had against the Prisoner he answered he abused me he abused me wherein why said the plaintiff he bid me fear the Lord and this he called an abuse and many such rediculous absurdities I might name that hath been committed by the Anti-christian Romish Clergy and those upon whom that beast rides in these our yet bad-reformed times but I shall wade further into that Sea anon Friends It is not unknown to me the exceeding largeness of your borders in
calls it the Word of God and he must not be contradicted upon pain of six months imprisonment although half his discourse consists of what Ovid Plato Aristole and Diogenes c. did which they call Heathens and yet what he saith in that place must pass for sound doctrine and they call it the Word of God for when he steps into his stall and hath spoken some words which he calls prayer he bids them hearken to the Word of God and there like a Lawyer or a Trumpeter he sells them his The false Prophet steals the word from his Neighbour and boasts in other mens lines own breath and the words of the forementioned heathenish Authors with many more that he hath thieved together stollen from his neighbour which with his title of Master is an infallible mark of the false prophet Yet your divelish law is such that none must speak to him in the time of his false worship his going to or coming from the Mass-house and at â—is own house he will not be seen so that as far as in you lies 〈◊〉 â—â—use the people to perish for want of knowledge but that wâ—â—â—h limits the Holy One must be cut off for he speaks where he will and when he will and by whom he will although it be by the Carpenters Son or Peter a fisher-man who hath no Letters and was no Orthodox man upon your account yet it shall break all your bonds asunder and shatter all your contrivances to dust Why will ye believe a swearing Priest that desperately and wickedly breaks the absolute command of Christ and teacheth others so to do Christ says Swear not at all mark not at all What not a Judicial oath before a Magistrate being called thereunto by the Authority of the Nation Nay Swear not at all neither by Heaven nor by Earth nor by any other Oath Judicial or whatsoever thus said the great Prophet the Everlasting Priest the Son of God the Saviour of the World and it very shortly comes to passe that he that will not hear him shall be cut off from amongst the people and no swearer or liar can possible enter the Kingdom and he that will swear will lie and the liar is for the lake and shall have his portion without with dogs witches and sorcerers Paul who was a Minister of Christ he exhorted the people saying so walk as ye have me or us for an example I leave it to all that have any sobernesse and have not made a bargane with Hell and Death if it be in the least safe for us to walke as we have the hireling for our example that will swear and teach others to swear and say its lawful and strike with his fist and knock men down and imprisons men to death for their bellies as many of the Goals in England can witnesse proud covetous heady and high-minded undeniable they are and are these men to be learnt of surely nay with my very life I deny them to be of God or Christ who saies Learn of me for I am meek and lowly and He nor none of his Ministers did ever imprison any stock whip or murder any but their own backs they willingly gave to the smiter and their cheeks to have the hair pluckt off and were accounted as the off-scouring of the earth their names cast out as evil doers and were shamefully intreated persecuted and killed as false yet true and were called pestilent fellows subverters of the Law and turners of the World up-side down ring-leaders of Sects c. So suffers the servants of the living God at this day and as they have done unto me so will they do unto ye saith Christ The servant is not greater then his Lord and he that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution And all this was done to them of old as is to us at this day even by the same Generation of high-priests high in profession and spoke as big swelling words and made as much ado about their New Moons Sabbath-dayes Tithes Temple Circumcision Bull Goat Ram and heifer all which were but a shadow of good things to come as the Priests of England do about their Masse-house Gleab-land Tithe-sheaf Lamb Calfe Wooll Goose Pig Mortuary Peter-pence Bread Wine and Baby-baptism but as they did these do now hate the Light but it was and is because their deeds were and these are evil and did as these do now deney to hear the prophet in all things and it came to passe that they were cut off and these inevitably shall be And my dear friends if ye share with their iniquities ye shall partake with their plagues search your selves and consider with that of God in your consciences for there truth will speak And see if many amongst ye are not run and running headlong into the unbelieving state seeking honour one of another ones a Knight and another is a Lord and another angry because he is not a Lord but amongst ye all the heritage of the Lord God is neglected Which amongst ye that most of all quarrels for these bubbles that hath not said it would never be a good World so long as there was a Lord in England and likewise swore against a house of Lords and yet love and retain the name the nature and the same thing Oh! deny your selves of these nothings and take up the crosse which will crosse nothing but your lusts and see if it be possible for ye to be re-discipled once again for verily at the present ye are not so much as in the way to please God Was there any of this stuff amongst ye some years since remember your selves have ye paid your â—ows and kept your integrity the lying lips and the deceitful tongue the Lord hates and think ye the Lord will not visit for these things ☞ Yea His dread and terrour will fall amongst ye shortly if not suddainly and although ye may hate to be reformed and laugh me to scorn or persecute me to death yet it s the truth of the living God to every individual amongst ye there was once a praying spirit amongst ye that would have said Lord honour us with successe and victory and we will honour thee with doing of justice and relieving the oppressed and liberberty of conscience was promised with hands lifted up with tears in your eyes erected to heaven-ward with many a true sigh and groan which could not be uttered and if ye did not promise to the Lord before the battel at Dunbar that that grand Idol and oppression of Tythes should be taken off if the Lord delivered ye that day then say I am a lyar The Lord hath performed but ye have failed and instead of giving all power all glory and all honour to God ye honour one another with blaspemous titles the hireling being your example who write to one another at this day by the name of reverend Brother reverend Sir and reverend Master which is blasphemy for reverend is the
name of him and onely him that made heaven and earth may it please youâ— worship may it please your Lordship may it please your honour c. Now if all honour mind the word all which will not admit of the word some to be joyned with it in that place doth belong to God alone as I am sure it doth there is not the least of Room for your fond appellations which ye give and receive one of another How can ye believe that receives honour one of another Oh! Let Moab come down before she be compelled to serve and the Lord stain all your honours in one day for I am sure some of ye he will overtake with speed and their memories shall rot but the name of the just shall live for ever therefore let every soul of ye be subject to the higher powers which is higher and above the transgressor and see if yet there be any remorse in ye towards your poor brethren who as I said before are languishing in nasty holes and several dead most of them dead and alive being such who have freely offered up their lives with ye in the actual service for the Common-wealth in the heat of It is the same man that was called Round head that is called Quaker therefore let all that are in authority be ashamed to see us thus dealt with the day and I am sure we have not forfeited our right in the least or purchased your indignation by either plots or rebellion against ye although ye have sufficiently provoked us by suffering far more to be laid upon us then as we are men could be borne and me thinks our peaceable patient and innocent carriage cannot but smite ye to the very heart I am sure it hath reached Heaven and if ye were not in the deepest slumber even the sleep of death ye would not lame your selves to uphold the interest of a company of gormandizing Priests who creep into the Mass-house and there speak a devination of their own brain or make a plot in the week days and there discover it and bid others keep holy upon that day upon which they keep market and tell the people if they do not pay their Tythes they rob God and it may be threateneth those that are behind to sue them or send them to prison forth-with so that upon that day which he exhorts others to keep holy he doth all manner of work that tends to his quarterly gain Can that be the Ministry of Christ that murthers men for their bellies Nay it is impossible for the Ministers of Christ laboured with their own hands and took by violence from no man neither were they so much as burthensome to any much lesse stocked caused to be whipped imprisoned or smote with their hands but with them laboured and knocked down no man nor imprisoned any man to death for their bellyes but in this some of these at this day do glory And yet if any be moved of the Lord to tell any one of these cruel men that their glory is their shame or their belly is their God it s much if some Priest-ridden Justice or another do not send him to the Goal for it I shall also shew ye the rope of sand wherein many of these Priests have been wrapt Henry the 8. was a Papist the same Henry the 8 was a Protestant and called himself Defender of the Faith Edward the 6 a Protestant Queen Mary a Papist Queen Elizabeth a Protestant again King James was both for and against Bishops King Charles he was called a Church-Papist yet loved Bishops and Book of Common Prayer so well that an open war was declared against him which hath cost an innumerable quantity of blood and treasure he and his Bishops extirpated swore vowed and declared against and others have taken possession yet I shall seal it with my blood That there is 1200 Priests in England that are as bad as those 12 Bishops were so that at the best we are but where we were after all this fighting killing and being killed pulling down and setting up and all men may plainly see that have not done away reason and sold themselves to the spirit of prejudce that the best of their religion is but till further order and the change of a King or the change of a Queen or the alteration of a goverment puts them out of order and to seek for their religion tell they have received further order from man or at least till they have studied what religion the King or Chief Ruler adheres to and there they will seemingly imitate There they were and there they are tell further order and the best of their Religion will reach no further but tell further order See what the Ploughman in his complaint saith of these wicked men in the Reign of K. Edward the third here followeth somewhat subtracted forth of his complaint the thing being too large to insert verbatim AH Lord though that the Plowman may not have so much silver for their prayers as other men for See the plowmans complaint in K. Ed. thirds time Foxes Acts and Monuments Vol. 1. p. 524. they know not so well to prize their prayers as these other chapmen But Lord our hope is our prayers be never the worse though they be not so well sold as other mens prayers They turn thy words into songs and tales and so men do now they sing thy words merrily and that singing they call thy service but Lord I trow the best singers thou hearest not most but he that fulfilleth thy words he thou heareth full well though he weep more then sing and I trow that weeping for breaking of thy commandements be more pleasing to thee then singing of thy words and forsaking of travel which God commands and give their selves to idleness that is the mother of all naughtinesse Lord Mary thy blessed Mother and Joseph touched often times thy body and yet wrought with their hands and lived in as much cleannesse of soul as our Priests do now But Lord men make now great stonen houses full of glassen windows and calleth them thine houses and Churches but thou saist those that did worship in such had been worthy of death Lord in thy Gospel thou sayest that true worshipers of God worship him not in the Hill beside Samaria nor in Jerusalem neither but true worshippers of God worship him in spirit and in truth And Lord God what a worship is this to build thee a Church of dead stones and rob thy quick Churches of their bodily livelyhood to cloath stocks and stone with See pulpit cloaths and many guilded coats painted windows with pictures of many a monstrous beast silver and gold and other good colours and I see thine own images go in cold and in heat in cloathing all to broken without shoon hosen and hungred and athirst feeding themselves and not thy flock hiding Thee that art our light and those that were fed they slew and
respect unto your fasts saith the Lord Mark if ye regard iniquity in your hearts or feed oppression or suffer the witch or prisoner in your own particulars in and amongst you to live I will not hear your prayers saith the Lord nay the Lord loves and hears the prayers of such as pay their vowes and keep their integrity and tremble at his word â—nd the broken and the contrite spirit and the upright hearted the Lord delights in and those that walk humbly with their God and are not exalted above what is called God because of this worlds preferment I say with the single-hearted and such who dispise not the day of small things who speaks the truth to and of their neighbour and do to all men as they would they should do to them Such he delights to dwell with but the lying lips and the deceitful tongue God hates the prayers fasting fond humility and hanging down the head for a day like a bul-rush are all abomination before the just and holy God and whilest ye regard iniquity and have respect to the workers thereof the Lord hath no regard to your set dayes services and preteâ—ded humiliations I say whilst ye regard iniquity and live in uncleannesse and pride of life ye are but mockers of the righteous God who will not be mocked by ye for his eyes are pure and cannot behold the beholders and upholders of oppression Oh my friends how can ye pray talk of God conscience and liberty of conscience whilest ye suffer your poor brethren to be tormented and afflicted with cursed laws made in the reprobate will of a dark Pope and do ye not augment fuel to his fire and call it liberty of conscience Is not his 3 months imprisonment made six I believe that if it should have been said to many of ye within this ten years that these cruelties should have been acted inflicted and tollerated to be acted and inflicted upon the innocent by a law and true liberty of conscience infringed and wholly struck at whilest some of ye had breath I do believe that ye would have answered as one man as the King did the Prophet Dost thou think thy servants are dogs that these things shall come to passe in our dayes But many were deceived in ye and so was I and in the end ye will deceive your own precious and immortal souls And the Priests for whom ye have thus haâ—arded and made your selves enemies to God and good men are most exquisite and absolute enemies to your selves Magistrates Government and Governours longer then they please them and boast of their Diana and for plotters and plot-contrivers disturbers of governments sowers of seditions and causing other men to be seditious they are at this time and have been of old the very pests of this Nation and he that is or shall be acquainted with the History of England cannot but witness with me against them But that they are so fresh in most mens memories I could name some of their late Tragedies for which some few of them have felt the hand of Justice but thus much I know is well known to most men that those whom they blesse the people bless and whom they curse the people curse also this may be taken notice of that they never did nor do adhere to the Rulers but when they would have their own turnes served or are necessitated or their false wayes and worship in Jeopardy by the people of the Lord making some in-rode or other upon their deceit at other times it 's I and my King and I l'e be rul'd if hee 'l be rul'd by me and if the Rulers should but deny them their end for which they onely flatter them and others I say it 's well if they do not teach the people to rebel and say to kill them is no murther and themselves have a hand in it and if the Rulers should but demand one or two years revenue of these men throughout the Nation of that which indeed is none of their's and they say themselves tythes is the chief Magistrates and he may do what he will with them or sell but their Mass-houses with the jangling Bells although it were to carry on a war with Rome against the very Pope himself I say it is well if they did not thereby take occasion to prepare and hatch a War at home and curse the Magistrates bitterly and do what in them lyeth to poyson the people and disaffect them to the present Goverment notwithstanding at present they cry a loud for and to it but it is for their augmentations and blesse it but it is with the same mouths they 'l curse it if crost and do it as much harm as now they do it good in praying for it which is none at all Oh Friends Why will ye joyn your selves to that unprofitable harlot who ye long since know was deviated and utterly whored from all that is truth and I do believe it is fully known to many among ye they that are gone out of the way altogether become unprofitable I know none of them that doth good no not one for the most part their throats are an open Sepulchre and the poyson of Asps is under their lips and Gods fear is not before their eyes the best of them is but as a bryar and the most upright is sharper then a thorn hedge Micah 7. 4. For out of the evil thoughts of their â—ee Tiâ—us I. â—hap 7. to â—he end hearts proceeds persecution murtherers and blasphemies and unto them in their unbelieving state and damnable doctrine of imperfection nothing is nor indeed can be pure but even their mindes and consciences is wholly defiled and although they may professe to know God in their practises they absolutely deny him for in preaching up sin tearm of life which is the Devils kingdom they are abominable â—auâ—s Ep. â—o the Laoâ—iceans v. â— 9. and unto every good work reprobate they are hurters and doers of violence to good sober and temperate men iâ— they put not into their mouths self-willed soon angry strikers and given to filthy lucre they are they are high-minded and John 5. 19. Read Rev. 20. Rev. 13. 15. unruly vain talkers and deceivers whose mouths must be stopped and turned away from although they have subverted whole houses and Nations teaching things that are utterly false for filthy lucres sake and such are lyars evil beasts and slow-bellies and this witness is true wherefore let them be rebuked and their moâ—ths stopped For with the whole World they do lie in wickedness and the number that Satan hath deceived by them is as the sand of the Sea and they have had power to kill the Saints that would not worship the image of the beast and hath caused all both small and great rich and poor bond and free to receive a mark in their right hand or in their fore-heads And none could buy or sell save he that had the mark or the
is none of them will stand for it When any benefice falls to any private Colledge in the University it is proffered by the Rector or his Deputy at the meeting of the Fellows or else at dinner or supper to the Fellows according to their seniority and they presently ask what it is worth a year which if it be two hundred pound or thereabouts per annum the Senior most commonly accepts of it If but four score pound a year or very far off from his Friends or in a factious place as they call it amongst Anabaptists Quakers Army Independants or the like then they accept not of it but say send it down and so when none of the fatlings in the Colledge accepts of it some serviture or other whose friends or allowance cannot maintain him longer in the University is necessitated to accept of it and hence it is a common Observation that they that have good Friends or good fellowships seldome go out into the Countrey unless he get a very fat benefice They who intend to get a personage learn to write short hand to furnish themselves with Sermons go to hear all that preach buy good store of practical Divines conform themselves in their habit sit in a place in the Mass-house where they are sure to be seen by the great ones which by way of jear some amongst them call being of the Visable Church and all this they do to get the Doctors hands to their certificate without which they cannot pass the Commissioners but I never read of any but the Pope and his off-spring here in England that did so much as pretend to know God that used any of these practises to make their Ministers but these are of man and by man and not of the Lord Jesus and they infallibly run when he never sends them and as themselves are so are their converts for at the best they can but beget their own image which may plainly be seen to be the very quintensence of the mystery of iniquity They who desire rather to be chaplains to great persons and Ladies learn to dance and sing and do their honours hamsomly study polite and humane learning the better to please their Masters with fine words and elegant expressions and these things they presume will make them acceptable and these are not called by them plain Priests but Gentlemen of Divinity At the Act and Commencement most of the book-sellers in town writes upon a great piece of boord a catologue of the In London the Priests works are stuck upon the posts and pissing places the Reverend D. W. works And next to it sticks a paper intimating where is a stage play interlude or opera under it the works of Mr. such a ones direction for prayer or preaching with such ribaldry c. and on the side hand of that sticks the paper of a wide-mouth'd Montebanck who saies hee 'l cure all the World of all diseases but he deceives and kills more then he cures as doth the Priest who murthers for his belly names and titles of all such Sermons preached at Funerals on thanksgiving dayes fast dayes and the like occasions also all tracts treatises meditations controversies translations out of other Authors also all Catechisms and the like which have been lately published imprinted or reprinted which the Country Priests buy off and carry home so that thereby they may be prepared and ready to preach almost upon any subject or occasion in a short times warning three or four years after Nay are not there some Countrey Priests who allow stipends to their Friends in the City who write short hand to take such mens Sermons who are counted best preachers and every week to send them down by the post or Carrier into the Country against the next first day Let every Priest exaamine his conscience for this hath been practised in some places It was used not long since in the Mass-house which is called Saint Maries for him that preached to say in his prayer good Lord blesse the right honourable the Chancellour the revered the Vice-chancellors all the Doctors both the proctors c. and this was done to the Vice-chancellors face for he is not to be absent but this prophane custome the Independents did nibble at about a year or two since by which some of the most Popish did begin to imitate but whether it be left or at this day practised I cannot Justly tell At the Act on the day called Hen. 8 as soon as he had renounced the Pope took to himself the Priests first fruits which before were payable as an offering to the Pope From Whence all the Kings Queens and chief Magistrates have and do at this day assume the same And the office where these first-fruits are received and by the Priest at this day paid or offered is kept in a house belonging to the Palace in Westminster called by the name of Hell I say in Hell the hirelings offer their first popish fruits But from the eternal Hell there is no redemption Therefore beware offerer and receiver for that offering was and is Popish and Hellish Saturnday a prophane fellow whom they call a Terrae filius makes a prophane Atheistique obcoene filthy speech in the Mass-house where the next day the Drs. preach and the day after again another Terrae filius comes up and does like his predecessor and this is the fruit of them called Ministers And although this cursed practise is constantly performed with as much filthinesse as it is possible any one thing can be of that nature yet the University will not consent to lay it away so that the next year the same abominations are like to be committed Whereas reading of Homilies which were the Sermons of the Fathers translated into English was cried out against in King James and Charles's reign by the then called Puritanes Now they write the same out in paper which is cut according to the bignesse of their Bible and put into the midst of their book and this they read to the people and is called the Ministers notes or expounding All the Colledges in Oxford except two or three at most keep up their painted windows and * Martial Bristol Breviaâ—orbi in his Apologetical History Bertius and others have seemed to justifie the Romish Church by saying that it was an evident sign that the rulers of England did in their consciences like the Romish Religion because they liked and maintained their pictures and ceremonies wainscot with the pictures of the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Martyrs so that it is said by Travellers they are not inferiour to them in the Jesuites Chapel in Antwerp And although in some colledges a piece of a window was taken down yet in most Colledges they are not touched under pretence it would be very chargeable to put up new glasse and that now none did reverence them c. Besides I doâ— believe thay cannot space so much of their pride and out of
those which were not the Priests of England may yet go to Carthage or the Pope the Priests Original to know the truth but I believe that neither councel of Carthage Pope of Rome or assembly of Priests in England with the help of their two Universities which are their two eyes picked out of the Whores head can interpret Scripture aright but for the most part are and have been doers of wrong and that knowes not the Scriptures nor that which gave them forth Therefore Countrey-men consider these men wise men believe them not for as sure as the Lord lives they are a lye Princes be not deceived by them least ye perish in the gainsaying with them Men of War once again draw out your spiritual weapons and defend your selves and rid your hands of that Popish Jewish and Anti-christian power which in this the Lords day could not stand but by your consents Some of ye had bread in your own houses and have ye spent all your former estates and quite lost your possession and will ye spend-thrifts go to buy of a Bankrupt Priest the fag-ends of Popery such as preach in Mass-houses and compass the whole earth for their gain from their quarters Oh! believe them not their best deeds are Forgery their assureances are naught their words are cancelled the Law giver hath viewed their filthy statutes the mighty-Councellor hath broke their bonds asunder their best seals is but a waffer and what they sell is stollen from their Neighbour and their gatherings are crumbling and molders like the very dust which is their meat anâ— there they are and for that they murther Friends I know you see the thief Oh! Consent not with him if ye do ye perish I say there was that among ye and in ye once that was for God utterly against the Popish brawling Hireling verily that which is for him in this the day of the Lambs persecution is absolutely against the true and living God who covered your heads in the day of battel When I am sure it was not unknown to many of ye that the Tithe-mongers were as one man your implacable enemies My dear Friends whom the Lord witnesseth I love and my soul truly travelleth for Consider what ye were ten years since and what yeare now feel in your selves and speak with the witness of God in your Consciences for that 's it which I speak to and let us be upon a search in the cool of the day laying aside rage fury and preferment and see who they are and what they are that ye are growing to and who grows to ye and who grows from ye The people of God ye have shamefully persecuted and thrust out of your Army recruiting yourselves in my knowledge in their rooms with very vitious and wicked men and doth the Hireling tell ye that this is a good way to prevent Heresies factions and rents in your Army Repent of these dealings least the Lord forthwith rent ye all to pieces and there be not one of ye left that hath a hand in these wickednesses to piâ—h against the Wall Therefore my Friends in time consider what ye are growing to and what ye are growing from thus much I may justly tell ye that vice is not punished or in the least looked after as it hath been heretofore Nor indeed is it like when as ye put honest men from among ye for no other cause but for bearing their Testimonies against vice for the breach of any manner of Law whatsover either military or civil was not so much as laid to mine and many others charges who were most shamefully entreated and thrust out from among ye And I may farther tell ye if ye proceed in these cruelties ye will in a very short time be as unfit to fight the Lords battels as those were who fell by your sword for from the Lord God I declare it unto ye all That for the present the sword of the living God is against ye both and although the Hireling may I say seemingly forâ—ifie ye and tell ye that persecution is a good way to preserve from rents Yet in dear love to ye all I declare that if ye do not speedily repent whilst the power is in your hands and once again become little in your own eyes and repair the cruel breaches that ye have made and suffered to be made upon the innocent Verily ye shall be rent and with the Hireling fall and perish like your own dung How can this Army look the Nation in the face and put men out from among them for their inoffensive conscience the very thing which drew all men to ye and have ye like Machevillians served your own turns and have ye nothing else to do but to revenge your selves upon your selves and make a prey upon your brethren but such doings the Lord hates and it cannot possibly long stand for oppression is one of the woâ—st foundations that ever was laid and if ye had been faithful the wicked Priest had never been suffered to have murthered any for his belly or have destroyed any man for not paying Jewish or Popish Tithes and the blood of one innocent man is able to subvert a Government and overthrow a Nation but that evil should fall upon one of ye is far from my heart although your cruel and unjust dealings to meward and many of us hath given cause enough for us to have cursed ye in the bitternesse of our spirits Yet the Lord who knows the secrets of all mens hearts bears me witnesse I do not onely freely forgive ye but have a dear and unexpressibly love to every soul among ye and as for O. P. the Lord witneseth for me with what integrity and simplicity of soul I loved him above any man upon the face of the whole earth whilest he served the Lord and stood in his councel and to this minute I have done him no ill Now therefore be wise O ye Kings and be instructed ye Judges of the earth seek ye the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling kiss the Son least he be angry ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him let not the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thought although the Kings of the earth may set themselves and the Rulers take councel together against the Lord and against his annointed saying let us break their bonds assunder and cast away their cords from us but he that siteth in Heaven shall laugh and the Lord shall have them in derision then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure And friends the truth is now declared as it was of old by the stammering tongue and it is the illiterate that have the gift of tongues and though his visage be marred and his shape uncomely to the vultrous eye yet the deaf hear him the dumb sing and the lame leap for joy and that
which was and hath for a long time been slain is made alive and the mighty God of the oppressed is arisen in great strength so as he will slay all that live in pleasure fulness and wantonness and very many shall the slain of the Lord be and those who refuse to hear the Prophet in all things shall be cut off and terrible will our God be to all the workers of iniquity for assuredly the wicked and all those that forget God shall be turned into Hell And I looked and lo a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion and with him â—n hundred forty and four thousand having his Fathers Name written in their fore-heads and they sung as it were a new song before the Throne and before the four beasts and the Elders and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty four thousand Which were Redeemed from the earth These are they which were not defiled with women for they are Virgins These are they which follow the Lamb whethersoever he goeth These were Redeemed from among men being the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in them there was found no guile for they are without fault before the Throne of God And I saw another Angel flie in the midst of Heaven having the Everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the Earth and to every Nation and Kindred and Tongue and people saying with a loud voice Fear God and give Glory to Him for the hour of his Judgment is come worship Him that made Heaven and Earth the Sea and the Fountains of waters And there followed another Angel saying Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City because she made all Nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her Fornication And the third Angel followed them saying with a loud voice If any man worship the Beast and his Image and receive his mark in his fore-head or in his hand The same shall drink the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shaâ—l be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they shall have no rest day nor night who worship the Beast and his Image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name And I heard the Angel of the waters say Thou art Righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast Judged thus For they have shed the blood of the Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy And I heard another out of the Altar say Even so Lord God Almighty true and Righteous are thy Judgements for they are the spirits of Devils working miracles which go forth unto the Kings of the earth and of the whole World to gather them to the battel of the great day of God Almighty And I saw as it were a Sea of glass mingled with fire and them that had gotten the Victory over the Beast and over his Image and over his mark and over the number of his names stand on the Sea of glass having the harps of God and they sung the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty Just and True are thy wayes thou King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and give glory to thy Name For thou only art Holy for all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy Judgements are made manifest Even so be it Amen Come Lord Rev. 14. 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Rev. 16. 5 6 7. and 14. Rev 15. 2 3. Given forth in the 4th Month 16â—8 By E B. THE END A VVORD To those old Creatures who are old in iniquity and in the fallen state yet deny falling away who say once in Christ and ever in Christ when as it may be they are at the very same time in a very great rage disputing and pleading for sin Term-of-life I Say to such unprofitable talkers who are willing and by their own consent do contract with Hell and Death who stretch themselves forth in big swelling words and think themselves it may be much better because they are crowded into gathered Churches as they call them and it may be of a truth can say something of an antient and past experience moving or appearance of God to and in them whereupon their big word and wide-mouthed-boast is when the poor Souls or rather proud Pharisees are at the very top of their vaunting to wit once in Christ and ever in Christ such I many times am moved ask Whether they are obeying the Command doing the Work Will of Christ at this time now and ever Mark Once in Christ and ever in Christ and I am sure he that for ever abides in Christ must now and ever do the Will and Commands of Christ and they are not grievous nor unholy neither can that man which is impure imperfect or unholy observe obey or do them in the love and belief of them and He now and ever Redeems and saves his people from their sins note that for he which sinneth is of the â—evil Yea though he be but proud and covetous and as full of persecution as too too many professors are which is of the old creature and such are not new creatures nor in Christ Jesus now and ever neither are they purified as he is pure who is the substance the one onely one thing needful who is the beginning and end of all things himself without beginning or end who is not afar of but nigh at hand and a ready helper unto all them who fear him whâ— is the root oâ— â—esse the Promise come the Truth the Oath and admits not of any swearing whatsoever that 's his Command and it is not grievous for his yoke is easie and his burthen is light in and by whom I see light who sayes Swear not at all And he doth not reap where he hath not first sowen For he doth enlighten every man that cometh into the World Male and Female Bond and Free Scythian and Barbarian and a measure of himself is given to every man continually to profit with all note to every man He was not so selfish as many of ye are who are in this and that and the other form I do not say all who do seclude alâ— that are not with ye in your set dayes bread wine and Baby Baptism out of the Everlasting Kingdom which was before your fables were But he that is in Christ iâ— a new creature Mark he is he doth not say he was or he shall be and so warm himself by his own coals by onely saying the Righâ—eousness of Chriâ—t the Righteousness of Christ is sufficient But I say he which confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy Mark that
and forsaketh his sins coming to see the excâ—eding sinfulness of â—â—n and confesseth and forsaketh with repentance never to be repented of That is it which is ever in Christ and shall find mercy and as many as are led by the Spirit of God are now and ever the sons of God Such are new Creatures and onely they So he who is proud heady high minded covetous envious voluptious seditious a râ—â—ler brawler striker lyar persecutor c. is not in but out of Christ Jesus is no new creature is not led by the Spirit of God For that which is in of Christ Jesus is equal doth not hurt the creature the handy work of God the Creator but strikes at the power which captivates the creature and turns men from darkness to light and from the power of Sathan to the Power of God and that weapon which convinceth and coverts men and women in any measure to God-ward is not carnal but Spiritual but the outward sword in its place I own which only is to be laid upon the evil-doer let it be exactly done but to touch no man for his Conscience or principle in Religion provided it be not bloody so let the bloody hearted Priest look into himself who murthers men for his belly How much better is that then the Romish Jesuit who kills a Protestant for a Heritck and I am sure those who do so are not in Christ Jesus nor new creatures nor in the Spiriâ— but of the flesh of old Cain and in the condemnation For the Son came not to destroy but to save mens lives And he and his Ministers struck at at this day do strike at the power only which captivates the creature to wit the spiritual wickedness which lodgeth within Which the carnal weapon cannot reach and they struck onely at the Herisie and the errour and that which lead into the errour and Heresie and not at the creature neither strove they with flesh and blood nor for earthly benefit Nay they were full of patience gentleness long-suffering forbearing forgiving all and suffered all things Yea themselves to be defrauded and laboured with their own hands and were burthensom to no man But there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus note that are in him and who are in him Those that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit for those who walk after the flesh cannot please God and to be but so so much as carnally minded is death and the death is not in the Life which Life is the Light of men But some there were who did taste of the power of an endless life yet fell away and some there were who were grafted into the Vine and yet became degenerate plants and the the righteous man may forsake his righteousness for some were washed others cleansed or emptied and yet returned like the sow to the mire and the dog to the vomit so that it is plain that a man may fall away as Lucifer did and to the same place for although they once knew God and have tasted indeed of the power of God the endless Life yet if they turn that grace of God into wantonness oppression pride and excess live above the witness of God which is a forgetting of God they shall with the wicked at last be turned into Hell Then it will not be a saying Once in Christ and ever in Christ but dying in pride oppression persecution and covetousness which is the root of all evil I say to such Once in Hell and ever iâ— Hell Therefore on this side time and the grave whilst ye have time prize it for the time present is all that is yours and the dayes past ye cannot recal and who knows what one day may bring to pass Wherefore in the fear of the Lord lay aside your empty drowzy and onely professing his Name and being in him whose Life ye are out of And turn into him the Light the Life who doth enlighten every man that comeeth into the World and that Life and no other is the Light of men him it is by whom the World was made before it was made which is which was and is to come and is already come who is the Word of God the Original and first born of every creature the Everlasting Gospel which hath been preached to every creature who shews reproves checks in secret for all your evil deeds done openly and secretly and is as secret as your most beloved secrets Oh! wait upon him and believe in him for he that knows obeys and abides in the Life is a cohire and hath Life and shall live for ever but if ye know him and obey him not he is your condemnation wherefore let him that knows the Lord fear him stand in awe and sin not And that is once in Christ and ever in Christ. So blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find doing his Will he shall make him Ruler over all his goods but if that evil servant shall say in his heart My Lord deferreth his coming and in the mean space be a companion with drunkards the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with hypocrites where there is weeping wailing and knashing of teeth Therefore watch continually and pray without ceasing for you know not what hour the Lord cometh and he that is not upon his guard will be taken and made a perpetual prisoner But it may be alledged and to me it hath been by the highest professor that I yet ever met with either preacher or heaâ—er hath affirmed it come as his doctrine and belief that the beâ—t of men Saints do will sin and have their failings whilest they are in the body the best of men that ever were had their failings to their dying day to which I pâ—ssitively answer that which is in the least faileable cannot be sanctified for that which sanctifieth is infallible and it is impossible that sin and fallibility can be joyned to or with him who is infallible and hath not union with any manner of sin though but a sinful thought for all manner of sin is evil and cometh of evil and is of the evil one who is as faileable as the faileable accursed doctrine of imperfection and it as him for he is in it and it in him and he is the onely Minister and Father of it but every gift of God is perfect So that imperfection is the Devils gift but every good and perfect gift cometh from and is of God Mark but imperfections sin and failings and all that fails whatsoever though but an evil thought commeth from and is of the imperfect and faileable Divel who abode not in the infallibility Wherefore he fails to be sâ—ved but is a Divel although he believe and they are but poor or rather
no Saints that are not cleansed purged washed and sanctified throughout ye are cleansed ye are washed ye are sanctified throughout and as he is so are we in this present World and he that fails to witness this condition on this side the grave though he may be covinced of the very truth it self he may be called but never chosen Friends it is a high state yea the very highest on this side the grave I do not say its impossible not to faile and alone to live move and do all to and for the praise and glory of God and to live and abide in the infallible and not to fail but as the Lords witnesse I declare it He who lives and dies in his sins imperfections and failings doth fail and falls short of that Kingdom where the imperfect or impure cannot enter for its the pure in heart that sees God but the wicked he beholds a far off and the sinner cannot stand before the righteous God in judgement wherefore as many as be perfectly minded work out your salvation with fear and trembling for the night cometh wherein no man can work And there is another sort of idle people who say Christ hath taken away the guilt of sin but not the presents of sin Oh! seared conscience that hath no guilt for sin I do not say he hath taken the Devil out of Hell or Jâ—das from his own place neither do I say or think the Devil doth at this day cease to seek whom he may devour Nay I know he is the Prince of the power of the air and the Kingdom of darkness is his Sodom is his throne and Egypt and the dwellers there are altogether within his Dominion Mystery-Babylon her Merchants are his own all the children of disobedience to all who live in the mistery of iniquity he is a Law-maker also I say he is a roaring Lion and continually seeketh whom he may devour and the most upright that is or ever was upon the earth he may tempt yea Christ himself as the words of the Divel recorded in Scripture do testifie but it s no sin to be tempted but the sin is to yeeld to and do the will of the temptor and commit the sin but blessed are they who stand in the power and fear of the Lord and endure the temptation Adam was never accursed until he had yeelded taken and eaten so its sin acted and the purpose of your corrupt hearts to sin if not grose yet little sins and at least to have your failings tearm of life and that 's it which hinders the union keeps ye in the unbelief and separates betwixt ye and your maker and the wages of sâ—n is death and such as ye sow such shall ye reap and if with the hands which are defiled and not in the pure hope which is perfect ye plow and sow corruption What can ye expect to reap or be in the harvest or day of the Lord when he makes up his jewels but tares corruption or reprobate silver and of failings and imperfection ye can reap no other thing for according to your faith so will it be unto ye and failings will fail to be saved or enter into the rest of him that is unfallible and without fail saves all those that come unto him by faith and a good conscience void of offence towards God and man mark a good conscience towards God and void of offence towards man not striking spilling of blood or reaping caâ—nals where they have sowâ— neither spiritual nor carnal And although imperfection is the practice and general preached and received doctrine of the Church of England so called I utterly deny it neither do I trust to be saved as they believe but I believe they will take it ill if I should say they who believe thâ—y may live and die in some failings should not go to Heaven or if I should say that is the Hypocrites hope and will fail But I do say if they say its the true hope or living faith which is of God in by which the Just lives or if that he which lives and intends to die in some failings sayes the Lord lives with Jeremiah I say he or they swear falsly But if we continue faithful or full of faith in our measures to the end we shall be saved without fail for he that is in us is greater then he that is in the World and he that abides in him is pure without failings and the wicked one cannot touch him though he may attempt it hourly for a stronger then he keeps the house and he cannot enter but by our consents otherwise the whole creation of mankind would be the Divels for he is the enemy of mankind and his nature is to devour but the true light which doth enlighten every man that cometh into the World and the lighâ— with which every man is enlightened comprehends the darknesse but the Divel and darknesse cannot comprehend the light for he that is in us is far greater then he and is quick and powerful and divides betwixt the pretious thoughts and the vile before they come to actions I say if the watch be kept and the light believed in which is in ye infallibly is the lâ—fe of men and shewes man all his sins and failings I say it will discern the thoughts and dash the brains of Babylons children against the wall Yea that brain which invents and deviseth evil and break the cockatrice egg before it is an egg and mischief shall not be hatched or prodâ—cted and the same is the sure word of prophesie which if ye take heed unto ye may infallibly do well though it be as a light shining in a dark place tell the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts for which wait that ye may be delivered from all your sins and failings and become the Sons of God For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin 1 Pet. 4. 1. Therefore let the time pâ—st be si ficient for the end of all things is at hand and to be carnally minded is death And if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his and if Christ be in ye the bodâ—â—s dead because of sin By a Friend to perfection and a believer in that unfallible Jesus who saves his pâ—ople from their sins failings and imperfections but a professed enemy to that Hellish doctrine of imperfection E. B. THE END A VVORD To such Rulers and Magistrates who Whip cause or suffer to be whipped the Saints of the most High for Vagabonds among whom there are no Beggers and sends them to Prison for not Swearing and not taking an Oath to abjure that which themselves may be found in and requires Bonds of the upright in heart for the good behaviour a thing which themselves are not truly in for that is no good
behaviour that oppresseth the oppressed and doth violence to the afflicted adds grief to him that is a man of sorrows and grindes him to dust that is by all men already trodden upon as the very mire in the streets mocks and derides him that is already the by-word of the Fool and song of the Drunkard and imprisons him who is the Lord's Feee-man and in the Lord are we made Free and more then Conquerours over what its possible for cruel men to do or suffer to be done unto Vs To such I say IN stead of executing and making just Lawes which should reach that of God in every mans conscience and be a hook in the nose of the evil doer and break the jawes of the wicked I say in stead of that ye break the hearts of the righteous many of ye by exercising onely your own wills others by straining the too many grievous acts and cruel Edicts lately made by vertue whereof together with your insolency and tyranical wills ye snatch up the people of God as they travel up and down about their lawful occasions and this is common with some of ye to do when the man is not above ten fifteen or twenty miles from his outward home nor out of the same County wherein he or they were born going to coming from or being in a meeting with the Lords people The inferiour Magistrate who for the most part are made drunk with rage and the zeal-drunk Prosolytes who lie in wait as a Troop of evil-doers in every corner hales the friend of the Lord before that Magistrate and if he be good for no other thing he 'l serve to swear and to bear false witness for the Beast and against the innocent and to cause him to be whipped for a Vagabond and committed to a bad prison among thieves and murtherers under whose commitment and cruel usages several of the precious Lambs and servants of the Lord have laid down the outward man and finished their testimony with their blood But let all such Magistrates know from the highest to the lowest that blood will persue the vagabond and let all such swearers know that the curse of God is entailed upon the hâ—use of the swearer and let all the heathen round about know that he which whips stocks prisons tortures the creature for his religion shall never turn any from darkness to light nor from the power of Satan to the power of God although he may mangle and kill the creature and wholly mar the workmanship of the Creator But the true weapon which converts is not a carnal whip but a spiritual sword which will slay the persecutor and eats up the habitation of the evil doer and drives out the transgressor who from the beginning was a fugitive and a Vagabond who slew his righteous brother as ye do now because he was righteous and for the same cause and the flesh alwayes persecuted the spirit but the spiritual man never persecuted any mark that not any so be certain ye are wrong and doing of wrong and the wages of unrighteousness if ye repent not ye shall receive And it may be some others according to the example of Jesus our Lord are moved of him to visit those who are so imprisoned by ye as is before expressed and to Minister to their necessities as need requireth but your in humanity is such that ye have oftentimes taken them up as Vagabonds * But the wholsom Act made by Queen Elizabeth was to whip Vagabonds and sturdy beggars mark and sturdy beggars and if the richest heathen in the Nation can make it appear that any one that 's called a Quaker is so owned by us hath asked a morsel of his bread or a draught of his drink he shall have a hundred fold requital for a begger we deny as a thief for that which begs covets and desireth that which is none of his own and that which covets will steal but the Queen who made a good Act and is said to be one of our best Princes her 's ye have most wickedly perverted and wretched Queen Mary who was bloodier then the Boar of York and made a cursed Act against the Protestants of 3. moneths imprisonment her 's ye have made 6. so compare your selves with the best of Princes and the worst of Tyrants and see who ye are most like and whipped them also of the very same cup many of the most dear and precious Ministers and messengers of the Lord have drank and tasted being moved of the Law to passe from City to City and from Country to country to visit the seed of God as the holy men of God did of old and did not sit down in a personage house and so became the hireling of a Parish constituted and appointed by the ¶ Pope Dionisius was the first that caused the division of Parishes in England and Augustine a Monk the first that preached up tythes to Edelbert King of Kent Pope against whom ye would force others to swear And there Simon Magus-like pretend to sell that which cannot be bought for tenths nor fiâ—ts but let their money and Ministry or rather mystery of iniquity perish I say they did not creep into a Mass-house with four or five jangling bells in it and there sing Davids Psalms in Rhime and meeter step from the Pew to the Pâ—lpit and there tell the people a story by the glass and exact the tenth prt of their labours and estates for it and these brawlers are upheld by an Act of Parliament by which ye called Justices Judges with the composition of your own wils pretend to Act and imprison stock and whip true men as Vagabonds but it s because your selves are out of the councel and dwell not in the habitation of God and are real wanderers although yee may have a house called after your own names as Cain had a City after his sons and yet was a Vagabond And as for the oath of objuration me thinks ye need not be so busie to administer to others to swear against the Pope and all Popery when your Mass-houses stinks so much of Popery Your laws your Terms your Courts your Universities your Colledges your Orders your Christened Bells jâ—ngling to the Mass-house with the Popes Cross on the top of her your Lammas Michaelmas Christmas and Candlemas your Tythes your Gleab Land your parsoâ—age-houses your Mass-houses standing East and West your mortuaries your burial of your dead Your manner of mourning for Moondeag from the Idol of the Moon Tuescodeag from the Idol Tuesco a goddesse Wooden'sdeag from the Idol Woodden one of the Saxon gods Thorsdeag from the Idol Thor. now called Jupiter Frydeag from the Idol Friga another of the Saxons gods now called Diana or Venus Saterdeag from the Idol of Saturn them c. the names of your months your weeks and days of your wâ—ek naming and sprinkling of your children your whaâ— not which pertains to your worship and
off But we as the holy men did gladly suffer all wrongs and our selves to be defrauded freely giving up our outward man and substance without resisting to death to the merciless persecutor but the mercenâ—ry hireling who is the only cause of our persecution is so far from being found in these the holy men and Ministers of Christs practices that they wrong all men and all men are defrauded by them most cruelly exacting where they never lent pulling where they never planted cloathing with the fleece they never wrought for feeding with the fat and sweet they never sweat for in short by force they exact and reap all manner of carnals where they have not sown spirituals nor carnals And them who are called teachers have and do exceedingly Erre and greater injustice and crueller rapeness were never commited by men then there hath been by this Legion of evil doers but for their labours if they repent not they shall be called the least in the Kingdom * Isaiah said they were all blind and ignorant and dumb dogs that never had enough and Jeyemiah said that the Prophets prophesied falsly and the Priests did bear rule by their means and Ezekiel said they fed themselves and not the flock Micha said they Preached for hire and Divined for money and Hosea said they were as a Troop of robbers that did waite for a man so the company of Priests did murther in the way by consent Reader I pray thee read Isai 56. 10. 11. Jer. 5. Ezek. 34. Mich. 2. 11. Hosea 6. 9. and compare the English Priest and see if there be any more difference then there is betwixt a Monk and a Monk and a Pope and a Pope And the Rulers that suffer these things are become blind and in a deep sleep yea a very deep sleep even the sleep of death but let all such know that their Rewarder slumbereth not neither can his vengeance tarry long and the despised light within if they repent not shall be their sure condemation for the righteous Spirit of the holy One is grieved and it shall not alwayes strive and wo be to them who set him at nought and persecute whips terrifies or suffers them to be persecuted whiped or terrified who speak in his Name thrusting causing or suffering to be thrust into dungeons Bridewells and bad places amongst bad people there to be kept in bonds under the hands of cruel men till death for the testimony of Jesus Oh! bloody and great yea very great cruelty was ever the like done by any who did but so much as profess liberty of conscience But let all such know from the highest to the lowest yea to him that sits upon the Throne to him that grinds at the Mill they do resist the mighty Prophet whom the Lord our God hath raised up and he is come and they shall be cut off and mine eye sees it and then the condition of poor Lazarus who is hardly thought worthy to live will far transcend Dives and all his fellow Gluttons and these that are at ease in the flâ—sh and are not troubled like other men and lie roleing upon their bâ—ds of pleasure spending that which was their day in madness mirth and folly and making merry over the humble witness oâ— God saying to themselves tush no eye sees us but let all such know they are seen and he that beholds them is not afar off and a day cometh shortly if not suddenly when the very highest among them shall be disrobed and utterly made bare and the greatest that is born among women shall not hide himself from the vengeance of my God who is the avenger and revenger of the righteous and vengeance is mine saith the Lord and I will repay it * Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile ye and persecute yee and shall say all manner of evil against ye falsly rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven And the Devil shall cast some of ye into prison and ye shall have tribulation for ten dayes How long Lord how long holy just and true By an owner of the sword in its place true Majestracy true Ministry Justice and sound Judgement Oh! let it flow down like a mighty torrent but an enemy to Tyranny Truce-breakers Rapines Swearers Lyers and false prophets who preach for hire and Divine for money E. B. THE END A few VVORDS To that bad Generation of people who in their reprobate minds blaspheme and belye the dreadful and Just God In saying That he hath made and created some men to be damned or that a set number are ordained from all Eternity to be saved and a set number to be damned BUT let all such know that the lyar is for the lake for the Just God who is equal in all his wayes hath not made any man to be damned nor created any to that intent and the destruction of every man is of himself for God made man after his own image and likeness and those that are godly are like God but man hath sought out many inventions and the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked and that continually but God is now and alwayes upright in all his waâ—es and his Name is Love and his Nature is Love and he is a God of Love and all the works of his hands are good and he loves them and he is a loving Father and he who sayes the Father decrees a Soul to Hell from all Eternity before the creature hath transgressed or that he was created to do wickedly he accuses the Just God falsly but the same Soul that sins as Adam did shall dye for transgression brings death and then and not till then he becomes a vessel of dishonour But he was not intended so by the Holy God in his Creation ‖ And if from all Eternity a certain and set number be created predestinated and fore-ordained to be saved and damned for what doth the Hireling preach and for what hath he his hire I am sure the decrees of God are yea Amen and unalterable Mark that Judicious Reader and do not be so ignorant as to give thy money to that Priest who holds or preaches that doctrine for under one of the two decrees thou already art And I do believe there is hardly a Hireling in England that will deny it as his belief but that there is and was from all Eternity a certain and a set number predestinated to be damned and saved Oh! how hath and doth this deceiver stand and is upholden and maintained in idleness to make Merchandizes of pretious
whilst ye seemingly live thus doth many of you consume yourselves substance and precious time And do ye think to live Dives his live and not dye his death Can ye think to sow to the flesh all manner of corruption all the dayes of your lives and not reap the same in the day of the Lord And do ye think as the tree falls it will not lye and as death leaves Judgement will not find and from Hell there is no Redemption Oh friends I can truly say my bowels ernes for ye who are called Nobles and are great in the earth above any sort of people that are without Also I know and feel that the witness of God lyeth near in very many of ye although the lofty and surly nature is not willing to bow nor sink down and become one with the witness which is meek and â—owly and calls upon ye in secret for purity in your inner parts Oh! let the consideration of Eternal Life constrain and even necessitate ye to turn in the eye of your mind to within and consider what ye shall do to be saved for verily the eye of the Lord is pure and runs to and fro thorow the whole earth and all that 's earthly and cannot behold your present iniquities Wherefore in the fear of the Lord cease to do evil and learn to do well and let the time past be sufficient least the Lord forthwith dash ye in pieces and sweep ye from the face of the earth and your memories utterly rot Therefore seek the Lord with all your hearts whilst he may be found for this is the day of your visitation but your day passeth away and the night swiftly cometh wherein no man can work yet a little while and the Light is with ye I say commune with your own hearts and be still and in the cool of the day when your lusts boilâ— not sink down willingly joyn and adhere to the measure of God in your consciences which is given to man to profit withall Oh take it for a leader for it is the true Light which doth enlighten every man that cometh into the World that all men through Him might believe the same is a swift witnesse for the Lord against all the evil of your doings and cannot nor ever did consent to sin the same is truth leads into all truth was before the man of sin the house of Ham the stock of Nimrod the cunning hunter Ishmael the scoffer Lord Esau of the Mount bloody Cain or the Dukes of Edom were and is before all invention or the ridiculous Tythes about which many of you fight kill boast and rend many a bloody oath and when ye have all done it may be prove your ancester an ancient murtherer come into England with William of Normandy killed an English man and took his possession and as your selves sprang from blood rage and cruelty so in the same many of ye continue but beware that your latter end be not worse then your beginning great quantities of earth ye have and the Lords hand is in no wayes shortened towards ye But verily very many of ye spend it wholly upon your lusts and that 's not the end for which it was given but ye are to honour God with your substance and whatsoever he hath given ye he that defiles his body defiles the Temple of the Lord and him will God destroy Therefore whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do learn to do all to the praise and glory of God and do not Lord it over Gods heritage in the General nor in your own particulars for Christ is in ye except ye are reprobates and this know that no man was or ever shall be heir of two Kingdoms and God and Mammon ye cannot please and if ye truly serve the one the other with all his lusts ye must deny Mark all his lusts ye must deny and a death ye must feel upon your present lives that ye may come to know the birth which is immortal seek to know the Lord if it be but as a consuming fire to burn up and consume your lusts which separates between ye and your maker for he that envies is a murtherer ‖ For love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment because as he is so are we in this present world there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love If any man say I love God and hate his Brother he is a lvar For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loves his Brother also 1 John 4. 7 12 16 18 20. and he that lusts after a woman hath committed adultery and I say unto ye all above men and all things swear not And to see a great man a good man is a rare thing even an ornament in his Countrey a strength to the righteous a sinew to the feeble a nerve to the oppressed a help to the helpless and of all men if ye could but see and trust in the truth as it is in Jesus how transcendently happy might ye be even in this life beloved of God and good men and all evil men maÌ„de to fear ye And I do believe many of ye cannot but see the hireling and his covetousness deficiency and deceipt and in some measure see the truth and the vessel to be good but to sea in it ye dare not go for if the greatest of ye deny the hireling his ungodly gain a war he will prepare and the waves will beat the billows boil and the stormes arise But help us Lord and we cannot perish although the greedy man may toss us from one Goal and Dungeon to another and if there in faithfulness to the Lord we lay down or lives yet we live for ever and have life Eternal And that 's much better then the airy title of Duke Lords Knights c. which put them all together will not buy a morsel of bread in this very life and in the life to come the Beggar as the King and his Nobles and Tophet is not prepared in vain and it is well if some of yee who are called Noble-men and cals your selves Christians be not found in the day of the Lord more ignoble to the now despised Christians then Festus Agrippa or Claudius Lycias were to Paul who were called heathens but were truely Noble to Paul and such Nobility I own who puts no man to death nor hurts no man tell the accuser and the accused comes face to face
and sends no man to prison nor keeps any in bonds without signifying the cause and having a just Law from the Lord for his or their detention that 's equal and just which the Lord help yee to know and obey for its the just which suffers in yee and the seed is oppressed and kept in bondage in your own particulars So wait upon the Lord in his fear which is the beginning of wisedom and yee shall hear a voyce behind yee saying this is the way oh walk in it and if ye be obedient ye shall eat the good of the Land and obedience is better then sacrifice and to hearken then the fat of rams although your sins be as scarlet and for number as the sand upon the Sea shore yet if ye believe in the Light and love the Light and bring all your deeds to the Light and see if they are wrought in God Iâ— so it s a good deed do it and that Light is truth and is no lie oh dig deep for it for its within though the Inne be thronged with other guests and a vast quantity of iniquity is above the seed and the whole lump is sowred with the wrong leaven But the grain the seed or lost groat is there therefore seek diligently and ye shall find and having found it sell all and buy the Pearl and follow the Lâ—mb whether soever he goes thorow good report and bad Oh! believe in and love the truth and abide in the truth and the truth shall make ye free and purge away all your drosse and Tynne then are you free indeed and the blood of Jesus shall cleanse ye from all sin and filthiness both of flesh and spirit and if you forsake your sins he is faithful and just to forgive ye your sins and your transgressions he will remember no more And ye who are called Dukes Lords Knights Gentlemen c. for the most part have your Education at the same fountain from whence comes the hireling and there have them for your Tutor Teacher and as yet few or none of ye exceed or are much wiser then your Teachers to salvation Neither indeed are ye like to learn of him who receives the wages of unrighteousness and stands not himself in the councel of the Lord For if they had stood in my Councel saith the Lord they would have turned many from their evil wayes and had they been the Ministers of Christ the World had not been so full of wickedness as at this day it is but indeed their converts are like themselves proud covetous high-minded and guilty of all manner of evil as the best of them will confess themselves to be and that their best doings is sinful and full of sin and if so which indeed they are it is impossible they shall convert one Soul to God for the prayers of the wicked are abomination to the Lord and the very best sacrifice that can be offered by the hands of an unclean persecutor who hurts or envies his Brother or imprisons for his belly is but as the cutting off a dogs neck for he that envies is a murtherer and it is natural for every father to beget a child after his own image and to speak to the very rational part in ye all If a man were to teach another man a science or a trade he cannot neither is it possible for him to teach another to do that which himself cannot do neither thinks possible to be done Mark the best of the Priests prayers and teaching are sinful as themselves confesse and their imperfect prayers may beget imperfection lust and uncleannesse which shall never enâ—â—r the Kingdom nor dwell with the holy true God So if ye exceed not the wisdom of your tutors and Teachers and learn of the light and believe in the Light which was before Pope Colledge or Priest was although every man of yee could preach and pray as well as they can which is not hard to do I say both ye and your prayers are abominable in the sight of the pure God who hath no regard to the preaching and prophecying of sinful Prophets and themselves as well as their hearers may be cast-awayes And this is a great evil among ye who are called lords knights c. who have great estates upon which account poor men oftentimes lends ye great sums of money and those great estates for the most part ye entail or passe away by some private dispossession and by wicked fraudulent wayes and in this the wretched Lawyer befriends ye undoes many poor men and at your deaths your heirs takes the benefit of the wicked Laws and sayes to their fathers creditors he possesseth nothing but what he was born to but the Lords curse is upon that birth and heir-ship so that when ye dye your names stink and generations curse ye and the childe that is unborn is occasioned to speak evil of ye and in defence of this birth-right as they call it to be sure the wretched Lawyer will take your heirs part although he knows the whole matter to be unjust and it may be himself had the greatest hand in the former cheat so they do not help your sons to heir your estates onely but your iniquities also And if I should be accounted a sower of sedition or a subverter of the Laws a turner of the World up-side down a pestilent fellow or a Ring-leader of the sect of the Nazarenes and thought not worthy to live and should be put to death for it Yet I freely declare that I trust in and steadfastly believe and hope in my God that he will asswage the pride allay the malice quite confound for ever entinguish and utterly make rotten blot out the name of Pope at Rome Tithe-monger or Hireling in England with his Mass-houses and all that is Popery whatsoever devouring Lawyer Dukes Lords Knights Courts of honour and the thing that is now called Gentility But a Noble-man or a Gentle-man I truly love who are truly so By a true lover of a True Just Meek Gentle Noble-man who hates nor fears no man and cannot give flattering titles or respects the person of any man E. B. POST-SCRIPT DVkes and Marquesses I deny but the Millitary chief or inferiour Captain or leader I own Earls I deny but when we have a King like David or Moses let that king have his companions but let not an evil doer live in the Court and such companions will need no Esquires neither desire their sons to be lifted up with the title of Lords or Barons where the whole houshold serves the Lord and are believers such seeks no honour one of another Viscounts I deny but let there be many good Governours in every County for they are very much wanting notwithstanding there may be a Vis-count two or three Bannerets Baronets Knights of all sorts I deny but the just Souldier whether he be horse or foot I own in his place a place for whom I find for when the
Souldiers came unto Christ and askt him Master what shall we do Be content with your wages and do violence to no man accuse no man falsly But for the whole rabble of Duke Marquesse Lord Knight Gentleman by patents I find no room place or example or allowance for in Scripture but that onely declares of as I do believe one Lord one God over all blessed for ever amen who made all kindreds tongues and Nations of one blood and all these earthly Lords and who exercise unjust dominion are come up since and in the Apostacy for in the beginning it was not so and those who are redeâ—med from the earth and risen with Christ and onely seeks the things above Fathoms and comprehends all these things and are come to the beginning are in that which was before false Prophets Anti-chriâ—â— Babylon Pope or Whores cup was of which the Kings of the earth have drank and been made drunk in which drunken fiâ— and when all the Nations reeled under the persecution of the beast and false Prophet and the Saints and Martyres blood was swallowed down as other cups of pleasure and the woman was fleâ— into the Wildernesse and the man-child was caught up to God I say in that black dark night of Apostacy when none was able to make war with the beast when the Kings of the earth fought for the earth was created and by the beasts power at this day is created Lords Knights c. and having lost the Cross of Christ the power of God within a painted cross is borne in your ensign without and that is the sign of your Christianity and so into sects and opinions and the Irreligious have and do kill one another about Religion precedency names titles and the earth and all this is earthly Devilish and sensual THE END Here followeth a relation of some signs examples and judgements for the accursed Generation who desire a sign for many to my face have temptingly said shew us a sign but they are miracles to those that believe and let such reach hither their hands and with me feel and see the wounds that the Lord of life hath received in his members by this unnatural and unparaleld Generation to whom and upon whom these examples are and have been shewen as it is written the wicked shall not live out half their dayes but let the despisers behold and wonder and perish for the work is wrought in their dayes although they cannot believe EXAMPLES ESSEX John Clerk Priest for 20. l. Tythes by him demanded of Robert Nicol of Coln-Engain by warrant from Dioâ—ysius Wakering and William Harlackenden Justices so called took and drove away from him Cattel worth 50 l. and his greedy mind not therewith satisfied sought after his body to but those his persecutors aforesaid being at London at that time he threatened to go to London to get a Warrant from them to put him in prison but the Lord prevented him for he came home and died in few dayes after SUFFOLK Robert Newton Goaler of Edmund-bury and his wife who had been very cruel to George Fox in the 55 weeks imprisonment he suffered under him by beating him very often and taking from him his bed cloaths and a coat and after his release detained him twenty eight weeks more for as he pretended a years sufficient lodging both the goaler and his wife not long after was cut off by death SUSSEX Priest Cussinâ— who caused Thomas Leycock to be imprisoned a whole year in Horsham Goal for speaking a few words to the people in love to their souls after he the said priest had done soon after this persecution he was cut off by death John Chatfield Priest of Horsham who caused Thomas Leycock and Bryan Wilkinson to be imprisoned and caused Thomas Patchins Cattel to be drove away soon after fell into a dropsie and remained in a miserable condition half a year and then died Priest Cuffly of Arundel who was a chief instrument in Thomas Leycocks persecution and did strive with the Magistrates of Arundel to have had Joseph Fuse who had faithfully served the Parliament in the wars 11 years sent over Sea as a bond-slave suddenly after this he died The Priest of Green who caused Alice West to be sent to prison for speaking some few words in the Steeple-house suddenly after died Edward Haughton Priest of Nuthurst who was the first in this county that caused friends to be robbed for Tythes was soon after cut off by death Priest Channel called a Doctor one of the chiefest high Priests so counted in this Nation a great opposer of truth was striken with madnesse and is out of his natural senses A Tythe-monger in the Parish of Beding who wickedly and malitiously trod out the corn of Minion Brocket making havock of the same within a week after was cut off by death John Gurden a Justice so called an eminent persecutor of the innocent people of God in this county whose name hath spread to New England among his brethren of the inquisition there hath been smitten by the Lord in a great weaknesse of body and dimnesse of eye-sight and hath appeared as one likely to pine away under the hand of the Lord which is evidently turned against him since he became such a cruel persecutor Roger Gratick a Magistrate and Priest Snelling consenters to much of the persecution of this county both slain with a thunder bolt in one day NORFOLK John Benton being one of Priest Claphams witnesses of Wramplingham whom he procured to swear against Benjamin Lynes in a matter concerning Tythes who was so evidently forsworn and his partner with him that the Justices themselves would not accept of their testimony and soon after which time the said John Benton got into the Steeple-house of Wramplingham and there hanged himself in a Bel-rope Edw. Humt keeper of the prison of Norwich who after Geo-Whitâ—head was discharged at the Sessions brought his action against him for 4 d. a night and although he had layn on the floor most part of the time yet was by him unjustly detained but the Goaler was soon after cut off by death HARTFORD-SHIRE Geo-Fage an unmerciful Bayliff who for 5 s. Tithe took away goods worth 4 l. from Richard North and entered into his house none being within but two poor children ransacked the poor mans house and took the very covering from off the bed of the children and exposed them to sufferings in the midst of winter for which the Lord God visited him and cut him off suddenly before he had made sale of the goods GLOUCESTER-SHIRE The first three friends that were committed in the County of Gloucester the two Justice of peace which did commit them the one called by the name of Justice Webly the other called by the name of justice Raymond these three friends did all live in or about Thornbury and were called to the Bar that Assiâ—e next holden for the County of Gloucester one of these Justices which did commit