that consult and endeavour to make the places of Saints too straight and to binde up the spirit of God to your formality darkness and bounds You that hear the children that you have lost say in your ears the place is too straight for us give place to us that we may dwell Isa 49.20 21 22 23 24 25 26. You that say in your hearts who hath begotten me these seeing you have lost your children and you are and will become desolate and who hath brought up these these where have they been will you make the broad places straight will you comprehend God in a narrow compass of a man of a Synod will you compass the incompassable will you compare with the incomparable Oh you cannot Do you think that God hath no other Ornament then a Directorie to adorn a Nation which he means to reform If he hath such a minde surely he hath Do you think that he who hath rivers of all sorts and waters of glory and of varietie to change his Creation by Iesus Christ and according to Iesus Christ hath but your stream But that one current of yours which you intend to make to run in the veins of the heavens and of the earth if you can Surely you are deceived God will I am confident dry up your River and make your fish to stink and die for thirst If you have a Jasper do you think all must have Jaspers may not another have a Saphir Yes truly whether you have or have not a Jasper if you have a Saphir may not another have a Chalcedony If you have an Emerauld may not another have a Sardonyx If you have a Sarduis may not another enjoy a Chrysolite if you have a Topar may not another enjoy a Chrysophrasus If you have a Jacynth may not another have an Amethyst Rev. 21.19 If you have or be any of these surely it would be satisfaction enough to you If you have the light of the Sun freely given you will you endeavour to destroy him that hath but the light of the Moon will you despise the day of small things Have you freely received and will you force another to walk as you walk when he hath not received You that were overcome your selves if you have truly overcome evill and Heresie will you have another Conquerour then the brightness of the Fathers glorie Is it not your darkness and inconsiderateness to say in your heart who hath begotten these Do you think you must be perpetuall Fathers shall Saints be alwaies taught of fallible mutable vain man would you not have God to beget how he pleaseth and when he pleaseth Oh vain man why contendest thou with thy maker the holy one of Israel Thou canst not prevail thou never madest a hair of thine own head thou never addest a Cubit to thine own stature He that walks in the circuit of heaven laughs thee to scorn and hath thee in derision daily Doest thou think God can bring none forth but such as thou willest can teach no other way but such as thou teachest can have no other Terms but such as thou understandest comprehendest studiest and contrivest If that invisible God and eternall substance doth begin to set up his Standard to the people to lift up his hand to the Gentiles and to make Kings nursing Fathers and Queens nursing mothers Wilt thou instigate the Magistracy the Kings the powers of the world in the high places to binde the people of God though under another notion in chains of death and darkness Doest thou think that Kings Queens and Magistrates must be only nursing fathers and mothers unto you must honour the God of Heaven and earth only in you and lick up the dust of your feet In the consideration of these things I am cast into admiration of infinitie Oh boundless God and binding man Oh boundless God! that measurest all things comprehendest all things who hast infiniteness in all thy true variety let not thy Saints be ashamed to wait for thee Oh Super-superlative binding God! who art able to bind Synods Counsels Powers of the world in chains and fetters of Iron that have bound the people deceived the Nations a great space manifest thy self that thou bindest and loosest and art able to restrain the bindings of man as well as to unloose after thou hast given him power to binde And if thou hast an intent that this Synod shall be a scourge or means of a scourge to thy people as well as other Synods formerly called Convocations or other names do thou say to thy Saints in the spirit of understanding Where is the fury of former oppressors and am not I the Lord thy God and is not my name the Lord of Hosts who have divided the Sea whose waves roared Isa 51.15 Say thou to thy people as thou saidst of old Isa 52.3 4 5 6. Ye have sold your selves for nought and ye shall be redeemed without money though they that rule over you make you to howle and cause the ignorant of God to blaspheme the Lord every day But let thy people know it is thou that speakest even thou I am confident Synod the thoughts of God are not your thoughts neither are your waies the waies of the Lord for as the heavens are higher then the earth so are the waies of the triumphant God and the thoughts of the triumphant God higher then yours and you may miss of your aime in your generation but I rejoyce you keep your Crown Power Kingdom and Glorie so long as the Father will Synod reade perhaps you may know and understand 56 Isa 11. 57 Isa Whose Chapter may appertain to thee in thy own understanding and the 13 Ezekiel 14 Ezekiel 9 10. 41 Isa 10 Ieremiah 23 Ieremiah the 26 Ieremiah 29 Ieremiah 8 12 verses c. And also the 34 of Ieremiah 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 c. I can I thank the most High the invisible substance make parallels and the parallels aequipolent Therefore though you shall endeavour to scourge me and afflict me yet I shall see the love of the absolute Lord in scourgings and whippings Though you shall say as others before you have said Come let us scourge him and afflict him for he hath sinned against the Lord yet my glory is in the absolute God washer cleanser purger discerner informer reformer and acquitter and from him I have my Quietus est What though you make me an offender for a word What though you shall have the Nobles the Powers of the world the Parliament whom you instigate the People to say Come let us devise devices against him because he speaks of the things of God he being not Ordained The Law shall not perish from the Priest nor Counsel from the Wise nor the Word from the Prophet Come let us smite him with the tongue and let us not give heed to any of his words Yet the absolute Lord non-respecter of persons can
Letter as he pleaseth would you not esteem it an indignity when the supream Judge shall come to judge the world as the Apostle saith according to his Gospel when the supream God shall averr in the interiorest and say that indeed he sent his Son and anointed him with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows and gave him the spirit not by measure so that unmeasurableness and mysticalness was manifested in him and by him and he spake to a few Saints and gathered by the power of the Spirit a few poor men to teach the mysteries of Christ but there was one William Pryn Esquire a Lawyer I will not say Saint Pryn and the Lords of the earth and the Synods of the world proved interpreters with their own lusts according to their formall artificiall terms of distinction and so they said this must be the meaning to day this must be the meaning to morrow Procul dubio Lords is this not indignity But Christ will not be for ever crucified in his body the Church crucifying will be over may be in time but surely will when time shall be no more 19. If the Scriptures were so plain that he that runs may reade he that barely reads may understand to what purpose is the spirit promised to lead into all truth since the Ascention If I may absolutely knowingly understandingly infallibly Aopstolically Christ like know and understand all that I see and heare concerning my self and others But truly Lords and mutable Potentates though you reade hear see as you say you do you may say as the Eunuch how shall I understand without a guide But remember this the guides say and confess they are not infallible 20. If you do confess the spirit was promised to be given after the Ascention if it be given to ye it is a greater glory for you to tell us of it then laugh at it to tell of it how it came to you and when then to tell us what you have done for us if any thing in relation to civils Paul was not ashamed of it 21. If you confess that the spirit was promised to be given after the Ascension you had need to averr justifie and prove that it was promised to be given to Magistrats Lords and Synods not poore men not Fisher-men that the spirit went from the poore to the rich from those that the honourable count base to the honourable And though it were so it is no good Argument to convince a man even to strike him to imprison him and defame him as the false prophet did the true when he said when went the spirit of the Lord from me to thee 22. If you prove that the spirit was to be given to Magistracy Lords Nationall preists both you and the people had need know whether you in this age that now is more then any other are the Magistrates and the Preists For it was not promised to Magistracy in all Ages if it had it would have been performed for he promiseth nothing but what he performeth And that precedent Magistracy have been enemies and persecutors of the Saints of God under the notion of Heretiques or those that have been contrarie minded it is playnly apparent Historie declare it and you your selves confess it are convinced of it in your own hearts as you say therefore let that Magistracy as well as other men let that Synod that thinks he stands take heed least he falls or is already fallen or that he takes falling for standing in himselfe and standing for falling in others and so judges condemnes and persecutes 23. Me thinks I heare in my eares a urge saying and a voyce to my understanding declaring that there was a Nation or multitude of people met together as Episcopalls Presbyters and Independents so called and did convene from remote parts the East West North and South and these chose some to consult and debate what should be for the good of that Nation and kingdome and gave them power and honour and externall glory so much as they could or was in their power but the prevayling party tooke upon them the things of God and the place of God as much as in them lay and beat and wounded those that were contrary minded in their minds as to God though they still continued loving and affectionate to them Is this good Oh! sad requitall may not you say woe to your owne soul for you have rewarded evill to your selves Isa 3.12 Oh! my people they which leade thee cause thee to erre and destroy the way of thy paths 24. Suppose that a multitude of faire complexioned men of straite deportment should choose and elect a companie and place them in honour and dignity above themselves but these poore creatures or some of them may be Iob in the paralell should have an affliction upon them their faces should be changed their bodyes should grow crooked and this should be inflicted by the God of all natures mutable glories and excellencies or suppose God should send Sathan to tempt them or some of them that they may consent to the temptation and whereas Iob had boyles and sores even from the Crowne of the head to the sole of the feet would it not be sad now that one should come and lay Iobs affliction more heavie on him whipp the man sting him with scorpions But would it not be as sad also to see two that were full of boyles and sores wounds of Sathan temptations of the Devill that contrarie that roaring Lion in the shape of man to whip one another and lash one another for I have heard many of the nationall preists confess themselves publiquely that they have been full of wounds and sores and putrifactions even from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot Oh! Preist it is better for thee to tell who healed thee then to wound another that is in thy former condition if thou art out of it and truly translated But would not this make a man to breake out after this manner and say O inhumanitie had I knowne this should I have been so inhumane to my selfe I am scourged because I am sore wounded because I have boyles because I am in temptation because I am in errours because Sathan that politique Devill that contrarie hath deceived me and I am deceived though I have boyles and sores from the sole of the foot to the crowne of the head sent me of the God of Gods and Lord of Lords the Ruler of Princes yet after the manner of men I might have spared the rending and tearing my owne bowells I cannot comprehend the heavens and the earth much less him that is greater then both I cannot change my selfe nor make him change me till he will But the will of eternitie be done why should I contend with the God of all changes when I did choose them I was weakness it selfe I was the weaker vessell and I am despised for being so yet I made not my selfe so neither can I add one Cubit to my stature reade 1. Isa 29.30.31 25. Admit that those that are generally called and doe call themselves Ministers of the Gospel and prophets of the most high God in an eminent and a supereminent manner have communion with God and should be told of God as the Prophet was what they should do 13 Kings reade the whole Chapter must we goe forward and backward because the Prophets do so But surely I hope there is the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah in the way I who am weakness desire of thee O Immortall strength that I may more and more walke as comprehended of thy divine will that I may neither goe backward and forward and forward and backward to the right hand and to the left hand because the Nationall preists and Prophets do so but that I may walke as became a child to thee the Father of spirits and the God of all consolation and therefore let me live to the willing life and living will of thee O supersupereminent God 26. Magistrates and ministers of God so called you are but men subject to like passions that other men are as well as an Apostle was as he confesseth if not much more and you were not long since under Episcopacy and owned it as of God many of you if not all did did you satisfie your selves or were you satisfied of God if you were can you or we that are contrary minded draw God to us to satisfie us when you or we will our selves your selves 27. You Magistrates and ministers so called are but at the most or the most you can say of your selves in your own applause is that you are but wise and prudent men But saith Christ Father I thank thee thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent Scribes Pharises Lawyers chief Priests and revealed them to babes but may be you will say now as Lloyden said the case is altered but many Scriptures will prove this 28. Magistrates and ministers so called you shall die as well as other men the King and the Beggar the Fool and the Achitophel the master and the servant ye shall go to one Tomb that contains all generations mystically in it self But I will not say you think you shall have a Pardon or a Purgatory or both 29. Magistrates and minsters so called the Kings the Priests and the people the beggar and the rich the wise and the foolish the abased and the abounding person the Lawyer with his terms fallacies and term-pleadings and the Divines so called with their formall Sophistical Criticisms shall appear if there be any judgement as indubitably there is and shall before the absolute perfect Tribunal all the restitution of all things when all things shall be brought forth according to the will powerfull Excellencie and minde of the supream Cause when the things that are mystically unsearchably brought forth and are again mystically hid in its proper center in a way of mutability shall be brought forth in everlastingness but this is a mystery of eternity at which time and in which appearance you Lords of the earth shall be judged in those things that ye judge questioned in those things that ye question others and be your selves examined whether you are in the faith in a supersuperlaive manner And so farewell mutable dying vain unholy unnaturall temporarie judging inconsiderable man FJNJS
give a word to the poor as well as to the rich to the Carpenter to the Fisher as well as to the Prophet the Priest and the Levite I rejoyce in your instigation of Magistracy because of the Fathers will and because it causes this operation in me it makes me and hath made me to see if I might attain it how I am as really in the beauty of the Son of righteousness who is more beautifull then the Sun the Moon and the Stars And truly I am told of God as I am perswaded that I should not as yet one my self with you nor acknowldge you as friends to the wisdom and glory of God in Iesus Christ If I should not hold forth my contrariety as the Father hath made me contrary to you in love for God in love from God and to God I should have burning fire in my own breast Would you have me know any thing of God and not speak it if I should forget the Lord my maker and trust on you and upon you surely my Lord when he looks upon me and I see him would make me to lie down in sorrow and to weep bitterly therefore I had rather have your frowns who call your selves Teachers Fathers then my reall absolute immutable Fathers Will you scourge me or afflict me or instigate Magistracy if at any time I shall declare the sweetness of God Shall I be in the garden of variety and not speak of it would you have none be in the garden but your selves would you have none other but your selves though others are in the garden to speak of the things they see and hear Do you know the root and the ground of Gods wisdom Do you know all the branches of Eternity Do you know the God of Dominion Will you not let him save whom he will and condemn whom he pleaseth Will you assume to make a man know before he must truly know and understand before he must truly understand Are not the times and the seasons in the heavens and the earth for the fathers accomplishments Must not the heavens and the earth hear his voyce when he speaks with an intention that it shall hear know and understand I was lately cast into a consideration of the incomprehensible od even of God who is acknowledged by you generally to be Causa Causarum and also of vain weak inconsiderable Logical Sophistical formal in fine sensuall man I was thinking how small a particular creature of God I was and how little of the visible world I could comprehend in the hollow of my hand and then I considered and said surely it would be an admired thing if a Synod if a man if men if a few men should make a Law or procure a Law Ordinance or Declaration to be made that a man that could not comprehend the heavens and the earth or the glorious visible things of God in the hollow of his hand should be accounted an Heretick All rationall men in the world and those that are only rationall would think it a foolish Ordinance an inconsiderate Law Would you have a Law made then that he that cannot comprehend or comprehend as you would have him comprehend the invisible things of that invisible indivisible God shall be accounted an Heretick O surely if you had faith you would be glad to have it to your selves and you would manifest it with the glory of its pure self and undefiled being surely if you had faith to remove mountains you would have more love to Hereticks as you call them and less bitterness But it satisfies me that God can roul the heavens and the earth together like a scrowl and bring it into the narrow compass of a mans hand if he will and manifest himself to whom he will and when he pleaseth and you are not masters of him He alwaies comprehends and he can so be seen to mans capacity if he will and he can and doth comprehend not to be seen if he will he is not like to man one little particular of Gods varieties he can feel us and we shall not be sensible of it and see us and we shall not see him though he be within and without upon the right and upon the left before and behinde Suppose you have seen Lillies but another hath seen Roses and another hath seen flowers of other natures and kinds will you make a Law or endeavor to have a Law made that all must say they have seen Lillies and nothing but Lillies when they have not seen Lillies at all but Roses or other of Gods diversities Again suppose you have been in the garden of God did you get in by the sword by violence by power by sleight of hand by wit policie by Logick and Phylosophie what must others do that have not your Logick and Phylosophie but truly I think the flaming sword of the incomprehensible God will keep you out with your Logick and prevail with you and over your Philosophie and truly immutably and substantially cry Victoria Again suppose you have been in the garden of God and seen the fragrant flowers the sweet beams of Divine Light your names written in heaven suppose you have the witness of Jesus in your consciences will you endeavour to have a Law made that all that will not beleeve you may be burnt with fire may be imprisoned may be banished may be sawen asunder may not trade traffique in the kingdoms of the world which are the Lords Surely if you were truly taken up with those beauties in your selves you would not desire that fire should come down from heaven to destroy others much less make a fire your selves to consume them Again suppose that a multitude or many now in these daies should see Jesus Christ should enjoy the invisible teachings of God in the inward man should speak of it or preach it would it not be a Pharisaicall envious trick to endeavour to rebuke such Disciples if they should cry Hosanna Hosanna blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord in the inward man May not Christ say if these should hold their peace the stones would immediatly cry out Luke 19.37 38 39. When the incomprehensible pleasantness of the spirit is manifested from enjoyment it would be never the worse if it were by all the people if in the streets if upon the house tops But I know that Scribes and Pharisees and high Priests will murmur at this and pray and fast that Christ may rebuke this but Christ will not and therefore Assemblie though I have been held in chains of darkness a great while and though held in the grave as it were yet when the eternall God to my understanding and with his flame inflames and zeal makes me zealous and in his time makes me to serve him I desire it in that time when he wils and alone in that time when he wils and untill that time I may say from my self to my self and to you Ne sutor ultra crepidam
what though their are many spirits gone abroad in the world Sectaries the divills of the world as you call them your rejoycing would be rather if you had such a glorious Apostolicall Commission power glory that your names were writen in heaven that you your selves are comprehended in the bosome of the Father But yet if you did so your selves and know your selves it would be questionable whether you have this Apostolicall power and glory if not the one surely not the other But you may have a Crown power and authority continued to you to scourge and crucifie It it is said in the 21. and 22 verses The eternall supereminent the Lord of Heaven and earth had hid wisdome from the wise and prudent and revealed it to babes Lords tell the people playnly and distinctly whether you can say that it seemed good in the sight of the Lord to alter his visible dispensations and to reveal his truth to Lords Potentates Counselours wise men prudent men Sattin men Purple and Diamond men that is to say those that go in gay cloathing and would sway the whole world those that have respect of persons those that must sit here and sit there because they are thus and thus Christ told his disciples that many prophets Kings did desire to see the things that they saw and did not see them and to hear the things that they had heard and did not hear them But admit there have been prophets Kings and Lords since that which have seene the things of God you may not be such men that are now in this Generation Christ said all the glories of the Father were delivered unto him and that no man did know who the Sonne is but the father and who the father is but the son and he to whom the sonne will reveale him even that sonne who hath power over all flesh to give eternall life to as many as the father pleaseth But Lords Synods Counsailes can you say all things are delivered unto you of the father though you have Crownes though you have power yet have a power of mutability your power is not that power of all that power of love of life of perfection of infalliblity do you know the sonne as well as the Father and the father as well as the sonne Doe you know how many and who if how many the father will give eternall life unto by Iesus Christ do you persecute you being fallible according to your owne confession because you would bring into the fold those that are not yet brought in but must be or would you be certain infallible powerfull assistants with Iesus Christ the absolute Lord or do you intend to persecute those that are not intended according to an eternall intendment to be of the body of Jesus Christ if so are you as certain as Christ is certain that this is the Harvest and are you as certain that you are the reapers that you your selves are not the tares are you the Thousands yea the ten Thousands of Saints by which he will come to judge the world Hath the Father altered his mind in relation to manifestation and told you that you must pluck up the tares before the Harvest Or was not that his minde when he declared that the tares should grow together till the Harvest Hath the Father or hath the Son revealed these things unto you in this generation if so tell us and when it was and how and it will be a greater glory unto you then to sit a great while bring out a few fallible contrivances Scholastick inventions But it is far more glorious and a greater matter of rejoycing to you to be lead if leade then to leade for the all-sufficient immutable Lord to leade the lords the people and Nations then for blind lords and Priests to leade poor blind people How would the supereminent be exalted here Admit that the Sectaries of the times those that are called Divels incarnat by you Potentates of the world should in their journey to or from Jerusalem fall amongst theeves and should be stripped of their rayment and be wounded should yield to the temptations of that raging divell in the world in and since the Apostacy or since that Satans Minestery Magistracy hath had and continued their power in the world Is it commendable in the Priests and Levites to see them so and to pass by on the other side or is it commendable for these Priests to add or cause others to add afflictions to their bonds But these Priests and Levites God will not honour so much The Samaritan must come and see also and have compassion Oh Good Samaritan for the poor wounded stripped and torn man this is an excellent similitude the supereminentness and gloriousness consists in the subsistance But Oh! unmercifull High Priests and Levites when God hath sent a messenger of Satan to buffet a man and to have power over the bodie may be the understanding in temptation will you buffett and imprison much more looke to your commission may not God say to a Synod in this case as Christ said to Peter in another Get thee behinde me Satan Are you better then Peter was if you are or if you thinke you are dare not Christ say so as well to a Synod as to a Peter But this is your pity if wee were wounded and naked and if you were as you are not the true loving compassionate judging discerning persons I think you had need to have the most glorious infallible Commission for your security that may bee so to persecute and prosecute if it were lawfull so to doe What cruelty is it in you who made not your selves to destroy your selves you that are not able to make a man to destroy a man starve a man for that which is in the conscience even for that which a man himselfe is not Lord of when you nor he are truly able to add one Cubit to his stature unlesse that you goe to a Shoomaker for a paire of Heeles Indeed what ye make you may marre but 11 Luke 40. Ye fooles did not hee that made that which is without make that which is within also Profecto testificamini quod consentitis operibus patrum Vestorum For ought you know God hath sent a few mechanicall illiterate fellowes as you call them that the bloud and cruelty of all Generations may be set on the score of the continued successiue persecutors as wel as upon those who slew and dealt injuriously with the Prophets and Apostles But this will not excuse you to say you had power to binde heavy burthens on others shoulders and not to touch them your selves with one of your fingers This will not exuse you before the Supereminent life glory Lord absolute discerne judge to say what tongue or Lord shall controul us Surely I think if Christ Iesus the head the anoynted of God in peculiarity were in the world now as he was in so despicable manner to his enemies you
was to be with Jesus Christ who was manifested in the flesh or when the body is exercised according to the life power and will of the supreame Lord in Communion with those that have the same spirit of the most high in knowing and understanding then the Saints must not feare them that can kill the body viz magistracy but they must walk as the divine supereminent Saviour Lord King Judge wil have them Suppose that a Magistrate commands my body to do one thing but the invisible God in the understanding he that is God of body and soule commands another thing whether is it lawfull to obey God or man Judge ye 6. Suppose there is such a Magistrate in the world that does truely and really conceive that there is one eternall God the judge the absolute God the Lawgiver in the conscience and he according to rationality doth endeavour to demonstrate it can he make another beleeve it if any conforme to what he saieth not knowing it is not he an ignorant doer of what he would have him to do or a dissembling person But Aug. one of Gangraena's Fathers saith Simulata sanctitas est duplex iniquitas But the Magistrates and Priests of the earth have led the world in a string and they are at the sensuall beck and will of every base lust and that rule is verified amongst them qui nescit dissimulare nescit vivere But Oh! how excellent will it be when Saints shall more and more live to the supreame absolute God! 7. Whether a man may not have a word of God to deliver to a Magistrate as well as a Magistrate to another man Formerly I know God called some to speake to Kings and Potentates of the earth But we are better then our Fathers Is not the spirit of forbearance as good in a Magistrate as it is in another man if the Magistrate hath had experience that no man can make him beleeve the truths of God that he can not make any one likewise why should he use violence bitterness and wrath But we call it not wrath we call it Justice But the absolute distinguisher sees what it is and he will call that wrath and anger in you which you call justice But we will contrive a great many fine words to waue it But there is nothing hath power but what is given to it nothing enjoyes it longer then he that gave it pleaseth neither shall any thing be waved but what he will wave even that absolute I am But oh Lord supereminent if thou callest me causest me to speak of thee to manifest thee though magistracy heape up words against me strengthen their mouthes according to the judgement of Causidicks Synods of the earth though they hale me teare me in their ire sharpen their eys at me yet let it be sufficient that thou lovest when soever I see man let me be drawn to God let me say with Iob in the spirit of understanding without respect of persons Iob 20.4 5 6 7. Knowest thou not this of old since man was placed upon the earth that the triumph of the wicked is short and the joy of the wicked is but for a moment Though his Excellencie mount up to the heavens and his head reach to the clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his owne dung they which have seen him shall say where is he 8. Those that the Magistrates endeavour to compell to the Laws wills Ordinances interpretations of Scriptures the Magistrates being and confessing themselves fallible may for ought the Magistrates know have an obligation and an absolute understanding ingagement upon their spirits as to God to live to Gods owne interpretation Law will and ordinance which may be contrary to the Magistrate For God is the absolute originall of all things that are and that are to be interpreted 9. The People shall not suffer for the Magistrates sins but their owne nor the Magistrates for the peoples sins but their owne But the soule that sinneth shall die But yet in a common calamity the one may suffer as well as the other though not for the sins of another 18 Eezekiel 1 2 3 4. c. There is a declaration as from the Lord. And the word of the Lord came to me saying What meane ye that ye Use this Proverb concerning the Land of Israel saying the Fathers have eaten sower Grapes and the childrens Teeth are set on edge As I live saith the Lord ye shall not have occasion any more to use this Proverb in Israel Behold all souls are mine as the soule of the Father so also the soule of the sonne is mine The soule that sinneth it shall die you may reade the whole Chapter This was a glorious Prophesie of the time that should be when God should peculiarly manifest himselfe when God would be no more vayled by a man when God would manifest himselfe to be the absolute Lord me thinks a Magistrate confessing himselfe fallible should feare to desire much more to command another to that which that other is not satisfied of God For the soule of the person that the Magistrate commands is Gods It was no argument for a poor soule when the absolute supreame entred into judgement to say that the Magistrate gave me and I did eate nor an argument for the Magistrate to say that a companie of people invested me with this and that authority as I thought or desired this or that thing and I did eate I had received a Petition from the people or from the Major part to release one Barabbas crucifie Jesus Christ I received a Petition to deprive such and such People of their liberties being such as they when they did petition confessed God had honoured in doing them good estates priviledges and benefits of living in the world unlesse they indeed were not perswaded of in their own consciences If it was an Argument inexcusable that Adam and Eve used to God this may also hardly be They had an infallible Ministration what should be death and life But the Magistracy of the world and Synods of the times confess themselves fallible It was an Argument in that most certain case for Satan to use to suggest to poor weak Eve as it was presented to deceive God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof your eys shall be opened and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil But oh Lord I let me seek unto thee with thee and from thee though that Devil tempts me to unite and manifest my self to that and in that way of darkness and man-sinning in the world whatsoever specious and fallacious pretences I shall receive from the men of the world and from my own soul as considered in its way of operations contrary to the body of Jesus Christ Let me though I hear men in the world pretend to the glorious mysteries of the Eternall God and the honour and glory of him try things with thy self alone and therefore be