Reformation but a figure of it and after him cometh he whose san is in his hand and throughly purge his floor yet do you sit down on this side Reformation not approaching to that House made without hands eternal in the Heavens Yea others of you passing through all these arrive at a seeking what hath been and not reaching forth to that which is before Some of you are content with the borders of Canaan and think not of entering in and possessing the good Land expecting Moses that angered the Lord at the waters of strife a Minister of weakness to lead you to your Rest and not Jesus who is a Saviour and Deliverer from being captive to any thing below God whatsoever and therefore stay on this side Jordan not believing the waters shall divide and be cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord born by the Melchisedec of God Therefore all of you whatsoever that are working in your six days under sundry and several dispensations tiring and wearing out your selves in your own vanities shall lie down in sorrow and be bitten by the Serpents in the Wilderness until you pass over into the Lord your Canaan and Day of Rest where you shall all of you rest from your labours and your works follow And this Day of the Lord is coming upon you it is near at hand even at the doors the fulness of the Gentiles coming in and all Israel shall be saved And in this Day who so will not come up of all the families of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the King the Lord of Hosts upon them shall be no rain there shall be a famine in all their dwellings a drying up of all their gifts parts excellencies righteousness praying reading preaching yea all that they have be taken away For the Day of the Lord is upon all the proud and upon all that are lifted up and upon all that being taken up into this high Mountain a figure of the true say Come let us build three Tabernacles let us never move from this station let us never go beyond Moses his legal and carnal administrations let us retain what we have and seek not to attain what we have not O let not this mind be in any of you lest the Day of the Lord come upon you and your oyl being out of your lamps and you not ready are shut out of doors and cast into the fire that burneth and never goeth out The sinners in Zion are afraid Who shall dwell with devouring fire Who shall dwell with everlasting burnings The clean hands and upright heart Therefore cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils wait under your dispensations enquire under your old fabrick and in the desolations thereof for him that shall make all things new and then shall I be Yours new in the Kingdom Fire from Heaven Falling upon the present ARMY and CHVRCHES OR TWO WORDS from the LORD To Both. First to the Army YOu have had many words from the Lord many sweet invitations tenders embraces and kisses from the God of the whole earth You have been dandled upon his knees and gently led by his right hand but yet with Jesurun have you waxed sat and kicked They have been to you either words of contempt and reproach or of momentary excellency and good like the morning dew that by the glorious sun of outward good and prosperity have wasted and consumed away Yet behold one kiss more one cord of love more drawing you peradventure the last word of good you shall have I am at first to rebuke you then to advise you In the reprehension of you I shall tell you what you are viz. The executioners of Gods wrath and vengeance you are men conversant in the lower-most parts of the earth in hell the place of Gods wrath You are Gods sword and it is in your hand to execute wrath upon the Heathens You are skilled in the wasting Kingdoms burning Cities Towns and Villages but not in the repairing the breaches that are broken down nor closing the gaps that are made nor raising up it ruines The way of peace you have not known you have declined the steps that lead to that blessed centre the foundations of love and peace are not founded and bottomed in your hearts therefore no marvel the buildings appear not Love and goodness meekness and gentleness cross your designs of greatness pomp glory safety and security You cannot make salvation your walls and bulwarks You cannot sing the Day of the Lord is not yet come upon you we have a strong City and yet without gates You cannot see Jerusalem inhabited as a Town without walls You cannot march forth like the virgins of Zion in their dances nor with Noahs dove return with an olive leaf in your mouth You have for many years faced the Nation with a sharp glittering sword in your hands executing vengeance but have not appeared in the majesty and brightness of God and thereby gathered them up into him Object But you may object and say Why what can we do have we a Will of our own thus to act forth that glory and brightness of God Answ No in no wise It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that sheweth mercy But you pretend it is God that acts you and carries you forth to act for the People and to be a wall between them and ruine and upon this account you break through all opposition and answer what ever is objected against your actions being in themselves as you your selves confess unlawful You pretend you are not mercenary and servile in the work you do but free and volunteer and all is for God and the People otherwise you would leave off A company of hypocrites and carnal Christians you are that plainly act the contrary Hath not God by a mighty hand of his own and through an unexpected way made you this day the lords and rulers of the Nation that all freely or forcedly pay tribute unto you serve and bow to you Is not the great Councel of the Nation your Councel your Election Are not all their actings and what ever is by them brought to the birth that which hath been first begotten and bred within you Have not you prescribed a pattern for the removal of the King and judgment upon his party and the house of Lords to be useless and they oppressing creatures and have not the great Councel writ after it Nay are not you soared so high that now we may truly say If any of the people of the Nation are in captivity if any Saint afficted it is you that afflict and oppress them either because you will have it so or neglect the relieving of them though you may and can All your pretences Oaths and Covenants have preached forth thus much to us if the Lord should ever set us up in authority O how would we relieve the oppressed help the fatherless What a joy would we
the Kingdom of Heaven God is coming upon you as a thief in the night of your beating your fellow servants eating and drinking until you are drunk and will plunder you of all you have and cast you into outer darkness you have a will within and among you that rules and reigns this will the Lord steal from you in the night and leave you none at all but his will shall do all and carry on all and be in you all And thus doth the Kingdom of God come not with observations saying Lo here is Christ or lo there for behold it is within you and thus shall the Kingdom of God take place and all Kingdoms bow and come in to it This is the onely King and Kingdom that shall be set up and there shall be but one in all the earth This is the time when God takes to him his great power and reign and then shall you be ashamed of all your doings And as you have cut off much of the unrighteousness of men and gross corruption of the world so shall the Lord in this day cut off all your righteousness holiness goodness beauty and comeliness leaving you none at all but you shall be the vilest among men 2. There is a second judgment which is proper to you and that you shall finde mentioned Zech. 13.7 8. Awake O sword against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow and I will turn my hand upon the little ones And it shall be that in all the land saith the Lord two parts thereof shall be cut off and dye but the third shall be left therein Note the word his hand shall be turned against the little ones Two parts of you and two parts of the Land and Nation shall be cut off and destroyed God hath used you in this work you have wounded destroyed and slaughtered multitudes of people Captains mighty men and nobles have you cut off in one day Thus the Day of the Lord is begun and you see it not this is the day of Judgment and you say it is afar off Joel 3.12 13 14. Let the Heathen be wakened c. and Vers 14. Multitudes multitudes in the valley of decision for the Day of the Lord is neer in the valley of cutting off God hath rouzed up the Nation out of that careless and secure posture in which they lay God is a disquieting the whole earth multitudes in the valley of slaughter people gather and aslemble to this destroying Angel People muster their forces and march along with this destroyer they delight in blood and thus the people are consumed for their parts and destroyed out of the Land and blood toucheth blood And yet in these is the design of God carryed on in a slaughtering the pride of all flesh in putting a final period to the credit repute excellency goodness hopes and comforts of man blasting all that outward glory because the Spirit of the Lord hath blown upon it and now every man beginneth to be weary and ashamed of himself and of all others and doth hug and embrace to them a naked pure and divine God yea cry out creatures have been our destruction men have undone us we have built our hope joy and peace upon the sands O how have we bin deceived O how vile is every man how have we called good evil and evil good O how have we deified those which had any good holines or righteousness dwelling in them burying God the goodnes and holiness wrapt up in that earth and dwelling in those houses of clay and heathen-like have changed the truth of God into a lye worshipped and served the creature more then the Creator God blessed for ever 2. Now as I have rebuked you viz. that evil in you am I in the second place to counsel you and therein not I but the Lord And this is two-fold 1. To cast off your filthy polluted garments to wear your garments of blood no longer 2. To become a white Army clothed in white linnen therein following the Prince of Peace First Cast off your filthy polluted garments shake your selves from the dust strip your selves of your bloody garments leave off contending you have a long time been disciplined in war to the ruine of your selves and others And as you have ruined and killed others so the sword of the Lord hath killed you and stained your pride and glory self-interest self-preservation the outward liberties of you and the people You must dye to your outward peace and liberty and lay down your lives and thereby take it up again yea I mean all you that are the little ones of Christ shall thus have power as well as the man Christ to lay down your lives and take them up again Come with me my friends and dear hearts come with me from the Lions den from the fury wrath destruction and violence that have dwelt in your borders Come beat your swords into plow shares say to the people We will no more oppress you we will no more fight you O my hearts let the oppressed lord go free you have taken the Lord captive for these many years your God and King on high is your prisoner he preaches peace to the Heathens and compassion to the Nations and yet you take him captive and you preach blood contention and make laws to destroy every man that dislikes your government it must be called treason that you might thereby kill all that do oppose you What still sheding of blood Are you not wearyed in your vanities When when shall nothing binde but love Object But if we should thus leave off sighting our Liberties and all that we have striven for to obtain these many years will fall to the ground our righteous cause dye and the people return either to their former bondage or to Anarchy and Confusion and the godly party become the prey of their and the Lords enemies Ans In answer hereto I could first tell you that which every man knows That though you rule the people still remain in bondage and the righteous souls are cut off and many Saints afflicted and persecuted for their zeal to God and worshipping him according to their Consciences which may sufficiently discover your pretended zeal for God and how little truth there is in it but I forbear And in answer to your scruple know That the way to the pure and upright Government of the great God among and towards men is by Anarchy and Confusion This doctrine is strange yet true That the only way God hath declared he will use in the promoting and carrying on that design of greatness and Majesty he is intended to advance in the world is by depopulating defacing and wasting Kingdoms and People and this design of God hath been actually carryed on among us God hath hastened to this work of his in our days and his Charet wheels have run swiftly this way When we build a new house if there be an old one in the room we
first pull that down and make it a desolation and then lay a sure foundation for a more glorious one Thus doth God Your house saith he shall be left unto you desolate The people boasted in the Temple God had a Temple to build Well saith God I will first destroy yours desolation shall first attend your worldly earthly Temple God hath now a pure glorious House to build a pure Government to which the Nations must all bow and bring their glory to Now the Saints that are under dark and cloudy dispensations say Come let us govern and rule and we will rule for the Lord but they alas by reason of their darkness patch and peece up a Government made up of the Laws and Statutes that our forefathers in their days not partakers of our light or rather the Lords in us formed and made and their Reformation is a retreating back to prestine purity but not a going forward pressing after that purity and glory which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor entred into the heart of man to conceive For further testimony see Isai 24. the whole Chapter especially 20 21 22 23 verses Chap. 26.20 21. Chap. 65.15 16 23. Zeph. 3.8 9. where you may plainly read that when the Lord will do his great work when all shall confess to him and every knee bow when his glory shall be lifted up and peace and love shall dwell in the hearts of men and women and no hurting in Gods holy mountain That destruction shall go before and the high and lofty ones shall be brought low a consumption will the Lord bring and make a short work in all the earth Object But it may be said and that by honest hearts That Anarchy and Confusion is that aspersion which the world casts upon the Saints by reason of the changes the Lord makes in the Government of the Nation and the people of God conceive themselves wronged in it and will you own that which they disclaim Answ I am against Anarchy utterly as that which hath no Order and Government and the dissolver of all Order but yet as it leads to the setting up of a pure righteous and everlasting Government I quietly and contentedly submit to it and behold the strange and marvellous actings of the Lord in it and there feasting my self with those dainties that are secretly involved in those black and dark dispensations and in this confusion finde a sweet and blessed Order begun in me and behold the Lord bringing it forth to the view of the world that every eye may see him and all shut their mouths at him 2. That you would remain naked and sensless before the Lord and men to be as helpless creatures You could be content many of you peradventure to be naked before the Lord but not before men O then say you will the world trample upon us and we shall be destroyed and that without remedy and make our selves a reproach and contempt to all Nations when we shall thus freely and voluntarily resign up our selves Wives Children City Country and Nation into the Fathers hands and so to have no Wife Child Servant or Habitation yea no Husband Parent or Master but what is in the Fathers resignment To have no Keeper of the Vineyard but the Lord no Watchman but the Watchman of Israel to have no bulwarks and no walls but Salvation Freedom and Liberty from on high to have a strong City and yet without Gates To be presented to the Lord and men as creatures undone broken in their estates glory and repute having nothing to live upon but what the Ravens by the Word of the Lord bring morning and evening to them beholding all the vessels of the earth broken to pieces and not a potsheard left to take up coals withal You must lose all part with all have nothing be nothing to God to the world Have nothing but what the barrel of meal and cruse of oyl affordeth a famine being in the Land upon the Prophet Teacher mighty men and men of war upon the Captains and men of strength and no bread but in the Lord nor water but in this living fountain 2. My counsel is That you would come forth clothed with pure and white linnen with the man God or the God-man in your arms dressed with divine attire clothed with embrodered garments yea of needle-work of all curious workmanship and this work is not yours but the Lords in which you are onely to wait until the Lord bring forth his name in you in which day you shall go forth bearing to men the meekness quietness peace love and goodness of God as you did once administer to your brethren destruction misery wrath and judgment and as you soar up into God so shall you in the majesty of this God heal and cure the Nations even by the leaves that this tree of life shall yeeld and thus shall ye become men of another garb men of another dress and you shall be named by a new name which the Lord our God shall name new Jerusalem shall be written upon you and there shall be no goings out not a thought of man not a word of man that name shall be mentioned no more unless as an abhorring to all the Israel of God The earth shall cease to yeeld her fruit man shall give forth no longer he shall be emptiness unto the Lord vanity shall be written upon every thing that remains and all things shall sound forth God a trumpet shall not blow that cannot eccho forth the Lord and this shall be the great conquest and the great reward That we our selves are conquered and brought in subjection to the Lord That whereas after all our victories and successes there still remained Creature and God now there remaineth after this success and victory God and nothing of Creature And whereas you were the fear of men when you were gift with a sword so now you are swordless and manless you are the love and good will of the people and what you are you are to the Lord and for the Lord not to nor for your selves Object But you may object and say This is a happy time were it in our days were it to be fulfilled upon us but the time is not yet Answ All that dye shall live and all that live shall dye They that now have neither house land credit profit repute glory wife childe brother and sister but having had all do now part with all shall find all these in God And they that have these as you have in abundance shall lose all and be without all You that cease from your own honor shall enjoy far more in God and cease as to your offices among men shall obtain greater in God and from a common Soldier shall become a Captain and from a Captain a General and from a General to be One with the great God of Heaven and Earth who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords And for the time behold it is
Fire from Heaven Falling upon the Present Army and Churches OR TWO WORDS FROM THE LORD To Both. Held forth to the Understanding of those that make not flesh their arm and whose hope the Lord is that cease from Man a piece of earth whose breath is in his nostrils As also to the terror and astonishment of all those who lean upon the broken staff of Egypt and trust in Horses and strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and joy in the shadow of men and cry to themselves The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord. By a MAN of their COUNCEL Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel Jer. 3.23 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first Love Revel 2.4 LONDON Printed in the day of Battel and year of Slaughter 1649. To his Excellency Thomas Lord Fairfax With all the Officers and Soldiers of the ARMY And to all the Churches visible and outward whatsoever May it please your Excellency with you all WHat I have heard seen and understood is presented to you in this book it craves your attention because it relates to you It hath the boldness to cry aloud and not to spare to shew the Lords Hoast their transgression and the house of Jacob their sin It breaks the order and custom of the world in courting you and clothing it self with the spirit of Truth and burning judges you Peradventure it may be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to you yea to both the houses of Israel The Spirit would have it so for you must fall that you may rise dye that you may live be nothing that you may be all You have much glory to lose some of you the Glory Rule and Government of the World others of you the Glory and Rule of the Church and yet many of you have a greater Glory to possess Your wood hay and stubble shall be burnt up you shall suffer loss but ye shall be saved yet so as by fire Your loss shall be your gain and your shame your praise yet for the present you will be so shameful as to cover the glory of the Lord rather then you will lie in the dust and part with what you have by strength obtained The Epistle general To all the Kings Party with the Bishops Priests Presbyters Independents Anabaptists Seekers c. To men of all sects of all degrees of all conditions where and whatsoever Dear Hearts IF the Lord rend that vail of flesh wherewith you are covered what is herein spoken shall be plain and easie to you it shall be yours as well as mine It contains in it a fire that will try every mans work it refines and purifies the Sons of Levi that all their offerings may be in Righteousness You may behold in it the voyce that cries All flesh is as grass and all the goodliness of man as the flower of the field It preaches forth the Love of God and drives poor creatures to an abhorring of themselves in their murdering destroying and revengeful way That the Wolf may lye down with the Lamb and the Lyon eat straw with the Ox and no hurting in all the holy Mountain I have to do in this book with the Army and Churches which contains a great part of the Nation and the Sentence of the Lord passed against both and Judgment begun at the House of God I have presented it to your view that you may know the design of God in these latter days viz. to plead with all flesh and throughly to purge his floor Ye that are men of several forms dressed with several attire different and various in Religion may yet unite and be one in the Spirit and Power of Jesus when he shall come stealing upon you and plunder you of all that you now or have gathered to your selves and lead you from one dispensation to another from strength to strength and from glory to glory until you eat bread and drink wine now in the Kingdom of God The Lord is in your darkness and provides for you in the wilderness Therefore first to you that are the Royal Party know this The King is an Image of God a lively figure of the King of Kings but you in your darkness are enthralled to the Idea and outward form yea to the weakness and imperfection of it and thereby kept from that truly Noble and Royal Spirit that freely flows from the Lord the represented to all the Royal Priesthood You so much deifie the soveraignty of a man that only bears forth what of God is given in that you rob the Lord the mighty not giving and bowing to that All-might though the curse is threatned and before you executed on those that make flesh their arm Yea this Power when sometime exercised against the Child Jesus is by you justified and no room in the Inn when he is brought forth among you And to you the Bishops and Priests who are a dark figuring out of the true Bishop and over-seer of the soul yet you feed your selves and not the Flock preaching and praying in a formal customary way stinting your selves and others in all your duties going not in your selves nor suffering those that will endeavoring to quench the spirit that rises up in opposition to those tyes and bonds that leads it captive And to you the Presbyterian Party that to be more excellent then your fathers make long prayers having great shews of Reformation and greater zeal and larger actings for God then those before you yet sit down satisfied with your selves having thus painted over the Sepulchres of your fathers and with them assemble your power and authority to stop that River of God which flows to the sons of men if not running in your channel Yea you of the Independent Party to write a fairer Copy then all these separate from their society as unclean and unholy and yet assuming to your selves the priviledg of an outward holy seed and all that spring from your unholy holy loins to be interessed with your selves in these promises though the Lord hath pronounced Judgment against all outward and carnal marks and distinctions as thereby differencing the Lords People disclaiming all right not derived from that truth and glory within you which is truth and needs not that any man teach you And you the Anabaptists to make a stricter separation then these before you begin from and of your selves to set up that carnal outward way which God hath thrown down and to set up John the Baptist in the room of Christ though he tells you his Ministry and Doctrine must decrease and Christs increase yet will you sit down under the cloudiness and twi-light of John and not assemble to the Day and Morning Christ who is risen upon the earth Yea though the Spirit by the fore-mentioned Messenger tells you This is not the
at hand Summer is neer even at the door for the Fig tree putteth forth her green figs and the Vines with the tender Grapes give a good smell every creature hath a sweet smell of God in it God is written in lively characters upon every creature in heaven and earth There is in all these more or less a giving and resigning up to the sweet and gracious dispose of the Lord As the Lord passes before them so are they ashamed and confounded in themselves for when he appeareth who can â—…anâ—… By which you may know the Day of the Lord draws neer therefore say not it is afar off for it is neer and shall overtake you even ere you are aware and your souls shall be made like the charets of Aminadah A Second WORD TO THE CHURCHES YOu have a name that you live you have the image and representation of God amongst you you assume to your selves the name of the Churches of God Churches of the Gospel of clear light and yet live in the darkness and cloudiness of your own spirits You have made flesh and forms your habitation you have offered upon every mountain and sacrificed under every green tree and bowed to graven images You have in truth so hug'd and embraced the outmost and lowermost dispensations of God as you will not nor durst not leave them for the enjoyment of a pure and naked God You have known Christ after the flesh and have eat and drunk with him in this fleshly way you have seen the miracles that he hath wrought and the wonders he hath done among men and you by him have repented and turned from your own works of righteousness to the righteousness of God as thus held forth unto you And you have had much sweetness and comfort under all these for the Lord hath lived in them Now saith the Lord unto you Behold I go to my Father I withdraw from the creature and ascend into my own glory into my pure self I leave the earth I will abide no more in the Temple I will forsake my dwelling place Note the word God doth sometimes leave his dwelling place I have made my abode and dwelt in Water Bread and Wine in the observation of days in praying fasting reading writing preaching hearing I will now leave them all O then sorrow fills your hearts and you begin to weep and lament seeing the flesh of Christ crucified before you hung between two theeves but his Holy One cannot dye nor see corruption but his flesh is abased shamed disgraced the Lord gives up those garments and vestures wherewith he was clothed to the moth to devour to the enemy to make a prey of and the worldly Christian parts his garments and casts lots for them and rejoyces in the spoil and embalms the body of the Lord with sweet spices though the soul and life is departed from it yea though it be but a meer carcass the spirit of Christ leaving it yet this poor man loves it as much as ever delights and pleases himself in it and Christ being dead and buried you go to his Sepulchre wherein he is layd seeking for him and Mary-like ask the Angels where your Lord is they answer He is not here he is risen why seek ye the living among the dead You go to fasting and prayer and enquire saying Did you see the Lord No say they He is not here He was here for three days but he is risen and gone Then you go from one Church to another from society to society and enquire but he is not here say they he is risen Then you go to the rudiments of the world to elementary things and they give you the same answer saying He was here but he is risen behold the linnen clothes and the napkin in which he lay you may see his grave-clothes his outward garments his several and sundry appearances but he is gone he hath left them all Then you begin to be afraid you know not what to do now you have lost your Lord and there is nothing now remaining to take pleasure in and to enjoy but a few grave-clothes some old cast-off garments no place now to live in but a desolate and forsaken house a habitation for Dragons and a Court for Owls a place which the wilde beasts of the field have made their rest Object But you may object and say We are a Church formed according to the pattern in the Mount according to the Scriptures prescribed by Christ and the Apostles and in obedience to these we walk and abide Answ You are much below even all the visible Churches on earth that pure and primitive order in the Apostles days you have not that pure infallible doctrine to deliver as they had nor that clearness of the Spirit poured down upon you the Holy Ghost not falling upon you in cloven tongues as upon them nor that oneness of minde as to sell all and lay it down at the Apostles or Churches feet you have not so learned Christ you cannot do greater works then ever Christ himself did when he was upon earth and that because Christ is ascended Yours at the best is but an earthly weak erring imperfect Ministry a worldly Sanctuary a Baptism of Water not of the Spirit that which as John said decreases not increases a doctrine which because of the weakness of it cannot go beyond Repentance Faith Hope Baptisms Resurrection of the dead and eternal Judgment with laying on of hands All which are but milk for babes yet you are always contenting and satisfying your selves with such a baby-condition not going in your selves nor suffering without offence those that would nay you will not move a step beyond these but asperse as erroneous and blasphemous all such that pass through hope and faith to sight and enjoyment through the Flesh into the Spirit and it is unseemly to name the word perfection as attainable among you But further were you as perfect and compleat in all things as the Apostles were yet must you with such a Ministry and Church cease and give in for behold a greater then the Apostles and Prophets is here here is one standing among you whom you know and see not as yet that will not own Paul Peter and John in this Apostleship there being no manner of co-parnership in it and that it may appear that the Apostolical Ministry and Doctrine was but to continue its time and age doth Christ himself when upon earth manifest as much to us Matth. 28.20 Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and behold I am with you alway or every day even to the consumption of this age So the Greek reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the singular number not in the plural number as in other places where it is used for ever the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Peter bears witness hereto 2 Pet. 3.12 13. Looking for and hastening unto the coming of the
day of the Lord wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved c. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Peter though an Apostle and Minister of the Churches and to the world yet he expected a more glorious Church and Ministry for you must not understand by heavens and elements is here meant those visible to us as if they should be burnt up or heavens and earth to be that which you behold and live in but Churches and Ministry Doctrines and teachings of and by men Yea John will lead you to the knowledge of this Rev. 21.3 22 23. Behold the tabernacle of God is with men and God himself shall be with them c. And I saw no temple therein for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it He is a weake man and a weak Christian that is under the Ministry of the Apostles that hath any man to teach him or is under any teaching of God by men And my dear friends and brethren let me tell you without offence that you are not under the second Covenant but under a Covenant of the outward man under the Compact of the Letter untill you cease teaching one another and preaching one to the other but are taught of God onely So runs the terms of that Covenant observe it Hebr. 8.10 11. In that Covenant when persons are under it they shall not say one to another brother know the Lord this is the voice of the Lord that is not This the Lord saith that man saith this is truth that is error No in this Covenant you shall know God perfectly fully and clearly O strange doctrine and horrid blasphemy will some of you my brothren say but I will bear with the fruits of your darkness And now I am to deliver to you First a word of terror and judgment and secondly of counsel and advice First Terror and Judgement I am to tell you the Lord hath cursed the Figtree he hath caused your gifts to wither you tree yeelds no more fruit your root is without sap your teachings without life your ministrations affording no peace either I say none at all but dejection and casting down or else peace temporary because of the uncertainty of your doctrine peace mixed with enmity and breakings out and a love with feare when perfect love casts out fear for fear hath torment A Saint and yet a sinner when he that is horn of God sinneth not You shall call in this old Church-way and not be heard cry and the Lord will turn from you you shall sly at the rebuke of one though you are a thousand at the rebuke of five shall ye slye untill you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain and as an Ensigne on a hill The Sun shall go down over the Prophets and the day shall be dark over them Emptiness and a shadow shall be written upon all that you 〈◊〉 This Sun and Moon of yours shall be ashamed when the Lord shall reign in mount Zion The Lord is sending leanness among you and a famine not of bread and a thirst not of water but of hearing the Word of the Lord and you shall wander from Sea to Sea from Church to Church from Society to Society from Preacher to Preacher from man to man from brother to brother from doctrine to doctrine and shall not finde the Lord you your selves shall shortly see this fulfilled upon you you shal burn your books and writings you shal see this mountain of yours forsaken and thus judgement shall follow you and a fire shall be kindled among you and burn you up And the Lord to make out tokens of his indignation against you how he hath left you as you have left him and his glory hath in these our daies visibly discovered it by a giving you up to the weakness and folly of your own hearts which hath produced and effected in you the betraying and shedding innocent blood even the blood of those whom you formerly honoured strengthning the hands of their oppressors adding affliction to affliction which the spirit of God calleth cruelty In the day that the strangers carried away captive his even Jacobs forces and foreigners entred into his even the righteous gates and casts lots upon them even thou wast as one of them thou stood'st in the cross-waies to cut off those that did escape But the day of the Lord is near as thou hast done shall it be done to thee the reward shall return upon thine owne head this innocent blood have you shed even you or most of you that call your selves the Churches of God As I do not own their boasting in or gathering to themselves an arm of flesh and by a warlike way to endeavour to free themselves and establish righteousness in the Land So I cannot but testifie against the bloody unchristian-like thoughts and actions that hath been manifested in you to them And who should have thought that no sooner could liberty be given you which once were so enslaved and captived in and for the practise of your Religion that for so doing you daily suffered or in continual leopardy I say that you should seek to enslave and embondage others whom you professedly honour as righteous some to God and others of them to men save in this action But sweet and good is the hand of the Lord in this that he might thereby make a discovery of you to the World Now I shall shew you a few Reasons of the judgements of the Lord thus falling upon you 1. Because the Temple of the Lord not the Lord is your glory Every thing that God welleth in you fall down to and so fall down to Angels Saints Men Ordinances Ministers and Officers when these at the best are but Gods habitation garments of the earth and decaying vestures wherewith God cloathes himself You are satisfied that you are a Church member that you are of such and such a Congregation that you have such a Pastor that you have submitted to such an Ordinance or Ordinances O this doth tickle you I know it when I walked among you Nay it further appeares by those mean and low thoughts you have of those that are not of your Order some of you can hardly pray with them others not own them as brethren and the rest charging them with disobedience in not walking up to those withered dead and decayed things that you seek to keep alive Now as long as you remain under these dispensations the Lord in and under these should only be your glory 1 Cor. 1.31 He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Object But some of you will say Though indeed we are under all these administrations yet we glory not in them if we may be said to know our own hearts we are commanded so to do by God and we dare not sleight any injunction from the Lord. Answ I know it is here you stick
great and high-looked men of the earth You shall see the Day of the Lord upon all flesh upon all might and power you shall see all the pride of the earth stained and defaced and this shall be your joy and rejoycing And it shall then be said Behold the man the woman that gave not the glory to God Behold end see every thing that is not pure God defaced hath lost its life its blood runs to the Rocks and Mountains there to hide themselves O blessed Feast O sweet Supper nothing remaining but the Holy One Iniquity hath here an end and the terrible one is here brought low 2. This Feast is the flesh of the Whore an eating of her and a burning her with fire You know in the burnt-offerings under the Law the flesh and the fat and all was to be burnt and nothing to remain so nothing is to remain in this burnt-offering but the Lord For by Whore I understand to be any thing or person whatever that you love and delight in and go to bed to save the pure and individeble God any of those Lovers that give us our bread and our water our wool and our flax our drink and our oyâ— whatever it be that refreshes us inwardly or outwardly save God Do you joy and delight in Forms in outward Dispensations and Administrations Nay do you delight in Christ as after the flesh Do you feast your selves with the fleshly presence of Christ This shall be burnt up with fire And do you eat it up and let not ought remain There is a Strumpet within you your wisdom which is your snare your knowledg reason and will which will cause you to fall O let all be burnt up yea this will of yours let it not remain until the morning and it shall be a sweet swelling sacrifice unto the Lord let your will be terminated in God let your reason be the Lords reason and your judgment his let this affect you and the zeal of the Lords house even eat you up Secondly Let me advise that you go and return to your first husband you were first espoused to the Lord well have but one husband stray not from this man of knowledge any longer be not a stranger at home though you have played the harlot yet will your husband receive you Seek the Lord and David your King and fear the Lord and his goodness now in these latter daies Hos 3.5 This is the first thing you must do when you are come out of bondage and out of the Land of Aegypt when delivered out of the strange land ask for the Lord seek him out never leave untill you have found him even him whom your soule loveth You must seek the Lord God and then Zion If you know God perfectly you will know men as they are but this is the reason men and Saints are so much deceived because they first seek the Church and then Lord men and then God But were you fully and prefectly acquainted with God you would know men and things distinctly O you would easily learn to distinguish between the light of God and the darkness of men between the emptiness and vanity of men and things and fulness that is in God God is that blessed key that opens the door to every creature giving a perfect and distinct knowledge of them creatures shall be no more then creatures to you Did you know the Lord by these espousals of his were this the mariage day to you it would work out all strangenes that is in your souls to this God Hos 2.17 For I will take the names of Balaam out of her mouth and they shall no more be remembred by their names They shall no more call God my Lord but my husband vers 16. There is not such a discovery such an intimate understanding of secrets between the master and servant as between the husband and wife The servant knows nothing but as it relates to his dutie and obedience as it relates to the servitude he is under Well saith the Lord I will free you of this bondage you and I will not be strangers but familiar friends It shall be no more I and you but you and I one we will have one table one house one heart one minde and by the effecting this work I will doe it First I will first bring you into the wilderness I will have you alone your lovers shal no more remain before me you shall be where there is no path no way no Church no Temple no company O then saith God you will be glad of company then society with me will be your delight will in that day step in and shew my self and then shall you freely come in worshipping and serving of me Secondly The Lord will in this day reveale and discover himself in a full and glorious manner Your vailes shall then be rent and your coverings removed then shall ye say Lo this is our God we have waited for him This is the invisible One whom no man have seen nor can see whom flesh and blood hath not revealed this consuming fire is he this everlasting burning is our husband O then shall you loath your selves for all your abominations you shall then cease crying up that fleshly knowledge wisdom understanding teaching and hearing which you now so much strive after that it shall be an abhorring to you Isai 66.23 24. And it shall come to pass that from one new Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me for their worm shall not dye neither shall their fire be quenched and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh You shall go forth out of this holy City and you shall look for the Praying Fasting Preaching and Reading men and women for all the carnall worshippers and you shall see nothing but the carcasses of these men remaining and they shall stink in your nostrils and be an abhorring to you For Behold the Lord creates new heavens and a new earth and the former shall be remembred no more THE POST-SCRIPT Reader in the Flesh and Disciple in the Spirit I Was encouraged thus to write to the Army and Churches because Michael the great Prince is standing up and it is a time of trouble such as never was since there was a Nation and yet at this time a people are delivered and they are found written in the Book Would you know them who they are Look among the writings of the Spirit and that book will discover them This Book that I have in weakness written tells you of a time of war desolations and forsakings of hoasts of men of an Army of brave spirited-men zealous professing men an Army that hardly any Army can write after them lifted up to Heaven and yet brought down to Hell Of Churches forsaken and made a desolation yet reformed Churches Candlesticks that hold out more then their Fathers did Yet you hear of a people standing upon the same earth and sea clothed with the Sun and the Moon under their feet that are at rest that are entred into Canaan and passed through the river Jordan dry-shod I have written to you because it is the time that men are running to and fro and knowledg is increased That you the Nations and kindreds of the earth fleshly societies may see the Son of man coming in the Clouds and weep and wail because of him That you that seek great things for your selves glorious structures and buildings of men a City made by hands may know the Son of man the Emmanuel God with and in us hath not in all these where to lay his head As you hear in this a house fallen because built up on the sands of a City whose inhabitants are sick weak dying men that are flesh and not spirit So if the Spirit will permit me to write again you shall hear of a house that like Mount Zion shall never be removed and that because it is founded on a Rock a City the inhabitant whereof shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity they shall weep no more God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes There shall be no more thence an infant of days nor an old man that hath not filled his days the childe shall dye a hundred years old the full age of a man or more They shall be all from the least to the greatest perfect in knowledg come unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ But the Sinner being an hundred years old the old professor the man that hath known Christ after the flesh for a whole age and more that hath trotted up and down all his life after Eli the old man the man Adam the flesh that is corrupt shall be accursed shall like the barren tree wither and be cut down FINIS
be to the righteous and terror to the wicked How would we have separated between the precious and the viâ—e And this have the people long expected from your hands but behold oppression ernesty and revenge slaying the innocent and righteous ones whom God would have kept alive You have discovered the covering of Judah and treacherously slain your friend and brethren and given up Judah to the sword and Israel to captivity And in that day did the Lord of hoasts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth and behold joy and gladness slaying oxen and killing sheep eating flesh and drinking wine giving gifts and taking rewards and thus your are feasted with the blood of the righteous and drunk with their blood until you fall and never rise again Behold Tythes the great oppression of the Nation with its treble damages recoverable of the People if refused though you rule and your own consciences with others are against it yet will you have it so Who would have thought that you would have maintained such a company of Priests whom God as you know and say hath spued cut of his mouth and yet that you should support their Diana and nourish those dark places of the Land called and reputed of many the two eyes of the Land the fountain and seed-plots of all good learning and become Doctors Masters and Fellows in Babels arts and sciences bringing stone timber and morter to the building that City and Tower whose top may reach to Heaven But this is a fruit of the blood of the Saints which you have shed and a return of praise to the Holy One who in his descension upon men was crucified by you Nay how can you suffer faithful members to be excluded the House for professing and asserting the pure Divinity of God no way mixt or compounded That God is not three but one and not many gods as you in your imaginations think That there is no such thing in God though to men as Father Son and Spirit but all one in God though not in man and is thereby onely distinct to men and that to the darkness of men not to the light of God within them which reads God under another notion for that Soul beholds him all love excellency and goodness and this in all his ways to all in all upon all and that this God neither is or can be divided not admitting a seam in his garment Nay what enmity is there in your spirits or at least in your actions to Papists not suffering them or men in gross darkness viz. the Prelates who being in the dark and under cloudy dispensations of God should therefore have the going forth of the morning among them that they might be brought out of darkness into light and won by that love and meekness that is or should be in you to them yea I say not admitting them into the liberty and freedom with your selves I know your hearts you could many of you tolerate Papists and Prelates among you but that the Nation look upon them under such a gross notion that you to please men dare not do it thinking hereby your repute and credit among men will fall to the ground and be esteemed by many such your selves And therefore to retain and keep up your glory among men will you break the rules of love mercy and goodness and make shipwrack of your own and others consciences Yea you can command the People to fast and restrain the Nation from working on those days annexing penalties as formerly to the breach thereof thereby bringing in those legal and Mosaical Fastings Jewish and National which Christ by a more pure and glorious ministration hath abolished Nay let me discover what I know of you viz. That many if not the most of you are wholy dead in your selves to fastings of that nature your souls loathing it but onely that the Nation may judg you to be religious and zealous to make every one your proselite and not deem you to be for such an universal toleration of all sects and sorts of men in their religion until the day and pure glory of God break forth causing all darkness to sly before it yea turning the Sun into darkness and the Moon into blood not admitting any thing save this pure light then to be and converse among men I say for this cause do you thus dissemble with the Nation and seem as if you accounted the peoples fastings a sacrifice that God accepts Object But you may peradventure say through the hardness and obduracy of your hearts This is sedition and a stirring up and enraging the people against you Answ Though I might or could by means procure it I would not lift up or have a sword lifted up against you nor a hand in wrath and indignation The worst mischief I would do you were it in my power would be to create a heart of love and peace among you to engrave upon all your hearts and upon the hearts of the whole Nation an entire perfect union and agreement in God and a beating of your swords into plow shares and your spears into pruning hooks and to learn war no more I am for peace but you are for war and in times of peace shed blood therefore hath the Lord prepared you a cup to drink and you shall drink deep of it Death shall swallow you up alive and the grave shall open for you and hell shall be your portion because they that have killed with the sword shall be killed by the sword and they that have led into captivity shall go into captivity This is a sweet word wait for the fulfilling of it The Lord will destroy you all the Lord will give you blood to drink you shall drink and be drunken with your own blood It is a mystery and you it may be understand it not and therefore admire it Remember you not the voyce of the Church of old In the way of thy judgments have we waited for thee O Lord Great is the mystery of godliness thus it is You have shed the blood of thousands thousands you have have wasted Cities Countries c God hath provided a double portion for you and both of judgment and destruction The one is to destroy your flesh to give it up to the sword A second to cut off two parts of you out of the land of the living First The Lord will destroy your flesh and make a great slaughter among you even of your reason wisdom judgment credit glory repute all that is flesh in you to lay your glory in the dust to turn your wisdom into folly to burn up your righteousness holiness to give you a new heart to destroy that warlike envious and bloody spirit that is in you to create peace in all your dwellings and love in all your hearts not suffering any thing of the earth to have a being among you in no wise admitting flesh and blood entrance into
you cannot get off it O it is a command of God and you dare not omit it To which I reply First That when God had an outward Tabernacle and Temple Church and Ministery as under the Law he was very exact with the people in the observation thereof a Pin must not be left out nor a Naile out of its place but Looke that thou make them after the patterne which was shewed thee in the mount Exod. 25.40 And this day shall you observe for ever in your generations Exod. 12.14 And this the tenth day of the first month vers 3. And the seventh year should be a Sabbath to them and the fiftieth year a year of Jubile Levit. 25.4 11. There must be no swerving from the observation of these Secondly When the Lord leaves this house and will build another Cloathed with greater glory he tyes not his people to the outward observation of things he is not now as formerly exact in them Doth not command them to be baptized with water but into the Spirit Christ tells them They shall be baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire commands that they be baptized into the Name of Father Son and Spirit viz into the power and glory of these three and yet one into a clear knowledg and understanding of these And for the Supper doth not enjoyn them to the strict and absolute observation of it nor when as under the law such a day shall you observe the Passeover but now As oft as you do it do it in remembrance of me not telling them how oft they should do it But how long must this eating bread and drinking wine last during your continuance in the dark until the Lord comes and be a feast of fat things in the spirit and life to you until he be revealed from Heaven consuming this dross and earthly knowledg within you and then shall you drink no more of this fruit of the Vine but drink it new in the Kingdom You used signs and tokens of his death c. had many letters representing him but now he is come what need these he is come himself even his sweet self nay further as the Lord did not then binde his people to outwards so were they used by the Apostles as in them they might become all to all stoop to them and speak them in their own language and as children to deal with them 3. Those Churches with their glory ministry and all were to dye and wither away apostatize and fall back and this for time times and half a time as the Scripture plentifully witnesseth and the holy City under foot and when Christ cometh shall he finde faith on the earth And this should be until the Kingdoms of this world become the Lords his Christs and God take to him his great reign yea till the Tabernacle of God shall be with men and a new Heaven and Earth appear and God make all things new and this is the Church and the Ministry which the Scripture tells you shall be set up after the Apostatizing days Therefore dear hearts binde not your selves where God hath not bound you be free in what the Lord hath made you free 2. A second Reason why the judgment of the Lord shall from Heaven fall upon you is because you by reason of your narrow thoughts and apprehensions keep the Lord Jesus prisoner will not permit him to go any where or dwell in any save your selves You are offended if the Lord break forth in a further manifestation of Glory to others not of your rank and order Lord saith the Presbyter here thou must abide this is thy dwelling place never remove from hence And here saith the Independent And here saith the Anabaptist c. Do you think that he that hath the key of David that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth will become your prisoner No no his glory he will not give to another The Lord if he rend the vail of this fleshly Temple and pass through it into the highest Heavens you will serpent-like wait for this man-childe brought forth by the woman viz. weakness that you may devour it and therefore you cry out Lo here is Christ and lo there and question people saying Are you a member of a visible Church of what society and so lessen that comfort and peace or at least endeavor it that poor souls have in God by reason they are not joyned to your societies But in all their afflictions he is afflicted the Lord in this weak brother or sister is afflicted and beareth all he beareth and thus you imprison and afflict the Lord himself 3. Because it is your shame to live upon a naked God to have the Kingdom of God onely within you you are unwilling to leave outward bread and wine for God the bread and water of life and he that is ashamed of God of him shall God himself be ashamed What say you shall we by men be accounted no more praying fasting men hearing and preaching men no more to weep and mourn but all tears to be wiped from our eyes to observe no Sabbath but the Lord God and to call him holy a delight honorable not to think our own thoughts nor speak our own words O this is your shame namely to leave the water in the cisterns and that run in the channels for that great river and fountain whose streams make glad the City of God It is to you a greater shame to be at your fathers house with the fatted calf then in the Country to feed swine and to eat their husks therefore he that helpeth shall fall and he that is holpen shall fall down and they shall all fail together II. A second word and that of advice and counsel First That you would assemble your selves to the Supper of the great God and this saith the Angel the Messenger of God that stands and abides in the glory of God Rev. 19.17 And I saw an Angel standing in the Sun and cryed with a loud voyce saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven Come and gather your selves together unto the Supper of the great God The Lord invites you the great and mighty God woos you by his Messenger by another appearance of his My advice is That you would go tarry not and that you may understand the Supper what it is 1. The flesh and blood of the mighty men of the earth the power and authority of the rulers of the world which are bound in chains Rev. 19.18 That ye may eat the flesh of Kings and the flesh of Captains c. Ezek. 39.18 19. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the Princes of the earth of Rams of Lambs c. And ye shall eat fat until ye be full and drink blood until ye be drunken of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you You shall fill and satisfie your selves with the judgment of the Lord upon the