the rockes will not rend to cover you nor the mountaines move to hide you so terrible is the day of the dreadfull Lord God of Hosts and none like it that even his breath shall shake terribly the foundations of the earth and the Isles of the Sea shall role as ships in a tempest the Jealousie of the heavens shall send forth their winds which shall stirre up the depth of the Sea and she shall spue out of her wombe the dead bodyes which her rage devoured upon the earth also the grave shall give up her dead that all both great and small may arise and stand before the great Judgement of the Lord The trumpet of the Lord hath sounded and is sounding Blessed is he that heareth the proclamation of the voyce of the Angel unto the witnesse and have a right and a part in the first Resurrection Rev 20.6 on him the second death shall have no power but such shall reigne with Christ a thousand yeares whose day is begun in the earth he that hath an eare let him heare what the Spirit saith and when the thousand yeares are finished Rev 20.9 the whole number of the deceivers of the earth shall be utterly devoured with the fire of God out of Heaven A dreadfull found to the wicked I have heard the proclamation of the voyce of the Archangel of God and the noyse of a Joyfull shout from Heaven of which I John beare witnesse and do hold the testimony as unto the witnesse of the Eternall Decree of God concerning that which was and is and of the Judgement which shall come overtake the wicked throughout the mountaines and the hills and the caves and the dens of the earth woe shall compasse their dwellings and Indignation and Wrath shall be placed as the bounds of their habitations who can count the sands which are set for the bounds of the Seas he also can comprehend the misery of the workers of iniquitie prepare prepare therefore to meet the Lord by true and unfained repentance for of a truth the Lord God of Heaven and Earth is arisen and rising in dread to touch the whole earth 2 Pet 3.4 5 6 7. say not therefore in your hearts Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation as a people willing to yeeld unto ignorance and voyd of the knowledge How that by the Word of God the Heavens were of old and the Earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished But the Heavens and the Earth which are now by the same Word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of Judgement and perdition of ungodly men To your own therefore returne departing from your fore-fathers traditions examine your selves try your selves prove your hearts and see what you have which will be able to stand in the day of tryall and not consume in the burning fire of the Lord God whereby the Heavens shall be set as in flames 2 Pet 3.10 and the Earth and Elements shall melt with the fervent heare thereof and all the workes that are in the earth shall be burnt up and seeing then that all these things shall be quickly dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse Feare feare dread and tremble tremble before the Lord God of Heaven and Earth all ye hard and cruell high and lofty bow down ye Cedars of the hills and come down ye strong Oakes of the mountaines unto the lowlinesse of the valeys the Lord God will stop the wayes of the Savages of the Forests and place Strength in the path of the Lyons of the Wildernesse and their fiercenesse shall no longer devoure the prey the strong shall starve with hunger woe to the Deserts the Lyon for her whelps and the Beare for her young as being robbed as being spoyled and destroyed they shall roare together they shall run and not have remedy they shall seek and not have rest for behold the word of the Lord shall be accomplished in the Earth upon the Herds and concerning the flocks upon the Shepherds and upon the Pastors and the end shall be the consumption of all flesh which hath corrupted its way upon the face of the earth before the Lord and with this cometh the determination of time which shall never bring end to the torment of the wicked and whosoever worketh and loveth a lye O Earth Earth heare therefore thy warning and all the Inhabitants thereof give eare to the sound of the voyce in the day of your visitation the commandement standeth not far from you neither is the Word separate in another Nation so as that you should say Our arme reacheth not over the Sea to bring it from thence and who can touch Heaven to bring it down from thence but the Word is very nigh unto you Deut 30.14 in your mouth and in your heart that ye may also heare it and do it 2 Pet 1.19 Therefore unto the more sure word of Prophesie whereunto ye do well if ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawne and the day-starre arise in your hearts The Light which through Judgement and condemnation in the secret parts of your minds and hearts preacheth and prophesieth wrath woe and the just indignation of God against all unrighteousnesse this sure word is nigh you and with you in your beds in the fields and streets and market places the Light which convinceth you of lying and swearing and double-dealing and all manner of wickednesse if you love it and lissen unto the checks of it in your hearts and minds and so come to follow the Light which convinceth you in secret of lying and swearing and vaine jesting and foolish and wanton gestures and communication the Light in all your consciences wherewith you are lightened which convinceth you of your sins will lead you out of your sins and so will come to witnesse sanctified hearts unto God and you will come to feele your hearts given up unto sanctification and your minds unto the things of Gods kingdome and by the Light also you will come to discerne the two seeds and the two natures and you will grow unto the witnesse of the Judgement of the one from the promise of Sion unto the habitation of the heritage of Esau whose mountaines are places for Dragons And the other unto the Justification of life to be made partaker of the treasure of life and filled with the vertue of the Lord in wisdome and a good understanding which the world cannot receive unto the true knowledge of the Scriptures unto the witnesse of them fulfilled in you which through faith in Christ Jesus the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world Eph 5.13 are able to make one wise unto salvation
AN EPISTLE TO THE GREEKS ESPECIALLY To those in and about Corinth and Athens WITH Certain Queries propounded to the Priests and Doctors and all the rest of the Members and Officers belonging unto the two Churches of Greeks and Romans which is of concernment for the view of them all throughout the WORLD Written in Egripo in the Island of Negroponte By a Servant of the Lord J. P. LONDON Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and Mouth within Aldersgate 1661. To the Reader Friends THe Word of the Lord is the Proclamation of War onely with the wicked and the messengers thereof holds not the persons of men in contempt or scorne it casteth out the root of envy which Satan planted in the heart and fixeth the love of God for the souls inheritance which floweth in pitty and aboundeth in mercy to others He that readeth and receiveth in him also hold 〈◊〉 and he shall bear Testimony to the Truth and witnesse for God that the zeal of the Lords House is neither Envy Emulation Wrath or vain Contention Wherefore I say God who hath 〈◊〉 mercy and 〈◊〉 bountifully of the riches of his Grace unto me hath freed me from the nature of evill towards my neighbour and hath given me of his Love therewith to seek the lost from which issues the plainnesse of my Declarations and Speeches which without guile fraud or flatteries Love in simplicity holds forth the Truth in nakednesse and this will stand a Yoak to the stubborn and a Dart in the side of the rebellions The enmity is 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 He that hath an ear to heare let him heare This is verily a character of the same nature of what follows in the succedent Pages Given forth by a Friend in the Truth A lover of souls J. P. The Day will declare the Dreadfull and Mighty Work IN the Councel of the wonderfull Counceller and All mighty Father and Fountaine of Wisdom who confoundeth the Councils of the wise and the wisdome of the Fathers of this world in whose sight the prudent and learned amongst men are but as fools plotting in their works the contrivance and invention of the perpetual evil of their souls This is given forth to the only true intent that the simple hearted may be rightly informed of the way to salvation life and peace everlasting For of a truth the Lord God of Heaven and earth is arisen who for many hundreds of years hath been as a stranger upon the earth And now in this his mighty day which is broaken and breaking forth by the work of his own hand he will frustrate the tokens of lyars and make the Diviners mad and turn wise men backward and make their knowledge foolishnesse who will open a door to the simple and lead the Wayfaring men and fools in the unerring path of Righteousnesse and the deceit in the earth shall no longer stand without a heavy work as it did in the dayes of the ancient Fathers Doctors and Lawyers of the world who took from the people the key of knowledge who entred not in themselves but stood in the gap and set Bryars and Thorns in the way and hindred such as was entring The flame of the fire of the Lord will finish the course of the former times for shall it not burn in a dry Countrey And if the Nations post unto Euphrates for water to quench the fire shall not that River be also dryed up before they come there And if from thence they flye unto Jordan shall not the utter Consumption be ere they can have help from thence Behold the Lord will make a quick work in the earth Let the Nations therefore repent and now not in any upbraiding or rash judging manner but in the Councel of God as a servant by Commandement in the work of the Lord in love unspeakable to all souls I shew unto the people their states and unto the sons of men how they stand in the sight of God my testimony reaching that of God in mens consciences to the measure of the Light in all desiring only to be made manifest which when the sinner is convinced of his sins and the wicked man converted in his mind and turned from the evill of his wayes then shall they confesse of a truth the blessed day of the Lord and say Surely it was well for us that the Prophet spared not to shew unto Judah her sins and unto Jerusalem her transgressions Yea well sprang forth that day and that hour was the certain timely season of the appearance of mercy and manifestation of loving kindnesse wherein Nathan was sent to shew unto David the treachery and rebellion of his heart And now what am I that God should remember me also with the mercies of David to shew me my transgression that by his word I may be converted and healed Verily of none other do I make mention but only of the name of the Holy One and that which proceedeth from his presence declaring this Dread shewing unto all people the Door of mercy the Fountain of life the Gate of knowledge everlasting treasure of undefiled pure wisdome For as much as the Lord holdeth forth a day of visitation unto all that the whole world may be left without excuse in the day of Gods dreadful judgements when the compleat fulfilling and finishing of the time cometh to passe of the full gathering of the scattered Seed in the Fields of the Earth and full calling of his Remnant from the four windes of the Heavens throughout all Nations Kindreds Countryes Tongues and Peoples and the Lord hasteth the Reaping of the Harvest A warning to the World to repent and this to the Debtors and Captives of the house of Israel is sounded and sounding The year of Jubilee beginneth in the morning season yet a little while and your slumber will be over and the clouds of the night will passe from the sphear of your low degree which ariseth and will quickly passe over the Sun of another exalted Nation Oh how doth the day change the times the Children are become Dogs and the Dogs which were are become the glory of the earth and who hath an eye to see or a heart to believe that this is come it cometh and is at hand that the Dogs shall eat the Childrens bread and no more shall their name be a reproach among the Gentiles but their day of Son-ship shall be the Dread of the Heathen Who is he now that will set Briars in the way or Thorns in the breach of the Gap which the Lord hath made and who is he that contendeth against his maker saying why cometh this thing to passe mine hand is turned against it Ye despisers and wonder and perish behold I work a work in your dayes which if a man shall tell it unto you ye shall in no wise believe it And you that resist are but for the consumption of the fire of Gods jealousie in the day of his wrath A warning a warning
to the whole world is come it cometh it hath sounded and is sounding The mighty day of God is at hand therefore whilest you have time repent And allthough the Gentiles resist and all the Heathen every where gain-say yet the Lord will be glorified over all the world unto whom the Light is the sure message of the Most High whether they will hear or forbear AN EPISTLE TO THE GREEKS I Have heard a rumor in mine ears of a hard cry among the people Alas alas Our glory is defaced and our ancient praise and renown is utterly defamed Our wives are made the Vassals of other women and we are become slaves to a strange Nation We are no more under the Government of the Scepter which swayed our Fathers but the wills of another people works violence over us Our houses are but as habitations lent unto us and our substance and portion at pleasure may be spoyled by the hand of the Devourer Our children unto us are not as were the children of our fore-fathers in their Generations our wives and children treasure and substance is but a burden unto us when the eyes of our Lords looks over us Alas alas our misery is great and none regardeth it the sound of our cry hath reached far yet few have pondered it And the Lord said unto me Cry also among the Professors of Christian Religion even thus it is come to passe in many Regions of the earth the bondage it great and the captivity is doubled with violence and with cruelty The chains and yoaks are twice laid on and the people are under the indignation of the Lord The judgements of their adversaries lyes heavy upon their heads and their Loins are banded with the oppressions of their Rulers as with Iron and with Brasse and they cannot break the Cords to cast off their burdens and this and much more is the misery of the Greeks which their fathers iniquities first brought upon their heads in their dayes and the children of their Generations drinking of the Cup of their abominations unto this present Seed of evill doers Wherefore the hand of vengeance still toucheth their shoulders and in this manner God hath seen it equall to lay the burden upon that man which with his transgressions hath laden and pressed down the righteous soul of the Lord as a Cart is laden and pressed down with sheaves This is the end of their labours they ploughed the fields of the pleasure of their own hearts they sowed the seed of unrighteousnesse in the depth of the ground of iniquity who notwithstanding the Lord watered them with the water of adversity yet returned they not in the day of affliction wherefore of corruption they have reaped this abundance of misery YE Greeks unto whom I write for the seeds sake as a husband unto a wife not covering the diseased parts or falsly solving up the forest and most dangerous wounds not seeking to seal up your states in hidden sentences from your understandings or your conditions in parables nor to shut the door of the Kingdom against the seed of the Kingdom It hath pleased the Lord contrary to every part of the natural and desire of the carnall to lead me through some of the Countryes wherein as Sojourners you are Inhabitants among whom I did earnestly seek but could not find and then I returned to the Lord and sought with tears yet truly could not find one in a City that was worthy Ye ought to bear with me for the Truths sake nevertheless whether you will hear or forbear for the Lords sake and his seeds sake I am obliged by that which stretcheth forth love unto souls in this manner to stretch forth mine hand to draw back the Curtain that you may look to the Light which breaks through the Lattice and to remove the skirt which it folded over your nakednesse that your eye may see your filthinesse O misery misery the seed is in bondage that 's your greatest misery within the burdens of which is the ground of your misery without Consider consider and lay it to heart use diligence in the search of your hearts for the Lord God cometh quickly to try and to search every heart and to reward and give unto all according to their deeds done in the body whether they be good or whether they be evil Consider your Life which is the ground and cause of the mourning of the Land Jer. 23.10 I have passed through you and have seen the life of your people Behold abominable swearing lying cheating coveting drunkenness whoredom adultery murder Rom. 1.23.24 c. Changing the glory of the incorruptible God into Images made like unto corruptible man Wherefore God also hath given you up to uncleannesse through the lusts of your corrupt hearts Who have changed the truth of God into a lye and to worship and serve the Image of the creature more than the Creator Whos 's own Image only praiseth him who is blessed over all for ever and evermore Amen And this is truth in the presence of the Lord God of Heaven and Earth and unto the Light of Christ which shines in all your Consciences which shews you all your sins even unto that true Witnesse in your own hearts I speak I have been an eye witnesse of the bowing of the bodies of many of your people unto the works of your Fathers idolatrous hands unto which your corrupt hearts and deceitfull affections are joyned whilest not one of you in a Nation which mine eye ever beheld came to bow his heart in Righteousnesse and his life in Spirit and Truth before the Lord God who is a Spirit John 4.23 Whose day cometh and now is that the true Worshippers do worship him in Spirit and in Truth And for as much as Ye with other Idolaters do make these few following dark words the seeming ground of your standing places saying Viz. That you are the Roman Catholique Church and that you believe in Christ and do believe the Words and Doctrine of Christ the Scriptures of the Prophets and writings of the Apostles and that you hold the Precepts and do follow the instructions of the ancient Fathers c. Answ You whose Fathers made many Temples and painted Pictures therein that they might worship and bow down unto the works of their own hands Ye see the day in the midst of your calamities and time of sorrows how that many of the houses which they built are left unto you desolate And if now you the seed of the corruption of their generation were but come to the losse of your Fathers naturall Image in your carnal hearts and affections You would also as clearly discern your greatest misery which through the grosse vail of darknesse over your hearts is hid from your eyes Oh the captivity the captivity you are held in the possession of bondage and captivity under the profession of the name of Christ and Christians in the lusts of unrighteousnesse and the pleasures of
Kingdome you who are called Jesuits also mark this your figure the Chamelian which lives by the Aire which according to the Law is an unclean Beast which can change himself into all colours perfect white onely excepted Read your similitude and see how you who live in your lusts can without a mock of the Truth be titled with the name of the Church of Christ Jesus in which is neither spot nor wrinkle nor blemish nor any such thing as uncleannesse or unrighteousnesse 1 Cor. 6.11 Although such were some of them but they came to be washed and were cleansed and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Which Spirit of truth the light is this day the Leader of the Saints and servants of God into all truth Now therefore doe ye Read What is the Chaffe to the Wheate And what relation hath the Spirit of truth unto your life which is squared and fashioned in the frame of Error Deceite hath been the Master-builder of the fabrick of your habitation the spirit of Iniquitie working in a mystery the foundation of your walls and the strength of lyes and lying wonders the pillars of your house which by the gilded appearance of the beauty of the wisdome of the ancient and learned in Philosophy Rhetorick and Sophistry is covered with many painted tiles of vanitie under the shaddow whereof you bow to the Images and pictures which the unrighteous hearts of your fathers Invented whose Gods are before your eyes unto which the affections of your naturall sences are joyned whereby with the carnall and naturall according to the motion of the Spirit of Error and Deceit in you you are led to worship the workes of their hands as is manifest by your bowings and bendings to the Image and likenesse of the naturall which the naturall invented and the carnall made And this also came in in the Apostasie when that was forsaken which the Eternall Spirit did command And now through the custome of your forefathers and you in the dayly practice of their invented Ceremonies being setled on the leese of their abominable Idolatries are come in your generation Matth. 15.9 to teach for doctrine the traditions of men And therefore in vaine is your worship as saith the Lord But yet ye have also to speake in the commendation of your fathers seniority and wisdome who gave commandement for such resemblances by Images and pictures not as if they were the gods of your worship but the resemblances of the Lord Christ c. whom by these resemblances you teach the ignorant for to worship Answer The greatest blindnesse is in the hearts of your learned Fathers I speak out of the spheare of their Colledges in mine Answer to their plea for their sinfull Idolatries and over all your Nations doe cry out and lift up my voyce as one in mourning lamenting for the lost seed among you which they that should rather in righteousnesse handle the plow to break up the clods to uncover the seed have used the spade and shovel and have heaped up dirt and stones thereon to the miserable burden thereof Oh horrible Ignorance a people bound with the chaines of darknesse can any thing be the resemblance of the Lord or the likenesse of his Image who is the Infinite Eterternall a pure holy glorious endlesse living Spirit but that which he maketh in his likeness and formeth in his own Image by the power of his own Almighty hand And doth he who is a pure Everlasting Spirit of life make or fashion any whom he fashioneth but in the likenesse of that which all the world by wisdome by Philosophy or by arguments can never attaine to reach unto the sight or understanding thereof Can any make the resemblance of God who is Immortall which the mortall never saw Can the corruptible and mortall which never did nor never shall see incorruption and immortalitie make with their corruptible hands and changeable unrighteous Idolatrous hearts the resemblance or likenesse of the Incorruptible Spirit From the Lord God I say and declare unto you all your bowings to your Crosses and Images and Pictures praying upon Beads to Mary and Saints is abomination to the Lord God of Heaven and Earth and in these things you are but a stinke to the rest of the Heathen who with you doe stand Enemies to the Doctrine Gospel and Crosse of our Lord Jesus for as they in words doe hold the name of our Lord in contempt you with your deceitfull shaddowes doe make a mock of truth and his sufferings in loathsomenesse you are seated as an abomination in the sight of God who created you and in the eye and sight of the servants of the Lord who by the price of blood are redeemed and with pure water are washed from the polutions of the iniquitie and the blood and envie which is among you and the rest of the Nations kinreds tongues and peoples of the Earth and now are the followers of the Lambe whethersoever he goeth Abundantly do the Scripture beare testimony against your practices mark from the precepts and commandements of God Exod 20.4 unto Moses through the house of the Prophets and the life of the Saints search and then see Isa 44.3 might not you with as much confidence make a calfe and say to the ignorant this is the resemblance of God worship ye it and draw the picture of a Monster and say this is the resemblance of the wonderfull Spirit which was in Paul or Peter bowe ye before it Read Jer the 23.11 12 13 14 15 verses Oh miserable blindnesse and the greatest darknesse is the Priests ignorance who teach the people lyes and cause them to erre in their wayes With the light search and see how far you are from being under the power of the word of the Lord who contrary to the letter of the Scriptures Do worship in the forme of the traditions of your fore-fathers Christ said to his Disciples in those dayes Joh 4.23 The houre cometh and now is that the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to worship him mark such as are in the Spirit Math 23.29 having one father which is in Heaven but ye being yet in your sins and in the flesh are the false worshippers who have many instructions and traditions and observations given to you according to the wills as the product of the inventions and conceptions of your many fathers and now as ye shall turne your minds to the light of the Lord Jesus which will rip open your hearts you will finde that rule to be the equall measure of your wayes which will give you a true fight that you are not in the truth as it is in Jesus who is the truth in whom and by whom and through whom the Prophets writ their prophesies and the Apostles had their utterance whose words do stand to the bearing
testimony against your Idolatrous wayes And verily the same words which once Paul declared upon Mars hill unto your fathers Acts. 17.22 now turneth upon the heads of you their children Ye men of Athens I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious for as I passed through your City I found an Idolls Temple which was abundantly painted with pictures on every side within which was the Inscription which I John did reade TO THE UNKNOWN GOD Which with the bowings of your bodies unto those superstitions Idolatrous Images ye ignorantly worship Him declare I unto you God that made the world and all things therein seeing that he is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is he worshipped with mens hands by Temples of Pictures or the customary and traditionall bowings of your bodyes unto pictures as though he needed any thing seeing he giveth unto all life and breath and all things and hath made of his blood all Nations of men for to dwell upon all the face of the earth And hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us For as much then as we are the off-spring of God we ought not to thinke which if we were come to the life of the seed ye could not then in the least measure imagine or thinke that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone graven or pictures made or drawne by art or mans device and the times of this Ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to Repent because his mighty DREADFULL DAY is at hand which he hath appointed wherein he will Judge in righteousnesse the whole world of mankinde Carlo Dessio Gumene Stephaci called Greek Doctors of your people in the City of Athens among whom I was conversant in the power of the Spirit of the Lord and preached unto you the Everlasting Gospel in crosse to your wisdomes wherefore ye resisted my testimony and called me fool and said all young men are fooles Acts 13.41 In like manner as your fathers the Philosophers Epicurians Stoicks called Paul babler do not you shew your selves herein to be the despisers spoken of What would you have said to Timothy 1 Tim 4.12 if he had come unto you even as I came in doctrine and Example And what would you have said to Jeremiah Jere 1.6 17 18. would you have said otherwise unto him then you did unto me if he had come unto you as in his day he visited your nature in the Jewes that sought to slay him Jere 26.8 And will you say also that all the young Prophets in the dayes of old were fooles And when John did write unto young men 1 Joh 2.13 14. did he then write unto fooles Will you call such fooles who knew the Father who were strong and had overcome the wicked one And are you so ignorant as not to consider these to be the latter dayes in which God will fulfill the Prophesies of old Joel 2.28 Your old men shall dreame dreames and your young men shall see visions for God hath said that he will powre out his Spirit upon them and are ye not wicked in your words to call such fools Consider this also did not you manifest your selves to be most ignorant to seek for a signe and a miracle then from me whom you called fool Did not that as much manifest your perverse ignorance as it did your unbeliefe Wherein you also shewed your selves to be in the same nature of that generation which sought for a signe in the dayes of Christ whom the Lord answered and said unto them Math 12.38 that they were an evill and an adulterous generation yea your sin is worse then theirs was who say that you see with a better eye then they did and by so much the more it remaines Are not you the hypocrites Math 16.3 that can discerne the face of the skies but cannot discerne the signes of the times Like as Jonas was three dayes and three nights in the Whales belly and came forth a Preacher of Repentance Even so are the times at hand Math 24.32 Learne ye therefore the parable of the Figge tree when his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves know ye that the Summer is nigh for as the dayes of Noah were so shall also the coming of the Lord be In short words your faith is fathomed and your hope is comprehended your fruits gives the testimony of you one cluster of your grapes were enough to shew the nature of your Vine planted in the Mountaines of Sodome the proverb followes your age The fathers have eaten sower grapes and the Childrens teeth are set on edge yet I shall also further shew you how that as the Jewes stood in the dayes of Jeremiah so you do stand in the same nature perversenesse pride and obstinacie ruling your hearts now unto whom God sent Jeremiah to cry against saying Trust ye not in lying words speaking to your selves Jer 7.4 The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these and Paul said to your fathers the Athenians God dwelleth not in Temples made with hands Yet you contrary to the Scriptures do assemble your selves as the Jewes did to worship the works of mens hands and of your own hands in the Temples which are made with hands and so you walk contrary to the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles and touching this matter whereof ye say that ye follow the Councell of the Ancient fathers you who are called the wisest fathers in these dayes shew by the best testimony that ye are able in what manner you esteeme the Councell of your Ancient fathers and how that it is greater and ought more to be esteemed and followed then the counsell of our only father the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who gave the utterance of his counsel thorow Jeremiah Paul Jer 26.12 and others crying against the Temples and against your customes the traditions of your fore-fathers and Christ said Behold your house is left unto you desolate and Paul cryed against the Temples made with hands Where had you or your fathers ever a command from God or from Christ to build such houses and to paint them full of pictures Consider and lay it truly to heart ye men throughout the earth is not your building of these houses one and of the very same nature and the fruits of the very same Spirit in those which made the Calfe whilst Moses was with God and not in the Camp amongst them Exod 32. In the dayes of old upon a much more seeming account of assured confidence was the opposition of the Jewes of Jeremiah's testimony then yours possibly can be in these latter dayes for as much as their fathers
an ear to hear let him hear and he that understandeth not nor knoweth this is yet under his own hour and power of darknesse Understand therefore that the manifestation of the will of God is in and through the Light wherewith you are lightned which cometh from Christ the true light of the world which lightneth every man that cometh into the world unto which Light in all your consciences your minds must be subject you must wait upon God with your minds in the Light your hearts turned to it that you may witnesse the power of it ruling and reigning in you and working through every Member of your mortal bodies bringing your wils under it and subduing and subjecting your affections to it this is the true Crosse of Christ Jesus to take up the Crosse and to walk in Crosse unto your wills and affections which take up Images and take delight and pleasure in Pictures and imaginary likenesses of the Crosse of Christ Jesus and to walk as quickned Members in crosse to your whole life as it now stands in the nature and lust of uncleanness sin and death in the enmity to the Life and power of God and mystery of Godlinesse in crosse to your foolish airy childish vanities of Beads Bracelets and other Traditional Superstitions and Idolatries which things are but the signification of folly and childishnesse in the first nature which receiveth not the knowledge nor things of God the Light also wherewith you are lightned Eph 5.4 must guide your minds and stay your hearts and thoughts upon God and lead you also in crosse unto the Lightness and wickedness of your lives which stand in the pleasure of vain jesting and idle foolish talking Rom. 13 13. in surfeiting and drunkennesse in chambering and wantonnesse strife and envying in the ground of all manner of sin iniquity and mischief which produces and yields the fruits of lying swearing pride covetousness cheating and defrauding adulteries and whoredomes dissimulation robberies and desperate murders even in that evill and cursed ground where man is droven from the presence of God under the power of the agreement of Hell and death alienated and estranged from the Covenant of Life yoaked under blindness and chayned with the blackness of darkness shut out of the Garden of pleasure and Paradice of God where nothing can restore the losse which came by transgression but the power of the Cross of Christ Jesus which worketh death to the disobedient and carnall There is none other entrance now unto the tree of Life which he that eateth not thereof dyeth in and perisheth unto everlasting death but through the flaming sword which is set at Edens gates Gen 3.24 to keep the way of the Tree life Can your eye read or your ear hear for your hearts to receive this ye vain scoffers at the Saints entrance into the holy City and Paradise of God You are witnesses to your selves that your Inheritance is not in the Kingdome of Heaven which is like unto a grain of Mustard-seed Math 13.31 which also is likened unto an Onion seed whose perfect fruit being taken out of the natural earth yet quickly perisheth not but prospereth yielding growth from the body of the root more than all roots of the earth This is the work of Life the Cross which neither is likeness imitation nor Image of the things or nature of death but the mighty power of God which bringeth death unto death which hath passed over all men Rom 5.10 12. and reigneth over all men from Adam unto Moses even over all that have sinned who have not known Moses although their sin hath not been after the similitude of Adams transgression from lost Adam therefore unto Moses you must come to witness an entrance into Moses his house in whom was revealed the hope of the promise that should come to passe which also is come in power Rom 8.4 in the substance to them In whom the righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit who have seen the Prophets day and are come through the work of Johns cry in the wilderness Math 3.3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. who are no more of the flesh as in the flesh working the works of the flesh but through the death of the Crosse are buried in the separation from the worships words and works of the first nature risen and born unto Life unto the inheritance of Redemption and Justification into the unchangeable Kingdome of the word of the Covenant where he that is least is greater then John the Baptist Math 11.11 who was the greatest Prophet borne of women and thus being passed and translated from death to life not as any longer under the power of sin are partakers of the Elements or subject unto the carnall Ordinances are altogether under and one with the power of the ministration of life in the communion of the Eternall body of the Lord and from your superstitions and Images and nature of iniquitie and transgression by the power of the Crosse of Christ Jesus ye must be changed through obedience to the motions of the Light in all your consciences into the Image of the glory of the second Adam who is the Lord from Heaven if ever ye shall come to witnesse a hope which will not wither to be Joyned unto the heireship of the promise of the Inheritance of the kingdome which Covenant was made only with Abraham and with the seed of Abraham born of the free-Woman Gen 22.16 which by the one Everlasting Oath of God is confirmed unto all that by the blood of sprinkling are entered into the City Heb 12.22 Rev 22.15 where not any thing that is defiled can come for without is the curse even over as many as stand in the ground without the compasse of the fence of the Paradice of God where are dogs and sorcerers and whore-mongers and murderers and Idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lye Repent Repent therefore the mighty day of the Lord God is at hand wherein he will sift the Nations as with the five of equitie and fanne the Inhabitants of the earth with the winde of his wrath and through all Nations will make an equall separation in Righteousnesse the Chaffe from the Wheate the Drosse and Reprobate from the refined Silver the just from the vile him that feareth God from him that feareth him not A day of woe to the wicked and of vengeance to the workers of iniquitie in which cometh to passe the Revelation of the Wrath and Indignation of God which is even ready to be revealed in flames of burning fire against all the ungodly A day of howling to the sonnes of Sodome and of everlasting lamentation to the daughters of Gomorrha Strength shall not defend you nor Art deliver you where then will you run for a refuge ye want the wings of the Sunne of the Morning to fly unto the ends of the earth
had a commandement concerning the Temple and they might say unto Jeremiah who was as a stripling and as it were a childe Art thou greater then Solomon whom God appointed to build us this Temple Neverthelesse and although Jeremiah was as one alone in that work yet this was his testimony he knew that he was of God Jer 26.15 Whether they would heare or forbeare and they having corrupted themselves in a commandement he was therefore sent to cry against them and if they were cryed against as being a people corrupted in a commandement how much more thinke ye ought ye to be born witnesse and testimony against who have contrary to the Word or any command abused your selves and dishonoured God in and through the workes and inventions of your degenerated fore-fathers much lesse therefore could you in your nature receive my testimony in the name and power of the Lord if ye were commanded as the Jewes were or had any example as they had so suitable with their time seeing ye sleight my testimony and do make a mock of my witnesse against your Temples pictures bowings beads crosses and crossings c. for which ye have neither precept president example or the least commandement throughout all the Scriptures of the Prophets Christs words and the Apostles writings that ever such things were or should in any age in the Truth come to passe What benefit therefore doe you purchase to your souls through the exercise of your tongues in smooth words and flatteries what advantageth it if you say that you believe in Christ whilest the words of Christ are not a Law unto you but the traditions of your Fathers stand the Law of liberty for your blind hearts to walk in the crookednesse of their subversion What is Christ Jesus unto you whilest you forsake his way life and council and in enmity thereunto are acting worshipping and walking in the way life and councils of men of corrupt and degenerated minds which you call the faith of the Roman Catholique Church what is the Catholique Church to the Church of Christ seeing they have not the word nor council of Christ And therefore much farther from the work life and faithfull order of the doctrine of Christ You may blind the simple and deceive the ignorant and destroy the souls of thousands that know not the right hand from the left Unto you Doctors I speak unto whom also my words in the Light and Life of the Lord Jesus is a Riddle and a Parable Ye know not the right hand from the left and therefore I write little things unto you do speak plain words concerning you that in all your Countreys and Colledges ye may be no longer the deceived and deceivers The deluded and deluders The destroyed and destroyers And therefore I further say That it is not a shame unto you whose long hairs declares seniority without in the Antiquity of your dayes to stoop and bow your necks for your backs to bear the chastisement of the Rod of your younger in years and know ye that it was prudence in as many of the aged whose faces wore a fair shew of grey hairs not to despise the youth of tender Timothy And remember that little David smote and slew the great Philistine and the glory was the Lords and in this also I give the praise and honour unto God who is arisen to smite the earth who also hath smitten many Islands thereof and his word reacheth unto the utmost end of the many continents wherein the Beasts of the field have an habitation and the Lord God will hunt the Foxes and destroy the Wolves and slay the Lyons of the Forrests which have scattered the sheep of the Fold and preyed upon the Heritage of God Oh earth where are they devourers hid they have made merry but they shall be vexed they have sported but they shall be tormented Ye men of learning what is your learning Ye men of strength what is your strength Bring forth your Books and let us put them in the Ballance Rome Rome Hide not thy Daughters but let the whole earth see the Daughters of thy pleasure and let us come and reason with you a little to see if thy daughters of delight and ease which have been born without pain are meet to make marriage with the Sons of God for whose birth Zion hath travelled Yea her children yea all the daughters of your mother Rome plead with your mother and say unto your mother if thou who hast born us without travel beest not an Harlot in thy prophane pleasure then let us know of a truth also whether it is not meet that we may be given unto a holy Nation that a Seed may be preserved to the praise of the name of the Leader of Israel out of Aegypt Oh Italy thou hast a remnant within thee which plague shall not touch although Pestilence as a Besom shall sweep thy Land Repent if peradventure ye may be spared Ye Doctors I have not yet left you having also publiquely to proclaim Gods controversie with you take to you the Officers of your two Churches number your Armyes arme your Hosts whet your swords yet behold in the day of battel God will wound you when you shall not smite the Lord. I have seen your strength and have passed by your trust and at that time the wind of the Lord God did shake the earth wherein I walked What is your Spear to the Arrows of the Lord Let Romes University answer my enquiry What is your weavers beam unto Davids smooth stones What are your Silogisms to truth What is your Philosophy to the Light What are all your critical Inventions and cunning contrivances to the word which cannot be changed You cal'd Jesuits what are your many colours to white You Priests what are your changeable Coats unto that one without a seam Oh Athens Thy Members are in my remembrance and ye the Pastors of the People mark your sheep yea your sheep do bear your own mark The Lord moved me on the 27. day of the 7. Month in the year accounted 1657. being the first day of the week the day of Greeks solemn worship Hear this ye Doctors of Athens and Priests thereof who minister in the Idols Temples and House of Rimmon The Lord moved me to read in the place of your solemnity and a witnesse went with me to the sealing of my testimony and at which time Behold your worshippers did bow to their pictures giving forth contempt and laughter in our faces and I said Gods hand is against you and he that fits in Heaven laughs you to scorn O horrible abomination Hear this ye Priests mark the fruits of your ministry ye Doctors Behold they declared you in the street and spread your name in the open places your Temples could not contain their lightness and wickednesse for afterwards in a mock of the Crosse of Christ Jesus even in the streets of your City the people would meet us and stand
Lord and the wicked shall be turned into hell But every member according to the diversities of their measures of the Spirit of life who are of the true Church can witnesse and read the Scriptures with the life in their life which is hid with Christ in God Col 3.3 but you standing only in that which hath written Annotations and which draweth Inferences Conclusions and meanings from the Scriptures that witnesseth sufficiently concerning you that you are not in the life of the first Principle of pure Religion which giveth the understanding of the Scriptures Ignorance therefore is the cause of your error Math 22.29 Math 13.34 as saith Christ You erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God Wherefore unto you they are parables and hidden sentences from the darknesse of your clouded understandings who is he that seeth your misery and doth not lament you who have consented to the blinding of your selves through the yeelding of your minds captives to the perverse wills of your Instructers they have trodden out paths in unrighteousnesse and you have walked in their crookednesse Verily I am as one wounded for your sakes and heavily pressed with the clods which the ploughers have ploughed upon your backs Oh where is the hand which hath holpen you Have not your watchers forgiven you your sins in vanitie and strengthened your hands with the strength of their own hearts in iniquitie In what manner have they brought you unto confession and what will that availe you if after your confessions the same and worse sins and iniquities are wrought and committed by you Are you so ignorant as to thinke that their words of absolution is the covenant of pardon and salvation Or do you thinke that bare confession of your sins only will bring you under the Condition of mercy Mark the order of the declaration of Solomon's wise sentence which maketh frustrate the expectation of your vaine confidence Pro 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall finde mercy Oh people why therefore will ye thus rest and remaine in the night of slumber when will ye be awakened to come to see the works of your teachers how that they have double-girded your loynes with the cords of ignorance and have made that the strength of their renowne and praise in the Nations and your cloathing with the clouds of darknesse is your Priests garment of glory over you by this their power governes in Dominion and Majesty and you remaine as Subjects chained under the yoak of their iniquitie Oh who can declare your misery It is my sorrow for the Seeds sake to behold it and I know that it suits not with the delight of your hearts to read the explanation of it But hath the Lord a Remnant and shall he not visit for the sake thereof yea verily and this therefore in love to the soules of the simple that they may come to the light of the day each one in the sensiblenesse of his own heart and life to reade with understanding the mystery of godlinesse and Scriptures of truth which do speak one and the same thing in the word and intention and not of many things as by more then one but of all things in and by one through whom the worlds were made and the Covenant of God stands sure through whom also grace mercy and peace is come to as many as are joyned to that one in the clearnesse of the naked truth through the relinquishing of the hidden things of deceit and all the former wayes vanities customes traditions superstitions and ungodly words and works and renouncing the counsells of the many fathers and men of the world through the spreading of whose spirit and the fruits of their life delusion hath a long time reigned in the world cleaving to the only sound counsell of the living God father of truth which deceiveth nor deludeth any man but establisheth all men that come unto it in a holy way exceeding the errors of mans wayes even in that new and living way which he hath prepared wherein the uncleane cannot walke Isa 55.8 but it is unto those the way-faring men though foales shall not erre therein Wherefore all people be not any longer blinded under the perverse crooked wills of your Instructers and Pastors but examine and try truly whether they have lead you in the way of God wherein the wicked cannot walke And now in all this will you count me your enemy in putting you upon diligent inquiry and also in telling you the truth Lay it to heart oh people and you Doctors and Teachers of the Nations Come forth and consider assemble assemble the principal members of your bodyes together and call a full Councell of the Magicians of your Lands and suffer us then to prove you before all men provide your rods that you may cast them in the presence of the Nations and behold ours is ready to be cast also that it may be knowne whether God is the God of Egypt or of Israel and that all the Inhabitants of the Earth may have an understanding who are the people that have stolen the name of Israel that were never borne of his Seed and if it shall be seene that the Serpent of our rod shall eate up the Serpents of your rods then of a truth it shall be knowne that God worketh with us and not with you but against you But if the Serpent of our rod shall be swallowed up and by the Serpents of your rods utterly devoured then let not the Nations spare to publish and cry in their streets that the God whom we worship hath utterly forsaken us Againe I say assemble your Prophets and let the worke of the Lord and his word answering by fire give testimony to the Prophets whether the Prophets of your Lands are the true Prophets that the Inhabitants thereof may truly know and understand that if the Lord be God then let them follow him but if Baal whom ye worship he God then do you continue following of him no hurt will come unto your Nations through the tryall of the Prophets so that if the Lord answers our Prophet by fire and kindles the sacrifice of the oblation in your sight then shall ye know that our Prophet is the true Prophet of the Lord but if your Prophets shall cut themselves even to the drawing of blood of their bodyes and no word of answer to their supplications as the answer of the Lord by fire from Heaven but afterwards if in their madnesse and wilfulnesse they shall kindle a fire in their wrath and charge you to kindle fires in your houses to burne this testimony among whomsoever it comes then behold that shall be a signe unto you that God is not among them for if the Lord be their God then would he plead for them or if they be Jealous for the Name of the Lord God of Hosts then will they stand forth to plead
the word of the Lord upon the Mount of the Lord in the face of all the Nations of the earth Oh people let this be a testimony unto you either for you or against you that either your Priests and Prophets have deceived you in prophecying and declaring smooth things unto you or that they have alwayes taught you Righteousnesse and instructed you in the Everlasting Precepts of the undefiled and un-erring path of truth and holinesse Heare therefore this ye Priests and give eare ye Teachers of the people hide not hide not your faces but come forth come forth that we may try the feeding of your Pastures that the blinde may feele with what they are laden Have not they given a price for wheate and have not you laden them with the stubble of the reaped and gleaned fields and the chaffe of the wheate Was not the price of their money for the cleare running water of the Rock and have not ye fill'd their vessells with the setled lees of your own Cisterns Behold I have seen the deep workes of your hands even the deep wells which ye have digged with your own hands and the breadth length heighth and depth thereof I have measured and the foundations thereof I have discovered You Doctors of Athens Remember my rod which touched your bottome wherewith your dreggs were stirred up which cast a stinke in my nostrills at which time ye could scarce cover your loathsomnesse in the presence of your Disciples I have not forgotten the strength on which you took hold which appeared and proved as a ravelled String of a broken Bow which could not carry forth so as to send home the shaft You aymed at my birth to have trodden upon the simplicitie and tendernesse of my youth yet could not your broken speares reach to the hurt of my life Now therefore search ye further even unto the uttermost end of the Records of your Books to finde out the first day of my life which although I am after the account of the manner of men but as a seed of the second or third generation of this age brought forth yet never the lesser is mine age in a just account more ancient and honourable then the dayes of your birth your age must yet be borne unto Infancy if ever you come to the possession of the promise of Gods Everlasting kingdome and the glory of your Antiquitie must come unto great contempt and your eyes and your hearts which have boasted in vanitie must passe through the flames of the consuming fire of Gods Jealousie before ye shall enter the Paradise which you made a mock of in ignorance and so bare witnesse unto the curse of your kingdome as a people remaining in the ground where blessing hath not raised the encrease of the earth Furthermore heare this ye Priests Teachers and Instructers of the people The cry of the earth is grievous in the eare of the Lord against you blood hath touched blood in your Lands the soules of the simple have uttered their groanes through the crevisses of the graves the slaughters in your Cities and the murders in your streets the blood which plague hath devoured and which famine and drought hath consumed even for these and more then these the earth lifts up her voyce against you Have not you cast away the bread and given stones to the children Have not you eaten the uncleane fish and spued out Serpents in the faces of the daughters Oh how many are the thousands of thousands whom you have caused to erre and which have perished through your lyes and lightnesse and will not God avenge himselfe on the heads of his enemies As ye have gloried in the dayes of your pleasure and made your selves fat with the joy of your laughter and wantonnesse even so shall Gods time of visitation be as a snare unto your life in unrighteousnesse even as a snare unto the Priest and a ginne unto the Prophets and as a trap and cleane Instrument to take hold of the heads of the Churches of your Nations yet shall it end as the houre of Everlasting mercies if ye Repent which if ye resist behold time shall not bring end to your torment when God shall stretch your bodyes upon the bed of endlesse trouble and misery A warning therefore and a word of Awakening even the utterance of life sounding through your black doores of the darknesse of death to you Priests Pope and Patriarke of the Lands who say that you sit in Peters seate to pardon the iniquities of the people and to forgive them their sinnes and to binde and to loose things answerable to your pleasures on earth saying that this is your Authoritie in the place and roome of the Disciples according to the Scriptures Joh 20.23 Math 16.19 It is not the seede nor the off-spring of your roote but the children of another generation which in the nature of the life of the holy Apostles are their true successors you are deceitfull hearts and wicked sinners you are men in the flesh and your bodyes are lumps of sinfull flesh your generation is of the wombe and seed of corruption and your life in the changable nature heare ye therefore God never gave his Everlasting Authoritie of Righteousnesse for the Remission of sinnes Joh 20.22 unto deceitfull hearts and sinners Christ breathed on his Disciples and gave them the Holy Ghost by which breath even by the vertue thereof and the power of the gift of the Holy Ghost their Authority stood in the worke and will of the Lord But Christ on you nor on your Pope or Patriarke hath not in this manner breathed nor in like manner filled either you or them with the Holy Ghost and therefore being without the true virtue and effectual authority you sit but as deceitful shadows and Images in your wicked wilful presumptuous resemblances making a reall mock of the true power and substance Oh how presumptuous are you in your abominable works of iniquity and as a people setled in the hardnesse of the ground of your fore-fathers Apostacy I have already shewed your root Dan 9.9 how in the degeneration you are departed from the Rock which in all ages was the ground of the forgivenesse of sins which unto the Lord only belongs Acts 5.31 and Christ only is this day the Prince and Saviour granting unto his people repentance salvation and forgivenesse of sins Eph 1.7 and this was Pauls testimony to the Ephesians In whom we have redemption through his blood Mark the order of Pauls witnesse the redemption through the washing of his blood goeth before the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Read this ye people according to the riches of his grace how then is it of works or by the words of your sinfull Pope Patriarch and Priests and Teachers Seeing therefore ye have turned the riches of the grace of Christ Jesus into an abominable habit of blind shews of unrighteousnesse deluding the
for as all things and deeds which are done and wrought out of the Light are reproved by the Light even so also that which maketh manifest is light and the Light wherewith you are lightened is the measure of the gift of God which he hath given unto all men and the grace of God which hath appeared unto all men which taught the Saints to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts through which that is to say by the Light being Judged as men in the flesh they became Justified with God in the Spirit the Light will lead you unto life if you love it and obey it according to the voyce of it Isa 8.20 therefore to the Law and the Testimony take heed speaking alwayes according to this word Ye Greekes in all quarters and parts of the earth read this commandement as the quick sharp and short message of the Lord unto you even of the Righteous God whom your fathers provoked unto wrath through their Idolatrous superstitions and all manner of abomination for which cause he brought their necks under the miserable yoak of bondage to draw under the cords and chaine of the same Instrument of cruelty of the Jewes captivitie and this came to passe if peradventure in the time of trouble they might early seek and cry unto the Lord with unfained hearts but from generation to generation even to the evill dayes of this present generation he hath not found Repentance in your Land and therefore could not your Land finde nor feel the day of deliverance and breach of the bowes of your yoaks by his hand of Redemption Repent therefore lest ye be made an utter spoyle even unto the determination of time and there come no end of your misery and desolation Remember the declaration of the dayes of old and the sayings concerning the times which are already past there were a people unto whom the sure testimonies of God were given but they forsooke the mercy and through hard-heartednesse and self-conceitednesse departed from the fountaine to aske councell of their own wills in the house of Rimmon Isa 49.6 they expected the Covenant in their way wherefore when Christ the Light came contrary to their conceptions they rather resisted unto death then chose to be gathered unto life they once had the Law and the Prophets and the testimony of the Law and the Arke of the Covenant and the Temple which God gave them and yet because of their unbeliefe God spared not the Jewes which were the naturall branches according to the promise Heare this all ye Gentiles throughout the earth Rom. 11.22 If God spared not the naturall branches because of their unbeliefe why boast ye your selves against the naturall branches who are your selves fallen from the Root If God spared not the Jewes who received not the Light which testified for Christ which was and is the Light which shined in all their Consciences Shall he spare you who despise the Light and in Enmitie to Christ who is the Light walke contrary to the Light in all your Consciences Behold the goodnesse and the severitie of God on them which fell severitie but towards the Gentiles which stood goodnesse and unto as many as now continue in the good which cometh from God mercy and peace but as for such as forsake the Light which comes from Christ even they 〈◊〉 fruitfull branches shall also be cut off and with God there is no respect of persons And if the casting away of the Jewes were the reconciling of the world what shall the receiving of them be but your torment Rom 11.13 and the resurrection of the life of the seed from the dead and the redemption thereof from the bondage of the grave to the glory of God Amen Trust ye not therefore in lying words even as once the Jewes did saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these say not in your hearts the wisdome of God is the councell of our fathers such words shall not save you or if you farther say that you have Abraham to your father that shall not profit you but rather read your birth of the bond-woman that you may come to the casting out of her seed and generation of her wombe for be it knowne unto you God can out of rockes raise a remnant and out of stones a seed unto Abraham for not every one that saith Lord Math 7.22 shall enter for many shall say we have prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devills and yet it shall be said â—â—to them depart ye cursed workers of iniquitie and Virgins also loosed the Inheritance even such as were to seek oyle when the Lord came Math 25.12 and these are States beyond the conditions of all your Roman members throughout the earth the Scriptures are true in the declaration as Christ spake although you are false in your words and wayes and interpretations and if the doore of the kingdome be shut against carelesse Virgins how thinke you that wicked lyers drunkards swearers whore-mongers or harlots shall have an entrance therein therefore whilst you have time Repent This is the summe unto the pertaking of the purchase that you follow the Lambe of God Christ the Light of the world which taketh away the sin of the world He is the highest Priest Prophet and King of whom this is the signe and testimony unto Jew and Gentile He hath lightened every man that cometh into the world and this is the message unto the whole world God is light and in him is no darknesse at all Look therefore to your lives for behold this day is set before you death and darknesse life and light chuse you whether if you perish in your sins your blood be upon your own heads henceforth for ever prize your time Heb 12.17 Remembering that Esau had a time but Esau neglected his time so that when he carefully sought a place of Repentance with teares he could not finde it This is the testimony which we that do walke in the light as God is in the light do hold we know that whosoever is borne of God unto the Inheritance of the kingdome of God he sinneth not but he that is begotten of God 1 Joh. 3. 6 9. keepeth himselfe that wicked one toucheth him not and we know that we are of God and we also know that the whole world who are enemies to God lyeth in wickednesse And we know that the Sonne of God is come and hath given us an understanding whereby we know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ this is the true God and Eternall life Oh all ye Nations abstaine from Idolls The Saints by the seed of the Apostated Jewes first in contempt were called Christians and we who have received the same testimony of Jesus by the seed of the Apostated Christians in the Northern Islands are scornfully called Quakers J P SOme Queries propounded
is the seed of the Kingdome of Heaven which is like unto a grain of Mustard-seed and how comes it to grow to a Tree and how come the birds of the Aire to lodge therein and whether is it fruitfull before it be grafted yea or nay Query 32 What and where is the field in which the Pearl is hid and what is the Pearl to the field how are they distinguished and how is the Pearl hid and by what comes the purchase of the field and how comes the Pearl to be found and who are they that have found it and do keep it having found it yea or nay Query 33 What is the seed of God unto which only the promise of God of salvation unto life everlasting is Query 34 What was the Image of God which man lost through the disobedience and transgression against the will and commandement of God and whether all that stand in the disobedient and transgressing state are not still seated in the lost state yea or nay Query 35 How lyes the Image of God now in the dust and what is the dust to the Image of God and what is the Serpent and how doth the Serpent feed upon the dust of the ground and what is that ground which is not at all substantial but dusty and that ground whose substance is mountains stony and rocky and altogether barren and unfruitful Query 36 By what comes the change of the ground Moab also hath been at ease from his youth hath not bin emptied from vessel to vessel what is Moabs seed now which in the nature stands in the same state that Moab was then whether are ye in any other condition or life then as ye were from the beginning as ye have grown in years so you have grown in wickedness whether therefore do ye beleeve that it is possible for you to be saved except the ground be changed Moab emptied ye become begotten born of God unto another life whether doth he that is born of God commit sin yea or nay Jer. 48.11 John 3.3 1 John 3.9 Query 37 What is the salvation of Jesus from what doth he first save his people In plain words shew to all people what is Salvation Redemption and Restauration and from what unto what and when Query 38 What is that life of Christ which is slain in spiritual Sodom which is daily crucified upon the Crosses of your Catholique Churches Query 39 What manner of fruit bare that Almond Tree of which Jeremiah saw a rod what is that seething pot which Jeremiah also did see and what is the flesh which for one day must boyle therein and whether a root and fruit ought to be boyled with the flesh and whether will the Broth of these things be clean food according to the Law yea or nay Query 40 What is that new threshing instrument which is prepared for the hand of worm Jacob to thresh withall how shall he thresh the hills to Chaffe and mountains to dust and with what shall be fan them and what is the wind that shall carry them away and where shall the chaffe be carried and in what quarters shall the whirle-wind scatter the dust of the mountains Query 41 Whether the seed of the woman and the seed of the Kingdom which Christ said is like to a grain of Mustard-seed and the seed of Abraham and worm Jacob are they in the substance one two three or four yea or nay shew plainly without deceit how that two three or all are one in the substance or otherwise make manifest how in the declaration so also they differ in the substance Query 42 What is the new creation of God whether is it now short of the creation of the first man Adam whom God made a living soul do any of you believe that the second is made a quickning spirit and which of these two is the greater and most full of glory are any of ye passed from death unto life from the dishonour of sin transgression to see the beauty of the first Creation and to behold the honour of the Lord from Heaven doe ye beleeve the Revelation of the Son of God yea or nay Shew how Christ hath revealed himself unto any one of you 2 Cor. 5.17 Query 43 What and where standeth the Tree of Life which he that comes to eat thereof shall never taste of death and which he that tasteth not thereof in this life shall never see the day of life have any one or more of you in all your Nations and two Catholique Churches ever seen a leaf of the Tree of Life which healeth the Nations and describe how and by what wind any leaf was blown upon any of your Nations and shew forth those that are healed thereby of your Nations Query 44 Whether do you believe the real substantial everlasting virtue of the blood of Jesus If you answer yea why then in abominable deceit and miserable ignorance do you teach for doctrine an infernal place of purgatory Read the Scriptures Acts 20.28 Heb. 9.12 Rev. 1.5 1 John 1.7 Rev. 5.9 Rom. 5.9 and what advantageth the peoples pennance and the Popes and Priests remission of sins if after pennance repentance and remission they must go into the torment of Purgatory to be cleansed from their sins to enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Query 45 What and where is the Sanctuary of God seated wherein the Saints of God do daily worship and what is the equall ballance thereof and the dust of the ballance Declare plainly what is that which measureth justly all words works worships studyes wayes and spirits which reacheth over iniquity and comprehendeth the mystery thereof what is that line which measureth the worlds wayes and the plummet unto which judgement is laid and what is that Reed which John had to measure the Temple of God the Altar thereof and what is that Court which he was not to measure which the Gentiles tread under foot Concerning the studies in Vniversities of Tongues Ministry Astrologie Physick Law and Philosophy Query 46 WHat is the foundation chief corner stone of your Universities Colledges do you not reckon Tongues Rhetorick Philosophy to be precedent steps leading unto Theologie to the compleating of a Ministry as the principle leaders unto the expert practice of Physick Law Astrologie and whether are not these Arts and Sciences the sum substance and end of your studies yea or nay Query 47 Whether only the word of God is not the real substance of the ministry of God the ground of understanding true knowledg of all the natural whether all Tongues Arts and Sciences besides the word are not vanity and whether all that professe the substance yet standing in the naturall and have not the word from God as from the mouth of God are not in vanity and deceit and in utter enmity to the word yea or nay Query 48 Who is he of all your Patriarchs Popes Doctors Priests
doctrines of your fore-fathers traditions in opposition to the power of God and Crosse of Christ Jesus Read Coloss 1 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. Query 16 Where doth the Scripture say that to take up Crosses of Gold Silver Brasse Iron Bone Wood or carved Stone made by the invention of man is to take up the Crosse of Christ who came not by man nor according to the will of man whose Crosse came with him contrary to the will of man What is the Image to the substance And whether is that any part of the nature of the substance in you or doth it not rather stand in enmity to the substance which taketh up an Image of the Crosse among you yea or nay Query 17 Whose doctrine or Commandement was the foundation of your Idol Temples declare plainly whether God commanded or Satan deceived And what rule have you in the Scriptures or example from the life of the Apostles to worship in Idols Temples altogether by the light of wax Candles or burning Lamps of Oyl and to keep your wax Candles burning night and day in your Idols Temples Query 18 Whether is it not great ignorance for a people to seek the Lord out of the habitation and sanctuary of his holinesse Wherefore seek ye to find God in Temples made with hands Seeing God dwelleth not in Temples made with hands And whether do you not understand that those Temples which are not Gods habitation are the reall Synagogues of Satan yea or nay Acts 17.24 Query 19 What rule have you in the Scripture to make a mock of Christ and the holy Apostles by carrying about Images which ye call their Pictures by day time with the light of Candles or Torches through your streets with many persons passing therewith hood-winked and disguised as Thieves and Robbers singing and rejoycing and making merry over the spoll of the innocent Query 20 What rule have you in the Scriptures or example from the life of the Apostles to light the dead Corps of men and women to the Graves or Sepulchres with Torches or Wax Candles Query 21 What precept have you in the Scriptures to call Elements and shaddows or any of those things which once were figures Sacraments and to carry Bread and Wine through your streets with a Canopie over it with Torches or Wax Candles lighted and one ringing a Bell before it like the hypocrires sounding Trumpets of their services and for all people that meets it to fall down upon their knees before it Query 22 What rule have you in the Scriptures or plain example from the life of the Apostles without adding unto or diminishing from the Scriptures or the acts of Christ or his Apostles for your sprinkling Infants with water and calling that an Ordinance of Christ or Sacrament of your Churches Query 23 What precept have you in the Scriptures or president from the life of the Apostles to pray upon Beads or to pray to Saints or to Mary and to crosse your selves with your hands in your prayers or thanksgivings or to make bowings before walls crossing your selves with your hands babling a few words before you go into your Beds Query 24 What precept or example have you in the Scriptures to make Inquisitions and Inquisitors to slay the life of Gods witnesses against your Idolatries and to make Fryaryes and Nunneryes Doctors Fryars Nuns Jesuits lay-brothers beggars Queristers Singers Ringers were ever such prophesied by Christ or his Apostles should come in the Truth or were ever such in their dayes yea or nay Query 25 Where did Christ ever teach or the Apostles practice the wearing of the garments and long robes of the several Officers of your Catholique Churches your long Gowns and Surplices and whipping Cords about your Loyns and other Girdles and Caps and other disfiguring garments Query 26 What rule have you in the Scriptures or example from the life of the Apostles for your grey Fryars crown-head shavings and for your other Officers with their great Bottles Wallets and begging Bags and others with many Boxes in disguised and hood-winked garments going through the streets and from house to house a begging Query 27 What rule have you in the Scriptures or example from the life of the Apostles for your observing set times and dayes of the week and year to eat Fish or Herbs or other fruit and no Flesh as in your Lents c. And to call such dayes Fast-dayes seeing you eat no flesh but do eat and drink your fill of other creatures and some with strong drink or Wine do make themselves drunk upon such dayes Query 28 What precept or president have you from the doctrine or life of Christ or his Apostles for some of your members to whip and scourge themselves upon some set dayes of the year and to draw blood from their bodyes and to make bruises and cuttings in their flesh and for others of your Officers to lay heavy burdens upon the backs of some your Members which they themselves will not touch with one of their fingers to make poor people go upon their knees through the streets as far as they please for the obtaining from them the Remission of their sins and are not you abominably deceitful as well in the manner as in the matter of this iniquity in laying only such shame and punishment upon the poor in the world and do not lay the same upon a transgressor in the same lust and nature who is very powerfull in the Authority and rich and wealthy in the world Query 29 What precept or president have you from the doctrine or life of Christ or his Apostles to keep and observe dayes and times and seasons which ye call Saints dayes saying that ye keep them in honour of the persons of Christ and his Apostles Are ye not rather a dishonour and stain of their life who spend such dayes in Idolatries in surfeiting and drunkenness in chambering and wantonnesse Coloss 2.17 Query 30 Whether is there any one among you that do witnesse Christ come in you which he that witnesseth not Christ so come in the flesh is Antichrist and if Christ be come in the flesh and dwelleth in you why then do ye with your flesh make Images of the flesh for your corruptible flesh to bowe unto and whilest the spirit which rules your flesh doth thus dictate and lead you doth not your minds in the flesh make a mock of Christ who is a Spirit and of God who will only be worshipped in spirit yea or nay 1 John 4.23 Rom. 8.10 John 4.23 24. In these Traditions deceitful shaddows and Idolatries professing the name of Christ enemies to the power of the Crosse and order of the doctrine and mystery of the life of Christ ye are a just occasion of stumbling to the Turk and an offence to the seed in the Jew and this the Lord God will require at the hands of your two Catholique Churches Concerning the Mystery of the Holy Faith Query 31 What