A FAITHFUL WARNING WITH GOOD ADVICE FROM ISRAEL'S GOD TO Englands KING AND HIS COUNCIL That they may wisely improve this little Inch of time which the God of their Life as yet affords unto them before the Day of their approaching Misery come upon them Which may serve as a Caution to all others in Authority within the Nation Sounded through one of the Mourners in Sion known by the name of Martin Mason Hear ye and give ear be not proud for the Lord hath spoken LONDON Printed for Robert Wilson at the sign of the Black spread-Eagle and Wind-Mill in Martins l' Grand A FAITHFVL WARNING WITH GOOD ADVICE FROM Israel's GOD to England's KING AND HIS COUNCIL c. BEhold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken is better than the fat of Rams Listen therefore and encline your Ear be attentive and read without prejudice For the Righteous God hath laid it upon me once more to Warn the Men in Authority the Rulers of this Nation even from him that fits upon the Throne to the inferior Governors of the people that they cease from their iniquities and fear the living God Know ye therefore large hath the love of God been towards you and with wonderful loving-kindness hath he visited you his patience verily is beyond expression for your iniquities have highly provoked him How many Warnings hath he given you all which hitherto have been but little regarded by you O let his righteous Witness in all your Consciences arise and it will testifie the wonderful Mercies of your Maker towards you Have you answered the End and Requirings of the Lord from you in his Overturning your Enemies for you and thus setling the Government of the Nations upon you Came you not in without any Conquest Can you justly glory in your own strength that it was your own Arm that hath done this for you Was it your own Valour that vanquished your enemies Or is it not the hand of the Lord that hath thus exalted you and abased them that had the Government before you I say Have you answered the Requirings of the Lord Let his Witness be awakened and arise in all your consciences and answer to me Did he lay no injunction upon you when his heart was enclined to exalt you Did he not enjoin you to amendment of Life to shew mercy to glorifie your Maker to be Patterns of Piety and good Examples to the People to let Mercy Truth and Righteousness live amongst you and be exercised by you towards the people who are now fallen under you to shew favour to the Righteous to help the helpless and to remedie the wrongs of the poor and needy to suppress Vice and Vanity in Court City and Countrey to be a terror to evil doers and a praise and encouragement unto them that do well And have none of you in the time of your distress promised to the Lord the performance of these things Did the Lord I say set you upon the Throne and thus restore you to outward Dignity when you seemed to be going down into the place of forgetfulness when you had little hopes to have such a Day without a secret enjoining to these things Did he give you the desire of your hearts onely to be revenged of your Enemies and to aggravate and multiply the miseries of his People If his Witness were awakened in your Consciences surely you would say Let God be justified and sinful man condemned Oh my Friends how haue you trifled away God's precious time and your own Deliverance How hath Vice and Vanity abounded in the Nation since the Day of your Exaltation in England Does not Iniquity Pride and Luxury Lord it amongst you both in Court City and Countrey with an impudent forehead Is not Prophaneness countenanced by you Are not the wicked and ungodly had in estimation with you Do not the unrighteous boast in your strength And hath not your Horn exalted them throughout the Nation Are not the Merchants of Babylon grown familiar with you and the Sons of Belial advanced by you Or is there any people receive such favour from you as the Rotten Interest who are now indulged by you What 's become of Sion Are you acquainted with her Do you minister true comfort to her Is she advanced or discountenanced in your Court and the Kingdom Are you true Subjects to Sion's King Rules he as Caesar in the Kingdom of your hearts Do you know Him and pay Tribute to Him Do you observe His Laws Statutes and Ordinances Do you own His Light in all your Consciences to be your Leader Judge and Lawgiver Oh happy were England had she such a King and happy were Englands King had he such Counsellors But alas alas Sion is in the Dust and no man regards her her Enemies now seem to be too many for her and make themselves merry over her They who should be as Nursing-Fathers to her withdraw their affections from her she sits weeping in the House of Mourning for the misery that is coming upon this People while the drunkards of Ephraim tunn themselves with Wine and intoxicate their Brains with strong Drink and the greedy Shepherds devour the silly Flock and the lustful ones love to have it so while the Priest and People conspire together against the Lord and his Annointed Jewels to stop the Mouth of Truth and fill their prisons with innocent people yet can they not center here Mordecai's Seed is a great Mote in the Devils Dish which the old Dragon seeks to devour by some unrighteous Decree from Caesar For the Crown they count sure of their fide and that 's the top-stone of Egypts strength To the Refuge of Lyes they now betake themselves and by their Majestical Craft do abuse both their Prince and the Countrey Cum Privilegio and all for want of a good Understanding For would but Caesar and his Council stop their Ear to their Trencher-Chaplains and the alluring inchantments of such devouring Monsters who seek to subvert and murther the Innocent I say would but the King and his Council once be perswaded to come into calmness and take counsel of God's ORACLE the Light in their Consciences and by it be guided how soon would the dark misty Fogs of Egypt and her Magicians be dispel'd and driven back into the bottomless pit No croaking Frogs durst then come forth to abuse the Honor of a Prince nor wound his Reputation by enticing him to Cruelty nor scrue his Prerogative above the Peoples Tranquility For the End of all Government appointed by God next to his Glory is the good of the People †Salus Populi Suprema Lex For the great God of Heaven and Earth so loved the world that he sent his Son a Light into the world not to destroy mens lives but to save them yet to punish the evil-doer according to the nature of his Crime but not with Imprisonment Death or Banishment for every small offence much less for that wch
free forgiveness out of Folly or Worldly Wit into Divine Wisdom Who would not go after such a Guide Who would not serve such a Noble Lord that sends not his servant upon any service by himself alone but goes alongwth him or rather before him and is a Guide unto him What he commands him to do he onely requires the heart a willing mind and does the thing himself or gives power to perform it Such a Lord is Israel's God all the gods of the Heathen are not to be compared unto him He calls My Son give me thy heart and Come unto me all yee that are weary and heavy laden with the load of your iniquities and I will give you ease O Golden Promise of a gracious God! which he freely performs to all his people To as many as receive him and believe in him and are willing to be guided by him to leave Lust and walk in the Light which makes war against it he gives power to become the sons of God mark to these he gives power to become the Sons of God O bountiful God! O merciful King of Saints worthy of all Honour Glory and everlasting Praises Thou gives power to those that have rebelled against Thee and have been Traytors to Thee to be at peace with Thee to be reconciled to thee and receive pardon from thee yea to become thy Children upon their submission to thee 'T is thou Righteous God works all our good works for us and in us and then acceptest of thine own Here is a pattern for all Princes and great ones to forgive your Enemies O! let Revenge live no longer in you but be buried in the grave of eternal forgetfulness Let the Immortal Witness of God arise in the Court of your Conscience that Love and Innocency may live and the contrary Nature dye 'T is time yea high time for every Individual of you to turn your minds to God's gracious Gift his Light in your Consciences that all Arbitrary Power and Oppression may be turned out of your hearts that bitterness of spirit may no longer live or burn in your breasts O beware beware of the Spirit of Revenge and down with all Idolatry and Idolatrous Superstition for Dagon cannot nor must not stand before the Ark of God O come to the Grace of God in your own particulars you that are the Council to Englands King you inferior Officers come I say receive the wholesom Instructions of that Divine ORACLE of God in your Consciences which brings Salvation with it to all that are willing to be saved by it and love the Light better than their Lust which beats down the Devil's Kingdom and teaches and will teach you be you but willing to be taught by it to deny ungodliness and all worldly lusts Pride Arrogancy Scorn Frowardness Covetousness vain-idle-talk Drunkenness Swearing Passion Cruelty Luxury and all Superfluity of Naughtiness Revenge Hatred Malice these are all Ungodliness and makes that man who lives in the commitment of them unlike to God You being willing to bear the Reproof of the Lord for these and what other sins your hearts are addicted to and in love withall you being willing to part with these Whorish Lovers base Lusts who have stoln away your hearts and separated you from your God the Light of God in your Consciences which testifies against these things that they are evil will beget in you a dislike and loathing of all these filthy noysome lusts which defile the soul because they grieve the Holy Spirit of the Righteous God then you wil see every sin as it is to be ugly Pride to be an Evil Seed which the Enemy hath sown in the heart Riotousness Luxury Lust Revenge Swearing Drunkenness and the like to be all fruits of the Devil 's begetting generated in the heart of man in the time of darkness and ignorance Then shall you see the wrath of God due to that Nature which delights to wallow in such miry wickedness so shall you come to know the holy Fear planted within you that when the Tempter comes to assault you he cannot enter upon you The faithful Souldier and follower of the Lamb is kept upon his Watch he sees the Thief comes to rob and steal the heart from the Lord but consents not to the Thief but resists the Tempter who then flies from him He dares not do such a wickedness and sin against his God This would be a blessed Condition and happy are all they that are found therein And verily my friends it is high time that you meet the Lord by unfeigned Repentance and forsaking of your sins for his wrath is kindled against you because your hearts are not right before the Lord. How long Ah how long have you sought to hide your Counsels from the Lord and to beguile the Children of the Light and deceive the Simple with fair sugred words when the poison of Asps hath been under your tongue but the Sons of Wisdom the true Children of the Day have not been deceived by you Think you the Lord is well pleased with you Can you be perswaded that he sees you not or that he reveals not your vanity and subtilty to his Seed Or do you believe that he winks at your wickedness and will not visit for all your iniquity O be not so foolish and unwise for verily such as you sow such shall you reap and if you persist in your obstinacy against the Lord and withstand the Day of your Visitation if you will still run on in the race of iniquity and cast the Testimony of his Law-behind you if you will let your minds still pursue the pleasures of this world and prefer the transitory things of this life before your souls Peace if you will count worldly gain to be godliness if you will speak smooth things to your King deceitfully and counsel him to rejoice and make merry over God's Witness in his Conscience as if he should never come to judgement if you will lend your ear to the Charming Sorceries of the Hireling Priests the English Rabbies who now are doting upon Romes Trash and Trumperies who preach for Hire and Divine for Money and Proyhesie lyes unto the people who chiefly seek for their gain from their quarter and greedily hunt for the Golden Fleece but profit not the Flock but leave them as they found them if not worse ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth if you will make Covenant with Death and confederate with Amaleck in his cruel Conspiracy against the Innocent If you will be one with Haman in helping the wicked one to obtain the help of Caesar against the Helpless if you will involve your selves into that cursed League and bind your selves as it were with an Oath against the Innocent if you will be on the Serpent's side against the Seed of the Woman and strengthen the hands of the bloody Shepherds who seek to devour and woory Christ's sheep if you
will give your Power to the false Prophet and let him ride upon you and make you his Vassels to afflict and torment the Innocent if instead of helping the Woman against the Dragon who is now casting out the Floods of his Wrath and Mischief against the Lambs of Christ and help the old Dragon to cast the harmless into nasty Holes Caves and Prisons If you will not quit your selves like men of Honour and shew your selves to be of a good understanding fearing God and hating Cruelty If you will not look into the Royal Law of God and do to us and all men as you would have us and all men do to you But if you will suffer us to fall into the hands of our Enemies whose very mercies are cruelties and you stand by and rejoice at our Calamity If you will not while you have Power be a bridle to the Wicked nor Rebuke this Exalted Spirit that seeks to Raise and Enrich it self in the Ruines of the Lord's People but give your Consent and Countenance to the Wicked in their Cruelties against us if you will stop your ears at the cry of the Righteous and suffer our Adversaries to oppress us all the day long and plow great furrows upon our backs and make our Afflictions grievous to be born Then know this assuredly The Lord will remember the afflictions of Joseph and though our Brethren sell us into the hands of the Aegyptians and intend our utter Ruine though you and they in your secret Contrivances and Imaginations devise mischief in your Beds against us yet the Righteous God will not forsake us he will stand by us in all our Troubles and his blessing upon us his presence with us his comfort to us nor you nor any Mortal can take from us In all our sufferings he is and will be with us and in his due time he will work Deliverance for us and in the mean he will support us in all our Tribulations he will fill our hearts with joy when the hearts of the wicked shall faile them he cannot forsake his own He will fill us with Divine Wisdom and give us Courage to bear all the Wrongs and Injuries which the Wicked shall be suffered to lay upon us He will Arm us sufficiently with his Patience and give us such Spiritual Weapons as shall wound the Head and Heart of the Wicked The innocency of our Sufferings shall kindle a Fire in the Hearts of our Adversaries that shall burn like an Oven and shall not be quenched The more you strive to suppress the Truth by persecuting those who live in it the more shall Truth prevail and prosper And if you should seeke to fill all the Prisons in the Nation with us or to take away that from us which is not dear unto us if the God of our Life require it of us For We our Life our Goods our All is freely given up unto our God when he requires them of us We can in his Strength glory over your Weakness and in the hight of your Fury we fear you not We know him to be with us who is greater than he that is against us and He will not faile us in the time of our greatest need That way you think to Raise your selves and Ruine us shall be the Ruine of your selves that very Way shall Deliverance come out of Sion to the Captive SEED For alas poor men you strive not onely against us but you contend against your Maker the God of Israel is engaged with us he Fights our Battels for us for he is within us then why should we fear what man can do against us Did ever any of Cain's Brood you are no better who ere ye be if you join with the Beast and false Prophet against the Lamb prosper long in their afflicting of God's People Why should you wilfully throw away the Mercies of your Maker Are you able to contend with him Or did ever any strive against him that were not broken and confounded by him If you can pluck God Omnipotent Eternal from his Throne and raze his Witness out of your own hearts utterly extinguish his searching shining Light in your own and the Peoples Consciences Then may you go on in your persecuting of the Saints and challenge the Peace of God to be your Portion But if not What is Man that he should Vye thus with his Maker Therefore be perswaded yet while the Light of God does shine in your hearts to be guided by it least for your disobedience to it the Lord God Omnipotent the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah who now suffers as a Lamb within you Arise in his fury and put on Strength If he Roar out of Sion he wil make all the Beasts in the Field to Tremble he will be dreadful to the Wicked If you persist in your Impenitency Cruelty and hard heartedness and seek to dye your selves in the Blood of the Innocent Then Know this assuredly from the Lord The Righteous God will visit you for your Iniquity the Blood-thirsty Men shall not live out half their dayes A short work will the Lord make in the Earth Vengeance Vengeance from the Lord God shall speedily overtake you though we forgive you and never lift up a hand against you The Dreadful God in his Terrible Wrath. will be avenged on you you shall all surely surely perish both YOU and your KING The LORD hath spoken it O that Men would yet let the Fear of God take place in their hearts it would Deliver them out of the Snares of the Cunning Hunter who continually goes about like a Roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour O that men would once learn to be wise and cease from their Worldly Wisdom and seek after God's pure Wisdome which is only found and obtained in the Light Surely they might do wel to take heed unto his Light which shines in their hearts which secretly reproves all the Deeds of Darknesse And would draw them from Iniquity unto Holiness from Pride into pure Humility and from under the Power of Satan unto God But this is the Misery and Condemnation of the World That Light is come into the world and men love Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are evil 'T is but now as it was ever The Seed of the Serpent cannot love or be at peace with the Seed of Life for Truth ever bears its Testimony against the World That the Wayes Customs Worship and Traditions thereof are evil And that 's the reason why the Heathens rage and the cause of the Enmity between the two Seeds even from the time of Righteous Abel to this day Search the Scriptures and there you may find plentiful proof of this true Assertion Never did the Light of the Gospel since the Primitive Times shine in more purity than now it does Never had the Lord a people since the dayes of the Apostles who walked more innocently and inoffensively as to God and Man than he hath raised
up and manifested in this Generation And never did any people who made so large a Profession of God and Godliness as the Priests and Professors do at this day that ever manifested more Enmity Malice and Opposition against the Innocent for the Hat and Knee Thee and Thou and such like things than these men do at this day Oh wonderful That men who pretend to such a hight of Profession should be so dark so sottish and have so little understanding in the Mysteries of God's Kingdom at this time of the Day when Truth hath gained so much ground in the Nation as all the strength of Antichrist shall not be able to recover one foot thereof from the Lamb and his true Followers in the Warfare against the Beast Oh! I am wounded I am wounded to see the Wickedness of the Wicked to see the Beast and false Prophet boast it self in its own strength and thus triumphingly exalt his Horn against the Heritage of God and vaunt as if he were not to be moved to see the undermining subtilty of the old Serpent seeking the Lives of all the Innocents in these Nations onely because Truth cannot feed Deceit nor put into the Mouth of the false Prophet but reproves sin in the Gate and makes Spiritual War against the Man of Sin because in the living Power and Authority of the Eternal God it reproves Pride Covetousness Lust Wantonness Swearing Revenge and makes war against the Drunkards of Ephraim Because it upholds not the Devil's Kingdom for term of life but preaches up the Hope of Glory the Power of the Living God in his People to be all-sufficient to destroy and put an end to the Divels works this makes the Divels roar and increases the rage of Antichrist and his Adherents against the followers of the Lamb and makes the Brats of Pride gnaw their very tongues for Madness because the Sons of Meekness dare not in awe to God bow to that exalted Spirit or feed the Beast with flattering titles Tell me you that are well read in Histories if ever you found any Pagans or Christians so termed since the foundation of the world that ever persecuted an Innocent people for wearing their upper Garment which God hath given them to be a Covering for their Head and for using the Language which Christ the lip of Truth and all his Lambs ever used one to another yea which all Nations under the Heaven in the Rudiments of Teaching use for a Foundation O that men should be so void of the Fear and Dread of the Living God as to suffer their hearts to be so filled with fury against the harmless Flock who lifts not up a carnal weapon against their enemies What is your meaning to hatch this Mischief against them thus earnestly to feek so subtilly to destroy them What evil Ah! what evil O thou Enemy to the righteous God do'st thou know by his Lambs In the fear of the Lord I challenge thee to declare it to them if thou canst either in Doctrine Life or Conversation How often have thy dreaming Priests attempted to impeach the one and the Serpents eye watched over them for the other And how often have they been foiled and their eies even failed and grown dim and wearied themselves with their watching for our halting How hath the righteous God confounded their wisdom and driven it backward and powred shame and contempt upon them for their portion How many have perished in their foolish expectation of the Fall of the Righteous How often yea how wonderfully hath the Lord stopt the mouths of these greedy dumb dogs who never have enough and silenced both Priest and People Professors and Prosane even by his Babes and Sucklings who are nourisht at the breasts of his consolation and drink at the water of life freely and can now no longer like foolish children dabble in the dirty Pools of the polluted Priests of the Nation nor buy their lying merchandizes any more So that now for want of just matter of accusation against them they are fain to flye to their old Refuge of Lyes subtil Inventions false Accusations to ensnare the Innocent touching the things of their God wherein the Serpent knows they dare not violate the Law of their God in the least or act the Hypocrite's part to save his Head and lose his Soul And therefore they run to their rotten Laws * Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy Oath of Abjuration never constituted by God nor approved of by Man who lives in his fear to be a Snare to the honest-hearted And would but you Rulers of this Nation do to these Innocent Ones as you could have all men do to you the persecuting Seed would not for these things harm one Saint But the Will of the righteous God is worthy to be done who in his due time will sweep away the Refuge of Lyes which the Wicked one fathers upon Christ's Flock Hast not thou O ENGLAND in the time of thy late Troubles had large Experience of the Innocency of these People Have they ever had a hand in any Plots or Conspiracies against thy Governors though often falsly accused Let God's Witness arise and it vvill give in true Evidence on the behalf of the Innocent for I bear them record in the Name of the Lord They are a harmless and a peaceable People those called QUAKERS vvho live in the life of Truth professed by them and seeks not the life of any nor desires any harm in their hearts to their very Enemies They cannot confederate nor never could since they came into the life of the Lamb with this or that part against any Government but were ever counted as Sheep for the Slaughter and many of them have deeply suffered for Conscience-sake as is sufficiently known to many thousands in the Nation but more now of late than ever O England England Art thou so drunk with Iniquity so blinded with mad Zeal Art thou grown so fond of Romish Trumperies that thou wilt needs quarrel and fall out with thy surest friends and not be satisfied without the blood of the Innocent I bear them record they are the choicest the very best of thy real Friends and the purest Gold that is current in thy Kingdom Canst thou not bear with the tenderness of their Consciences There is not a people in the Nation I am bold to speak it that would so freely give toleration to tender Consciences as they would do Thou allowest some Grains I well know to thy Gold and why not a little lawful Liberty to a truly tender Conscience Why wilt thou offer to urge an Oath upon them God's Witness in all Consciences knows their yea and nay is as binding unto them as all the Oaths and Bonds of the best of thy Inhabitants beside them And why dost thou O Supream Power imprison or suffer any to be imprisoned or disquieted for working in their Calling upon those called Saints dayes Is this the Toleration thou intendest to allow to tender Consciences O! What 's become of the Word of a King And tell me now O ye men in Authority and all sober-minded people if Passion be down and Preiudice removed What is that O man in thee whatsoever thou art high or low rich or poor that is offended because the honest-hearted bows not with his body to it or stands not bare without his Hat before it Or frets and fumes like a Fool or a Fellow new come out of Bedlam if a man do but speak proper English to him Thee or Thou to a single person Is it the Babe of Humility or the Seed of Pride that is so soon puft up into passion that sometimes to an affectionate kind word it answers discourteously with blows or buffetings Oh England England When wilt thou come into the Humility When will thy Malice cease against the Innocent and thy surious folly finde an end When wilt thou leave persecuting thy own Bowels Not so long as the Beast and false Prophet have Dominion over thee not till the Righteous God awaken thee with his Judgements And verily O England 't is time that thy Governors knew thou ripens fast thou art fattening for Destruction while thou licks up that which formerly thou vomited and canst now conform though with gripings in thy Conscience to Popery and Popish Prelates and persecute the Saints in Prison for not submitting to thy Popish Festivals Oh whither are you wheeling you great Counsellors of the Kingdom O England England wouldst thou not even drink the very dregs of Popery if the Lord would try thee But he hath a Cup for thee to drink which will awaken thee he hath Arrows in his Quiver that will wound thee to the heart and lay thy persecuting Head-pieces in the Dust though the Innocent lift not a hand against them The Righteous God will plead the Cause of his People he will suddenly smite the stiff-necked and stout-hearted that say of his Son the Light of the World Nolumus hunc Regnare we will not have this man to Rule over us He will make the fat Bulls of Bashan Roar he will make the Beast feeble in his sinews yea as weak as water Down goes the Beast and the blind Guides together they that are willing to be deluded by them who make war against the Innocent An irrecoverable wound shall the Wicked receive and then shall they know the evil they have done in outstanding the day of their Visitation and helping on the miseries and afflictions of God's People UNto Thee O Lord God Omnipotent do we commit our Cause Thou Lord knowest the Integrity of thy Chosen ones Thou sees we have no other help in Heaven but thee and that there is none in all the Earth from whom we can expect deliverance but from Thee Thy Mercies are sure to thy Righteous Seed and thy Compassions can never fail nor be separated from it This is our Stay this is our Comfort O thou God of all Consolation thou art with us thy Love is to us thy Presence is amongst us and thy All-sufficient power is felt and witnessed within us Thy everlasting loving kindness which compasses us about no mortals can take from us Glory glory unto Sion's King for ever Lincolne the 7th day of the 11th Month called January M. M. THE END