A PLAIN Record or Declaration SHEWING The Original ROOT and RACE OF PERSECUTORS Together With the Nature Practice and End of that GENERATION in all Ages past since the Beginning as we may Read in the Scriptures of Truth from Genesis to the Revelation But more Particularly thus The Devil who was a Murderer and a Liar from the Beginning and the Original of all Sin is the Father of all Persecutors and Persecution which is the Birth born after the Flesh which the Egyptian Woman the Bond Woman is the Mother of who is cast out with her Son from being Heir whose End is Destruction CHRIST JESUS the Truth the Peace the Power of God which destroyes the Devil the Original of all Sin and Unrighteousness He is the Original and Everlasting Father of all the Righteous which is the Birth born after the Spirit whose Mother is Jerusalem from Above which is Free with her Children who are the Righteous which are Persecuted who will not persecute nor hate but love Enemies Now these are Abel's Generation who was a Righteous man whose Sacrifice was accepted of God him Cain slew who was wicked And so all Haters Murderers Persecutors about Religion Worship and Sacrifice from the Beginning even until this day they are of Cain's Generation the PERSECVTOR whose Sacrifices God hath no respect unto their hands are full of Blood though they Profess all the Scriptures of Truth they are Persecutors of the Just and so their Reward will be according to their Work H. F. Gal. 4. He that is born after the Fesh Persecutes him that is born after the Spirit London Printed for Robert Wilson in Martins Le Grand 1661. A Plain RECORD or DECLARATION Shewing The Original ROOT and RACE Of PERSECUTORS Together With the Nature Practice and End of that GENERATION c. NEver did any Prosper who were Persecutors of the Righteous For when the Devil went out of the Truth then did he snare and tempt others out of the Truth and their Habitation And being so the State was Lost which was in the Begining wherein all things were Blessed and Good And the Devil the Original of all Sin is the Father of Persecutors and Persecution who is out of the Truth in the whole World which was always Blind that lyes in Wickedness from which Foundation of the World hath the Lamb been slain the Just have Suffered and been Persecuted by them that have obeyed the Devil the Author and Original of all Sin Who hath entered into their Minds and defiled their Minds so that they have disobeyed the Good in them the Just in them which is the Cause of all the Persecution in Christendom and all the Persecution Ignorance in the whole World And People disobeying the Good that is in them and the Just and so obeying the Bad in them they are Aliens in their minds and Strangers to the Life of God and Covenant of Promise and Strangers to the Image and Likeness of GOD the Image of the Devil being within them and yet undefaced and unsubdued This is the Cause of the Enmity in the whole VVorld and the Cause of the Enmity in them that do profess the Scriptures both Jews and Christians being Aliens from the Life which they were in which spake them forth in which there is no Unity and Subjection unto God and to one Another So the Devil was the First Persecutor the Enemy of Mankind who is the Power of Death the Author of Sin which brings it forth which Christ the Truth and Prince of Life Destroys for he Ends all Persecution Cain the Second Persecutor who Persecuted righteous Abel though he was a Governour and built a City God said he was a Vagabond and Fugitive and his Brother's Blood stopped the Earth from yeelding its full strength So that a Persecutor Corrupteth the Earth and all that be Persecutors are of Cain Vagabonds to whom belongs the Woe though they be never so Great in the Earth the Woe is to them if they be Persecutors The Old World Persecuted Noah righteous Noah with whom was God's Covenant who was a Preacher of Righteousness And God overthrew the Old World for their Filthiness and Wickedness and Ungodliness who grieved him and had Corrupted the Earth and filled it with Violence who were Drowned and righteous Noah in the Ark was saved with Eight Persons So there was the End of those Persecutors The Sodomites were struck Blind by the Angel of the Lord who assaulted Lot's House in Sodom and afterwards the Lord Consumed their City with fire The Caldeans were Persecutors of Faithful Abraham from among whom God brought him who denied his Acquaintance Relations and Friends and Nation and Country Worship and Fathers House and went into a strange Land to Dwell And afterwards Abraham's Seed were Strangers in the Land of Egypt who by the Egyptians were four hundred years Afflicted and Persecuted but the Lord did Overthrow the Egyptians in the Red Sea and so Destroyed those Persecutors Ishmael the Son of Hagar the Bond-woman did Mock and Persecute Isaac the Son of Sarah the Free-woman who was cast out of Abraham's Family that he should not Inherit with the Righteous because he was a Persecutor Esau was a Persecutor of Jacob who fled from his Face and he despised his Birth-right for a messe of Pottage and morsel of Bread And Esau the Persecutor because he hated his Brother therefore the Lord said I have hated Esau and laid his mountain desolate and Jacob have I loved who was blesseded of God and there is an End of that Persecutor Nimrod and Cain were two old Hereticks the one Persecuted Abel and the other was called the Mighty Hunter before the Lord who did begin to build Babel which God confounded and declared Cain to be a Vagabond So a Persecutor is a Vagabond and a Fugitive Ioseph's Brethren Persecuted him and Sold him into Egypt and Pottiphar's Wife slandered righteous Joseph yet neverthelesse the Lord made him to prosper and cleared his Innocency Joseph's Brethren were made to Bow in the day of their Poverty to their Brother whom they had Sold and Persecuted Pharaoh the King that Old Persecutor because he would not let the Children of Israel go that they might Worship God the Lord Destroyed him And the Egyptians Persecuted the Children of Israel though to them Joseph had been a blessing and they killed their Children and Oppressed them by sore Labour and Taxes therefore the Lord overthrew those Persecutors and drowned them in the Sea and delivered His Persecuted and Oppressed People by a mighty hand and outstretched arm So that there was an end of those Oppressors and Persecutors And the Children of Israel Persecuted Moses and were ready to stone him in the Wilderness and Rebelled against him and neither regarded his word nor the Lord wherefore the Lord said they should not enter into his rest Whose carcasses fell in the Wilderness and perished as Pharaoh did in the Sea with his Host who
Persecutors though they be never so Rich in the Earth Great Kings Princes or Emperors yet have not a habitation in God A Persecutor his eye is blinded his ear is stopped to the Spirit of God in himself so wanders from the habitation in God So a Vagabond he will corrupt the Earth and stain the Earth and fill it with Violence A Fugitive that spills the Blood of the Innocent he causeth the Earth not to yeeld her strength So here is the Author of Poverty and Beggars by whom the Just and Innocent alwayes suffer against whom is God's Wo and that is the end of all Persecutors Iezebel and Ahab were both Persecutors of the Prophets of the Lord and Killers of them who painted her face and thought to have been received and esteemed by her Painting but mark the end of those Persecutors whose Blood the Dogs licked in whose dayes the Prophets wandered up and down in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins and were in Caves and Dens of the Earth and were fed in them And Elisha the Prophet in these dayes was fed by the Ravens Therefore consider ye that delight in Persecution Do not devise evil on your Beds flatter not your selves in your own eyes lest your Iniquities do become so loathsome and so hatefull that you come to no change for Shame will bring forth Confusion and a fountain of Lyes Plot not against the Just nor gnash not your teeth against them Cease from Anger and Wrath be patient and fret not against the Innocent and the Righteous Do you not reade of the Great Persecution in the second Psalm The Rage of the Heathen who imagined vain things The Kings of the Earth took Counsel together with the Rulers against the Lord and against his Anointed Will not the Lord vex them in his Wrath and sore Displeasure and laugh them to scorn because of their folly and madness and set his King upon his holy Hill and so frustrate the ends all of the Persecutors The Children of Israel when they transgressed the Law of God they persecuted his Prophet Jeremiah they put him in the Stocks and in the Dungeon who was persecuted by Priests and Princes and the Lord suffered them to be carried away Captive into Babylon and to put out their King's Eyes and to destroy his Sons who in the day of their Prosperity in their life-time hearkened to their Priests false Prophets and Teachers that smoothed them up and cryed Peace to them in their Iniquities and would not regard the Prophets of the Lord but persecuted them and there was the end of those Persecutors And the Children of Israel their Princes and Priests persecuted Isaiah the Prophet and the Children that were with him were for Signs and for Wonders to both the Houses of Israel before their Captivity yet they would not regard neither Signs nor Wonders nor Prophets who afterwards were carried away Captive and there was the end of those Persecutors Pashur the Son of Immer the Priest who was also chief Governor of the House of the Lord did smite Jeremiah and put him in the Stocks Therefore did the Lord tell him by the Prophet Jeremiah that his name should not be Pashur but the Lord had called him Magor-missabib For the Lord would make him a Terror to himself and all his Friends and they should fall by the Sword of their Enemies and that he should be carried captive to Babylon and dye there and that was the end of that Persecutor And again when Jeremiah had spoken the words which the Lord had commanded him to speak to the Children of Israel Then the Priests and the Prophets and all the People took him saying Thou shalt surely dye because he prophesied in the Name of the Lord and told them of the Destruction of the Temple See Jerem. chap. 26. In the Children of Israels Captivity there had been Persecutors of the Prophets Ezekiel told them their Shepherds Teachers and Prophets had caused them to erre and had made havock of the People and sold them for handfuls of Barley and pieces of Bread and eaten the Fat and cloathed themselves with the Wool the Lord would redeem them from their mouthes whom he saith are like Foxes in the Desart which worry and devour the Lambs and they were made a prey upon who departed from Iniquity So let them see who regard not the Lord nor his Prophets the fruits of their Persecution Daniel in the Captivity of the Children of Israel let them see their Sins and their Transgressions who regarded neither the Lord nor his Prophets And Daniel was Persecuted for praying to God and cast into the Lyons Den. Mark did not God bring his Persecutors into the Den of Lyons who tore them to pieces and Daniel was Delivered And the Three Children were Persecuted for not Worshipping Nebuchadnezzar's golden Image and were cast into the fiery Furnace whom God delivered and made their very Persecutors to confesse that they were the Servants of the most high God and those who cast them into the fiery Furnace were slain which was a Testimony against their Cruelty and Persecution Amos the Herdsman who was a Prophet of the Lord was Persecuted at the Kings Chappel who told them the Songs of their Temple should be turned into Howling And they said that Amos had conspired against the King and bid him get him into the Land of Judah and Prophesie And Amos told them of Vyals and Instruments of Musick and of their drinking Wine in Bowls and how they stretched themselves upon costly Beds and of the Seat of Violence and how they swallowed up the Needy and caused the Poor to fall and that they did not remember the Afflictions of Joseph Amos 6 7 8. Chapters But mark what the Lord saith of them Are ye not as the Children of the Ethiopians unto me O Israel saith the Lord and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good c. Micah Prophesied in the Captivity and let them see how their Judges their Princes Heads and Rulers of Israel who hate the Good and love the Evil who pluck off their skin from off them and their flesh from their bones who also eat the flesh of my People and flay their skin from off them and they break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the Pot and as flesh for the Caldron And Thus saith the Lord concerning the Prophets that make the People to erre who bite with their teeth and cry peace and he that putteth not into their mouthes they even prepare war against him Therefore the Lord told the Priests and Prophets That they should not have a Vision and that they should not Divine and the Sun should go down over the Prophets and the Day should be dark over them And their Seers should be ashamed and their Diviners confounded and Sion for their sakes shouuld be plowed as a field and Jerusalem laid on heaps And this was their reward from the Lord for their
regarded not the word of the Lord nor of Moses that bid him get him out of his sight And so there was the end of those Persecutors Sampson was betrayed by his Dallilah and Persecuted by the Philistines but the Lord brought an end to his Persecutors Therefore beware all ye that Trust not in the Living God least you lose your Strength and be betrayed by your Dallilah's Balaam was a Persecutor who loved the Wages of Unrighteousness a Deceive and a Dissembler in whose way many go But mark their ways and his that go against the righteous Seed the End was destruction who went against the righteous Seed and Life and there was the End of that Persecutor Saul Persecuted David when the evil Spirit came upon him and the Spirit of the Lord departed from him and pursued him up and down and hunted him like a Partridge and a Fly but the Lord overthrew that Persecutor Absalom Persecuted his Father David and sought after his Life to get the Kingdom to himself and Ahithophel was his Counsellor whose Counsel God confounded and brought to nought and the Lord overthrew both him and Absalom and so they fell into the Pit which they had digged and there was the End of those Persecutors 2 Sam. 17 18. Chapters Shimei one of Saul's Family was a Persecutor who cursed King David and flung stones at him and cried out Come out thou bloody man and thou man of Belial c. 2 Sam. 16.6 7. Now though David did pardon Shimei that he did not take away his Life yet mark what came after Solomon his Son caused him to be slain See 1 King 2.46 and there was an End of that Persecutor Ioash the King and his Counsellors were Persecutors as ye may read 2 Chron. 24. what became of them and what was their End that persecuted the Prophets of the Lord and slew Zechariah a Prophet of God whom the King commanded to be stoned to death in the Court of the House of the Lord who in love warned them for their souls eternal good but to reproach they turned it and made a mock of the Prophets and slighted the Messengers of God and accounted of the Spiritual men as Mad-men and called the Prophets Fools But the uprightest of them is as sharp as a Thorn-hedge and the best of them as a Bryar Among whom many of the Prophets trembled shook and quaked in Sackcloath and Ashes and shewed several Signs and if they came Piping or if they came with Repentance to them they did not regard Therefore the Lord left them over to their own hearts lusts to perish in their gain-sayings as Corah Dathan and Abiram did whom the Earth opened and swallowed up quick Numb 1. Therefore consider all ye Persecutors upon the Earth and remember your Examples that be gone before read the Scriptures of Truth and see in whose paths and steps ye walk for they who love Enemies as Christ commanded and keep brotherly love and fellowship and esteem well of all men they can hurt no creature upon the Earth The Righteous hath alwayes suffered in the whole world and hath been persecuted unto death upon the account that they have been the Tares the false Prophets and the Deceivers for which doing Christ gave them no Example nor any Command for all the Persecution that hath been since the dayes of the Apostles Though in the Law they were not to spare their nearest Relations Wife Brother or Sister that drew them from the Law of God and went to set up another god if he were a Blasphemer or a false Prophet they were not to be spared but to be put to death by the Law of God Which Law of God Christ being put to death ended and he saith Love Enemies For the Jews said who persecuted Christ they had a Law by which if any man said he was the Son of God was to dye and to be put to death Therefore the People might say as they say now They were but subject to the higher Powers But mark the end of those Blasphemers that persecuted the Son of God to death the Prince of Life And mark the end of those Persecutors that persecute Christ where he is manifested in his Members that visited not them in Prison and came not to them when they were sick and cloathed them not and fed them not Such he saith must go into everlasting punishment much more them that cast into Prison shall receive the Reward of Persecutors The Children of Israel were persecuted by the Heathen whom the Lord overthrew Haman persecuted Mordecai and the Jews and would have had them all put to death and Mordecai hanged because he feared God and could not bow to proud Haman So the same thing that should have been done unto Mordecai befel Haman and so there was an end of that Persecutor Ahab the King persecuted Micaiah the Prophet and commanded that he should be cast into Prison and fed with Bread and Water till he returned from the Battel at Ramoth-Gilead because he could not flatter him and speak well of him as the false Prophets the Prophets of Baal did So Ahab the King was slain in the Battel and did not return in Peace according to Micaiah's words And there was an End of that Persecutor Ieroboam the King his hand Withered which he put forth against the Man of God who cryed against the Altar in Bethel and their Idolatry there See 1 King 13. Rechab and Baanah the Sons of Rimmon did Persecute and Slay Ishbosheth the Son of Saul a righteous person in his own house upon his Bed and cut off his Head and brought it to King David and looked for a Reward for this their Murder saying to David they had killed his Enemy and avenged him upon Saul and his seed But David commanded his young-men and they slew them both Rechab and Baanah and cut off their heads and that was their Reward for their Persecuting and Killing a Righteous Person Iob's Friends persecuted him and reviled him and see the end of them that Job was constrained to offer sacrifice for them and make intercession to God for them See Job 42. And though People reade in the Scriptures daily yet they do not consider The Iews persecuted David who was of the Royal Seed of whom David said Let their Children become Vagabonds And so they were according to his Prophecy and are at this day and their Eyes blinded and they bow down their backs alwayes So be all the Vagabonds and Blood-shedders whose eyes are blinded backs bowed down that be out of the Life and Power which the Jews went out of and Cain And so do all the Christians so called and all People upon the Earth whose eyes are blinded and they gone from the Life of God in themselves These let in the Devil the Murderer and Lyar that went forth of the Truth and so goes from the Principle of Life and Dominion These are the Vagabonds and the
wickedness Persecution Who divined for money and taught for hire and judged for gifts rewards they had no Answer from God and this was the fruit of their Persecution and Persecutors Formality and Blindness Whom the Prophets had foretold how they had served God with their lips but their hearts were removed far from him And how they would Sacrifice and Offer and cry the Temple of the Lord and yet live in their Abominations Which Offerings and Sacrifice God had no respect to more than Cain's whose hands were full of blood And told them their Oblations and Sacrifices were no more to him than to blesse an Idol and he that Offered a Sacrifice as he that cut off a Doggs neck or slew a man For they were Persecutors Nahum Ioel Haggi Zachary Let the Children of Israel the Jews see their Transgression And see how the Judgements of the Lord came upon them for their Transgressions and Persecution The Edomites who were the Children of Esau were Persecutors of Jacob and his seed as ye may read in the Prophecy of Obadia where the Lord saith to Edom The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee thou that dwellest in the clifts of the Rocks whose habitation is high that saiest in thy heart Who shall bring me down to the ground How are the things of Esau searched out how are his hidden things brought to light The mighty men of Teman shall be dismayed to the end that every one of Mount Esau may be cut off by slaughter For thy Violence against thy brother Iacob shame shall cover thee and thou shalt be cut off for ever Shall not I in that day destroy the wise men out of Edom and the understanding out of mount Esau Because thou stoodest on the other side in the day that the Strangers carried away Israel Captive and Forreigners entered into his gates and cast Lots upon Jerusalem even thou wast as one of them But thou shouldest not have looked on thy Brother in that day when he became a stranger neither shouldest thou have rejoyced over the Children of Judah in the day of their destruction nor have spoken proudly in the day of their distresse nor shouldest thou have entred into their gates nor looked on their affliction in the day of their Calamity nor have laid hands on their Substance in the day of their Calamity nor shouldest thou have stood in the crosse Way to cut off those of his that did escape nor delivered those that did remain Therefore as thou hast done it shall be done unto thee thy reward shall return upon thine own head and thou shalt be as though thou hadst not been So there was an End of Edom the Persecutor Herod Persecuted John Baptist to death and caused his head to be cut off He being Voluptuous and delighted in his Daughters Dancing gave her in stead of the one half of his Kingdom the Head of the Just John Baptist But mark the End of that Persecutor Was he not eaten to death with Worms And marke what became of him that Persecuted and proceeded against James and killed him with a Sword and Persecuted Peter and Persecuted and Killed the Innocent Children at Bethlehem in madness when they could not find the Child Jesus who fled from the Persecuting Tyrant into Egypt And the Pharisees told Christ that he should go from thence for Herod would kill him Who answered and said Go tell that Fox Behold I cast out Devils and will heal still to day and to morrow and the third day I shall be perfected And he took up a Lamentation over Jerusalem and said Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest them that were sent to thee how often would I have gathered thy Children as a Hen doth her Chickens and ye would not Therefore is your House left unto you desolate c. There was the reward of their Persecution The Iewes Persecuted Christ who came of them according to the flesh and mocked and scoffed at Him and despised Him and blasphemed and said He had a devil and buffeted him and smote Him with a reed and spit in His face and Crowned Him with thorns among whom at His Birth He had no place but in the Manger in the Stable But mark the end of these Persecutors Priests Professors and Rulers Did not the Lord bring the Heathen upon them according to Christs Prophecy and destroyed their Citys and Temple and scattered them over all Nations and many of them were carryed Captives into Egypt There is the End of all Persecuting Professors in the Mouth and Lipps without Life and Power Paul was a Persecutor and a yeelder to Persecution when Steven was stoned the Witnesses layd down their Cloaths at Sauls feet to whom the Lord shewed Mercy which in most of his Epistles he confesseth and his Unworthinesse that he should find Mercy seeing he Persecuted Oh ye Persecutors consider therefore and remember what a great Thing it is to find Mercy as Paul did who Confessed it to his very last as you may Read in his Epistle to Timothy The Iews Persecuted Steven to death who was full of the holy Ghost But the Jews who resisted it as their forefathers did they Professed the Words given forth by the holy Ghost but mind their End Were they not destroyed when Jerusalem was compassed about with Armies and was layd on heaps and not one stone of the Temple left upon another that should not be thrown down Christ said that His Disciples should be Persecuted from City to City and scourged and halled out of the Synagogues and carried before Rulers and cast into Prison for His Name sake which was fulfilled upon them according to Christ's words And he said a day of Vengeance should come and told them they had Persecuted Zacharias and Killed him between the Temple and the Altar and that the Temple should be thrown down And the true Christians in the Primitive times were no Persecutors but Lovers of Enemies and tender of all Men this was their Doctrine and Practice which is beyond Jews and Heathens and Hypocritical Christians that are Apostatized both from the Life Doctrine and Practice of Christ and the Apostles in the Primitive times And the Council threatned James and John and Beat them and Commanded them not to speak any more in the Name of Jesus John gave forth the Revelations and was Persecuted and Banished and he Prophesied of the Beast the false Poophet the Dragon and the false Church should Persecute Kill and Destroy and drink the Blood of the Saints and Martyrs and make War with the Remnant of the Seed of the woman And then Establish the Beasts Worship the Dragons false Church wherein all Nations should drink her Cup and so go on until their sins should reach to Heaven and come into remembrance before God And that God would in the end plague the Whore and burn her flesh with fire and take the Beast and false Prophet the old Dragon and cast