the Gospel know not as I shall shew with God another time But now see what Merchants we have in the world mark it they sell Wheat nay shame upon them they sell the refuse of Wheat and sell it for what at the highest rate that ever was the refuse of Wheat an old Sermon that is even mouldy with lying by they will not part with without a price yea they sell it them at a dear rate none will preach now under a hundered pound a year teaching is turned to a meer Trade he that will give most shall most Gospel under the Law all the Priests had but the like allowance Gospel-Ministers preached freely yet wanted nothing now men will not trust God but must have beforehand some twenty shillings for every Sermon they make some fortie shillings a Sermon yea there are Pastors and Teachers in England who have four pound for every Sunday Sermon besides four pound every week for government and gaudies or eating good cheer Doe not these make merchandise of the Word of God are not these the Merchants which John speaks that shall shortly cry alas alas Rev. 18.15 Rev. 18.15 Was there ever the like heard in the world that the refuse of wheat should be sold so dear by Divines and Spiritual men Spiritual men said I What they who are imployed in Secular and Martiall affaires I doe not blame the Governours of our State for setting such honour and preferment on the heads of Pastors and Teachers Constantine did more yet more mischief followed and the Church as they say fell asleep in Constantines lap so I wish the wise and godly Governours of the Common-wealth to consider I pray consider is it according to the order of the Gospel Acts 20.28 that Pastors should leave their own Church-fellowships and turn fellows of Colledges Is it according to the Gospel that Pastors should become Princes and Presidents Deans and Doctors Is not this a secular imployment and this in the hands of spirituall men is but the Instruments of a foolish Shepherd as the Lord General Cromwel excellently words it This is the great hand of God and worthy of the consideration of all those Ministers who taking into their hands the Instruments of a foolish Shepherd to wit medling with worldly policies and mixtures of earthly power to set up that which they call the Kingdome of Christ which is neither it nor if it were would such meanes be found effectunll for that end and neglect or not trust to the word of God the sword of the Spirit c. A Letter from Dumbar p. 11. That this is not a spiritual but a secular power or earthly mixture appears because an Universitie is properly the School of Nature elevated and improved by Art not by Religious forms though the power of it be precious but by excellencie of learning which Pastors and Teachers are not much acquainted with so were fitter men Again It is a very sad Omen when Ministers of the Gospel and Pastors of Churches creep so fast into Colledges not onely because the prosperitie or ease of fools destroys them Prov. 1.32 but it is the Geneva Note on Acts 6.12 That the first bloudie Persecution of the Church of Christ sprang up and began from a company of Priests by the suggestion of Vniversitie Doctors But we are gone too far from Market we heard before their selling the refuse of Wheat for Silver Amos 8.6 I tell you there is more in that Verse They buy the poor for Silver and the needie for a pair of shooes Or as the same Prophet speaks Amos 2.6 They sell the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shooes That is if there be a righteous poor man that seeks the publike good of the Common-wealth or the good of mankind they will either keep him poor or make him rich they will stop his mouth with a piece of silver or send him away in a pair of shooes What 's that set him in a good office or gainfull imployment that 's a pair of shooes that many an honest heart is bought and sold for I wonder that the Prophet should say of God Thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob Isai 2.7 c. Why Their land is full of filver and gold and there is no end of their treasures Truly it were well the tidings had bin true That we Christians would have no more silver and gold from the Indies then gold should not be our God But now I fear me that Mammon is not onely the god of the world but the god of Churches also yea many good Christians make Mammon and money their God In the Apostles dayes The love of money was the root of all evill it lay close in the Earth but now it is risen to a Tree all men may see that money is most loved by good and bad alike Ezek. 7.10.11 Paul speaks of a cloaked covetousnesse 1 Thes 2.5 it was much covered and kept close then because indeed the Churches were so pure and poor but now covetousnesse walks abroad by day without any cloak stark naked that all doe see and cry shame on the Saints this day Oh the hour of Temptation is come upon all them that dwell on the earth True that dwell on the earth yea Rev. 3.10 those who dwell in heaven are tempted with it also the glory of the world was the last and greatest of all Christs Temptations Matth. 4.8 I doe not envie your greatnesse God knows but pitty your goodness that is so besieged with greatness and Worldly glory with Silver and Gold and Money and more then heart could wish Psal 73.7 the Lords and Nobles of old could doe better with it because Gentlemen born but when so much money comes into the hands of poor Saints oh how they hold it and hug it and hunger after more as dogs after dry hones Woe woe to the Churches and Christians this day Truly Friend I was forced as first to speak then to write so now to publish these things to the world I would much rather have been at home and sate in silence yea better had it been for my flesh and family if I had as I said even enter into my chambers Isai 26.20 and shut the door upon me untill the Indignation bee overpast that is till all the seven Vials full of wrath be poured forth there is wrath enough on the Churches already their own divisions would destroy them quick enough and why then must I come forth like a fool and put my head between their blows But yet God hath appointed a worm to pour out wrath on the Churches to pour out wrath and yet in love to lye under the same wrath with them and for their sake to suffer this for he that kills with the sword shall be killed by the sword Rev. 13.10 'T is not my happiness then but Woe is me my mother that thou hast made me a
mind the first line that darted in mine eyes was alwayes something against Oppression as Isay 5.7 8. Micah 2.2 3 8 9 10. ver Again Isaiah 9.16 17 18 19 20. Isaiah 30.10 11 12. Jer. 22.17 Ezek. 7.19 These and many other Scriptures came not in by way of a Concordance nor yet as sought out by me but they found me out so that I once feared to open the book any more But there was a book within me Isai 29.18 which though I would shut and be willingly deaf to what was written therein yet I was made to hear with a witnesse Isaiah 33.14 The sinners of Zion are afraid fearfulnesse hath surprized the hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings he that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly and despiseth the gain of Oppression c. he shall dwell on high c. This was my morning thought which made me rise up quick from my bed April 8. and after second thoughts I hastened away to Church where the Sheriffe and Judges were expected to come unto sermon there I resolved in the face of all the Country to cast off the gain of Oppression and burthen of Tithes intending with their Honours leave in the end of all to have spoken a few words on Psal 68.5 But the Judges not coming that day to Church the Preacher did no more but expound in the pue there being but a thin Audience upon this my former resolutions fell and I thought within my self surely the Lord would not I should openly meddle with this point nor be too scrupulous in an outward thing as this of Tithes so I quietly heard the Man and God also in the very words then read Eccles 7.7 Surely Oppression maketh a wise man mad and a gift destroyeth the heart For all this I returned home without the least touch or trouble of conscience saying now I shall have peace and be still provided for as formerly I have been to offer up my Isaack my beloved Tithes but the Lord hath spared it and accepted me I see a Ram caught in the bush for a Sacrifice that is my carnall mind and imagination for now I looked upon this of Tithes but as a fleshly outward thing a poor low business for any spirituall man to be scrupulous of therefore I said I would go to my heights again if once I might see the King in his beauty and the land that is very farre off Isaiah 33.16.17 The next day I came to your chamber where I was welcomed with respect and kindnesse but before I could sleep that night I was awaked again and the Lord began to answer in the secret place of Thunder Psal 81.7 he that despiseth not the gain of Oppression shall not dwell on high Then down I came to the deep and dwelt that night in the dark in the shadow of death yea in the belly of hell I cryed the next day also O Lord I am oppressed undertake for me Isai 38.14 This Scripture was that dayes Text when I was to speak good things to the oppressed I heard nothing but bad newes and sad tidings to my self standing there under the gain of Oppression I could experimentally tell this truth that God would plague the oppressor in whose stead me thought I was that day chattering like a Crane and mourning as a Dove in my cry O Lord I am oppressed undertake for me it was answered thou art an oppressor of men and now thou art justly oppressed by God That was the summe of that morning exercise how men oppresse God in mans oppression and then that God oppresseth also their spirits as they doe his Truly to that time I never found the experience of this so true The love of money is the root of all evill evill of sin and of punishment for by this I began not onely to erre from the faith and from trusting on God but to be pierced through with many sorrowes yea to be drowned in perdition and destruction 1 Tim. 6.9 10. And yet how often did my desire to be rich make me fear to be poor and my proud heart seek to silence the cries of God and men within me to shift off the thoughts of oppression and the businesse of Tithes as a thing not belonging to me but for the States to reform Again my heart told me that Tithes are now new modled and set in another form with some moderation also And again Tithes are coming into the Treasury of the Common-wealth God forbid said one within me but thought I why may not I take at present this free gift from the civill powers as the Pastors Teachers and Preachers of the Gospel in Wales this day who are maintained by Tithes Oh this renewed my former troubles enraged those terrors telling me if now I be silent I should not onely betray my Country and the Governours of our Common-wealth to the judgement of God but be base and lye to the Churches not speaking the truth which many poor Christians not attending to doe daily wound their weak consciences by a little too much worldlinesse as in other things so in farming of Tithes which all the godly Preachers and people of God in Wales did formerly profess preach and pray against Thus many Ministers also are unsensibly fallen into a new light which themselves condemned in others for my part I follow the old and professe that I can see yet nothing in Tithes but the gain of Oppression continued and kept up meerly by Ministers and Church-Members who being men of power this day might easily prevaile to remove this and many other oppressions at least with the people of the Land to petition the present Governours to ease the oppressed of their burthens as to release the prisoners from their bonds and to releive poor families with bread by a publick stock I speak not now of those Tithes which are part of mens temporal estates but of such Ecclesiastick revenues appointed at first for Popish Priests now for Preachers of the Gospel this being a greater oppression than the tithes of former times my spirit was oppressed by the Lord till I had quite thrown away this abhomination and burthen of the Land Thus then to me it is presented as more oppressive than Priestly Tithes secondly more oppressive than Popish Tithes and thirdly than Prelatick or Presbyterian Tithes heretofore First I say Priestly Tithes under the Law had the command of God Secondly 't was not forced on men by the power of the sword but either freely given by the people or urged by the Prophets with promises and threats to such who were disobedient or unwilling Thirdly Deut. 14.28 29. the Priests did not eat up all the Tithes themselves but as there was a yearly Tithe for the Priest so every third year there was a tithe for the poor Oh that the poor might have their Arrears out of the unreasonable gain of Gospel-Priests Fourthly Priests under
lowness of your walkings in your worldly designs in your desires for profit your tithes augmentations consolidations Church offerings and such things unheard of in Gospel-times yea it was a strange language to latter dayes But how doe the Priests rob God in tithes and offerings the people rather should be said to rob the Priests in this and yet it is proved before that all was spoken of the Priests they rob God in Tithes Certainly there 's a Mystery in this as in all other legall expressions Mal. 1.11 Isai 66.23 For as Gods Tith or tenth is that small remnant of his people reserved from the Churches Apostasie Isai 6.13 In it shall be the tenth c. So the Lords offerings is all the people of the land Bring yee all the Tithes into my storehouse that there may be meat in mine house Mal. 3.10 The Lords House is of a larger building then the gathered Churches have set up as you may see Isaiah 66.19 20. Where many Nations yea strange and savage people are brought into the house of God who I beleive in his due time will gather these three Nations into one Church as the first fruits of his glory and fame to the world So then the whole Nation is the Lords offering a Nation to be offred unto God God is now rob'd of this offering by our Gospel-Priests not onely the Tithes the scattered Saints but the Nation even the Lords offering God is robbed of by the gathered Churches and their Priests For so it is clearer exprest by Malachy c. 3. v. 9. Ye are cursed with a curse for yee have robbed me even this whole Nation not that the whole Nation did rob God as the words seem to import but taking away the word even not in the Hebrew the sence is clear ye have robbed me this whole Nation that is as God with us is the Nations Motto so God in the Nation or the whole Nation as the offering or people of God the Independent Churches will not own though the Presbyters in this are of a better judgement who professe the Nation to be in Covenant with God and his people and upon this account baptize all their children c. But sure 't is a truth not onely in the Mysterie but in the Historie or Letter The Priests in Tithes and Offerings doe rob the whole Nation for the Nation is even ruined by the oppression thereof Therefore our Gospel-Priests who by the power of the sword take up their Tithes or other wayes force a maintenance from the people are called thieves and robbers by God Oh how secretly and suddenly is the day of the Lord or the Lords day stollen upon the Churches of Wales Christ being come as a Theif in the night to spoil them of all their glory and honour yea their goodness is quite gone and carried away into captivity For how hath God prophaned the Princes of the Sanctuary or the holy Princes as the Hebrew reads Isai 43.28 The holy Princes in Church and Commonwealth are not onely become prophane covetous cruel cunning for bloud but they are prophaned by God this the holy Princes will not hear that God should prophane any man but now they may learn by experience and be made to cry at last Lord why hast thou made us to erre from thy wayes and hardned our hearts from thy fear Isai 63.17 Oh what prophanesse is this that the holy Princes should be not onely proud peevish c. but thieves and robbers in the way to rob the whole Nation Isai 43.28 to rob God and man at once No wonder God doth give Jacob to the curse and Israel to reproaches This is worse then hanging it self to have the curse of God and the contempt of man truly it is far from my temper to reproach any man much lesse the people of God but if God shall give them to the reproach and the curse what man can help it I will send a curse upon you and curse your blessings yea I have cursed them already because ye have not laid it to heart Mal. 2.2 Behold I will corrupt your seed or as the Margent reads I will reprove your seed and not onely the Word you preach but the tithe-corn you gather for pay and the tithe of your cattle too I will spread their dung on your faces and the dung of your solemn feasts and thanksgiving dayes when ye look up to bless my Name I will spread dung on your faces v. 3. And then it followes one shall take you away with it v. 3. One Who is that Sure there needs not the strength of many but one man yea a babe in Christ can take away the Church with the Priest from their setled places How easie is it for one for a very child with his little finger to push down all the Churches in Wales being fallen already by their own divisions and defilements in worship and in their walkings also their wrath worldliness and which is worse the thing of Tithes wherewith they have foul'd their fingers Yee are departed out of the way yee have caused many to stumble at the Law or in the Law yee have corrupted the covenant of Levi v. 8. What 's the Covenant of Levi Oh to live in the Lord alone to look for maintenance from him onely no other maintenance but himself for he was Levies portion Thus it was with Levi and the Priests of old under the Law the other Tribes had portions in the land but the Lord God alone was Levies portion and yet his allowance was from all so Levi wanted nothing though he had no portion but the Lord. Thus 't was with the Apostles and Primitive preachers of the Gospel Luke 22.35 they went forth without scrip or silver in their purses yet they wanted nothing and having nothing they possessed all things 2 Cor. 6.10 But our Gospel-Priests must have portions in the Land Mal. 2.9 or pay in their hand else they will not preach Therefore saith God I have made you contemptible and base before all the people Truly Sir as I was forcibly carried forth to speak at first so now to write my last which I pray receive as the words of a dying man desiring to dye to all things below God to my own life and livelihood Others preach for a hundred pound a year I have now preached to lose it in which indeed I have found my life and a better livelihood in the Lord who hath promised that he will not leave me nor forsake me Hebr. 13. And truly you may beleeve me I have more content quietnesse comfort in my present losse and low estate Mich. 5.7 then in all my gainfull Tithes I then laboured to be rich I now learn to bee poor to be Independent indeed to depend on no man Micah 5.7 not to wait on men nor the sounes of men but on the mercifull providence and dispose of God for my abode and being Thus saith the Lord God
then the Prelates fell the second was of Parliamentary Priviledges when the Army came up to purge it then Presbyters fell there will be a third overturn whether for better or worse I know not yet I hope well of the Common-wealth and Rulers thereof but down goe the ruling Elders with all their Churches the very next moneth when a change of things will be But thirdly May not this moneth be another thing yet something more Psal 119.96 for the Commands of God are exceeding broad and there is a mighty bredth height and length in the least word of his what is the moneth Is it not the new Moon spoken of so much by the Prophets as a type of that new Moon and Sabbath which shall be in the new Jerusalem Isai 66.22 23. What is the new Moon then Truly to me it is new Light as our life in God alone is the Sabbath there spoken oh how terrible is this to the Pastors and Teachers to look for new light much more to look on it it will dazle and destroy their sight and make them stark blind and also dumb as we shall see anon Every moneth we know the Moon receives new light as we call it then the new Moon though it be the old still so the new light is nothing but the old even the everlasting Gospel that glory hid in God before the world will come forth in men at last yea that old light of Law and Gospel-Churches which hath been hid and darkened by the Apostacy shall be more fully known and come forth from all that traditionall knowledge of God which is yet received by men Rev. 10.23 Oh this moneth will be a day of doom to the Churches the new Moon this new light will darken them at noon day pray read Amos 8.9 where there is a greater than this yeares Eclipse the earth is not onely darkened at noon but the Sun goes down and sets at high noon What is that When men think they are in highest light as Churches look no higher God doth suddenly darken them and makes them also dumb verse 11. for there is none left to preach the Word being no more to be heard from North to East verse 12. from Scotland to England and Wales Why is all this wrath think yee The end is come upon my people Israel that is the Church verse 2. then there is the howling of the Shepheards and their silencing verse 3. This is wrath indeed but what is the cause of all Sure first because the Churches take no care for the poor of the Land verse 4. they may look to their own poor but the poor of the Land are swallowed up by their silence and made to fail for the Ministers will not open their mouths nor speak a good word for them to the present Governours who doubtlesse would and will help the poor at last though never moved by the Churches But secondly They cannot abide new light therefore darknesse comes as we said when will the new Moon be gone say they or as the margin reads the new Moneth this kills the Pastors and Teachers this one Moneth cuts them off by God But why would they have this new Moon gone and the Sabbath past Oh that they may sell Corn and set forth Wheat verse 5. for there is no buying nor selling nor a stitch of work to be done on the Sabbath Wheat what is that What is the Chaffe to the Wheat Ier. 23.28 saith the Prophet Wheat sure is the pure Word called the fat of the Kidneyes of Wheat and so the pure word is Deut. 32.14 it is the finest fattening thing that man can take that immontall seed of the Word when it is sincere spirituall and pure how pretious and how powerfull it is But what is the Chaffe to the Wheat Chaffe hath the form and fashion of Wheat but it goes away with the wind yea the Fan of the Lord or any sufferings from men as I said before blowes away the Chaffe both the Word and the Preachers of it But suppose it be Wheat that they sell it is but the refuse of Wheat as themselves confesse Amos. 8.6 what lean low and legall teachings doe our Preachers of the Gospel set forth and sell it is but the refuse of all that which good Mr. Perkins Doctor Preston and the rest of those pious men left behind it is not their spirit these men speak with it is but their words or the language of old Writers in a new dresse Nay most of these Pastors or Preachers of the Gospel can goe no farther than the flesh of Christ A cheif one of the Army would once usually say that the flesh of Christ and letter of Scripture were the two great Idols of Antichrist Iohn 6.63 Heb. 4.12 and the letter of Scripture as for that eternall Spirit which dwelt in the one and which spake in the other they know not the flesh profiteth nothing saith Christ it is the Spirit that quickeneth the words that I speak are Spirit and life where is that spirituall quick and lively words Spirit and life it self ministred to men and in them Is it not the refuse of Wheat that they sell when all that is sold by them is not worth the knowledge of a Christian Henceforth saith the Apostle know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more 2 Cor. 5.16 We know not Christ now saith he but God in Christ verse 19. for so Christ would be known onely as the Fathers Image Ioh 14.9 10. he that sees me sees the Father if thou hadst known me thou wouldst have known the Father it was God even the Father who was all in all in his flesh who did all and spake all in him and by him he was indeed the way to the Father not that men should stand still in Christ as I said before but by him goe to the Father and with him dwell in God so he was the truth because the everlasting Father 1 Pet. 3.18 the onely true God sent the Son or came forth in flesh and crucified it also to himself to bring men to God and thus Christ was the life and our life also For indeed all the life knowledge and faith of a Christian by Christ as the way doth tend and end in God 1 Pet. 1.21 Yet this is not all and yet this the Pastors and Teachers know not 2 Cor. 5.17 for if any man be in Christ he is a new Creature or as the Greek reads a new Creation why the greatest of them all goe no higher than the first Creation as I said before But again God in Christ and Christ in men is a Mystery yet that none of the Ministers of Churches can manifest to the world those hidden Mysteries and Secrets of heaven that high Mystery of God even the Father and of Christ and the Mystery of the Gospel these Ministers of
man of contention to all the earth Ier. 15.10 c. First to Prelates then to Presbyters now to Independent Pastors and Teachers It is my mother the Church hath made me thus for my Fathers Spirit the promise of the Father in me doth teach me better things There are better things indeed that the Saints should wait for things above Law and Gospel-order if it were as it was Ier. 50.45 but is not things which neither Prophets nor Apostles attained to yet both did write of and wait for Rom. 8.21 the glory to be revealed in us the glorious libertie of the sons of God and of the sons of men also even of the whole Creation 2 Pet. 3.13 the new Heaven and new Earth the new Jerusalem 1 Ioh. 3.2 the appearance of the great God in us when we shall be like him and see him as he is see his face and his name on our foreheads Rev. 22.1 2 3 4 c. when there shall be no curse nor crying nor death but the tree of life in the midst of us the River of life cleer as Crystall proceeding out of the Throne of God and the Lamb that is in us Zach. 14.8 Job 20.17 Ioel 3.18 These are the living waters the Rivers and Brooks of butter and honey the Prophets speak of yea the mountains dropping down new wine and the hills flowing with milk is more then was in Gospel-times Acts 2. the new wine the Spirit which the Apostles were drunk with at first was but the first fruits but a taste of that which shall be more fully drawn forth in the last dayes Zach. 9.15 Rev. 19.6 when men shall drink and make a noise as through wine and be filled with bowls c. yea make a noise as of thunder being the voice of much people in heaven and of many Allelujahs Those who shall sing and speak really and indeed these gladtidings to men shall not want money nor meanes for City and Country and Kings too shall contribute their glory to them the City Merchant shall give them food and raiment Isai 23.18 and Country Farmers shall serve their wives and children to plow sow and reap for them Isai 61.4 5 6 and 9. verses yea the Lord God himself will be ready as a servant Isai 45.11 Isai 58.9 to wait on them at their command and at their call Here am I saith he to those who undoe the heavie burthens and let the oppressed goe free and break every yoke from mens states and spirits this the everlasting Gospel will doe Isai 58.6 7 8 9 12. verses compared This is also the Sabbath before spoken of which the Ministers there wish it were over not onely to cease from our own works but from speaking our own words Heb. 4.10 Isai 58.13 or from speaking words as the Hebrew reads v. 13. Heb. 22.19 The Law indeed was a voice of words and the preaching of the Gospel at first was in this far below its own light at least below that glory of the everlasting Gospel at last which shall not be in words or speakings Rev. 19.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in the righteous actings of men the righteousnesses of Saints Rev. 19.8 The Angel who is to preach the everlasting Gospel is no particular man or men as in the Gospel-Ministry at first but the Spirit it self even the glorious appearance of the great God in Men and in Magistrates first shall Minister that light and love and glory to bee revealed in us Thus the Angel flyes in the midst of heaven c. Rev. 14.6 the other Angel v. 7. is another appearance of God in men Revel 21.24 For as the Kings of the Earth bring their glory and honour to the New Jerusalem that of the New Jerusalem being the sum of the everlasting Gospel so these Kings of the earth who shall be are the ten Kings who burn the whores flesh with fire Rev. 17.16 The ten Kings are not a Kingly power for Monarchy will never burn Ministery the whores flesh but such a government of men who have received no Kingdome as yet but receive power as Kings one hour with the Beast Rev. 17.12 as the two Beasts are false Ministery under severall forms so the Beast here is the second Beast * The Beast and the false Prophet were taken c. The Beast is the first Beast the false Prophet is the second Beast who did Miracles called the false Prophet Rev. 19.20 who hath two hornes like a lambe this being the purest Ministerie and most like Christ though indeed of Antichrist doing and speaking as the Dragon and first Beast did Rev. 23.11 12. To this second Beast the ten Kings with one mind give their power and strength Rev. 13.14 Rev. 19.20 compared and make war with the Lamb oppose and persecute the high appearance of God in his suffering Saints who are said to be with him who also by suffering shall overcome at last both the Beast and ten Kings with him Rev 17.13 14. compared with Revel 12.11 The ten Kings being thus overcome by the Spirit of the Lord in his people and by the same Spirit appearing in themselves shall hate the whore with the Beast and shall burn her flesh with fire Rev. 17.16 But before this as I said they had given their power to the Beast the reason why they gave it is strange and should still all the murmurings of men For God put it in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and to give their Kingdom to the Beast untill the words of God shall be fulfilled Rev. 17.17 When the words of God are fulfilled then the woman that whorish spirit or dependance on Men and Ministers which reigns over the Kings of the earth the ten Kings shall burn with fire that is by the power and Spirit of the Lord God appearing in them as Fire These ten Kings then seem to me to be a State Government like ours who have no Kingdom as yet not yet setled though the Beast may make them believe they are Kings for an hour for that little time of the Beasts reign over them but the Kings can doe nothing they can doe no more nor longer then the Lord puts in their hearts as was said before therefore when the Word of God is fulfilled and his time accomplished The ten Kings though formerly ruled by the Beast and loving the whore yet now hate her make her desolate and naked eat her flesh and burn her with fire Rev. 17.16 17. How beloved were the Bishops or Prelates to most of the present powers in whom yet such a Spirit since appeared that hath burnt up all those and will them that follow Those Kings then who bring their glory and honour to the new Jerusalem are the ten Kings and these ten Kings are the Christian Magistrates it may be ours for as the Nations of them that are saved are joyned with them Rev. 21.24