or Are your Customs the Arm of GOD yea I say if that Conscience in whom GOD liveth and reigneth should ask of them all Are your Words or Customs or Forms of Worship the immediate Commandment of the LORD GOD from Heaven which shall endure for ever not one of a thousand either could or would give a ready Answer thereunto which if they would honestly answer negatively concluding their words not to be GOD nor their Customs the Arm of GOD why then do they set their Words above GOD as a limit and bound to the Spirit of GOD And why set they their Customs and Forms of Worship in the Seat of GOD to judge in more Power than the Arm of GOD To the sons of men it may be fully said To whom is the Living GOD known and the Arm of the LORD revealed For if GOD be a Spirit and is only known in Spirit to live in Spirit and to dwell with men in the Spirit How remaineth the knowledge of this true GOD among the sons of men who by the limitations of their Customs and Forms of Worship and Words in the Will out of the unlimited Spirit do thrust him the unlimited Spirit out of his true habitation To all the sons of men upon the face of the Earth who have reached as far as the Tradition but want the Life even unto all Sects and among you all I might largely and plentifully declare your Judgments of others and not with that of GOD in the Conscience answers not that of GOD in the Conscience of any man and GOD hath no Unity with your Judgment but his hand he turneth against it even as in all Generations past The Customs of your Worships and not in the Spirit the Spirit turneth against you and the Spirit will have glory over you for be you not ignorant how that the Spirit created the Times and in time Tradition and Custom came forth And the Spirit which changeth the Times will change the Customs and Forms and when GOD hath put all these things under foot he will be known to be All in All in the Conscience his own proper Seat and Dominion What art thou O corruptible man in whom God created a Conscience that sits above GOD in thy Will making a Law against GOD in the Conscience of another Knowst thou not that GOD hath the whole Dominion there Knowest thou not that GOD hath granted a Law against all Sin and written it in the Conscience his own seat where he cometh to Judgment of the whole World of Mankind as well in it the Heathen who have not the Letter of the Law by the same which he will judge both Jew and Gentile who have the Law and in the Life are found transgressors of the Law And makest thou a Law against the Light of the Throne of GOD against that which thou makest and settest a bound-mark limitation and Law which is in another in and by the self same thing in thy self shalt thou be judged of GOD because of thy Law and the LORD GOD will be known to be the Lord of Spirits and Father of Lights whose Spirit and Light by all the Customs Traditions Laws and Forms of Worship in the World is not in any measure comprehended to be equally judged or made in Righteousness subordinate unto in the Conscience of another and that of GOD in you all shall witness this for ever and bear its everlasting Testimony against your comprehensible corrupt wills which make Laws and constrain Customs and Traditions by Laws against the incomprehensible measure of GOD in another Wherefore a Warning from the LORD GOD the Father of Spirits and Lights to you all is come to give you to take heed in due season lest you be found fighters against GOD your Creator in the day that he calleth to Account and draweth near unto Judgment in the Land And lay it to heart with understanding that for this cause only that he was fought against in the Conscience by Customs by Laws by Judgment by Life by Traditions by Forms of Worship by Sinners by Rebellion against the Power in the Conscience by Jews and by Gentiles all the Overtures Desolations Confusions Destructions Captivities and Revelation of the Wrath Indignation and Vengeance of GOD from Age to Age reaching unto this present Age came to passe in the Earth Witness the Flood witness Sodom and Gomorrah witness the Red Sea witness the Walls of Iericho witness the Mulberry-trees witness the Battels of Israel and the Captivity of his Children witness the Worms that ate Herod witness the Destruction of Ierusalem and the scattering of the Iews in the Earth witness Greece Germany Scotland England and Ireland and yet the LORD will call the whole Earth to witness and bring heap upon heap and destruction upon destruction and desolation upon desolation by Fire and Sword in every Land that standeth against the Word of the LORD GOD. But blessed is he that cometh to know the ground and root of a matter in him to know the end of the Desolations determined to be in the Earth I might say unto you how that in the dayes of Luther GOD moved in the Darkness upon the face of the deeps thereof but they which made him their Rest are confounded and their head is broken as Clay He appeared brighter by Behman and Brown but they which built their Travels as Towers the LORD confounded with many Languages and even running up to the height Baptists Seekers and Ranters some made bounds for the pure and others in their lusts revolted wherefore GOD hath laid them one upon the other as a heap of confusion together And thus he hath begun the work of his hand decreed to perfect his purpose And the LORD GOD will make the Nations to know That he hath not sent down his Word in the Earth to be likened unto a breath of Vanity in the Air and that he caused not his Prophets to run in vain as him which comes short of the mark but that his Law which he wrote upon the Tables of Stone he writeth upon the Table of he Heart and both the Law and the Prohets no more as in the dayes of continual ransgression shall be told as a tale of tatlers and as a history of vain bablers pointed upon the tongue of a deceitful mouth but that they shal be fulfilled and witnessed yea and perfected in the Spirit in Life and in Power as by the Spirit in Life and in Power they were revealed and given forth to this only end of GOD in his Creature For which cause lastly JESUS the Saviour was revealed to perfect that which was lacking and to compleat the Redemption in fulness Therefore all you dwellers in the Monuments of the Earth Awake from the deadness of your Forms and Worships and draw near unto the quickning Power of the Righteousness of GOD which leads to Life in the Truth and Salvation from all Sin To which end GOD sent the Immanuel a LIGHT unto
Battering Rams AGAINST ROME OR The BATTEL of JOHN the Follower of the LAMB Fought with the POPE and his Priests whilst he was a Prisoner in the Inquisition-Prison of ROME ALSO A Certain REMONSTRANCE of Righteous Reason written in Rome-Prison of Mad-men unto all Rome's Rulers Together with a POST-SCRIPT to all tender-hearted Roman Catholicks London Printed for Robert Wilson at the sign of the Black-Spread-Eagle and Wind-mil in Martins Le Grand 1661. To the tender moderate Roman-Catholick Reader Friend THe following Writings being such as have been dispensed in the City of Rome unto which Answers were expected by me from them whom it chiefly concerned but not receiving any unto any of my Queries propounded to Pope Priests c. in Rome even unto this day and being now returned unto this Land of England may expect something of Answer from thee unto the said Interrogations which are of general concernment unto all Roman Catholicks or else I may conclude that Truth is in no wise on your side but absolutely and undeniably against you which I therefore leave unto thy consideration and if from that which followeth thou shalt be perswaded of the Truth which is held forth therein confessing it in singlenesse and simplicity of heart and mind if afterwards thou desirest to be further satisfied touching any thing of our Doctrine or Practices ask it in the Spirit of Moderation either by Word or Writing of me and according to the Light of the Knowledge of GOD given unto me I may meekly answer thee in the tendernesse of my Soul Who am a real faithful and true lover of all Souls Called John Perrott To the READER Reader I Have found it expedient for the satisfaction of many tender Desirers to intimate these few preceding Words to the following Tract shewing the certainty of the thing which many have enquired after yet not as if the relation thereof were able to enduce any Souls to believe in the True GOD forasmuch as Christ said If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets neither would they believe if one should come from the dead Yet every Work of the Lord God to me is of exceeding weight especially such wherein the life and safety of my outward man was very much concerned in the time of my Pilgrimage in Forreign Parts and Countries In brief I give this Relation to wit When I was in Legorn in my Travel onwards to Turky on a certain night an Angel of the LORD awakened me out of my sleep saying Arise and go to the Window the which I did in very much dread and trembling where standing I suddenly heard certain English-men in another Room at a Neighbour's house wickedly conspiring my hurt but blessed be God who sent his Messenger to warn me by the Power of his own Life delivered and saved me from the Evil of the said Conspiracy Moreover In Greece I met with divers difficulties being in my Pilgrimage led through many Tryals and Tentations by being brought before Rulers and Magistrates and sometimes destitute of any thing to purchase natural food yet still the presence of the Lord was with me both by Sea and Land and in the greatest straits he alwayes appeared in the greatest power of Love caring and providing for me even beyond all that my heart could ever think which things to mention at large would fill up much Paper And therefore in this compendious Preface may only hint one passage more of the powerful Arm of God battelling for mine Innocent Soul in a Righteous Cause which the Romans were well informed of before I arrived at Rome and that by divers hands from Venice by which they might at least-wise understand That God was my God and that I was his faithfull Servant in the Work that he had called me unto It came to pass in proceed of my Pilgrimage as I was returning by Sea from Smyrna to Venice that upon the way near unto Corfu the Sea-men and Captain of the Ship took a wrongful occasion of Anger and Wrath against me at which time I offered my self in much meeknesse and moderation to reason the matter with the said Commander of the Ship but in brief he threatned to cast me on shore on a certain barren Island on which there was no Inhabitant who when he saw that I was in that contented being wholly offered unto God in all place and time desisted that Attempt but forthwith bound himself under an Oath and Curse that when I came to Venice he would have me burnt to death by fire To whom I replyed saying I fear not man whose breath is in his nostrils but the God of life who was my Leader in all that he had called me unto This being at evening suddenly after these passages there was a cessation of many of his words of bitterness though some there were that grinned their teeth upon me and could even have found in their hearts to have bitten off my flesh from my bones which kindled the Anger of the LORD GOD Almighty against them for all that Night his sore Indignation and Vengeance did burn as a flame in his bosom so that it came to pass at the dawning of the next day that he cast down a ball of Fire betwixt the Decks amongst divers Passengers which brake as into the roaring of a Cannon amongst them and slew two persons and wounded one more and besides that the Lord caused Fire to Rain down from Heaven in coals upon them which burned some in their bodies others it smote and wounded and others it slew in the Ship And this is the Account of the slain viz. An English-man the Gunner a Dutch-man the Carpenter and an Italian a Marriner an Armenian Merchant and a Turk a Servant which were five of five several Nations and five others wounded which the Lord God Almighty gave as Examples of his Wrath that the rest that lived might fear his dreadful and terrible Name Moreover the said coals of Fire burned many holes through their Sails and split their Main-Top-Mast in the Puttox and then grievous was the cry of all Flesh amongst them And from thence their perverse Spirits were much more moderated to hear me in causes of Equity and Truth Many things more I might mention of the wonderful Works of my God whom my simple soul serves even in the integrity and uprightness of my whole Heart But in these things I cease at this instant having hinted some things of other Passages in other Writings and therefore at the present do draw to the putting in order the following Writings which were dispensed by me in the Inquisition-Prison at Rome J. P. An Epistle general to the Romans GOD who at sundry times and in divers manners in the dayes of old spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets hath now in these latter dayes spoken unto us by the Revelation of his Son the LORD from Heaven who in the fulness of the dispensation of time came a Light into the world to be
the manifest Salvation of GOD unto the ends of the Earth as was spoken by the Word unto Isaiah his Prophet in whose face expresly we have the Revelation of the Father in whom we behold the Glory of the Son as the Glory of the only begotton of GOD full of Power and Wisdom hereby knowing what we Worship whom the whole world alienated from the Power Life Wisdom and Holiness of GOD do ignorantly Worship in the imaginations of their own hearts which before the Lord are only evil continually Him therefore declare I unto you GOD the Eternal and unto every mortal Invisible and Incomprehensible Spirit who is not likened unto the Creation which by the Power of his Eternal Word was made to glorifie hiâ—… Name by the Spirit sheweth That he dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is he worshipped by the Works of mens hands as if he needed any thing who from the beginning determined the times appointed and made all mankind of one mould and gave unto them Life and Breath and added thereunto of the Grace of his Mercy a measure of the Divine Nature if haply that thereby they might seek and feel after him the LORD their Creator But Man whom the LORD made little lower than the Angels and gave him the fulness of the Earth to possess rebelled at all times against his GOD he departed from the beginning from the living Way and made Invention the joy of his Heart and made his Inventions a fence against God and his Imaginations a Bullwark of defence and in all Ages and Generations though the LORD visited with Judgements Destruction Mercies and wonderful Deliverances and sent his Servants the Prophets arising up early and lying down late with Precept upon Precept and Line upon Line speaking as afar off by Signes and Figures and Parables and as at hand by Iudgement and Mercy And always shewed how that he is GOD and altogether unlimited neither bound unto Words nor Wonders nor limited in Sea or in Land but still Man made marks for GOD and set bounds for the Arm of his Power who in no wise is measured as the waters in the Wells nor contained as the Rivers with the banks who was not conceived as the Seed of Man nor born as the Babe of the Womb who is not comprehended as the grass with the ground nor as the wide swelling Seas with the sands of the shores who is not known as he knoweth all fowls and calleth the Stars by name who is not measured as the Earth with the Moon nor as the Heavens with the course of the Sun and therefore Man alwayes lost the knowledge of the eternal Power of the God-head and still settled in his own will which at first rebelled against GOD and in the same Will made Laws and Statutes and Ordinances for Government for Worship and for punishment though even from the dayes of the first man Adam unto this day the hand of the LORD GOD was turned against that work as witness the preaching of the Spirit of Abel Enoch and Noah he who hath an ear let him hear witness also Abraham Isaac and Jacob among the Heathen and Moses among the Egyptians yea witness the Spirit of Moses among Israel by Preaching by Power by Judgement and Deliverance What may I more say They would build a Tower to reach unto Heaven and Arks and Cities and Tabernacles and Temple And all for GOD to be constrained in their Works and when they had Commandments and Sacrifices as appointed by the Word of the LORD the Spirit sheweth when in all these things they would have forced the Rest of GOD the LORD arose alwayes against them and sent his Servants the Prophets to cry against those things with the same Word which commanded them whom they did beat imprison wound and torture yea and put to death And thus it alwayes was He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even as it is now and in like manner it hath been from the dayes of Abel until the Heir came and him they shamefully slew to possess the Vineyard Moreover of his dayes I may also speak even in the dayes of the LORD CHRIST when he was transfigured before his Disciples at the glorious appearance of Moses Eliah and the LORD the Disciples would build them Tabernacles but mercy appeared unto them in a Rebuke and they were instructed in the Way of GOD but yet and notwithstanding also that Paul the Apostle taught a pressing on from one degree of Faith unto another until all should be perfected unto the fulness of the measure of a compleat stature shewing also in the Resurrection who himself was risen with Christ the diversities of the measures of the Glories which were revealed and every measure as gathered into God in his fulness were respectively full shewing it by the figure of the Glories of the Lights of the Sun Moon and Stars and wrote to the Church how that he was caught up into the third Heaven and saw things which were unlawful to be uttered And John in the LORD'S Day in the Revelation of the Lord from Heaven saw the great things of GOD yet said the Angel unto him Come up hither I say notwithstanding all this the doctrine of GOD that he might be known to be GOD and not in any wise to be limited Man in his wilfulness and presumption unto this day hath set marks against him and made measures of words in their Wills as Cords of restraint to bind him yea the Heavens and the Earth and the depth of the Seas and all the increase of the Plant of the field and her seeding Seed the Sun Moon and Stars the Clouds the Winds the Hail and the Rain-bow of GOD shall witness against the Nations of the world in this matter They limit not God in their pleasure but do bow in subjection to his Will but the Nations of the Earth in the crookedness of their hearts have made walls against the passage of GOD. O Man lift up thine head and look and behold how the People and Inhabitants of the Earth do limit the LORD to their lusts O open thine Eye and see how they make GOD as a Transgressor in the Earth even as the Cattle of a Stranger which have fed in the fields of their Pasture and as the hand of a Thief and Robber which hath stolen the labour of another Look thorow the Earth among the Nations thereof and thou mayest read all their Professions as Prisons for the Reign of of GOD in the Conscience is limited by the forms of their Words and one cryeth Here and another saith There and another saith these are the Laws and the Precepts and he that will not Rest in this he is out of the Way of GOD and he that speaks against our Law and the Manners of our Worship he must bear the punishment thereof Concerning all which if the Conscience of GOD should demand Are your Words GOD
Counsel if you resist and will not beware Beware lest in the time of distress you cry and gladly would and then he be not to answer From the Inquisition-Prison in Rome J. P. To Fabius Guisius Pope of Rome Friend MY Message is not unto any part of the natural either Wit Will or Wisdom it is neither meat for Serpents nor air for Camelions But the Word of the Lord God is to the Seed which shall be witnessed by the next Generation whether this which now is will hear or forbear This is the Message which I have heard and received and do declare unto thee GOD is Light and in him is no darkness at all who hath sent his Son a Light into the World that all that believe in him who is the Light of the World may have everlasting life unto which Light thou must bow and oughtest to lay down thy Crown at the feet of him who cometh in the Cloudâ—… thorow the thickness of the Night and breaking thorow the blackness and darkness of the black and gloomy day That which Daniel the greatly beloved of GOD saw afar off I see at hand the little stone is cut out of the Mountain without a hand and is already become a Mountain which the whole Earth is not able to remove and will become a Mountain which shall fill the whole Earth which shall throw down every Image before him as saith the Prophet GOD will confound the Image and the Image-maker and him which boweth before it Behold Overturn cometh and Overturn followeth until the last Overture be fulfilled and He come whose Right it is to Reign and his Government which is an Everlasting Government be set up and his Dominion unto the utmost Ends of the Earth of which there shall never be end GOD hath looked over the Government of the Land and hath heard the Blasphemies thereof They profess my Name saith the Lord of whom I am made but as a curse in their mouth And my Name is but made the grievous Oath of the Land saith the Jealous God And from the head to the tayl there is none amongst them that have made the Separation betwixt the Just and the Vile but as a Cage of unclean Birds they are all common as in Confession so also in their Iniquity and Transgression for which things I will visit saith the Lord of Hosts As David complained I am made the song of Drunkards Even so now is Mary the Mother of Jesus by every unclean tongue in the corners of the streets in the Temples and in the High-ways of this Land of Whoredoms Thus saith the Lord Pull down the High-way marks of Idolatry that the stranger may not stumble before me Exercise thy Power for me and not against me saith the Lord And throw down the great Image and Idol of the Land lest I quickly tumble down two at once saith the Lord of Hosts Plant not Bryars in the Way neither set Thorns in the Gap For lo I am arisen to smite the whole Earth and to make breaches in the fenced places thereof For now even now for mine holy Name sake and my Seeds sake I am jealous saith the Lord of Hosts Righteousness shall run down like a Stream and the Knowledge of the Lord shall cover the Earth as waters cover the Seas which is found scant in thy Land Be thou henceforth no more called POPE for that was never promised nor prophesied of by the Word of the Lord I am Peter's Successor who am of his Spirit whose Kingdom is not of this World and so are we all who are made partakers of the Divine Nature which was fully in Christ who when the Jews would take him by force and make him a King he departed into a Mountain alone and was hid from them all but thou maiest keep the name of one of the Princes of this World and in thy place as a Ruler rule with the Judgment of Truth and Righteousness not turning the stranger out of his way nor condemning the Just by a Law which David in his day complained of Rob not God of his Glory For he forgiveth Sin Repent for thy Sin is not yet forgiven Neither watch for any man's halting for that is Iniquity but cherish all that cry against Idolatry and lift thou up thy voice with them that are redeemed out of the nature of Transgression and Sin that bear witness and cry against all Sin and alwayes wash thy hands and keep thy heart clean from their blood and the innocency of their sufferings Say not that I came to deceive the People of thy Nation whose life is as a Sea of Sin and Transgression who have not anything to be deceived of in that nature but Prophaness Sin and Uncleanness I came to declare the Message of GOD unto thee and so to pass as a Pilgrim and a Stranger out of thy Land I came not with any thing in my Vessel unto thee or any of this City which is new save only as it is new unto the old nature of all Transgressors and seed of Corrupters which is the new Wine of the Kingdom of GOD. Do not ask how thou shalt know For in Judgment thou shalt know that this is the Message of the LORD GOD of Heaven and Earth unto thee I have born a burden for thee and now I bear thy yoak under thee Yet much more could I suffer in the exercise of the long patience of the LORD That this Nation might drink of the Cup of the Everlasting Blessing of the LORD and the Curse removed from their head to eat the bread of peace and gladness for ever So having thus far cleared my self unto thee did it stand in my own freedom I should depart thy Coasts but being not mine own but the LORD's Witness against all Ungodliness For this Testimony with gladness I wear the yoak of bonds and not only yet but what else may follow in his content and patience that hath called me Who by the sons of men am called JOHN PERROTT From the Inquisition-Prison in Rome To the Governour of Rome Friend COme to know the Higher Power the Power of GOD to be highest in thee and let that be the Judge of all matters and causes which shall come before thee Let the Sword of the Judgment of GOD be set up in thy house within that the Transgressor may be slain within then the Eye will be opened the Ear will be unstopt the grossness of the Heart will be taken away and thou wilt have the understanding of the root of a matter in thee and wilt alway judge for GOD and every end will be shaken off No man shall at any time see his end over thee by gifts or presents deceitful speeches or flattering titles of that honour which comes from man but so thou wilt stand in the state of Honour which comes from GOD only which is the believing state but the seeking of the other is the unbelieving saith Christ Wherefore come to
the Light and dwell in the Light with thy mind and heart stablished and fixed in it which shews thy own transgression within to have feeling of the Judgment of GOD upon the transgressor in thee And come to the love of the Light and follow the Light by it to be led out of sin and transgression and then with the Light by which all things are made manifest in all matters of Judgment thou wilt reach that of GOD in all which in all will justifie thee in the sight of GOD and so thou wilt stand girded with Justice in the seat of Equity and Truth a terror to evil-doers and a praise to them that do well GOD is coming to search the whole Earth who looketh for the fruit of Judgement from all that sit in the seat thereof Mercy to the Poor Relief of the Oppressed The Poor hath cryed and the Oppressed hath groaned and GOD hath heard it and he who heareth will answer Answer thou alwayes in thy place for the LORD lest the LORD GOD make thee to answer for thy self before Him Though I am but as a suckling of the Lords Flock nevertheless in the simplicity and tenderness of my life as one that hath received Mercy at the Judgment seat of God according to the lowliness of my measure I counsel thee in his pure fear That thou dost look over the Books of the Registers of the Law of thy Nation and see if any one Statute be there written which may stand as a Law to condemn the Just David complained of that in his day for he saw the issue of what came to passe though it was afar off from his dayes We have a Law said the Jews and by our Law he ought to dye by which they in their wilfulness put the LORD CHRIST to death And so it was in all Ages that transgressors for whom saith Paul the Law was made did make such to suffer under the Law and put them to death by a Law in whose mouth guile was not found which was the unrighteous Judgment Friend Draw thou thy hand from that And though the people do cry even as it was complained of in Judah concerning the Prophet The Land is not able to bear all his words yet of a truth the Word of the LORD will come to passe and be fulfilled And truly I say unto thee as Jeremy said unto the Elders of Israel with the life of that Prophet Do with me as seemeth good in thy sight but assuredly know I am of God And I also desire that the LORD GOD in Mercy may not lay this thing to your charge in the day of his Judgments forasmuch as you do you know not what I sit not in the seat of the unrighteous in any measure apt to judge any thing before the true time wherefore unless the fruit in this matter did shew the Tree I shall not at the present accuse the Romans with our detainment under their Yoak of Captivity to provoke words from us whereby the Prophet's words might become fulfilled upon your heads in this your Age in making a man an offender for a word but I am rather in expectation of the Appearance of the Nobility of that which hath been reported and written concerning the Romans If we have transgressed the Law of GOD Try us by the Law and give us our punishment according to the Law For the LORD GOD knows I delight in Righteous Judgment If we are not found transgressors why are we innocent strangers and pilgrims stopped of our Voyage if our Bonds hold us by you onely upon the account of suspition we blame you not but prove us and satisfie your selves concerning us only if we have found the favour of Justice before you which the living God requires of you shew us the Cause in truth why we are detained that according to Law and Equity before your seat 〈◊〉 Judgment we may make our open Defence I am a Friend of thy soul J. P. From the Inquisition-Prison in Rome To all in the Colledges of Rome that have any zeal or desire to answer Truth for the Lord and Truths sake MEn fearing GOD are not rash nor heady neither will they judge a matter before the time Wherefore for the better information of your selves concerning the Truth and Life the Way of GOD and Church of CHRIST I have in plain-heartedness queried for you in the honesty of sober minds to give me your Answer in writing plainly and pertinently to each of them without renting any part of my words For which in expectation I shall wait in Rome whilst these Bonds hold me until it come to my hands which you ought to answer as you profess the name of Christianity among the sons of men for the sake of souls Query 1. What is that one thing needful unto Salvation which with the possession thereof a man possesseth all things And whether can a man possess it and not know it yea or nay Que. 2. What is that by which Paul exhorted the Brethren to to try the spirits whether they were of God yea or nay Que. 3. Whether are any of you now called by CHRIST to a further estate of Knowledge than the Disciples were then when Christ said unto them You know not of what spirits you are yea or nay Que. 4. If by Christ you are called further shew me how And whether you have really heard the Voice of Christ but if not called unto or beyond that estate which they were then in not knowing your own spirits by what spirit would you truly judge of my Spirit who am of God Concerning the Way of God Que. 5. Whether are you in the way of God which is but one and How was that one unto Enoch and now but one and the same unto you Que. 6. Whether is not CHRIST the Light of the World that one way yea or nay Que. 7. Whether are sinners in CHRIST who is the narrow way or are they under the power of Satan in the broad way yea or nay Que. 8. Whether are you in that way which was prophefied of and is now manifest which the way-faring men though fools cannot erre therein yea or nay Que. 9. Whether are you in any other way but in that in which an Hypocrite can walk and whether can an Hypocrite walk in CHRIST yea or nay Que. 10. Whether are not all that are in the Church of Christ in the true way of God where the way-faring men though fools cannot erre therein Que. 11. Whether is the Spirit of Truth come unto you which leadeth the Members of Christ's Church into all Truth But if you have not a Member that in life is led out of all Error into all Truth How can you say that you have the Spirit of Truth Que. 12. If all be in Sin and Error in the Life How shall I conclude any one to be of the true Faith seeing the Apostle saith Shew me thy Faith by thy Works Can the Faith be perfect
on the one hand and in how much you have spun a thrid beyond the staple on the other that you may see how you have lost the end your line not leading to Perfection nor your life out of sin and corruption Preach write and speak to the end of your dayes and time you shall never beget but by your own seed none other likeness but of your own nature You may come as far as the shadow shell and husk You may have the words but your nature cannot receive the Life and Power the Crosse of Christ which is the Power of GOD to Salvation is too hard a thing for you to bear You have the Image which is the loss of the Substance for where CHRIST who is the Substance is come there the end is come unto all Shadows Types and Figures which shadowed and figured out the Substance before it came Concerning Opinions I blow over them all as Chaff in as many as are in dissembling lyes hypocrisie swearing or cursed speaking Repent God's day is at hand Rome dispensed from the Inquisition-Prison J. P. I Could say many things unto you but you are not able to bear a little as the Priest concerning the Prophet complained saying The Land is not able to bear all his words you being not yet come unto the Charity which is in the Church of Christ which can bear all things and endure all things Wherefore at present I query a little further expecting first an Answer of the former and after that of these Concerning the Kingdom Query 1. What is the lost groat and the sweeping of the house to find it And whether have you found it yea or nay Que. 2. What is a Virgin's-state and are you in it and In which of the two the wise or the foolish What is the Lamp and the Oyl in the Lamp and do you possess it yea or nay Que. 3. Whether is not the Kingdom of Heaven as really in you as it was in the Scribes and Pharisees And whether are you in the Kingdom yea or nay Que. 4. Whether is any one of you a greater Prophet than John Baptist who was the greatest Prophet born of Women which went before him seeing he that is least in the Kingdom is greater than he Que. 5. If not one of you be in the Kingdom of God Are not all in the kingdom of Satan which are not in the Kingdom of God yea or nay Que. 6. What is the first Principle which leads to the understanding and knowledge of the Oracles of GOD And whether are you in it and doth your life answer it yea or nay Que. 7. What is the Key of David anâ—… who keeps it and whether is any thing opened or shut in Heaven or in Earth without it yea or nay Que. 8. What is the Book which is sealed with seven Seals and what are thâ—… Seals thereon which John said no man iâ—… Heaven nor in Earth was found worthâ—… to open Whether was Peter then in Heaven or in Earth or neither in Heaven nor iâ—… Earth And whether any now in your day is found worthy in Earth to do that which John in the Lord's day saw no man in Heaven or Earth was found worthy to do yeâ—… or nay Que. 9. VVhether is not the Prison anâ—… the Prison-house the seat of Sin and habitation of Corruption Or Is darkness anâ—… the shadow of death the Purgation from Sin for the Redemption out of Death Do you not know that the Seed is in Prison under the Clouds of darkness through Sin and Corruption in each one of you yea or nay Que. 10. VVhether have you Salt and Savour in your selves If you know not that it is in you are you otherwise fit but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men Que. 11. VVhat are the two Witnesses of whom it was said That they should again prophesie Whether are they not yet come or how know you but they be come Que. 12. VVhether is the Creation of Jerusalem anew unto you in Rome in the old Age of your sins which the Hebrews shall enter into according to Isaiah's Prophecy and which the Saints of the Most High are now entred into according to John's Prophecy where nothing that defiles can enter And whether is this any other than that which the Apostle said the Hebrews were entred into who were come unto the spirits of just men made perfect yea or nay The Prophecy is become unto all saith Isaiah as a Book that is sealed Friends spur up your Colledges to answer me For if once your Chariot wheels are clogged in the sand and your Host troubled know that Judgment is nigh and the Floods will soon close and joyn hands over your heads Dispensed from the Inquisition-Prison in Rome J. P. THat which is done in secret shall be preached upon the house top For the Bed is too short the Covering is too narrow the Nakedness is seen strip off the Fig-leaves they hide not the Line is stretched but yet the Stone is sealed Nevertheless if you will come forth come forth if you will enter enter come and be as a Roe and Hart upon the Mountains to run and read me to grow to the understanding of a Proverb and the Interpretation thereof the words of the Wise and their dark sayings For behold there cometh a Nation of a deeper speech than ye can perceive of a stammering tongue that you cannot understand they shall break over Walls and climb upon the tops of Houses and enter in at the Windows of the Closets A fiercer People hath not been saith the Spirit of the Prophet The Trumpet of the Lord of Hosts is sounding the Alarm his dreadful day is at hand the dead in Christ have heard and are partakers of the first Resurrection He that hath an Ear to hear let him hear and Repent Rome dispensed from the Inquisition-Prison J. P. To the Pope and Governour and the rest ruling in the City of Rome Friends IN your places it is necessary that you consider that which is indeed above all things honourable I crave not the breaking off the yoke of my bonds at your hands as being assured that your hands were bound of the Lord thus far unto my Imprisonment that you by the means thereof might have knowledge how you are bound with the Chain of Satan under the Curse through Sin and Transgression the LIGHT being come declared and testified unto you henceforth you have no more cloak for your sin This I desire not of you but concerning you of Him which openeth and no man shutteth that the Prisoner in you in the Prison-house within which sits in darkness under the shadow of death may be set at liberty and come forth with the high praise of GOD in his mouth This I offer unto you that I mighâ—… know either by your willing or nilling whether you exceed or fall short of the Nobility of the Bereans who searched the Scriptures to know the truth of the matter
and the Athenians in hearing Paul though first they called him babler either to let your Colledges give me a Publick Dispute or to give me a Meeting by way of audience of the Utterance which GOD may give me or at least to provoke them to answer the 31 and the 12 other last Queries which I gave forth of this Prison else you may be assured as truly as I know although all the former were granted that this is the prick which was too hard for Paul to kick against and so is now unto all Nations you as well as others But of a truth I tell you though you may say that you will not hear the next Generation shall preach my Testimony in the Streets and not withhold their Cry in the Gates of the High places And this is the Word of the Lord God to you all From the Inquisition-Prison in Rome J. P. To Fabius Guisius Pope of Rome Fabius Guisius THe Outstretched Arm and exercise of the Hand of Cruelty unto Death is not able to make me to daub a dirty Wall with untempered Mortar The impudent wicked carriages of the Priests Instruments under thee which are set to watch over me do not in the least move me save only to tell thee therein they are not an honour unto thee but on them I may not altogether lay the weight of the matter as knowing that they are but as saudred Pipes of Lead prepared for the Vent and running forth of the stinking corrupted waters of the Priests malice wrath and envy forasmuch as the Truth hath reproved their Iniquity And as for the others they are not worth the naming But as touching thy Priests some I have found in swearing others in lying and dissembling flatteries and hypocrisie which all are sheltred under the shadow of thy skirt Now consider what thy Power doth uphold a Lyar and a Priest a Priest and a Lyar a Dissembler a Flatterer a Hypocrite and a Priest Doth thy Law preserve such in liberty and out of Prison who are in Death's Prison to watch over the Just which cannot lye unto thee nor dissemble nor flatter with thee though in Prison If thou be Peter's Successor shew me Christ's Command unto him for such a practice else be thou ashamed of it and deny thy Priests in their wicked practices For Truth is ashamed of all rottenness and wickedness deceit lyes and corruption but it is not ashamed to stand before thy face neither doth it fear the frowns of all the wicked Powers and Princes of the whole Earth but in Prisons Persecutions Tortures Banishments or Death it stands over them all and rejoyceth over them all and treads upon the head of the Serpent which seeks to bring to passe his vain imagination in or by them all Wherefore I would not that thou shouldst be a Fool to sit in the Council of the number of the Crafty and VVise but rather be wise and bow to the innocency of Fools and then thou wilt discover the ground of the works of the others matter Now let me reason with thee concerning my Imprisonment which if thou answerest Nay saying VVe have it under thy Hand and it is enough unto us I reply It 's true I have given under my hand the Declaration of a VVitness and Testimony for GOD against Iniquity for which cause if God hath foreseen it that the perishing of this Tabernacle under thy Bonds of Cruelty shall be my Crown when the day comes that Inquisition shal be made after my innocent blood let this with the rest be produced that the Action may be openly remonstrated Truth Honesty and Wisdom would implead act judge and execute the Judgment of the Law of God in Form Manner and Order and to the proper end that it was given forth and not in blind holes and corners and dark Cells as are wrought the works and deeds of the Devil but openly and manifestly unto and before all as in the Righteousness of Him which rippeth open the secrets of alâ—… hearts and bringeth every man's actions to be discovered by the Light in which the Magistrate Judge and Ruler which judgeth and ruleth for GOD standeth in the honour of the true Dominion a Praise unto the living GOD and openly to the Glory of GOD reigneth in the Righteousness of GOD in dealing and executing his Sentence of just Judgment through the convincement of the Transgressor openly by the Law and so he stands a terror to evil-doers and a praise to them that do well If I have written or spoken any thing which I cannot sufficiently prove openly in the Court of Justice where Truth reigns to that of GOD in every man's Conscience then as I have said as the Law of GOD was given forth for due and publick impleading and execution through open Convincement let me bear the everlasting open shame and spare not by due punishment to make me a publick Example in the face of this Nation as a slanderer For again I say I delight in the execution of the Righteousness of true Judgement but if thou wilt not in Equity hear this Then hear thou moreover the VVord of the LORD GOD GOD by the execution of his Justice upon thee will shorten thy dayes upon the face of the Earth and give thee for an example of his Wrath before men Therefore whilst thou hast time Repent This is the day of thy Visitation And forasmuch as at several times I have given forth Fourty two Queries or more to be answered by the Members of the Colledges in Rome or others And having sufficiently expected forasmuch as considerable time since that hath passed away which in lesse time yea much less Truth would have answered so plain a matter but having not received answer from any of them I now query to thee who art reputed as the Angel over them as him which hath the Keys of the Kingdom which I would first try because of the diversity of Voices in the Earth crying Lo here and lo there and in spirit be convinced of the same before I would as a foolish rash hypocrite confeâ—…s without knowledge or understanding as knowing that when Truth hath convinced the mouth of the Gain-sayer is stopped and that of God in the Conscience is answered and the measure of the Manifestation of the Spirit of Truâ—… beareth witness within unto the Truth bâ—… which all are left without excuse anâ—… therefore in thy thoughts by thy Answers leave me without excuse or else know That hereby thou art left even as all thâ—… rest that will not answer Truth for Trutâ—… and the Lord's sake are without excuse Query 1. What is the Gospel of thâ—… Lord Iesus Christ and the Light of thâ—… glorious Gospel which giveth the Lighâ—… of the Knowledge of the Glory of GOD in the face of Jesus Christ And what iâ—… the everlasting Gospel of God which shall be preached to all Nations of the Earth And whether hast thou immediate Authority from God to send forth any to
be made manifest The LIGHT is all your Consciences is your Condemnation within who hate the Light and will noâ—… come to the Light by the Light which convinceth of sin to be led out of all sin Verily I say unto you neither Wit Craft noâ—… Guile the Horse nor his Rider Sword Boâ—… nor Battle nor Angels nor any otheâ—… creatures but the Light which you hate and persecute the Witness of it shall deliver in the day of Wrath which is near you And this is the Word of the LORD GOD to you all Remember you are warned Therefore whilst you have time Repent and henceforth blot out the vain imaginations of your minds and let it be written upon the table of your hearts If God's Everlasting Covenant be changeable then may our cruelty change them from the Lord their God Given forth in fear and trembling before the God of all dreadful Power From the Inquisition-Prison in Rome J. P. THese are to this blind-hearted Generation which are smooth to the rough and rough to the smooth and cannot discern the rough from the smooth the crooked from the streight the right from the left Your love the love of the everlasting Father holdeth in an irreconcileable hatred for ye love the smooth words of the men of this world which stand in the rough places of the Earth Ye love their Titles Daubings Flatteries Dissimulations and Hypocrisies and your selves smooth in the same nature unto this their nature of roughness But ye are rough to the smooth which deal with you in honesty and plainess which are not smooth to your rough nature of dissimulations Wherefore you are rough in your consultations secret reports and actions and bend your selves in crookedness against the streightness of the smooth things of Gods Kingdom Your hatred the LORD despiseth even as your love he hateth For the thing which you hate is the seal of the love of the Father to be holden in love unto death as a testimony against the roughness and crookedness both of the love and hatred of your Life you love not to come unto the smooth stone of David which sank into the forehead of the Philistine The Philistine liveth in you and curseth the Dominion of the GOD of David he spake roughly to the smooth thing in the Stripling but the smooth did smite his roughness even so must it be by the Philistine in you ere the GOD of David be known to be God among you And this is to you all that the smooth which is rough to the smooth thing of God may dye in you that the Lord 's smooth thing may live in dominion over the rough things of the Earth Rome dispensed from the Inquisition-Prison J. P. To a Franciscan of the Irish Convent in Rome Irish Priest THou hast desired something from me that thou mayest answer it And I hereby proposing let thy own words stand thy own obligation to be as faithful in answering as thou wert forward in promising I have sometimes born witness unto divers of you Priests of the Roman Catholick Assemblies manifestly shewing unto you how that CHRIST is the LIGHT of the World which lighteth every man that cometh into the World and unto that LIGHT in all your Consciences approving my Message and the Testimony of the Faith of JESUS which I hold in a pure Conscience to be of GOD which in you all shall stand a Witness for me everlastingly unto Judgement though now you rise up as false witnesses against it and so bear false witness against me and will not come unto the Light that you may have Life but do chuse to your selves the antient path of the Serpent's way setling your selves in the inventions of your own hearts lurking in the secret dens of craft and subtilty stretching out your hands in the corrupted fallen apostatized Policy and so whatever is brought forth by you is but the birth or age of Iniquity Divers of you have confessed unto me and lastly as next unto this present time Thou didst acknowledge that there is not one of all your Catholick Church which is restored unto Innocency or redeemed from sin and the daily act of transgression and then I shewed thee if not one in Innocency then all in the contrary which is Iniquity If all in the daily act of transgression then all wallowing in the miry place in the apostatized ground fallen from the Life of the Lord Jesus who leads out of sin Now therefore understand you who are setled in the obstinacy and perversness and hardness of heart Read your unbelief and the desperate end thereof who will not that the Devil's kingdom should come to an end in you you may have all the words of Christ and the Apostles as the Jews had Moses and the Prophets and yet perish in the same desperation through refusing to come unto Him who is the Life You may say The Lord liveth and yet therein be false swearers as said Jeremiah You may have all tongues and many gifts you may give all your goods to the Poor and your bodies to be burnt and yet want the Charity saith Paul You may as the Magicians of Egypt shew many Signs yea and in the Name of CHRIST Preach in the Streets do many wonderful things and cast out Devils and at the last day say Lord these things have we done in thy Name But not coming unto the LIGHT and LIFE of CHRIST which leads out of Iniquity and to dwell in the LIGHT unto the End above Iniquity Unto such I will profess unto them I know you not depart from me ye cursed workers of Iniquity saith Christ What therefore availeth your Doctrine what also hath it profited any of you in confessing so much of Truth unto me saying that my words are true and just and are as Jewels and Diadems and Precious Stones and ought exceedingly to be owned and honoured Except you come to the Life and Truth of the Substance from which they were offered unto you not that you should catch at the shadow and shell as the Hypocrites in the whole Earth who are smooth in confessing and saying but cursed in doing for know ye that it is one thing to be enlightned and to walk contrary to the Light in such the Light is their condemnation and another thing to dwell and walk in the Light in which God dwelleth in such the Light is their justification You may read the declaration of another man's state without you but cannot read more than your own states with a true witness within you you may dream of sweet Wine but be awakened unto a potion of Wormwood There cannot be plainer proof than the Witness of your own Confessions to conclude your Professions of God vanity your wicked sinful life a scandal to Honesty and all Truth and of Christ but an occasion of the contempt of the reproachful shame and ignomy which sometime past I have in my understanding read among the Turks and Jews Ponder these things and be awakened
it under the Judgment of Penalty To be brief I would draw to the understanding of the Root of a Matter which ought in Wisdom principally to be known in you all that you may know your Root of which I have seen much as ye daily bring forth the fruit thereof Que. 24. Whether the spirit of Oaths Envy Lust and Lyes is not of the ground and original root of Heresie yea or nay Que. 25. Whether that Spirit hath not an absolute and instant Ground and Root universally according to Confession in your Body yea or nay Que. 26. Whether is not all things which are contrary to the Doctrine and Life of CHRIST and his Apostles absolutely and undeniably Heresie and that assuredly Opinion which is the lesser as practice which makes it greater and they both but one in the Ground and Nature yea or nay Que. 27. What Rule of Truth or Precept in the Scriptures of Truth have you to condemn any man as an Heretick which denieth your evil spirit and in the Life utterly abhorreth all your beastly works and wicked words brought forth by the spirit of Heresie And to what purpose think you standeth the judgment of your spirit Do thou mind thy blind-hearted brother Thomas Courtney of these things who told me that Heresie speaking of some Opinion was a worser sin than Murder which weighed in the deeps le ts to see that it breaks a gap for more evil than a thousand of the like his lines is able to reconcile the which was his ignorance as if Murder were not the most abominable desperate act of wilfulness against GOD and a man's Neighbour brought forth by the spirit of Heresie which spirit abounds in all your Coasts which is the real cause of all the Oaths Curses Lyes Dissimulations Hypocrisies Drunkenness Gluttony Adulteries Pride Covetousness Envy all Uncleaness and Murders brought forth innumerably in your Land For which cause if you had all Words and understood all Mysteries yet the Saints interested in the simplicity of Truth dwelling in GOD cannot joyn hands with you to partake of your spirit and so of your evil deeds and lastly of the Wrath to be revealed which the Lord God in his Counsel hath determined shall sweep a secure Land When lastly thou wert with me I saw that thy visage was none of thine own as always unto thy own I desire not to judge thee rashly but let me exhort thee saying Carry not a Bears Paw under thy long Gown nor a Lion's Tooth within thy mincing Lips thy words many of them were as smooth as sweet Butter and fresh Oyl but see thou that under thy tongue there be not hid the poyson of Asps in such things as in the rest of the dead works signs shews and noises as the Magicians of Egypt about the Walls of the Prison and elswhere you may as they themselves did deceive your selves also but by all these things neither in my self nor in you am I at all deceived Settle your selves in Council I am bound within Walls yet blessed be the LORD GOD I savour the deeds of darkness and many of them would not be of good report to be told among your selves You know that I bear all the folly as being 〈◊〉 your Vâ—…ssal to that end but you know not how I trample upon the fruit and the spirit which yeelds it From the Inquisition-Prison in Rome J. P. To the Inhabitants of the bloody City the Mother of Cruelties and Murder REad the Declaration of the Righteousness of this Cause let it be spread in an open Parchment upon the Standard of your Host and let it be marked in your Ensign as a perpetual shame in the face of your Camp There was a certain Message sent by the hand of a Servant by the LORD of a strong Army who treated for the Surrender of the City He came not as a Coward to hide in a hole nor as treacherous to slay in secret but to deliver his service to the Chief to depart with the Answer of the Head of the Land He was foolishly entreated by the hands of the jealous and ilâ—… handled by the doubtful and timerous hearted they bound a Man of War in Chains and rejoyced often to smite him with rotten sticks they chused not to plead with him in open field nor to deal with him as do the Valiant and Honourable they bound him in their seat of contempt and sent Scorners to view him in secret he looked at the works of their hands and wrote them in the soals of his feet he setled his heart in the righteousness of the Message of his LORD and rather chose the Chain of his Enemies Yoak than to yeeld unto Cruelty and Flattery he was faithful to his Enemy in what he was sent as he was to his LORD that sent him he washed his hands of the Blood of the City and possessed the Peace of his LORD What will you say for your selves when this Servant's Cause shall be publickly pleaded to your faces I know your purpose concerning the Heir and the purpose also of the LORD of the Vineyard as the Reward of your wilful works You have been well warned but you have not well received but have ill rewarded and requited Yet in all I desire not that God may requite you as ye have requited me and therefore I have Consolation and you know not my Crown The putrified head of the corrupted body and rotten tayl yea the whole body even from head to tayl I tread upon for ever J. P. Rome from the Inquisition-Prison To the Priests appointed as Inquisitors and Keepers of the Inquisition-Prisons thereunto belonging A Visitation of the Lord God to you all is come ARise arise It is high time to Awake and Arise from the Seat of Blood For the LORD GOD is arisen to make Inquisition for the Blood of every Innocent Soul which hath been starved and slaughtered upon the face of the whole Earth Indignation flyeth with him as a pointed Arrow Vengeance is in his Right hand as a Spear for the Battel and Wrath as a Dart to pierce the Liver of the Wicked The LAMB is arisen for Slaughter as a Lion to devour the Prey a Burning fire proceedeth out of his mouth The Ungodly shall be consumed before him and because Iniquity is plentiful in the Land he hasteth the Iudgment of the Day neither Covering nor Cloud shall hide the Wicked nay nor the Clifts of the craggy Rocks from the fierceness of his provoked Fury He will smite suddenly even in a moment in the Land and bereave the habitation of the Dweller He will catch as a snare in the night and none shall deliver from his Wrath He will abide as burnings in the Earth Corruption shall not dwell in his Presence the Evil-doer is for the Wine-press of his Wrath but the Just shall dwell in his Pleasures It is at hand It is at hand the Day of Vengeance of the LORD according to the Prophecy The abundance of
Iniquity in the Land yea the fulness of the measure of Sin hath dragged the fulness of the determination of Time for the Revelation of Woe in the Earth and Vengeance upon the Inhabitants thereof Long have you made Inquisition after evil for evil banished the good from your Presence and shut it up in the Dens of Dragons Arise and draw out of the ground of the Curse where the righteous Blood of Abel was spilt For your sin is as Sodom and your transgression as the evil of Gomorrah Your Glory is the Kingdom of this World your Seats are as the dwellings of Princes You have fulness and ease in your houses you eat not the bread of carefulness You make the miseries of others your mirth and their mourning your song of rejoycing You stretch your Carcasses upon the burden of their sorrows and take pleasure to heap weight upon weight You make the simple to bend at your Bow and the wayfaring man to bow at your beck You stretch forth your necks in pride and bend your brows in presumption You have slain the Lamb in your streets and trampled on his blood in your secret habitations You crucifie the Lord afresh and put him to open shame You are not ashamed to say Lord though your lyes and your lightness abound You have provoked the LORD unto Jealousie and raised his Anger by constraint And therefore behold he cometh as with Voices and Lightning and will search your dark corners as with Candles He will rent the Coverings of your body and set you as in the day wherein you were born and place you as Butts for his Shafts even as you made the Innocent your mark to shoot your Arrows at in secret You are planted the Judges of the Citadels as the Chief of the Munitions in the Land and as the principal Castle of Refuge among all the Forts of the City But the LORD will make the Staff of your Trust as for a shout in Battel against you your Wallings he will make as a Wilderness and your houses as an habitation of Bitterness your pleasant Dreams shall have their end in sorrows and your Divinations of gladness be finished with the compass of trouble Vnbelief hasteth the Wo because Iniquity waxeth ripe in the Land And the LORD said unto Jonah Go down unto Niniveh and preach And Jonah cryed in the City Yet forty dayes and Niniveh shall be destroyed And when Tydings came to the King he questioned not the matter but considered the sins of the Land and through Faith there was Repentance found among them and the Lord turned back his Anger and spared the City Remember your Visitation which is come from the LORD in the day that you cry Peace peace in the Land saying none evil shall happen unto us had I turned to another Land the Lord would have had followed me with Storms even as he did Jonah with displeasure And God who said Go unto Rome said also Thus shalt thou say which things I have given forth among you and am clear from your works of Iniquity and from the Blood of the Land and City which else as the Lord liveth in Judgment and Righteousness he would have required the thing at my hand Concerning your Judgment I have this at least-wise to say You sit as Lords in the Land and your Wills are the Precepts of the People You constrain your words for a Law and make Envy the Judge thereof The mouth of Malice dealeth the Sentence for the instruments of Cruelty to execute your Wrath You will not that your Judgment be judged for you deal it in craft among the simple but this the LORD willeth although you will not I say the Lord willeth it and it shall come to passe For the LORD GOD will enquire after Judgement and bring Judgement as a spoyler of your Seat You will seek to escape the Day which cometh as a Thief in the night But the LORD will compass you as Fish in the Net and entrap you as Birds in the snare and you that have digged a Pit for another shall fall your selves therein Iudge judge the sin of your own hearts and the liberties of your own lusts and make inquisition after Judgment for the sake of the Righteousness of the Judgement of Truth which standeth against the Iniquities of your life and until it be perfected in you Judge not lest you be judged For ye have not received the measure in love for Judgment to justifie you in the sight of GOD and wanting the measure in your selves you heap up Oppression upon the head of another and wherein you judge another you are left inexcusable your selves for wherein you judge another you stand guilty of transgression in the self-same nature yea you judge as the Jews judged Jesus whom they blindly accused for Blasphemy and perversly condemned his Innocency to cover their Seat of Iniquity O man Judgest thou another as an Heretick and hast thou Oaths and Curses in thy mouth Judgest thou another for Heresie and thou an Hypocrite and Lyar in thy life Thou shalt bear the burden of thy Judgment for thy own spirit gave the entrance and yeelded the encrease of Heresie in the Earth and thou shalt not be excused in the sight of the LORD GOD And you shall all know That the Judgment of GOD is according to Truth against every one that doth evil Concerning your Restraints let me shew you the general Issues and Effects thereof A man that breaks the Covenant of your Wills as having eaten Flesh upon a sixth day of the week which you call Venus day after the manner of ascribing glory to a Heathen Goddess for so doing or otherwise you offending though not against GOD transgressing he is judged by you as a sinner against your Church and therefore receives the sentence for restraint in your Inquisition-Prison-house and then he is yours as the wild Ass that is caught in the Coller and knowing the nature of your own lusts you work upon the strength of the same in another you are experienced to deal with your own as the Falkoner to bring Hawks to the waving of the Leuer Man in the Fall as your Members have said not one of you restored unto the first Adam's estate in Paradise dwells in the cursed ground of Corruption Lust standing head over the whole Life which being a little curbed with your bridle of Restraint quickly languisheth in the Creature and with it also the mind of the Creature unto the bereaving and robbing the false Rest which through the subtilty of the Serpent was planted in the Creature A Sea of misery then floweth into the heart and the mind gathers up the remembrance of the delight of every pleasure that is past and painfully pleadeth in it self I have lost the fulness and choice of the Bread and Wine which I had in my liberty here is no vent for the performing of what my heart desireth either fulness or want doth but heap
in Prison in the Prison-house and sittest solitary in darkness in the shadow of death the bonds of death have bound thee and the Covenant with Hell hath captivated thee many do look at thee with the countenance of mirth and wag their heads at thy mourning thou art as a Lamb among Lions and as a prey to the devouring beasts thou art as a spoyl to the mouth of the Fox and as a destruction to the teeth of the Wolf the wild Asse is offended at thy moving and snuffeth up the wind in scorn of thy breathing the Bulls of Bashan do pursue thee with roaring and push with their horns at thy dwelling thou art cast in the side of the way and the Chariot wheels run over thee thou art placed as a But in the field for the Arrows and Darts to pierce thee thou art the despised in the Earth and mocked of men of the World thou art sold as a Slave into Egypt and counted the out-casts of Israel though I have heard thy cry in the Land and bear marks of the bleeding of thy grief in my bosome yet I want the greatness of the weight of Wisdom to measure the depths of thy misery thou mournest as a Dove in the Deserts which hath lost her only mate thou weepest as the wayling of a Widow and Mother bereaved of her Children thou cryest with the grief of the fatherless and comfortless Child without Mother thy mourning is as the cry of the Voice of the Orphan left without help in the Land thy groans are as the languishing of the Poor in the Earth which wanteth the daily bread thou lyest in the fields like a yeaned Lamb by the side of a dead Sheep sore are thy cryes as a strugling Babe at the breasts of a dead Mother Eye hath not seen neither hath ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of vain man to conceive the weight of thy Wo and Passions in all the dayes of thy Wrestlings VVherefore O Seed because thou hast born the Indignation of the LORD for a season and waitest until it be over and past and hast not slipt thy shoulder in the heat of the day nor thy neck from the yoak in the stormy time Therefore hath thy GOD thy Creator determined the good of thy travel in the Earth He hath said Thou shalt not always be as barren in the Land but shalt yeeld thy increase in the Nations O thou afflicted with the troubles of the deeps which tempests have rouled to the bottoms lift up thy head in the Joy of the LORD and be strong in the Power of his Might for the Word of the LORD is come down in the Earth which was spoken by the Prophets of GOD the LORD of the Heavens hath restored thy Mother and pitched her as a Sanctuary in the Earth the Daughter of Sion is her Name the Glory of GOD is with her He hath given her a new threshing Instrument with Teeth to thresh the Mountains to dust and to beat the Hills to powder to seive the Vanity of the Nations and to fan the Earth with her strength to be as a wound to every Wild-beast and destruction to the life of the Destroyer to be a snare to the Fowls of the Air and a fire to devour the Devourer to find out the Dens of the Earth and to open the holes of thy hiding to break the bolts of the Prison-doors and the Chains of Death and Darkness to make thee as free-born in the Land of the Living to possess an Inheritance therein And it shall be no more with thee as in the dayes that all men sought after thee for evil and hunted thee for a purpose of mischief and cruel end for the LORD hath sworn thy Salvation and covenanted thy Peace for ever sighing and sorrow shall fly away from thee and thy tears shall be wiped from thine eyes and the LORD will possess thee with the Joy of Consolation and thou shalt reap Rejoycing as ripe Corn in the Harvest He will give thee Beauty for Ashes the Oyl of joy for mourning and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness he will stay thee with Flaggons and comfort thee with Wine and fill thee with the greatness oâ—… his Love thy habitation he wil compass with encrease thy basket and thy store shall abound thou shalt eat the food of the Angels of God and be reckoned as a Leader in the Land thou shalt spring up as a plant in a fruitful ground and thy branches shall over-spread the Nations thou shalt be at the calling of the Assemblies in the East and the gathering of the People in the West the Lord will enlarge thy borders and make thy dwellings as the fulness of the Cities in the Earth thou shalt be as the Lord of an Host and as the Captain of the Army of GOD Battels shall bend to thy Bow and Hosts shall tremble at the shout of thy Voice thou shalt stand as a dread in the Land and a sign of astonishment in the Earth Princes shall tremble in thy presence and the faces of Kings gather paleness the dread of thy Countenance shall fill all with fear the Heavens shall tremble before thee Arise Arise my Love why sittest thou as dead in the night of slumber And as asleep amongst the Monuments of the Earth Why shall Death be thy dwelling and the Night a Watch unto thee Why shall thy face be vailed and the Clouds thus cover thy Glory Though thou art but that small worm Jacob and the Voice cryeth Who shall raise him Yet Arise Arise my Love and being rais'd thou art stronger than Armies thou art more than the Camps of ten thousand Hosts prepared in order for the battel O arise and spread forth thy Comliness and ravish the Virgins with thy Beauty and fill their Lamps with the droppings of thy Locks which wait until the morning for thee thy Presence is an Odor of Perfumes thy Word as a stream of Honey O whereunto whereunto shall I liken thee thou fairest of ten thousands filled with the Glory of thy GOD thy Feet are the Foundations of the Earth and thy Legs the Pillars of the Heavens thy Bowels as a Cistern hold the Waters of the Earth and the Waters of the Heavens as a Well Thou sendest them forth as a running brook and as streams to refresh the Plant Thy Reins are as the Virtue of God which made man in the glory of his Image thy Belly is the Fountain of Judah to wash away Sin and Uncleanness thy Thighs are as the Bats of the Fountains and thine Arms as the strength of GOD thy Back is the Tower of Zion and thy Breasts the nourishment of her Children thy Body is the Temple of GOD and thine Head the Crown of his Saints thy Hairs are as the Stars of Heaven for glory and thy Beard as the bright Clouds thereof at thy neesing the Earth is in fire and the Heavens in a flame before thee thy Soul
is the Substance of the Creation of GOD and thine Eyes the Light of the Day thy Teeth are as the Angels of GOD in the Heavens to fight thy Battel on Earth thy â—…outh is the Door of the Counsel of GOD and thy Tongue the Teacher thereof O! the Earth the Earth is confounded before thee I am as a Wren in the Earth lost under the stretching of thy Wing I began in the shallow places but am overwhelmed as a Worm in the deeps of GOD no man hath comprehended thy Glory wherefore let him bear his Judgement for ever that fashions thee like unto a graven thing or that makes an Image of thy CHRIST Let him bear the perpetual shame of his folly and the judgment of thy dreadful Word Let his own soul eat his confusion and drink up the dregs of his condemnation for Glory is thine in the highest who art only known to the pure in heart and remembred of the Upright in the Earth An Image is a mark of the unmindfulness of thy Name and a sign of the forgetfulness of thy Presence O Seed stand up as a Sign to the People and as an Ensign to the Nations of the Earth that they may be gathered to the Knowledge of the LORD thy GOD to remember Him as a God that is present even at hand for Iudgment to the Wicked and Salvation of his own Elect. Call call for thy Courage and cry aloud for thy Strength and cloath thy self therewith as in the dayes of old stretch forth thine Hand in thy Power and draw back the Clouds of the Night Appear thou Sun of the Morning as setled in the Heavens above that the Nations may flow to thy Light and Kings to the brightness of thy Rising that the Isles may be gathered in one to wait for the Law at thy Mouth that the tongue of the Egyptian Sea may be dryed up and but One pure Language remain in the Earth and that the Earth be filled with the Knowledge of GOD as Waters cover the Seas It was once said and the Voice answered Until how long And the Spirit said Until the determination of the time appointed even until the fulfilling of the Abomination of Desolation in the Earth and it seen to stand in the Holy Place Then said the Angel The mighty Dreadful Day of GOD is at hand Awake awake to the Judgment of the Terrible Day of the LORD Fear GOD and give Honour and Glory to his Name O that thine Innocency were known in the Land thy Love received in the Earth Thou art as the Innocent Lamb of the Flocks and as the New-born Babe at the Breast thou art as the Turtle which flyeth in fear and as her young in the Nest without guile thy Love is as the Mother to her comly Daughter and as the Father to his only Son thy Love is as the Spouse to her Welbeloved and as the Bridegroom wedded to his beautiful Virgin it passeth the love of Women thy Bonds are stronger than Death thou bearest the greif of thy Love for because of thy Love thou art hated I love the love of thy Love and do bear the burden thereof I love the bonds of thy Love for because of thy Love thou art bound O make thy Love thy Battel and the bent of thy Bow in the Earth that he which hath pierced thee may mourn and be broken in the bowels of Love that the Mountains may be melted before thee and the Hils drop down like Wax and gather to the Body of Love where neither Envy nor Lyes have life Spread forth thy Arms in love that thy measure be filled in the Earth For Scorners do hiss at the kindness of thine heart and mock at the meekness of thy mind thine Arrows of Love be their wound to pierce them to the heart in their seat Overcome with the Love which created and perfect the Glory of GOD Make known thy Self as thou art a Leader in the Righteousness of GOD Instruct the simple thy way and confound the Prudent thereby Thy Way is the path of the Just the sinner cannot walk therein it is a Guide to the Wayfaring-man the Fools cannot erre therein The Wise do stumble in their sight and the Subtil do fall before them which maketh the Heathen rage and all the Diviners mad Open open thy Bosom to thy lovers and thy Treasure to the soul which seeks thee which spareth not Life from the Crosse nor Lust from the flaming Sword but layeth the Neck at the Yoak to yeeld the First-born unto Death Thy Treasure is the body of Wisdom more pure than refined Gold Thy Wisdom is as the Oracles of GOD and Counsel of the Most High Thou feedest thy own with the Life with Wisdom the substance of Life The Swine feed on husks as a prey and run to a shadow for shelter In Winter they wander in the Woods and in Summer they wallow in the Mire The Serpent licks up the dust of the ground and hideth in a hole of the Earth But thou buildest a Nursery for Babes and a Dwelling for the Sons of God Thou makest a Bed for the Virgin and she is kept as a Bride for the Lamb Thou makest the simple as an Host to battle with the Armies of Gog thou givest thy Counsel in the Day and the weak is made strong for the War The Philistine flourisheth his Sword but it is kept for the wound of his body The weak turneth back the force of the Giant and slayeth him with his own Sword he takes not Glory to his hand but yeeldeth his heart to his GOD By Wisdom the Kingdom is created and folded in secret from the Wicked he which casteth his Crown at thy feet thy Glory shall cover his head This is without respect to any man's person whether Jew or Gentile in Rome A Visitation of the Love of GOD to the Seed And be it his Woe for ever and ever that keeps it back Dispensed from the Inquisition-Prison in Rome J. P. Righteous REASON written as a REMONSTRANCE to Romes Rulers Touching the Imprisonment and Persecution of the Servant of JESUS ROME being called of her Inhabitants The Head of the World and Holy City and her Church the Mother of many Nations cryed up as the most famous in Faith Doctrine Life and practice of Righteousness of the Lord Jesus of all Peoples upon the face of the Earth To her Heads and Rulers therefore I am willing to offer this entrance of the Remonstrance of my Cause in a compendious Tract by the representation of Reason the Rule of the Law and Prophets the Judgment of wise and holy Judges the Commandments Doctrine and Example of the LORD JESUS with what else occasionally may be intervenially inserted in the same to be placed as a Looking-glasse of Equity in all the Courts of Judicatory in her City I John the Servant of JESUS in the holy and blessed Calling of the Quaking and Trembling at the Word of the LORD GOD
beatings by Mad-men with other abuses which in modesty I cannot well express by Pen but may say thus viz. even such as passeth the bounds of all humanity when I have been kneeling at Prayer and when I have been walking in Praises and Thanksgivings unto God Ah! can I number can I number again the many thousands of Temptations that attended me besides blows wounds mocks and such-like abuses tryed with Wine proved with Women tempted with Riches and Honour and all the Pleasures that ever my heart could desire after that I was threatned even day after day and night after night sometimes with Tortures and sometimes with Death by Gallows by Fire and sometimes subtilly by Poyson Well what shall I say I have read the Sufferings of Job and the Slaughters of many of the Martyrs but yet this can I say in God that such were my suffering-dayes in Rome as I have said in body and spirit that no soul that lived immediatly in his Grace ever suffered the like even since the day of Adam's being a man created of his Maker from the beginning which I made manifestly appear unto my Afflictors Torturers and Tormentors in ROME even unto their shame and confusion whilst in bonds I was so constrained unto sufferings in the state of my manifest and approved Innocency in the sight of GOD and themselves my utter Enemies All which was inflicted upon me to turn my heart from the Righteous Way of GOD which is manifest to you by their many Temptations for me to speak a Lye and often Provocations to break me from the Spirit of Patience and Content which I held in my God Now the aforesaid Punishments Cruelties having been laid upon me for the precited causes which all the foregoing Writings dispensed unto them forth of the Inquisition sheweth the unrighteousness of their Cause and the unreasonableness of their Weapons which fought and battelled against me whom I shewed in the time of my Sufferings That if they judged me to be a Mad-man they seemed to me to be nigh sensless to seek me by Temptations of Cruelties and Pleasures to turn unto them by sinning against the Lord of Righteousness And again I remonstrated to their understandings viz. That if the Pope Cardinals Doctors Jesuites Priests Fryars Lawyers Physicians and all the wise Councils and Counsellors in Rome were fallen so far from the knowledge of GOD and degenerated so much below humane Reason as not to judge of a humane state in a more rational sort than to conclude me to be a Mad-man that Soul was in a most miserable destroying state that should trust unto their Judgements concerning any thing which they should judge was spiritual tending to the Worship of GOD and Salvation For if all could not rightly judge of a Cause external in so low a degree it is impossible that they should judge of things spiritual which are matters of the highest concernments and therefore must needs conclude my self a wilful destroyer of mine own Soul if I should have adhered unto such spirits as were not able rightly to judge betwixt a state of true sence and madness From all which it is my desire that the poor simple hungry and thirsty Roman Catholicks whose souls are not satisfied without the enjoyment of the true God may know the real cause why they yet walk with heavy hearts and pressed-down minds not having the comfort of the assurance of Salvation in them though they have carefully sought many years to find it going unto many Masse-houses to communicate often and to pray frequently and to confesse several times in the year and to bear penance for their sins willingly and yet all hath been so short of making their perfect Peace with God that a thousand times more than all whatever they practised cannot take away from their hearts nor wash from their souls one of their least sins I say one cause is this as the Prophet Jeremiah saith The Leaders of this People cause them to err and they which are led of them are destroyed And the Priests whose lips should keep Knowledge have hid Knowledge from the eyes of the People and therefore hath the Lord complained saying For want of Knowledge my People perish which your Popes and Priests have really hid from your eyes having led you into the wayes of their own Inventions which they sought and found out in the Counsels of their own Wills whilst the immediate Word of the LORD was not instantly in and among them but absolutely wanting from them who therefore led you into those things which the LORD GOD never required from you and therefore in your daily sacrifices you cannot expect another Answer from GOD than this as the Prophet Malachi saith Who hath required these things at your hands For GOD never instituted Beads nor Images of Persons or Crosses neither ever said he That the invisible spiritual Worship of Him the Spiritual GOD stands in the visible and carnal appearances which cannot reach unto the soul to sprinkle wash and cleanse the soul from every evil and dead work word and thought Forasmuch as nothing but an invisible and an eternal Substance is able to reach unto to wash purge and cleanse your invisible and immortal souls from your sins which are the causes of your weights pressures and burdens which yet remain upon you not knowing your Deliverance from them Seeing therefore that you have long practised to find but have not partaked of the substance of the thing desired having sought ease but not found ease having sought it but in the way of your Leaders who cause you to erre and not having sought it in any other way but in that which your souls have experience through long practice brings you not unto the true End of your hope not having sought it as you ought to seek trying all things and holding fast that which is good Come ye therefore and try this Way of GOD and prove the LORD in his Way even the Merciful GOD who hath proved you in your wayes and alwayes found you defective in your wayes and mark Him in his Way and try and see if it shall be with you in the dayes to come as it hath been with you in the dayes that are past For now Reason may tell you that if your way was imperfect surely the Way of GOD must needs be perfect which leads unto a perfect end first to a perfect Life in Him that is the Beginning and consequently unto perfect Peace in the same who is without End Can you do lesse than to prove and see and seek in that wherein I know assuredly you shall find that you shall not always walk as in wearisomness faintness nor be in your hearts as parched heaths nor in your minds as barren mountains neither shall be as Bryars of the Woods and Thorns of the Forrests nay nor as pricking Thistles of the Stubble-fields neither shall you alwayes walk as afflicted tossed and tormented through the swellings of