had a commandement concerning the Temple and they might say unto Jeremiah who was as a stripling and as it were a childe Art thou greater then Solomon whom God appointed to build us this Temple Neverthelesse and although Jeremiah was as one alone in that work yet this was his testimony he knew that he was of God Jer 26.15 Whether they would heare or forbeare and they having corrupted themselves in a commandement he was therefore sent to cry against them and if they were cryed against as being a people corrupted in a commandement how much more thinke ye ought ye to be born witnesse and testimony against who have contrary to the Word or any command abused your selves and dishonoured God in and through the workes and inventions of your degenerated fore-fathers much lesse therefore could you in your nature receive my testimony in the name and power of the Lord if ye were commanded as the Jewes were or had any example as they had so suitable with their time seeing ye sleight my testimony and do make a mock of my witnesse against your Temples pictures bowings beads crosses and crossings c. for which ye have neither precept president example or the least commandement throughout all the Scriptures of the Prophets Christs words and the Apostles writings that ever such things were or should in any age in the Truth come to passe What benefit therefore doe you purchase to your souls through the exercise of your tongues in smooth words and flatteries what advantageth it if you say that you believe in Christ whilest the words of Christ are not a Law unto you but the traditions of your Fathers stand the Law of liberty for your blind hearts to walk in the crookednesse of their subversion What is Christ Jesus unto you whilest you forsake his way life and council and in enmity thereunto are acting worshipping and walking in the way life and councils of men of corrupt and degenerated minds which you call the faith of the Roman Catholique Church what is the Catholique Church to the Church of Christ seeing they have not the word nor council of Christ And therefore much farther from the work life and faithfull order of the doctrine of Christ You may blind the simple and deceive the ignorant and destroy the souls of thousands that know not the right hand from the left Unto you Doctors I speak unto whom also my words in the Light and Life of the Lord Jesus is a Riddle and a Parable Ye know not the right hand from the left and therefore I write little things unto you do speak plain words concerning you that in all your Countreys and Colledges ye may be no longer the deceived and deceivers The deluded and deluders The destroyed and destroyers And therefore I further say That it is not a shame unto you whose long hairs declares seniority without in the Antiquity of your dayes to stoop and bow your necks for your backs to bear the chastisement of the Rod of your younger in years and know ye that it was prudence in as many of the aged whose faces wore a fair shew of grey hairs not to despise the youth of tender Timothy And remember that little David smote and slew the great Philistine and the glory was the Lords and in this also I give the praise and honour unto God who is arisen to smite the earth who also hath smitten many Islands thereof and his word reacheth unto the utmost end of the many continents wherein the Beasts of the field have an habitation and the Lord God will hunt the Foxes and destroy the Wolves and slay the Lyons of the Forrests which have scattered the sheep of the Fold and preyed upon the Heritage of God Oh earth where are they devourers hid they have made merry but they shall be vexed they have sported but they shall be tormented Ye men of learning what is your learning Ye men of strength what is your strength Bring forth your Books and let us put them in the Ballance Rome Rome Hide not thy Daughters but let the whole earth see the Daughters of thy pleasure and let us come and reason with you a little to see if thy daughters of delight and ease which have been born without pain are meet to make marriage with the Sons of God for whose birth Zion hath travelled Yea her children yea all the daughters of your mother Rome plead with your mother and say unto your mother if thou who hast born us without travel beest not an Harlot in thy prophane pleasure then let us know of a truth also whether it is not meet that we may be given unto a holy Nation that a Seed may be preserved to the praise of the name of the Leader of Israel out of Aegypt Oh Italy thou hast a remnant within thee which plague shall not touch although Pestilence as a Besom shall sweep thy Land Repent if peradventure ye may be spared Ye Doctors I have not yet left you having also publiquely to proclaim Gods controversie with you take to you the Officers of your two Churches number your Armyes arme your Hosts whet your swords yet behold in the day of battel God will wound you when you shall not smite the Lord. I have seen your strength and have passed by your trust and at that time the wind of the Lord God did shake the earth wherein I walked What is your Spear to the Arrows of the Lord Let Romes University answer my enquiry What is your weavers beam unto Davids smooth stones What are your Silogisms to truth What is your Philosophy to the Light What are all your critical Inventions and cunning contrivances to the word which cannot be changed You cal'd Jesuits what are your many colours to white You Priests what are your changeable Coats unto that one without a seam Oh Athens Thy Members are in my remembrance and ye the Pastors of the People mark your sheep yea your sheep do bear your own mark The Lord moved me on the 27. day of the 7. Month in the year accounted 1657. being the first day of the week the day of Greeks solemn worship Hear this ye Doctors of Athens and Priests thereof who minister in the Idols Temples and House of Rimmon The Lord moved me to read in the place of your solemnity and a witnesse went with me to the sealing of my testimony and at which time Behold your worshippers did bow to their pictures giving forth contempt and laughter in our faces and I said Gods hand is against you and he that fits in Heaven laughs you to scorn O horrible abomination Hear this ye Priests mark the fruits of your ministry ye Doctors Behold they declared you in the street and spread your name in the open places your Temples could not contain their lightness and wickednesse for afterwards in a mock of the Crosse of Christ Jesus even in the streets of your City the people would meet us and stand
AN EPISTLE TO THE GREEKS ESPECIALLY To those in and about Corinth and Athens WITH Certain Queries propounded to the Priests and Doctors and all the rest of the Members and Officers belonging unto the two Churches of Greeks and Romans which is of concernment for the view of them all throughout the WORLD Written in Egripo in the Island of Negroponte By a Servant of the Lord J. P. LONDON Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and Mouth within Aldersgate 1661. To the Reader Friends THe Word of the Lord is the Proclamation of War onely with the wicked and the messengers thereof holds not the persons of men in contempt or scorne it casteth out the root of envy which Satan planted in the heart and fixeth the love of God for the souls inheritance which floweth in pitty and aboundeth in mercy to others He that readeth and receiveth in him also hold 〈◊〉 and he shall bear Testimony to the Truth and witnesse for God that the zeal of the Lords House is neither Envy Emulation Wrath or vain Contention Wherefore I say God who hath 〈◊〉 mercy and 〈◊〉 bountifully of the riches of his Grace unto me hath freed me from the nature of evill towards my neighbour and hath given me of his Love therewith to seek the lost from which issues the plainnesse of my Declarations and Speeches which without guile fraud or flatteries Love in simplicity holds forth the Truth in nakednesse and this will stand a Yoak to the stubborn and a Dart in the side of the rebellions The enmity is 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 He that hath an ear to heare let him heare This is verily a character of the same nature of what follows in the succedent Pages Given forth by a Friend in the Truth A lover of souls J. P. The Day will declare the Dreadfull and Mighty Work IN the Councel of the wonderfull Counceller and All mighty Father and Fountaine of Wisdom who confoundeth the Councils of the wise and the wisdome of the Fathers of this world in whose sight the prudent and learned amongst men are but as fools plotting in their works the contrivance and invention of the perpetual evil of their souls This is given forth to the only true intent that the simple hearted may be rightly informed of the way to salvation life and peace everlasting For of a truth the Lord God of Heaven and earth is arisen who for many hundreds of years hath been as a stranger upon the earth And now in this his mighty day which is broaken and breaking forth by the work of his own hand he will frustrate the tokens of lyars and make the Diviners mad and turn wise men backward and make their knowledge foolishnesse who will open a door to the simple and lead the Wayfaring men and fools in the unerring path of Righteousnesse and the deceit in the earth shall no longer stand without a heavy work as it did in the dayes of the ancient Fathers Doctors and Lawyers of the world who took from the people the key of knowledge who entred not in themselves but stood in the gap and set Bryars and Thorns in the way and hindred such as was entring The flame of the fire of the Lord will finish the course of the former times for shall it not burn in a dry Countrey And if the Nations post unto Euphrates for water to quench the fire shall not that River be also dryed up before they come there And if from thence they flye unto Jordan shall not the utter Consumption be ere they can have help from thence Behold the Lord will make a quick work in the earth Let the Nations therefore repent and now not in any upbraiding or rash judging manner but in the Councel of God as a servant by Commandement in the work of the Lord in love unspeakable to all souls I shew unto the people their states and unto the sons of men how they stand in the sight of God my testimony reaching that of God in mens consciences to the measure of the Light in all desiring only to be made manifest which when the sinner is convinced of his sins and the wicked man converted in his mind and turned from the evill of his wayes then shall they confesse of a truth the blessed day of the Lord and say Surely it was well for us that the Prophet spared not to shew unto Judah her sins and unto Jerusalem her transgressions Yea well sprang forth that day and that hour was the certain timely season of the appearance of mercy and manifestation of loving kindnesse wherein Nathan was sent to shew unto David the treachery and rebellion of his heart And now what am I that God should remember me also with the mercies of David to shew me my transgression that by his word I may be converted and healed Verily of none other do I make mention but only of the name of the Holy One and that which proceedeth from his presence declaring this Dread shewing unto all people the Door of mercy the Fountain of life the Gate of knowledge everlasting treasure of undefiled pure wisdome For as much as the Lord holdeth forth a day of visitation unto all that the whole world may be left without excuse in the day of Gods dreadful judgements when the compleat fulfilling and finishing of the time cometh to passe of the full gathering of the scattered Seed in the Fields of the Earth and full calling of his Remnant from the four windes of the Heavens throughout all Nations Kindreds Countryes Tongues and Peoples and the Lord hasteth the Reaping of the Harvest A warning to the World to repent and this to the Debtors and Captives of the house of Israel is sounded and sounding The year of Jubilee beginneth in the morning season yet a little while and your slumber will be over and the clouds of the night will passe from the sphear of your low degree which ariseth and will quickly passe over the Sun of another exalted Nation Oh how doth the day change the times the Children are become Dogs and the Dogs which were are become the glory of the earth and who hath an eye to see or a heart to believe that this is come it cometh and is at hand that the Dogs shall eat the Childrens bread and no more shall their name be a reproach among the Gentiles but their day of Son-ship shall be the Dread of the Heathen Who is he now that will set Briars in the way or Thorns in the breach of the Gap which the Lord hath made and who is he that contendeth against his maker saying why cometh this thing to passe mine hand is turned against it Ye despisers and wonder and perish behold I work a work in your dayes which if a man shall tell it unto you ye shall in no wise believe it And you that resist are but for the consumption of the fire of Gods jealousie in the day of his wrath A warning a warning
the world in the unrighteousnesse and uncleannesse thereof in fornication and covetousnesse in drunkennesse pride malice and murder lying and swearing vain jesting and foolish talking As a people through the abominable lusts of uncleanness in your lives void of the knowledge or at least wise not considering and laying it to heart how Ephes 5.5 That no unclean person nor Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdome of Christ and of God being as it were stupified and benummed in your senses so far degenerated from the power of Truth and mystery of Godliness that ye have lost the generall forme and do retain but the least part thereof wherefore among you and upon you the words and prophesie of the Apostle is fulfilled 2 Tim. 3.13 Evill men and Seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived And yet a little while and it shall also be shewn unto you that desire to understand wherein you are fallen below the form of the profession of Godliness as in divers particulars I shall query for the opening of your understandings that by your diligent search in the Scripture with the Light you may see which will effectually make for the manifestation of the ground of your customes and practices in your idolatrous and superstitious worships And this unto you all is held forth for the tryal of your wayes seeing the Lords mighty day is at hand which will rip open and make manifest all hearts and declare and preach that which hath been hid in secret upon the house tops Many of your Fathers were the worshippers of the works of the Philosophers untill the sound of the fame of Christ came among them whose Miracles and Resurrection confounded the depth of the working of their wisdom by which the wise men came to confesse a greater than themselves which suddenly rang through the Nation and so from Nation to Nation from the report and credit of the confession of the Philosophers and learned Doctors the ignorant also in all your Nations joyned with the humane learned and so with one consent they cryed up the name to wit of Christ whereof they had received the report who sometime before that had slaughtered the Apostles who finished their testimonies in the Life and Spirit of Jesus holding forth his name in power whose name in words as the Apostacy came and grew as the deceivers and false Prophets and false Brethren and false Apostles went forth your Fathers the Philosophers and wise men came to confesse mark the time of the coming in of this which at this time ye stand in which had not an entrance by the Doctrine or Example of Peter or life and preaching of Paul but by such as was spoken of should destroy the little flock of Christ and make havock of the Heritage of God concerning whom I have shewn you Johns witness and Pauls testimony and yet furthermore do write Judes and Peters prophesies Jude 4. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before ordained to this condemnation ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousnesse filthy dreamers that defile the flesh murmerers complainers walking after their own lusts and their mouth speaking great and swelling words having mens persons in admiration because of advantage Such as the Apostles of our Lord spake of should come Mockers who should walk after their own ungodly lusts who are sensual having not the Spirit of Truth To the Church saith Peter 2 Pet. 2.1 There shall be false Teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies and many shall follow their pernicious ways of whom the way of Truth shall be evill spoken of having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin beguiling unstable souls and hearts they have exercised with covetous practices cursed children which have forsaken the right way who are the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitations God hath reserved in the everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day Seeing therefore that the Scriptures are true as is manifest by the coming of these things to passe according to the words of the Apostles prophesies and finding you in the cursed ground and nature of uncleanness bringing forth fruits of iniquity Hereby I know even by your fruits Matth. 12.33 into what stock you are grafted mine instrument hath reached your root And again I say all men upon the face of the earth who have the least discerning may truly understand that ye are in the Apostacy working the unrighteous works of your Fathers who were the first Apostates from the true Faith in whom iniquity wrought in a mystery who when Satan had his end in destroying to the uttermost in the slaughter of all the holy Apostles in like manner as the Jews after they had slaughtered the true Prophets garnished their Tombs in honour of their persons even so also did the Deceiver set your Fathers a work to build Idols Temples and to draw out the Saints Pictures and to do hommage to the Pictures of Christ Mary and the Apostles in honour of their Persons and those things which your Fathers built ye garnished wherein ye witnesse that ye are their children and are filling up the measure of their iniquity and thus the Devil gained his dominion in you and among you by transforming himself in a nearer shape like an Angel of Light in divers other things and Ceremonies and wrought in and among your Fathers as he did in the dayes of old among the sons of men who sought out many Inventions insomuch that the righteous soul of God was grieved with them so that God repented that he had made man for straightway after the spirit of Antichrist had so greatly wrought through the earth as that Nations came under and in subjection to the wills of the Philosophers even to the confessing of the name of Christ outward Your Fathers they entered into divers consultations and what they sought out by their Inventions were set up as Laws and Ordinances and Statutes in the forms of your worships and thus came in as I have said the buildings of Idols Temples the carving of Images the painting of pictures the making of Beads and Crosses of Wood Bone Stone Gold Silver and other dead created things and the Invention of Candles and Lamps and Altars for your sacrifices and all manner of Surplesses and deceitful coverings and hood-winking garments the observations of times and seasons and weeks and dayes and divers other heresies and damnable doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4.1 2.3 Forbidding to marry and to abstain from meats which God had created to be received with thanks-giving All these and many more of your customes and Idolatrous worships are neither according to the command of God or of Christ or the president or example of the Holy Apostles through the Witnesse of the Scripture In few words the root of these things was the invention and working of iniquity in
Kingdome you who are called Jesuits also mark this your figure the Chamelian which lives by the Aire which according to the Law is an unclean Beast which can change himself into all colours perfect white onely excepted Read your similitude and see how you who live in your lusts can without a mock of the Truth be titled with the name of the Church of Christ Jesus in which is neither spot nor wrinkle nor blemish nor any such thing as uncleannesse or unrighteousnesse 1 Cor. 6.11 Although such were some of them but they came to be washed and were cleansed and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Which Spirit of truth the light is this day the Leader of the Saints and servants of God into all truth Now therefore doe ye Read What is the Chaffe to the Wheate And what relation hath the Spirit of truth unto your life which is squared and fashioned in the frame of Error Deceite hath been the Master-builder of the fabrick of your habitation the spirit of Iniquitie working in a mystery the foundation of your walls and the strength of lyes and lying wonders the pillars of your house which by the gilded appearance of the beauty of the wisdome of the ancient and learned in Philosophy Rhetorick and Sophistry is covered with many painted tiles of vanitie under the shaddow whereof you bow to the Images and pictures which the unrighteous hearts of your fathers Invented whose Gods are before your eyes unto which the affections of your naturall sences are joyned whereby with the carnall and naturall according to the motion of the Spirit of Error and Deceit in you you are led to worship the workes of their hands as is manifest by your bowings and bendings to the Image and likenesse of the naturall which the naturall invented and the carnall made And this also came in in the Apostasie when that was forsaken which the Eternall Spirit did command And now through the custome of your forefathers and you in the dayly practice of their invented Ceremonies being setled on the leese of their abominable Idolatries are come in your generation Matth. 15.9 to teach for doctrine the traditions of men And therefore in vaine is your worship as saith the Lord But yet ye have also to speake in the commendation of your fathers seniority and wisdome who gave commandement for such resemblances by Images and pictures not as if they were the gods of your worship but the resemblances of the Lord Christ c. whom by these resemblances you teach the ignorant for to worship Answer The greatest blindnesse is in the hearts of your learned Fathers I speak out of the spheare of their Colledges in mine Answer to their plea for their sinfull Idolatries and over all your Nations doe cry out and lift up my voyce as one in mourning lamenting for the lost seed among you which they that should rather in righteousnesse handle the plow to break up the clods to uncover the seed have used the spade and shovel and have heaped up dirt and stones thereon to the miserable burden thereof Oh horrible Ignorance a people bound with the chaines of darknesse can any thing be the resemblance of the Lord or the likenesse of his Image who is the Infinite Eterternall a pure holy glorious endlesse living Spirit but that which he maketh in his likeness and formeth in his own Image by the power of his own Almighty hand And doth he who is a pure Everlasting Spirit of life make or fashion any whom he fashioneth but in the likenesse of that which all the world by wisdome by Philosophy or by arguments can never attaine to reach unto the sight or understanding thereof Can any make the resemblance of God who is Immortall which the mortall never saw Can the corruptible and mortall which never did nor never shall see incorruption and immortalitie make with their corruptible hands and changeable unrighteous Idolatrous hearts the resemblance or likenesse of the Incorruptible Spirit From the Lord God I say and declare unto you all your bowings to your Crosses and Images and Pictures praying upon Beads to Mary and Saints is abomination to the Lord God of Heaven and Earth and in these things you are but a stinke to the rest of the Heathen who with you doe stand Enemies to the Doctrine Gospel and Crosse of our Lord Jesus for as they in words doe hold the name of our Lord in contempt you with your deceitfull shaddowes doe make a mock of truth and his sufferings in loathsomenesse you are seated as an abomination in the sight of God who created you and in the eye and sight of the servants of the Lord who by the price of blood are redeemed and with pure water are washed from the polutions of the iniquitie and the blood and envie which is among you and the rest of the Nations kinreds tongues and peoples of the Earth and now are the followers of the Lambe whethersoever he goeth Abundantly do the Scripture beare testimony against your practices mark from the precepts and commandements of God Exod 20.4 unto Moses through the house of the Prophets and the life of the Saints search and then see Isa 44.3 might not you with as much confidence make a calfe and say to the ignorant this is the resemblance of God worship ye it and draw the picture of a Monster and say this is the resemblance of the wonderfull Spirit which was in Paul or Peter bowe ye before it Read Jer the 23.11 12 13 14 15 verses Oh miserable blindnesse and the greatest darknesse is the Priests ignorance who teach the people lyes and cause them to erre in their wayes With the light search and see how far you are from being under the power of the word of the Lord who contrary to the letter of the Scriptures Do worship in the forme of the traditions of your fore-fathers Christ said to his Disciples in those dayes Joh 4.23 The houre cometh and now is that the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to worship him mark such as are in the Spirit Math 23.29 having one father which is in Heaven but ye being yet in your sins and in the flesh are the false worshippers who have many instructions and traditions and observations given to you according to the wills as the product of the inventions and conceptions of your many fathers and now as ye shall turne your minds to the light of the Lord Jesus which will rip open your hearts you will finde that rule to be the equall measure of your wayes which will give you a true fight that you are not in the truth as it is in Jesus who is the truth in whom and by whom and through whom the Prophets writ their prophesies and the Apostles had their utterance whose words do stand to the bearing
testimony against your Idolatrous wayes And verily the same words which once Paul declared upon Mars hill unto your fathers Acts. 17.22 now turneth upon the heads of you their children Ye men of Athens I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious for as I passed through your City I found an Idolls Temple which was abundantly painted with pictures on every side within which was the Inscription which I John did reade TO THE UNKNOWN GOD Which with the bowings of your bodies unto those superstitions Idolatrous Images ye ignorantly worship Him declare I unto you God that made the world and all things therein seeing that he is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is he worshipped with mens hands by Temples of Pictures or the customary and traditionall bowings of your bodyes unto pictures as though he needed any thing seeing he giveth unto all life and breath and all things and hath made of his blood all Nations of men for to dwell upon all the face of the earth And hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us For as much then as we are the off-spring of God we ought not to thinke which if we were come to the life of the seed ye could not then in the least measure imagine or thinke that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone graven or pictures made or drawne by art or mans device and the times of this Ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to Repent because his mighty DREADFULL DAY is at hand which he hath appointed wherein he will Judge in righteousnesse the whole world of mankinde Carlo Dessio Gumene Stephaci called Greek Doctors of your people in the City of Athens among whom I was conversant in the power of the Spirit of the Lord and preached unto you the Everlasting Gospel in crosse to your wisdomes wherefore ye resisted my testimony and called me fool and said all young men are fooles Acts 13.41 In like manner as your fathers the Philosophers Epicurians Stoicks called Paul babler do not you shew your selves herein to be the despisers spoken of What would you have said to Timothy 1 Tim 4.12 if he had come unto you even as I came in doctrine and Example And what would you have said to Jeremiah Jere 1.6 17 18. would you have said otherwise unto him then you did unto me if he had come unto you as in his day he visited your nature in the Jewes that sought to slay him Jere 26.8 And will you say also that all the young Prophets in the dayes of old were fooles And when John did write unto young men 1 Joh 2.13 14. did he then write unto fooles Will you call such fooles who knew the Father who were strong and had overcome the wicked one And are you so ignorant as not to consider these to be the latter dayes in which God will fulfill the Prophesies of old Joel 2.28 Your old men shall dreame dreames and your young men shall see visions for God hath said that he will powre out his Spirit upon them and are ye not wicked in your words to call such fools Consider this also did not you manifest your selves to be most ignorant to seek for a signe and a miracle then from me whom you called fool Did not that as much manifest your perverse ignorance as it did your unbeliefe Wherein you also shewed your selves to be in the same nature of that generation which sought for a signe in the dayes of Christ whom the Lord answered and said unto them Math 12.38 that they were an evill and an adulterous generation yea your sin is worse then theirs was who say that you see with a better eye then they did and by so much the more it remaines Are not you the hypocrites Math 16.3 that can discerne the face of the skies but cannot discerne the signes of the times Like as Jonas was three dayes and three nights in the Whales belly and came forth a Preacher of Repentance Even so are the times at hand Math 24.32 Learne ye therefore the parable of the Figge tree when his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves know ye that the Summer is nigh for as the dayes of Noah were so shall also the coming of the Lord be In short words your faith is fathomed and your hope is comprehended your fruits gives the testimony of you one cluster of your grapes were enough to shew the nature of your Vine planted in the Mountaines of Sodome the proverb followes your age The fathers have eaten sower grapes and the Childrens teeth are set on edge yet I shall also further shew you how that as the Jewes stood in the dayes of Jeremiah so you do stand in the same nature perversenesse pride and obstinacie ruling your hearts now unto whom God sent Jeremiah to cry against saying Trust ye not in lying words speaking to your selves Jer 7.4 The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these and Paul said to your fathers the Athenians God dwelleth not in Temples made with hands Yet you contrary to the Scriptures do assemble your selves as the Jewes did to worship the works of mens hands and of your own hands in the Temples which are made with hands and so you walk contrary to the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles and touching this matter whereof ye say that ye follow the Councell of the Ancient fathers you who are called the wisest fathers in these dayes shew by the best testimony that ye are able in what manner you esteeme the Councell of your Ancient fathers and how that it is greater and ought more to be esteemed and followed then the counsell of our only father the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who gave the utterance of his counsel thorow Jeremiah Paul Jer 26.12 and others crying against the Temples and against your customes the traditions of your fore-fathers and Christ said Behold your house is left unto you desolate and Paul cryed against the Temples made with hands Where had you or your fathers ever a command from God or from Christ to build such houses and to paint them full of pictures Consider and lay it truly to heart ye men throughout the earth is not your building of these houses one and of the very same nature and the fruits of the very same Spirit in those which made the Calfe whilst Moses was with God and not in the Camp amongst them Exod 32. In the dayes of old upon a much more seeming account of assured confidence was the opposition of the Jewes of Jeremiah's testimony then yours possibly can be in these latter dayes for as much as their fathers
openly against us and crosse themselves with many bowings and much scorn and laughter before us I saw the envy of their hearts and the murder of their minds who would have dragged us out of your Temple whilest the second time in that house we bore our testimonies against your Idolatries do not these in the nakednesse of their practices plainly preach the doctrine of your spirit and life are not these the testimony of the root of your Ministry are not these the fruits of your labours Oh blush blush and be ashamed of your profession of the name Gospel and Crosse of Christ Jesus and of your own name and authority among the people and learn first of the lowest in you if happily you may come to see the abasing of that which exalteth it self above all that is called God among you Ponder it ponder it in your Closets and shut it not out of your secret meditations and answer before the Lord in righteousnesse With what confidence can you present your selves or any one of these the fruits of your labours in the sight of God Can you offer them as an unspotted sacrifice in the presence of the Lord Will you call these Lambs of the Flock what then are the monsters of the earth begotten by an unnatural seed in the womb of a strange Beast Are not these your people and are not you their Doctors Priests and Prophets The prophesie is fulfilled Hosea 4.8 9. They eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity and there shall be like people like Priest Mark this you the Heads of the two Catholique Churches even unto the tails of your Tribes you that have received the councils of your ancient Fathers The ancient and the honourable he is the Head and the Prophet that teacheth lyes he is the Tail Isa 9.15 16. For the Leaders of this people cause them to erre and they that are lead of them are destroyed How long will ye stand in the subversion and not understand the word of the Lord Have ye not an ear to hear nor a heart to understand how that if you had stood in the council of the Lord and caused the people to hear his words and not to have hearkned to the councils of men who stood not in the council of the Lord then you should have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings but because you have hearkned to that council which the Lord did not send Jer 23.32 and have taught the people the councils of your Fathers in the profession of the name of the council of the Lord which the Lord did not send nor command therefore do you not profit the people at all Behold the people may weigh your lightnesse and measure your vanity have you brought forth any other thing then wind Have not the people heard your preachings and prayings and partaked of your sacrifices and offerings some ten some twenty thirty forty fifty sixty years some a longer and others a lesse time and yet unto this time are as much laden with sin yea much more pressed down with iniquity than in the first day that they partaked of your offerings Is it ignorance that is the ground of your impudence in the practice of your idolatries or perversnesse that binds the people under your wills in subjection to the affections of your crooked hearts Are ye void of the understanding of the end of the Ministry of the Gospel of Christ Jesus Or do ye cover it with iniquity from the sight of the eyes of the people Paul the Apostle hath written Eph 4.11 12 13. Christ gave some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of his body untill all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ And to this end also saith Paul the Scriptures were given forth which ye hide from the eyes of the people 2 Tim. 3.16 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction In righteousnesse that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works to which end also he preached the mystery of the Faith Col. 1.27 28. and of the hope of salvation which was Christ in them the hope of Glory which he that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdome that he might present them perfect in Christ Jesus 1 Joh 3.3 And John also bare the same testimony concerning the Brethren 1 Joh. 4.17 wherein said he we have boldnesse in the day of judgement because as he is so are we in this present world Have not you blinded the eyes of the people and hid these things from their understandings not walking in the order of the life of the Saints Paul who renounced the hidden things of dishonesty 2 Cor. 4.2 did not hide the Scriptures from the ignorant but charged by the Lord that his Epistle should be read unto all the holy brethren 2 Thess 5.27 who walked not in craftinesse nor handled the word of God deceitfully but by open manifestation of the truth commended himself to every mans conscience in the sight of God 2 Cor. 1.23 and he called God to record that he had not dominion over the faith of the brethren Although you keep your people under your wills as slaves with their faith bound upon your sleeves and thus you starve souls in ignorance and destroy them in darknesse teaching them to say for their Traditions that it is the faith of the Church and the Church cannot erre although you are not the Church of Christ but a masse of confusion and not one unerring Member throughout all your Regions In this manner you make ignorance the staffe of your trust in the dominions of your unrighteousnesse and thus you rule in unreasonablenesse this is the complaint of the Lord against you Hosea 4.6 The people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have hid knowledge I will therefore reject you and you shall be no Priests unto me seeing you have forgotten the Law of God I will also forget your children Give ear give ear Oh people and hear the complaint of the Lord against Italy Greece Spain Portugall Ireland and France as a Cage is full of Birds so are their houses full of deceipt therefore they are become great Jer. 25.28 29 30 31. and waxen rich they are waxen fat they shine they overpasse the deeds of the wicked Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my soul be avenged on such Nations as these A wonderfull horrible thing is committed in their Land their Prophets
Lord and the wicked shall be turned into hell But every member according to the diversities of their measures of the Spirit of life who are of the true Church can witnesse and read the Scriptures with the life in their life which is hid with Christ in God Col 3.3 but you standing only in that which hath written Annotations and which draweth Inferences Conclusions and meanings from the Scriptures that witnesseth sufficiently concerning you that you are not in the life of the first Principle of pure Religion which giveth the understanding of the Scriptures Ignorance therefore is the cause of your error Math 22.29 Math 13.34 as saith Christ You erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God Wherefore unto you they are parables and hidden sentences from the darknesse of your clouded understandings who is he that seeth your misery and doth not lament you who have consented to the blinding of your selves through the yeelding of your minds captives to the perverse wills of your Instructers they have trodden out paths in unrighteousnesse and you have walked in their crookednesse Verily I am as one wounded for your sakes and heavily pressed with the clods which the ploughers have ploughed upon your backs Oh where is the hand which hath holpen you Have not your watchers forgiven you your sins in vanitie and strengthened your hands with the strength of their own hearts in iniquitie In what manner have they brought you unto confession and what will that availe you if after your confessions the same and worse sins and iniquities are wrought and committed by you Are you so ignorant as to thinke that their words of absolution is the covenant of pardon and salvation Or do you thinke that bare confession of your sins only will bring you under the Condition of mercy Mark the order of the declaration of Solomon's wise sentence which maketh frustrate the expectation of your vaine confidence Pro 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall finde mercy Oh people why therefore will ye thus rest and remaine in the night of slumber when will ye be awakened to come to see the works of your teachers how that they have double-girded your loynes with the cords of ignorance and have made that the strength of their renowne and praise in the Nations and your cloathing with the clouds of darknesse is your Priests garment of glory over you by this their power governes in Dominion and Majesty and you remaine as Subjects chained under the yoak of their iniquitie Oh who can declare your misery It is my sorrow for the Seeds sake to behold it and I know that it suits not with the delight of your hearts to read the explanation of it But hath the Lord a Remnant and shall he not visit for the sake thereof yea verily and this therefore in love to the soules of the simple that they may come to the light of the day each one in the sensiblenesse of his own heart and life to reade with understanding the mystery of godlinesse and Scriptures of truth which do speak one and the same thing in the word and intention and not of many things as by more then one but of all things in and by one through whom the worlds were made and the Covenant of God stands sure through whom also grace mercy and peace is come to as many as are joyned to that one in the clearnesse of the naked truth through the relinquishing of the hidden things of deceit and all the former wayes vanities customes traditions superstitions and ungodly words and works and renouncing the counsells of the many fathers and men of the world through the spreading of whose spirit and the fruits of their life delusion hath a long time reigned in the world cleaving to the only sound counsell of the living God father of truth which deceiveth nor deludeth any man but establisheth all men that come unto it in a holy way exceeding the errors of mans wayes even in that new and living way which he hath prepared wherein the uncleane cannot walke Isa 55.8 but it is unto those the way-faring men though foales shall not erre therein Wherefore all people be not any longer blinded under the perverse crooked wills of your Instructers and Pastors but examine and try truly whether they have lead you in the way of God wherein the wicked cannot walke And now in all this will you count me your enemy in putting you upon diligent inquiry and also in telling you the truth Lay it to heart oh people and you Doctors and Teachers of the Nations Come forth and consider assemble assemble the principal members of your bodyes together and call a full Councell of the Magicians of your Lands and suffer us then to prove you before all men provide your rods that you may cast them in the presence of the Nations and behold ours is ready to be cast also that it may be knowne whether God is the God of Egypt or of Israel and that all the Inhabitants of the Earth may have an understanding who are the people that have stolen the name of Israel that were never borne of his Seed and if it shall be seene that the Serpent of our rod shall eate up the Serpents of your rods then of a truth it shall be knowne that God worketh with us and not with you but against you But if the Serpent of our rod shall be swallowed up and by the Serpents of your rods utterly devoured then let not the Nations spare to publish and cry in their streets that the God whom we worship hath utterly forsaken us Againe I say assemble your Prophets and let the worke of the Lord and his word answering by fire give testimony to the Prophets whether the Prophets of your Lands are the true Prophets that the Inhabitants thereof may truly know and understand that if the Lord be God then let them follow him but if Baal whom ye worship he God then do you continue following of him no hurt will come unto your Nations through the tryall of the Prophets so that if the Lord answers our Prophet by fire and kindles the sacrifice of the oblation in your sight then shall ye know that our Prophet is the true Prophet of the Lord but if your Prophets shall cut themselves even to the drawing of blood of their bodyes and no word of answer to their supplications as the answer of the Lord by fire from Heaven but afterwards if in their madnesse and wilfulnesse they shall kindle a fire in their wrath and charge you to kindle fires in your houses to burne this testimony among whomsoever it comes then behold that shall be a signe unto you that God is not among them for if the Lord be their God then would he plead for them or if they be Jealous for the Name of the Lord God of Hosts then will they stand forth to plead
the word of the Lord upon the Mount of the Lord in the face of all the Nations of the earth Oh people let this be a testimony unto you either for you or against you that either your Priests and Prophets have deceived you in prophecying and declaring smooth things unto you or that they have alwayes taught you Righteousnesse and instructed you in the Everlasting Precepts of the undefiled and un-erring path of truth and holinesse Heare therefore this ye Priests and give eare ye Teachers of the people hide not hide not your faces but come forth come forth that we may try the feeding of your Pastures that the blinde may feele with what they are laden Have not they given a price for wheate and have not you laden them with the stubble of the reaped and gleaned fields and the chaffe of the wheate Was not the price of their money for the cleare running water of the Rock and have not ye fill'd their vessells with the setled lees of your own Cisterns Behold I have seen the deep workes of your hands even the deep wells which ye have digged with your own hands and the breadth length heighth and depth thereof I have measured and the foundations thereof I have discovered You Doctors of Athens Remember my rod which touched your bottome wherewith your dreggs were stirred up which cast a stinke in my nostrills at which time ye could scarce cover your loathsomnesse in the presence of your Disciples I have not forgotten the strength on which you took hold which appeared and proved as a ravelled String of a broken Bow which could not carry forth so as to send home the shaft You aymed at my birth to have trodden upon the simplicitie and tendernesse of my youth yet could not your broken speares reach to the hurt of my life Now therefore search ye further even unto the uttermost end of the Records of your Books to finde out the first day of my life which although I am after the account of the manner of men but as a seed of the second or third generation of this age brought forth yet never the lesser is mine age in a just account more ancient and honourable then the dayes of your birth your age must yet be borne unto Infancy if ever you come to the possession of the promise of Gods Everlasting kingdome and the glory of your Antiquitie must come unto great contempt and your eyes and your hearts which have boasted in vanitie must passe through the flames of the consuming fire of Gods Jealousie before ye shall enter the Paradise which you made a mock of in ignorance and so bare witnesse unto the curse of your kingdome as a people remaining in the ground where blessing hath not raised the encrease of the earth Furthermore heare this ye Priests Teachers and Instructers of the people The cry of the earth is grievous in the eare of the Lord against you blood hath touched blood in your Lands the soules of the simple have uttered their groanes through the crevisses of the graves the slaughters in your Cities and the murders in your streets the blood which plague hath devoured and which famine and drought hath consumed even for these and more then these the earth lifts up her voyce against you Have not you cast away the bread and given stones to the children Have not you eaten the uncleane fish and spued out Serpents in the faces of the daughters Oh how many are the thousands of thousands whom you have caused to erre and which have perished through your lyes and lightnesse and will not God avenge himselfe on the heads of his enemies As ye have gloried in the dayes of your pleasure and made your selves fat with the joy of your laughter and wantonnesse even so shall Gods time of visitation be as a snare unto your life in unrighteousnesse even as a snare unto the Priest and a ginne unto the Prophets and as a trap and cleane Instrument to take hold of the heads of the Churches of your Nations yet shall it end as the houre of Everlasting mercies if ye Repent which if ye resist behold time shall not bring end to your torment when God shall stretch your bodyes upon the bed of endlesse trouble and misery A warning therefore and a word of Awakening even the utterance of life sounding through your black doores of the darknesse of death to you Priests Pope and Patriarke of the Lands who say that you sit in Peters seate to pardon the iniquities of the people and to forgive them their sinnes and to binde and to loose things answerable to your pleasures on earth saying that this is your Authoritie in the place and roome of the Disciples according to the Scriptures Joh 20.23 Math 16.19 It is not the seede nor the off-spring of your roote but the children of another generation which in the nature of the life of the holy Apostles are their true successors you are deceitfull hearts and wicked sinners you are men in the flesh and your bodyes are lumps of sinfull flesh your generation is of the wombe and seed of corruption and your life in the changable nature heare ye therefore God never gave his Everlasting Authoritie of Righteousnesse for the Remission of sinnes Joh 20.22 unto deceitfull hearts and sinners Christ breathed on his Disciples and gave them the Holy Ghost by which breath even by the vertue thereof and the power of the gift of the Holy Ghost their Authority stood in the worke and will of the Lord But Christ on you nor on your Pope or Patriarke hath not in this manner breathed nor in like manner filled either you or them with the Holy Ghost and therefore being without the true virtue and effectual authority you sit but as deceitful shadows and Images in your wicked wilful presumptuous resemblances making a reall mock of the true power and substance Oh how presumptuous are you in your abominable works of iniquity and as a people setled in the hardnesse of the ground of your fore-fathers Apostacy I have already shewed your root Dan 9.9 how in the degeneration you are departed from the Rock which in all ages was the ground of the forgivenesse of sins which unto the Lord only belongs Acts 5.31 and Christ only is this day the Prince and Saviour granting unto his people repentance salvation and forgivenesse of sins Eph 1.7 and this was Pauls testimony to the Ephesians In whom we have redemption through his blood Mark the order of Pauls witnesse the redemption through the washing of his blood goeth before the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Read this ye people according to the riches of his grace how then is it of works or by the words of your sinfull Pope Patriarch and Priests and Teachers Seeing therefore ye have turned the riches of the grace of Christ Jesus into an abominable habit of blind shews of unrighteousnesse deluding the
the rockes will not rend to cover you nor the mountaines move to hide you so terrible is the day of the dreadfull Lord God of Hosts and none like it that even his breath shall shake terribly the foundations of the earth and the Isles of the Sea shall role as ships in a tempest the Jealousie of the heavens shall send forth their winds which shall stirre up the depth of the Sea and she shall spue out of her wombe the dead bodyes which her rage devoured upon the earth also the grave shall give up her dead that all both great and small may arise and stand before the great Judgement of the Lord The trumpet of the Lord hath sounded and is sounding Blessed is he that heareth the proclamation of the voyce of the Angel unto the witnesse and have a right and a part in the first Resurrection Rev 20.6 on him the second death shall have no power but such shall reigne with Christ a thousand yeares whose day is begun in the earth he that hath an eare let him heare what the Spirit saith and when the thousand yeares are finished Rev 20.9 the whole number of the deceivers of the earth shall be utterly devoured with the fire of God out of Heaven A dreadfull found to the wicked I have heard the proclamation of the voyce of the Archangel of God and the noyse of a Joyfull shout from Heaven of which I John beare witnesse and do hold the testimony as unto the witnesse of the Eternall Decree of God concerning that which was and is and of the Judgement which shall come overtake the wicked throughout the mountaines and the hills and the caves and the dens of the earth woe shall compasse their dwellings and Indignation and Wrath shall be placed as the bounds of their habitations who can count the sands which are set for the bounds of the Seas he also can comprehend the misery of the workers of iniquitie prepare prepare therefore to meet the Lord by true and unfained repentance for of a truth the Lord God of Heaven and Earth is arisen and rising in dread to touch the whole earth 2 Pet 3.4 5 6 7. say not therefore in your hearts Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation as a people willing to yeeld unto ignorance and voyd of the knowledge How that by the Word of God the Heavens were of old and the Earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water perished But the Heavens and the Earth which are now by the same Word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of Judgement and perdition of ungodly men To your own therefore returne departing from your fore-fathers traditions examine your selves try your selves prove your hearts and see what you have which will be able to stand in the day of tryall and not consume in the burning fire of the Lord God whereby the Heavens shall be set as in flames 2 Pet 3.10 and the Earth and Elements shall melt with the fervent heare thereof and all the workes that are in the earth shall be burnt up and seeing then that all these things shall be quickly dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse Feare feare dread and tremble tremble before the Lord God of Heaven and Earth all ye hard and cruell high and lofty bow down ye Cedars of the hills and come down ye strong Oakes of the mountaines unto the lowlinesse of the valeys the Lord God will stop the wayes of the Savages of the Forests and place Strength in the path of the Lyons of the Wildernesse and their fiercenesse shall no longer devoure the prey the strong shall starve with hunger woe to the Deserts the Lyon for her whelps and the Beare for her young as being robbed as being spoyled and destroyed they shall roare together they shall run and not have remedy they shall seek and not have rest for behold the word of the Lord shall be accomplished in the Earth upon the Herds and concerning the flocks upon the Shepherds and upon the Pastors and the end shall be the consumption of all flesh which hath corrupted its way upon the face of the earth before the Lord and with this cometh the determination of time which shall never bring end to the torment of the wicked and whosoever worketh and loveth a lye O Earth Earth heare therefore thy warning and all the Inhabitants thereof give eare to the sound of the voyce in the day of your visitation the commandement standeth not far from you neither is the Word separate in another Nation so as that you should say Our arme reacheth not over the Sea to bring it from thence and who can touch Heaven to bring it down from thence but the Word is very nigh unto you Deut 30.14 in your mouth and in your heart that ye may also heare it and do it 2 Pet 1.19 Therefore unto the more sure word of Prophesie whereunto ye do well if ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place untill the day dawne and the day-starre arise in your hearts The Light which through Judgement and condemnation in the secret parts of your minds and hearts preacheth and prophesieth wrath woe and the just indignation of God against all unrighteousnesse this sure word is nigh you and with you in your beds in the fields and streets and market places the Light which convinceth you of lying and swearing and double-dealing and all manner of wickednesse if you love it and lissen unto the checks of it in your hearts and minds and so come to follow the Light which convinceth you in secret of lying and swearing and vaine jesting and foolish and wanton gestures and communication the Light in all your consciences wherewith you are lightened which convinceth you of your sins will lead you out of your sins and so will come to witnesse sanctified hearts unto God and you will come to feele your hearts given up unto sanctification and your minds unto the things of Gods kingdome and by the Light also you will come to discerne the two seeds and the two natures and you will grow unto the witnesse of the Judgement of the one from the promise of Sion unto the habitation of the heritage of Esau whose mountaines are places for Dragons And the other unto the Justification of life to be made partaker of the treasure of life and filled with the vertue of the Lord in wisdome and a good understanding which the world cannot receive unto the true knowledge of the Scriptures unto the witnesse of them fulfilled in you which through faith in Christ Jesus the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world Eph 5.13 are able to make one wise unto salvation
for as all things and deeds which are done and wrought out of the Light are reproved by the Light even so also that which maketh manifest is light and the Light wherewith you are lightened is the measure of the gift of God which he hath given unto all men and the grace of God which hath appeared unto all men which taught the Saints to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts through which that is to say by the Light being Judged as men in the flesh they became Justified with God in the Spirit the Light will lead you unto life if you love it and obey it according to the voyce of it Isa 8.20 therefore to the Law and the Testimony take heed speaking alwayes according to this word Ye Greekes in all quarters and parts of the earth read this commandement as the quick sharp and short message of the Lord unto you even of the Righteous God whom your fathers provoked unto wrath through their Idolatrous superstitions and all manner of abomination for which cause he brought their necks under the miserable yoak of bondage to draw under the cords and chaine of the same Instrument of cruelty of the Jewes captivitie and this came to passe if peradventure in the time of trouble they might early seek and cry unto the Lord with unfained hearts but from generation to generation even to the evill dayes of this present generation he hath not found Repentance in your Land and therefore could not your Land finde nor feel the day of deliverance and breach of the bowes of your yoaks by his hand of Redemption Repent therefore lest ye be made an utter spoyle even unto the determination of time and there come no end of your misery and desolation Remember the declaration of the dayes of old and the sayings concerning the times which are already past there were a people unto whom the sure testimonies of God were given but they forsooke the mercy and through hard-heartednesse and self-conceitednesse departed from the fountaine to aske councell of their own wills in the house of Rimmon Isa 49.6 they expected the Covenant in their way wherefore when Christ the Light came contrary to their conceptions they rather resisted unto death then chose to be gathered unto life they once had the Law and the Prophets and the testimony of the Law and the Arke of the Covenant and the Temple which God gave them and yet because of their unbeliefe God spared not the Jewes which were the naturall branches according to the promise Heare this all ye Gentiles throughout the earth Rom. 11.22 If God spared not the naturall branches because of their unbeliefe why boast ye your selves against the naturall branches who are your selves fallen from the Root If God spared not the Jewes who received not the Light which testified for Christ which was and is the Light which shined in all their Consciences Shall he spare you who despise the Light and in Enmitie to Christ who is the Light walke contrary to the Light in all your Consciences Behold the goodnesse and the severitie of God on them which fell severitie but towards the Gentiles which stood goodnesse and unto as many as now continue in the good which cometh from God mercy and peace but as for such as forsake the Light which comes from Christ even they 〈◊〉 fruitfull branches shall also be cut off and with God there is no respect of persons And if the casting away of the Jewes were the reconciling of the world what shall the receiving of them be but your torment Rom 11.13 and the resurrection of the life of the seed from the dead and the redemption thereof from the bondage of the grave to the glory of God Amen Trust ye not therefore in lying words even as once the Jewes did saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these say not in your hearts the wisdome of God is the councell of our fathers such words shall not save you or if you farther say that you have Abraham to your father that shall not profit you but rather read your birth of the bond-woman that you may come to the casting out of her seed and generation of her wombe for be it knowne unto you God can out of rockes raise a remnant and out of stones a seed unto Abraham for not every one that saith Lord Math 7.22 shall enter for many shall say we have prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devills and yet it shall be said â—â—to them depart ye cursed workers of iniquitie and Virgins also loosed the Inheritance even such as were to seek oyle when the Lord came Math 25.12 and these are States beyond the conditions of all your Roman members throughout the earth the Scriptures are true in the declaration as Christ spake although you are false in your words and wayes and interpretations and if the doore of the kingdome be shut against carelesse Virgins how thinke you that wicked lyers drunkards swearers whore-mongers or harlots shall have an entrance therein therefore whilst you have time Repent This is the summe unto the pertaking of the purchase that you follow the Lambe of God Christ the Light of the world which taketh away the sin of the world He is the highest Priest Prophet and King of whom this is the signe and testimony unto Jew and Gentile He hath lightened every man that cometh into the world and this is the message unto the whole world God is light and in him is no darknesse at all Look therefore to your lives for behold this day is set before you death and darknesse life and light chuse you whether if you perish in your sins your blood be upon your own heads henceforth for ever prize your time Heb 12.17 Remembering that Esau had a time but Esau neglected his time so that when he carefully sought a place of Repentance with teares he could not finde it This is the testimony which we that do walke in the light as God is in the light do hold we know that whosoever is borne of God unto the Inheritance of the kingdome of God he sinneth not but he that is begotten of God 1 Joh. 3. 6 9. keepeth himselfe that wicked one toucheth him not and we know that we are of God and we also know that the whole world who are enemies to God lyeth in wickednesse And we know that the Sonne of God is come and hath given us an understanding whereby we know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ this is the true God and Eternall life Oh all ye Nations abstaine from Idolls The Saints by the seed of the Apostated Jewes first in contempt were called Christians and we who have received the same testimony of Jesus by the seed of the Apostated Christians in the Northern Islands are scornfully called Quakers J P SOme Queries propounded
or Pastors let him stand forth and answer by name which hath received the word as from the mouth of God to minister it faithfully as the everlasting Gospel and message of God Query 49 Who is the Astronomer or Astrologer let him stand forth and answer by name which hath received the word dwels in the word by which the earth the Sea all that in them are the heavens the Sun Moon Stars the habitations of the heavens the hosts of the Heavens were made which made all governs all even unto this day to building destroying to planting plucking up which shews the natural causes of all overtures changes And let him answer me with the strength of his understanding whether his predictions are not subject to alter change or are they altogether unalterable infallible And this will manifest the original to be either the word of the Lord or the spirit of the Devil let him tell me whether worm Jacob hath a habitation in his house or shew me how the seed of worm Jacob is governed in his house which if he knows not that how knows he in what manner the Plannets are governed and Signes are ordered in and about the house of Heaven Isa 44.25 Dan. 4.7 8. Query 50 What is the ground cause of every disease which is generated in the nature of mankind whether you Docters do know the infallible Symptoms of the nature of the diseases and have you the figure of that root in your Herbal which is the substantial effectual cure of such diseases how in what manner ought than root to be applyed as a Remedy for the cure of the malady and saving of the sick which if ye knew the virtue and were faithful unto all persons considering their conditions in administring an equal portion of that root would not your practices preach a testimony to the discovering of the iniquities of all that makes a prey upon the people for the love of their monies yea or nay Query 51 What is the ground of a just Law Let the Judges Justices and Lawyers answer whether they stand in that ground which was the originall of the Law given unto Moses or are any of them in that ground wherein Moses received the Law Whether are they grafted into the roote of righteousnesse wherein the good Stewardship of the Lawes is testified to be the preservation of peace in the Nations which if they answer affirmatively I further Query What is the little measure of equitie which measureth all causes and dealeth just Judgement unto all without respect of persons in all manner of differences suits and controversies between man and man as in one Law and way of equitie and truth which if the Judges Justices did Judge by that Law and the Lawyers plead from the ground of that Law the Innocent would no longer suffer nor the oppressed groane under cruelties through the execution of corruption under the name of a Just Law Query 52 What is the tongue of the learned distinguish that which is but one from the tongues of mens learning which are many in the world and whether any tongues beside that one in any measure reacheth to the understanding of the things of God yea or nay Isa 50.4 Query 53 Whether is Philosophy in contrariety unto or in unitie with the tongue of the learned and what is the originall roote of Rhetorick and ground of Philosophy and can any receive the tongue of the Learned to speak forth the things of God in the wisdome of God in whom the ground of Philosophy and roote of Rhetorick remaines and is not the roote knowne by the branch leafe and blossome which springs from the roote yea or nay Query 54 What Bottle is that which is only proper to receive in it the old wine of Rhetorick and dregges of Philosophy And what Bottle is that which receiveth only the new wine of the kingdom and whether is it possible that these two can be contained in one bottle without breaking the bottle And what is the old bottle which cannot hold new wine Whether are not you that old bottle which never was broken yea or nay Query 55 What ayre is that wherein Paul said the Saints shall meet the Lord whether is it one of the foure Elements of which the Philosophers said mans naturall body is composed of Whether is it a naturall Element that shall for ever comprehend Christ and the Saints spirituall life seeing Paul said and so shall we be ever with the Lord. But if ye say that that ayre is not one of the Elements which the Philosophers wrote of answer then according to the Scripture and shew by the witnesse of God what that ayre is if not an Element 1 Thes 4.17 Query 56 Whether doth not your Philosophy informe you that if there be a third of necessitie also there must be a second and a first which ye Doctors of Athens or other Officers of the two Catholique Churches throughout the earth need not have gon to Rome or other Colledges or Schooles to have learned seeing most of the meane and vulgar in your accounts could so farre informe you in your own places and streets But without controversie to the ends of the earth you must first goe ere you come in truth to answer this my Query Paul said that he knew a man which was caught up into the third heaven what was the first heaven wherein Paul made his first entrance coming out of the Jawes and prison of death And what was the second heaven and the third heaven in which he saw the Revelation of things unlawfull to be uttered And whether the first second or third heaven is beneath but equall or above the ayre which Paul spake of And finally speak plainly whether can a man in his will by his wit or wisdome politicall his knowledge historicall the exercise of his arts and parts sylogisticall or philosophicall or by any of your studyes Theologicall throughout your Universities and Colledges Answer these Queries concerning the things of God according to truth in the wisdome of God to speak as the Oracles of God yea or nay 2 Cor 12.2 All ye Officers of the two Catholique Churches if truth be with you you will be glad of an occasion to Answer and lay open the deceits and Errors of hereticks for the confirmation of every honest heart and establishing all simple souls in the doctrine of truth Be wise in your generation for your owne actions will testifie in the hearts of the people either for you or against you Fury may proclaime a fire in your bosomes and you may order this writing to be burnt with fire but that will publish your envie and preach your spirits to be of the author of murder I tell you in time such an action will work your own confusion and afterwards God of a truth will plead with you by fire Truth is above deceit and can stop the