Antichristianism is the keys of visible Church-constitution or Marriage-Ordinances resolve themselves radically into believers or into the power of the people who may at any time take them up erect and model visible Churches open and shut the doors thereof to others This we reduced to the touchstone of the primitive and found that they prayed preached baptized and at last brake bread while they were bare disciples and onely Covenant-members but in respect of Church constitution they were commanded to tarry and wait at Jerusalem till the promise of the Father to wit the keys of the Kingdom was given whereby the Kingdom of God came with power Acts 1.4 8. Luke 24.49 This was a manifest transfusion of the Spirit that did not onely increase the glory of the former but also stated and invested them with new Membership and Office and inspired the stative Ordinances of Ordination Confirmation Church-censures with a new created efficacie whereby they received in and shut out of that new-married Church The image of this is set forth in Acts 2. It is called a pouring out of the Spirit in regard of the abundant measure thereof visibly manifested vers 17 also a mighty rushing winde filling the house with cloven tongues of fire vers 2 3 as causing that breath of life and spiritual heat which operated in that apparent Kingdom Isaiah compares it to smoke filling the house as presenting the glory of Christ in his powerful administration Chap. 6.3 4. In Ezek. 1.4 5 the four Beasts or livings with each of them four faces which must typifie the Apostles Prophets and Evangelists who had all gists and tongues by which they were distinguished from the four Beasts Rev. 4.6 7 who had each of them but one face came out of the midst of that winde cloud and fire also in Ephes 4.8 11 the Spirit tells us that all the several degrees of the Ministerial Office to wit together with the former three Pastors and Teachers were ingendered originally by that virtual efflux of the Spirit sent down from heaven Indeed the twelve were set apart for their Office by Christ while he was on earth and in that sense named Apostles as Joseph is called the husband of Mary and she his wife while they were no more then espoused Matth. 1.18 19 20. and a man may be termed an heir when he is onely designed for the inheritance but their real investment was not till after For Ezekiel in the place before quoted shews that the four-faced beasts proceeded out of the wind cloud and fire expressed Acts 2 and in Eph. 4 Christ first ascended then gave gifts the gift sent down was the Office Some Apostles c. They had not till then that differential eminency of gift which gave being to and distinguished their Office from the rest nor of extraordinary Prophets or Evangelists nor of ordinary Pastors and Teachers no nor yet of the same which private members had after the Spirit was emitted They were before unfurnished with the gift of Tongues Act. 2.2 looked on Christ as an earthly king over a temporal kingdom Luke 19.11 Matth. 20.21 were ignorant of the death resurrection and ascension of Christ the common and main principles of Christianity Matth. 16.22 Mark 16.11 13. Luke 24.11 21 25. were not able to bear many things which after were easie to every believer Job 16.12 Chap. 14.26 1 Cor. 15.1.2 3 4 5 6 7. And this M. Robinson and others the solidest men of the Separation have maintained against the Presbyters and Bishops Again their first designation came not from man but onely from their Master which makes least for those who here will plead against us Besides the disciples were not called a Church nor did any lay on hands for Membership or Office nor use any Church-censures till they received power from on high Hence we may safely conclude that Gospel-stating at the first beginning came not from believers as believers but from the powerful dispensation of Chirst Jesus and that when if sunk and the same open windes before animating were with-held it must return to him the fountain whence at first it flowed for every thing resolvs into its principle But leaving the primitive we may search the Scriptures treating of this last marriage to come and we shall find the same pouring of the Spirit that was in that first Gospel-day * Rev. 11.2 Chap. 19.7 Isa 32.13 14 15. the joyous City shall lie desolate untill the Spirit be poured out from on High whereby the Wilderness shall be a fruitfull field and the fruitfull field counted for a Forest also Zech. 17.10 I will pour upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace c. Which must be on Jews and Gentiles for the mourners here poured on are interpreted by our Saviour to be all the tribes of the earth who by their sins and Iedol-worship have pierced Christ Matth. 24.30 likewise Ezek. 37.9 th-same open windes before bound up Rev. 7.1 shall be then loosed in their manifest blast So Luk. 17.24 and Psal 97.4 there will be the like fiery flashing lightning to illuminate the world which the earth shall see to wit visibly and tremble also Psal 102.16 When the Lord shall build up Sion he will appear in glory and Isai 60.2 His glory shall be seen upon thee both which places shew that his most excellent dispensation shall be visible Hence we may gather that as this by the apostacy resolved into Christ so it must again issue forth from him before it can have its true existence For this glorious effusion of the Spirit in the first beginning of Church-constitution is the foundation of the keys thereto pertaining it gives them their vital being their proper difference and by its manifold work causeth those various operations which proceed from and by them Thus in the primitive marriage they received power from on high whereby the Lord was to them for a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty Isa 28.5 by vertue whereof they had the high keys of the Kingdom So in this last the Lord will first marry them to himself to wit pour out his Spirit upon them whereby they shall be as a crown of glory and a royal diademe in his hand Hos 2.19 Isa 63.2 and then vers 5 they as sons of the Church shall marry in others the first is done by God immediately wherein man is meerly passive the second by man as instrumental working by the power of his preceding Into the first work of marriage acted simply by Gods own finger none save the Elect enter and not all the Elect but onely such elect ones who believe and wait for the same promise of pouring the Spirit for such choice singled ones were the hundred and twenty in the primitive though by the second done by the hand of the Church hypocrites did then intrude So in this last matrimony Isa 60.21 Rev. 21.27 none but the virgins who expect and prepare
glory of God then sparkling forth in the bright lustre of that high dispensation is like most pretious Iasper clear as Crystal Rev. 21. which seems to be one of those stones called by Plinie Aerizula resemling the clear air darkned with no colour which might cause an aberration in the sight likewise Isa 42.12 her windows the mirror to let the same light into the heart are of Agats the original word signifies as well Jasper or Crystal which is most consonant to that of the Revelation by which the Spirit would teach us that there is the same light within in the eye that without is in the aire in both which there is such an unmixed and lightsome purity as discovereth several objects in their naked hue and all issues forth more immanently from God according to that of the Psalmist In thy light we shall see light Psal 36.9 but this in the splendor of it is beyond our times The separated people who have gotten victory over the beast stand upon a sea of glass in a more bright expanding Scriptures then in the Antichristian stations mingled with fire to burn up rubbish With all the wrong stated corporations there are humane bestial thrones interposed between them and the highest throne which like opacous bodies cause an eclipse of the countenance of him that sits thereon of which there be some grosser and occasion the greater darkness as in Rome others more thin and rarified but yet being mixed and of divers natures present untrue and discording aspects to such who look through these delusive mediums When the 144000 sealed ones who are now scattered in the wilderness and secret chambers shall like noble victors come off from the beast and return with their faces toward Sion the veil will be removed whereby the semblance of Christ will shine more purely upon them and they standing on the abovesaid sea behold his beauty through that glass with more open face and I am sure the senses of Scripture seen by that transparencie cannot bear so many opposite faces as now they do but will appeare in their more native and uniforme visage For though the same text may have various significations and prospects yet the variety is such as meets in a unity and is not destructive to it selfe as are the dissenting axiomes of this our evill generation My desire is that the goldy Readers who may now be severed one from another in judgement and practice would with a single eye sequestred from the former glosses of their own and others look into the inbrest of those prophecies produced in the following treatise and they may perhaps by the conduct of the Spirit of prophecie find that truth which may be as a spiritual clue to lead them out of their labyrinths and reduce them into one fold to travel together toward their desirable resting places Now suffer me a little to reflect and give you a compendious survey of some occurrences happening unto me I confess my self to be one of the least of the servants of Jesus Christ and in this particular subject was heretofore as blindfold as any What I have since received I acknowledg to the praise of his free grace only who hath committed such treasure to a poor weak earthen vessel given indeed to further the destruction of Antichrist but for your true edification If I glory in any thing it shall be in mine infirmities that God may have all the honor It was some nine yeers ago that the Lord in part shewed me the vanity of the national Presbytery for against Episcopacy I was ever since I came to yeers of understanding with the unwarrantableness of that compulsive power they at that time laboured to obtaine and then did I much affect and adhere to those bodies called Independents whom I yet look on as the more moderate solid and less rigid of all the stated companies and though I never was incorporated amongst them yet was I a stickler in their behalf as I met with opportunity I found that Gospel-Churches were not made up with people of all sorts but of such men only who were Saints at least in visible appearance Iad judged th office of the Presbytery derived from the Bishops and so from the Pope not to be legitimate that Classical Provincial and National Synods assuming a power over particular congregations are the same Prelacy in the root with Episcopacy and herein might be more dangerous and destructive that whereas there were before but few now there would be a multiplicity of Bishops that this is to bring a medium and husband-like authoriry betwixt Christ the husband and the Church the Spouse and to conform the Kingdome of Jesus Christ to the kingdoms of this world that office by our Saviours rule was subservient It shall not be so amongst you Mat. 20.25 26 27. Luk. 22.25 26. That it is the property of the Locusts false officers to have crowns on their heads Revel 9.7 that Gospel-members must be a free willing people inlightned and constrained by the attractive vertue of the Spirit and not compelled by humane Laws and Canons that such a forcing is against the nature of a marriage which relative compaction ought to be combined by the mutual consent of both parties and not against the will injoyned by another that seeing no power of man can create a principle of belief to this or that way it were unreasonable to command the action that the spiritual life comes onely from Christ and no man can come to him except the Father draw him that the soul is the proper seat of God and the Apostles weapons were not carnal but spiritual that none are now infallible nor can substitute such unerring decrees which they dare affirm to be Jure divino which Law alone takes place upon the conscience that this compulsion hath been the greatest offence to render consciences the right hand of persecution both in Rome under Episcopacy and may be the like in Presbytery many of whom are over-rigid that it may for the future as well as in times past stop the free passage of new discoveries These and such like arguments upon occasion I produced and proved at large against the national Presbytery and thus far I went candidly Now for the particular practice of Church-constitution I began more narrowly to pry into the primitive platform and in this dissented from the rest that the Ordinance to receive into Church-fellowship was not a Covenant and subscription thereto nor by giving the right hand of fellowship but by laying on of hands I drew out my model as exactly as I could to its first exemplar and saw that many things could not be practised in their genuine order but this I pieced up with the extream law of necessity I concluded visible faith to be the next immediate groundwork of the whole building and in this last was my mistake such as overthrew all my former labour and yet remained I for some yeers in this misapprehension though with secret
externality was after surprised by Antichrist that destroying king the better to establish his worldly kingdom and captivate the godly in fetters of Iron And surely this was not again restored by Satans craft nor the insinuation of some subtile Sinons as you most abusively turn it but by the hand of Divine providence directing our noble partriots to regain the priviledge of their birthright whom Christ made kings and priests to God and his Father The Lord hath crowned the undertakings of those who were the choicest instruments in procuring this freedome with such prosperous success in his and our publike interest as might teach you more modesty then so reproachfully to defame them and hath with a mighty arme layed low the pride of such who sought to bring us back into bondage both in England Scotland and Ireland he reproved kings and nations for his peoples sake all which might force you write upon our liberty This is the finger of God if your eyes were open to behold his wonders now appearing It seems it much grieves you to see the tenth part of the great City falling in our dominions and that our States refuse to assume a Popedom over the conscience the peculiar seat of divine majesty However you judge it will be the honour of our Worthies in future ages and all neighbor-Commonwealths are amazed at the glory resting upon our English nation But Sir Why should this toleration be more destructive to you then to others You have as great a portion therein as any you thereby injoy a freedome for your walk which was denyed in the Bishops reign and when so large a door is opened in rising times if your Church cannot stand unless under-propped by worldly power it evidently demonstrates your kingdome to be of this world Be pleased to remember that the primitive was not built by might nor power but by the Spirit Zech. 4.6 and by the same Spirit Christ went forth conquering and to conquer mulittudes Rev. 6.2 Also the stone dashing all opposers in these latter dayes is cut out of the mountaine without hands Dan. 2.34 the kingly Prophet tells us Gods people will be willing or voluntaries as the Hebrew text carries it in the day of his power Psal 110.3 and 47.9 The Gosâ—el-Saints are genuinely of a royal princely spirit and never act nobly but from a pure principle of love within constraining 2 Cor. 5.14 You argue That out of this womb hath issued forth numerous heresies errors sects and schisms Answ Some of these named indeed are dangerous some are neerer to the truth then your selves but to reply to yours we assert 1. That all those nominated in your Epistle the Ranters excepted who in their blasphemies and beastly lusts are excluded were brought forth many yeers before this toleration was granted and it is a strange Paradox never heard of in publike till divulged by you that that can be the womb to conceive and bring forth which with as was not in retum natura extant in the series of nature till so long time after their existence Formerly it was an approved Aphorisme Causa est prior effecto The cause precedes the effect in order of nature or time or both But you produce a contrary example which if true will put all Logicians to an absolute non-plus We conceive the rationalist rather then be silenced will tell you Contra principia negantem non est disputandum no disputation ought to be held with him that denyes the principles Surely it is heat of passion against the Sectaries as you term them hath disturbed your otherwise more solid intellectuals To proceed suppose errors may arise yet is it not carnal but spiritual weapons must beat down such spiritual wickedness 2 Cor. 10.3 4. The Lord permits and the Scripture presageth that errors and offences must come partly that those who are approved may be made manifest partly that the conquest of truth may appear the more glorious which will at last dispel those gloomy clouds and shine forth with more perspicuous brightness The mystery of godliness rayes out with most perfect beauty by the clear discovery of the deepest mystery of iniquity Besides why may not truth in a free passage come in as well as heresie Without doubt Christ who hath all power committed to his charge is as potent to prevaile in light as the Prince of darkness in delusions Nay why may not truth be shut out by the contrary restraint The compulsion you plead for hath hither to proved a direct enemy to the pure Gospel of the Lord Jesus It may further be demanded to what way you so eagerly labor to ingage the sword of the Magistrate whether to your own or to some other Not to any other for when the Bishops held it in their custody you did with the formost exclaim against it as Antichristian bestial tyrannical c. and here you censure all others to be errors Sects Schisms and what not If you chalenge it to your selves we shall ask whether you among all the several bodies extant sit in the chaire of infallibility For none but an unerring law can warrantably claim a power over the conscience 2. Suppose you were infallible and could not err which you dare not affirme then whether you can create a belief the heart of those who are contrary minded The Apostles in Church-affaires were directed by an undeceivable spirit an yet neither used nor layed claim to such a power but invited and won men to the faith simply by the cords of love All that humane weapons can do is only to force the outward man which is a violent and preternatural motion and when the constraint is over soon turns again to its own centre Whereas the Gospel naturally begins within and grounds its principles in the intimate chests of reason It first breaks as a light into the Vnderstanding the noblest faculty and there imprints the image of its integrity thence it goes to the Will the great wheel of the soul and turns it to a willing obedience to all its precepts and commands thence it passeth to the inferiour affections and compels them to imbrace the beauties of holiness and from these inward springs proceed all the outward duties and services performed by the body The sum of the new Convenant is to write the laws in the heart and in the mind Heb. 8.10 This was exactly the method which the Apostles followed 2 Cor. 3.2.3 But you indeavor a preposterous course and contrary to the order of the Gospel to wit to constrain the body to what the heart opposeth If so and whatever be not of faith be sin then assuredly this your course is confusion and destructive to the souls of people We read of none in all the New Testament but only the beast who commanded all both smal and great to worship Revel 13. 3. It is conceived that you in this are a part of the greatest and most deceivable Schisme that ever came into the world and
6.4 9. compared with John 12.40 Acts 2.2 by which the visible keys of Church-power were given and sanctified but after when the Angel fell Rev. 9.1 2 3. another earthen hellish key with other smoke arising from the pit darkning and banishing the lightsome glory of the former as above and at last a new smoaking of the Temple from Gods glory Rev. 15.8 a new opening and entering implying key and doors all shewing that there was no opening nor entering but a cessation and shutting of the true visible betwixt these two days Besides there is a new open breathing of the four windes of the Spirit Ezek. 37.9 after the long restraint of the primitive blast Rev. 7.1 Act. 2.2 Ezek. 1.4 a new pouring of his Spirit Isai 32.15 after the former hiding of his power a new Marriage and Marriage-call Rev. 19.7 9. besides the Marriage at the first Matth. 22. a new lightning Matth. 24.27 besides the lightning at the primitive Ezck. 1.4 13 14. all teaching a non-continuance of this glory Again there was an invisible day between the bright shining day at the first Luk. 17.22 and the like glorious day again at the last vers 24. an invisible kingdom as that within vers 21. passing between the open kingdom of the primitive and the manifest kingdom of God at the last Chap. 21.31 Rev. 19.6 Chap. 11.17 all clearing up this cessation The visibilities Lo here and there were false and delusive The event hath made all this as perspicuous as the sun shines in the open firmament to those who will not obstinately and of set purpose shut their eyes against it to wit That there was an apparent and general Apostacie darkning and swallowing up all the bright Order of the primitive For that Church after Constantine had sully subdued the heathen Emperors and setled all in outward tranquillity about the yeer of our Lord 327 as the margin on Socrates hath it lib. 1. cap. 3. beginning to conform to and mix her self with National and worldly things degenerated and daily declined by the four first trumpets Rev. 8. till at last by the fifth the star totally apostated from heaven to earth about 390 and then the key of external Rule became purely National and was onely in the jurisdiction of Popes Patriarchs Bishops and earthly Hierarchies who alone usurped all church-Church-power into their hands In all our Western Globe there was no Church-Government visible but what was Romish for many ages and our Antagonist M. Elmestone confesseth that their Office of the Ministery the principal pillar of the Church came directly from Rome no longer ago then Luther's time Hereupon that of Protestantism is not termed a Separation but a Reformation their Office and Membership coming radically from the Romish Synagogue which seems to be hinted by the Prophet Jeremiah Chap. 51.9 We would have healed Babylon and she was not healed Object It hath been objected by others What shall we think of the Greek Church who never had to do with Rome nor owned her power Answ To whom we reply 1. That the Church of Grecia may be no plea to such who live in the Levant under the Turk but concerns not in the least our Protestant Churches who derived not their power from the Greek but from the Romish Pontificality 2. It is not true that the Greek Church never had to do with Rome For about the yeer 390 after Christ all the Eastern Bishops yeelded the Primacie of seat the proper place of Christ to the Romane Pope And afterward if the Bishop of Rome obtained by Phocas the Emperour the title of Vniversal then assuredly the Bishop and Patriarch of Grecia must be subject unto him and together with the Church be within the limits of his territories Again the Greek Empire was possessed by the Latines for sixty yeers together even from the yeer 1200 to the yeer 1260 and then Michael Paleologus recovered their Empire who about the yeer 1273 agreed with Pope Gregory the tenth at Iyons in France and promised that both himself and all his people hereafter should yeeld all Sovereignty to the Latine Pope and Church 3. The Greek Church was as well National and had a terrene Hierarchy even the very same with Rome and is so apostated that she denies the holy Ghost to proceed from the Father and the Son prays for the dead believes that the Saints departed enjoy not the presence of God till the Resurrection admits children of seven yeers old to the Sacrament because then as they conceit they begin to sin receives none into Orders but such as are married and forbids marriage to those who are actually in Orders rejects carved Images but admits the painted with many the like Fopperies and in many fandamentals is as gross or grosser then Rome To conclude Chap. 7 all the four windes of all quarters were restrained Chap. 11.2 the whole outward court of Discipline as well East as West was cast out as above and the great City Babylon was not onely at Rome but at Judea where our Lord was slain Chap. 11.8 and then certainly Grecia lying in the midst between must needs be comprehended within the circumference thereof It hath by some as the Dippers been questioned whether these National Churches be within the Covenant To whom I answer that though in their Church-order they were Babylon or confusion yet are they not wholly excluded from the Covenant as Heathens but are termed by the Spirit Israelites who had a sealed number amongst their tribes Rev. 7. Here we may see how though the place or hand failed the name was everlasting And it is not safe to detract from the words of this Prophecie especially seeing the sequele hath cleared that there was some profession of Christianity and a godly people amongst them through every age of this hiding of Gods power You may find this further cleared in the following Paragraph The next thing considerable under this first Querie is touching the true Church in this confusion 1. What she was 2. What was her condition 3. How she was fed 4. The just time of this her captivity 1. What she was In Chap. 7 I finde that there were one hundred and fourty four thousand sealed ones preserved secured and provided for In Chap. 9 that this number onely was undestroyed by the Locusts In Chap. 11 that the Temple measured must be this sealed company built up a spiritual house by the mystical bond of the Spirit it having no dimensions specified and all the externality being excluded as shall be proved in Paragraph 1. Sect. 4. In Chap. 14.1 that the mount Sion there expressed must be onely the mount of true grace footed on the counsel of God which is called a sure and sealed foundation 2 Tim. 2.19 For 1. All the sealed elect people even the whole one hundred and fourty four thousand stand on this mountain and that through all the apostated season which they did not do in any true visible being mixed amongst the Nations
compel doth testifie still retaining their old mustie store and sowre wilde grapes of Antichrist your Ministery is foully corrupted with guile and false principles about discipline accompanied with bitter and odious invectives against these harpers Lastly let us examine your National Churches above-named by Chap. 15. They stand not simply upon a sea of glass the word only purely sensed but upon the more gross interpretations of the Fathers and other learned men in darker times from whom they esteem it presumption to differ though to the native Truth as your sharp and frequent reproofs of me for differing from them doth demonstrate they have not obtained a conquest over the Beast but have erected a Beast in Episcopacie Presbytery c. his Image in their Canons and other Ordinances changed into his likeness his Mark by a subjection thereto nor are their members in distinct congregatings as being off from the number of his name but are all numbered to him And those who now adhere to these National Hierarchies are so far from harping out this triumphant song of victory by separation and war and singing True and righteous are thy ways herein thou King of Saints as they are secret mourners having a wound in their spirits at these his just proceedings and his judgements now made manifest witness of late the dolour for the overthrow of the Scots who fought in the Presbyterian cause your publike reproaches against the Separation with inward torments for their freedom together with many other passages which shew how this great work of God now beginning is closed and fast locked up from your understandings We desire from our souls that the Lord Jesus who hath the key of David would open the door of your hearts whereby his admired designes changes and works to be done might enter In the mean time you may behold your folly in bringing those texts to convince us and prove your practice every circumstance whereof agrees with the way of separation and riseth up as so many witnesses against yours You ask us Whether the Ordination of Ministers in such National Churches be a mark of the Beast Answ Seeing the Churches themselves are not these harpers but such as stand under a bestial power the Ministers must be of the same nature with the Churches And your Ordination whether by Bishops or preaching Presbyters coming from the corrupt key of Rome though done by fasting and prayer must carry with it the mark or brand of the same Beast or if the man be truely pious his outward livery And thus to judge is neither ignorance nor malice as you charge it but the discovery of Christ in his Revelation who through our sides you are pleased to defame with black terms of obloquie To your next we say that you are not clothed with the white garments of the harpers but with the black habit of sack-cloth You tax us with omitting singing of Psalms Answ For mine own particular I question not the Ordinance of vocal singing of Psalms though some do scruple the manner thereof as conceiving it to be much abused Albeit this harmonizing here is not tyed to metre but is the inward joy wrought in the hearts of Gods separated Saints for their noble redemption from the Beast and the new mercies bestowed on them which breathes forth either in secret ejaculations or acts more openly in Ministery Prayer Thanksgiving c. Object You quaere How we can be in our return from Babylon and yet within Babylons territories Answ A man may be returning from London and yet within the line of Communication so in this gradual separation we cannot go clear off at once but by degrees See Parag. 4. Reas 7. Before we conclude give us leave to propound a few Quaeries very material to be considered of 1. In general for all 2. In particular to you The general shall be a brief contracting of the whole body of this Controversie and are as followeth 1. Whether the being of yours or any other Office with us passing by succession from the Primitive came by a Lineal descent from Rome or not If some say Not then whether any can prove their Genealogie distinct and apart from her If from Rome as you confess then whether the essence and foundation of Office be true there or not If true then whether she must not radically be a true Church and a Sion If she be in her constitution false bottomless and Babylon whether there were not a dissolution of your line and chain 2. Whether a true congregated Church set in a right and compleat order of discipline in our Western Horizon can be proved from the Apostolical times to be distinct from the Romish Synagogue If not as the Scripture and the event doth clearly manifest then must there be a cessation and departure of Gods glory from this visibility proved from these Scriptures Rev. 7.1 Chap. 9.1 2 3 c. Chap. 11.2 3. Whether the primitive order sinking there must not be a new call and spiriting from God for the first restoring and beginning of this work whereby his glory may return to make it a true spiritual and heavenly building 4. Whether such a visible administration that gives being to a true pure genuine and single Gospel-marriage be to be seen in the first initiation of any of our new-built Church-formes or can be evidenced by Scripture to be existing at this present or whether this same be not prophesied not to return till after the downfall of Babylon by these Scriptures Rev. 19.2 3 6 7 8 9. chap. 11. 19. Hos 2.19 20. Isa 62.4 5. chap. 14.15 Mic. 4.3 8. Mat. 25.10 5. Whether if so all our visible constitutions must not be man in their ground-work and so numbered to that beast Rev. 13.18 6. Whether then the way prepared cast up approved of and called unto for his Servants now to walk in be not a separation with distinct Congregations without sitting down as Queens in visible constitutions I shall desire the Godly seriously and impartially to examine these Quaeries by the word of God We were all in a spiritual sense asleep and it is no shame but a honour to yeild to the conquest of truth and suffer it freely to triumph over our former misleadings and wanderings The Quaeries in particular to you are these 1. Whether as above your Office of the Ministery the corner-stone of your outward building being derived from the national hierarchy which successively came from the Pope be not one of Babylons stones and whether it be not against this text Jer. 51.26 They shall not take of thee a stone for foundations but thou shalt be desolate for ever saith the Lord. 2. Whether your gathering of Gospel-Churches out of true Gospel-Churches which you acknowledge the national to be be warranted by the Scriptures if so we desire your proofs for it 3. Whether your making of Elders without laying on of hands be agreeable to the primitive practice 4. Whether the receiving in of members made by your selves be taken from the primitive pattern that is whether such a Covenant and subscription thereto was the Ordinance by which men entred into Church-fellowship in that Gospel-day or whether members were not then received in by laying on of hands if by such a Covenant we desire your Scriptures to warrant it 5. Whether all this be not to omit or transgress the lawes and change the ordinances Isa 24.6 Yet one thing more You have taken a great deal of pains through your whole Book to prove a true visible stated Gospel-Church thorowout the Gospel-times but all this while you have not shewed us which of all the several forms is that true stated Church Rome arrogates it the Lutherans usurp it the English Episcopacie plead it the Presbyters and you chalenge it the Dippers appropriate it those called Brownists claim it as their sole interest the Independents assume it And truely the wisest man in Europe taking a thorow view of every one of these Church-models will be at a stand certainly to determine which of them is the true and right and which had its lineal descent in the rectitude of Order from the Primitive The more accurately he examines the greater occasion he may finde to question all Sir I beseech you not to take in prejudice what I have here presented in benevolence For though many things may appear something strange at first yet I hope upon second thoughts you will finde them no other then the real truths of God delivered by the Prophets Apostles and the Lord himself I presume you will not adjudge him who hath been and is your cordial friend to become your enemy because he tells you the truth and that in the same language the Spirit in Scripture speaks Indeed I may seem to some to be over-sharp but the discoveries by the vials are so imparted by the Spirit as at the one side to increase the torments of the marked souldiers of Antichrist so on the other side thorowly to searse and eat out the mystery of that deceit too deeply riveted in the mindes of many vessels of honour For though the Spouse was not totally deceived so as to be struck at the heart or killed yet was she so much deluded as to receive a wound Cant. 5.7 which cannot recover a perfect cure but by a searching salve And for my self I dare not daub in the things of God nor call evil good nor darkness light nor soothe up with flattering titles left my Maker should destroy me When I see my brother straying I am commanded to rebuke with plainness and not in any wise to suffer sin to rest upon him to omit which duty were a symptome of hatred Lev. 19.17 And I will assure you they are no other then the faithful wounds of a friend which in receiving may carry the vertue of an excellent oil that will not break your head but onely remove such putrefaction as might otherwise procure your loss at the day of Jesus Christ FINIS