to the whole world is come it cometh it hath sounded and is sounding The mighty day of God is at hand therefore whilest you have time repent And allthough the Gentiles resist and all the Heathen every where gain-say yet the Lord will be glorified over all the world unto whom the Light is the sure message of the Most High whether they will hear or forbear AN EPISTLE TO THE GREEKS I Have heard a rumor in mine ears of a hard cry among the people Alas alas Our glory is defaced and our ancient praise and renown is utterly defamed Our wives are made the Vassals of other women and we are become slaves to a strange Nation We are no more under the Government of the Scepter which swayed our Fathers but the wills of another people works violence over us Our houses are but as habitations lent unto us and our substance and portion at pleasure may be spoyled by the hand of the Devourer Our children unto us are not as were the children of our fore-fathers in their Generations our wives and children treasure and substance is but a burden unto us when the eyes of our Lords looks over us Alas alas our misery is great and none regardeth it the sound of our cry hath reached far yet few have pondered it And the Lord said unto me Cry also among the Professors of Christian Religion even thus it is come to passe in many Regions of the earth the bondage it great and the captivity is doubled with violence and with cruelty The chains and yoaks are twice laid on and the people are under the indignation of the Lord The judgements of their adversaries lyes heavy upon their heads and their Loins are banded with the oppressions of their Rulers as with Iron and with Brasse and they cannot break the Cords to cast off their burdens and this and much more is the misery of the Greeks which their fathers iniquities first brought upon their heads in their dayes and the children of their Generations drinking of the Cup of their abominations unto this present Seed of evill doers Wherefore the hand of vengeance still toucheth their shoulders and in this manner God hath seen it equall to lay the burden upon that man which with his transgressions hath laden and pressed down the righteous soul of the Lord as a Cart is laden and pressed down with sheaves This is the end of their labours they ploughed the fields of the pleasure of their own hearts they sowed the seed of unrighteousnesse in the depth of the ground of iniquity who notwithstanding the Lord watered them with the water of adversity yet returned they not in the day of affliction wherefore of corruption they have reaped this abundance of misery YE Greeks unto whom I write for the seeds sake as a husband unto a wife not covering the diseased parts or falsly solving up the forest and most dangerous wounds not seeking to seal up your states in hidden sentences from your understandings or your conditions in parables nor to shut the door of the Kingdom against the seed of the Kingdom It hath pleased the Lord contrary to every part of the natural and desire of the carnall to lead me through some of the Countryes wherein as Sojourners you are Inhabitants among whom I did earnestly seek but could not find and then I returned to the Lord and sought with tears yet truly could not find one in a City that was worthy Ye ought to bear with me for the Truths sake nevertheless whether you will hear or forbear for the Lords sake and his seeds sake I am obliged by that which stretcheth forth love unto souls in this manner to stretch forth mine hand to draw back the Curtain that you may look to the Light which breaks through the Lattice and to remove the skirt which it folded over your nakednesse that your eye may see your filthinesse O misery misery the seed is in bondage that 's your greatest misery within the burdens of which is the ground of your misery without Consider consider and lay it to heart use diligence in the search of your hearts for the Lord God cometh quickly to try and to search every heart and to reward and give unto all according to their deeds done in the body whether they be good or whether they be evil Consider your Life which is the ground and cause of the mourning of the Land Jer. 23.10 I have passed through you and have seen the life of your people Behold abominable swearing lying cheating coveting drunkenness whoredom adultery murder Rom. 1.23.24 c. Changing the glory of the incorruptible God into Images made like unto corruptible man Wherefore God also hath given you up to uncleannesse through the lusts of your corrupt hearts Who have changed the truth of God into a lye and to worship and serve the Image of the creature more than the Creator Whos 's own Image only praiseth him who is blessed over all for ever and evermore Amen And this is truth in the presence of the Lord God of Heaven and Earth and unto the Light of Christ which shines in all your Consciences which shews you all your sins even unto that true Witnesse in your own hearts I speak I have been an eye witnesse of the bowing of the bodies of many of your people unto the works of your Fathers idolatrous hands unto which your corrupt hearts and deceitfull affections are joyned whilest not one of you in a Nation which mine eye ever beheld came to bow his heart in Righteousnesse and his life in Spirit and Truth before the Lord God who is a Spirit John 4.23 Whose day cometh and now is that the true Worshippers do worship him in Spirit and in Truth And for as much as Ye with other Idolaters do make these few following dark words the seeming ground of your standing places saying Viz. That you are the Roman Catholique Church and that you believe in Christ and do believe the Words and Doctrine of Christ the Scriptures of the Prophets and writings of the Apostles and that you hold the Precepts and do follow the instructions of the ancient Fathers c. Answ You whose Fathers made many Temples and painted Pictures therein that they might worship and bow down unto the works of their own hands Ye see the day in the midst of your calamities and time of sorrows how that many of the houses which they built are left unto you desolate And if now you the seed of the corruption of their generation were but come to the losse of your Fathers naturall Image in your carnal hearts and affections You would also as clearly discern your greatest misery which through the grosse vail of darknesse over your hearts is hid from your eyes Oh the captivity the captivity you are held in the possession of bondage and captivity under the profession of the name of Christ and Christians in the lusts of unrighteousnesse and the pleasures of
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
to the Greekes Patriarke and Pope of Rome and to their Doctors Priests Pastors Universities Schooles and Colledges throughout the compasse of the Regions of the rule of their two Catholique Churches in all the earth by them or any of them to be answered for the sake of truth and of soules in how much they are willing to appeare lovers of truth or of soules and are ready to render a reason of the hope that is in them according to the Scriptures Concerning the Word of Faith Query 1 WHat is the faith of Jesus And what is that which begets any into the true faith of Jesus Whether is it mens Imaginary conceptions of Jesus and the training up of a people in the blinde traditions of men or only the word of faith which cometh from Jesus yea or nay Query 2 What is the sure word of faith which gives the true and sound witnesse of the life of Jesus only unto worme Jacob and which word is nigh unto all men upon the face of the earth and yet is that which the sinner cannot receive unto life but resists unto death Query 3 Can any person minister the Word to beget others into the faith of the word of faith who have not themselves received the word and have any received the life of the word who knowes not the word yea or nay And who amongst you is cleansed with the word that is not in the state of sinne under deaths bonds of transgression in enmity to the word Query 4 Whether can any truly know Christ to believe in Christ who never have heard the word of Christ And when and where did any of you ever heare the voyce of the Son of God And is not that the Pharisees and hypocrites state to boast and say that you believe in Christ and have the word of God and yet never heard immediately the voyce of Christ yea or nay Query 5 What is that eare in man which being open cannot heare the voyce of Christ who came to make deafe those that heare and to give hearing to the deafe And what is that eare also which ought to heare and is stopt And that eye which seeth and is to be blinded and that eye which is blinded which Christ cometh to open Shew plainly the five senses of man which are senslesse of the word of God and see if you can answer how that man in sense beyond sense hath the true sense of seeing hearing feeling savouring by smelling and tasting of the good word of God Query 6 By what was it that the word of life was ministred and preached unto the Spirits in prison and what is the Spirit which is the prisoner and what and where is the prison and when did ye ever visit the prisoner in the time of his bondage in prison Concerning the Patriarke and Popes Power Query 7 WHat is the key which openeth the prison doore and who hath that key hath either your Patriarke or Pope that key to open the prison doore and to loose on earth And what is the matter and subject to be loosed on earth And in what manner will that also be loosed in heaven which is loosed on earth Query 8 What is the key of David and who hath the keeping thereof and is there any other key which openeth Heaven or shutteth the door of death or gates of Hell besides the key of David Whether either your Patriarch or Pope whom ye call Peters Successor hath the keeping of that key seeing that the Scriptures say That the first and the last he that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth hath the key of David Rev. 3.7 Rev. 1.17 18. Query 9 What is the key of knowledge which the Lawyers took away whereby they entered not themselves and hindered others from entering even such as was entering Did the Lawyers know what that key was then And do your Patriarch or Pope Doctors Priests or Lawyers know what it is now Are you in any other knowledge or wisdome then those Lawyers were who entred not and hindred others yea or nay And wherein you may say that you differ do you shew it forth how you differ in the ground and nature Luke 11.52 Query 10 What is that Book and the Seales and Sealing of that Book which no man in Heaven nor in Earth was found worthy to open And where was Peter then whether was he in Heaven or in Earth or was he neither in Heaven nor on Earth and the Scriptures not saying that Peter was found worthy at that time how then can any of your Catholique Churches with confidence now say that those whom you call Peters Successors the Foundations and Pillars of your Churches are at this time worthy to do that or whether can your Pope or Patriarch do that in these dayes which John saw in his day no man in Heaven nor in Earth could do Rev. 5.1 2 3. Query 11 Your Members have said that Peter is the Rock and Foundation of your Catholique Churches I Query whether that was not the Peter who is the foundation of your Churches unto whom Christ the Rock and Foundation of our Church which is in God said Get thee behind me Satan and whether is the Patriarch at Constantinople or Pope at Rome his successor in his place yea or nay Math. 16.23 Query 12 Doth not the virtue of the key of knowledge open all mysteries and if ye have the key of knowledge of the things of God cannot ye thereby answer all these Queryes or any others concerning the things of God in the clear understanding of the mystery of Truth in the wisdom of God yea or my Query 13 Whosoever committeth sin is of the Devil 1 John 3.8 What then is the ground of the election of your Patriarch and Pope by sinners and impowred to forgive sins And in what standeth their power to forgive sins who are themselves wicked sinners Whether is the manner of this practice any other in the substance then Satan seating Lucifer in the Kingdom of sin falsly to salve up the wound of sin yea or nay Concerning Ordinances and divers corrupt Traditions and Idolatries Query 14 WHat is the one everlasting Ordinance of God which is the seal of the Covenant and assurance of salvation unto every living soul which hath partaked thereof which no Element could give the testimony of which is the sum and substance really come unto every true born Member of Christs Church of all Types Signes and Shadows which figured out the substance before it came Query 15 Whether are your two Catholique Churches or any of the Members thereof partakers of the one everlasting Ordinance of God which is the end of all washing carnall Bread Wine and Water-Baptismes and of all shaddows Types and Figures spoken of in the Scriptures seeing you in contrary manner to all the prophesies doctrines and examples written in the Scriptures do stand in divers invented shaddows vanities and Idolatries in the practice of the
doctrines of your fore-fathers traditions in opposition to the power of God and Crosse of Christ Jesus Read Coloss 1 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. Query 16 Where doth the Scripture say that to take up Crosses of Gold Silver Brasse Iron Bone Wood or carved Stone made by the invention of man is to take up the Crosse of Christ who came not by man nor according to the will of man whose Crosse came with him contrary to the will of man What is the Image to the substance And whether is that any part of the nature of the substance in you or doth it not rather stand in enmity to the substance which taketh up an Image of the Crosse among you yea or nay Query 17 Whose doctrine or Commandement was the foundation of your Idol Temples declare plainly whether God commanded or Satan deceived And what rule have you in the Scriptures or example from the life of the Apostles to worship in Idols Temples altogether by the light of wax Candles or burning Lamps of Oyl and to keep your wax Candles burning night and day in your Idols Temples Query 18 Whether is it not great ignorance for a people to seek the Lord out of the habitation and sanctuary of his holinesse Wherefore seek ye to find God in Temples made with hands Seeing God dwelleth not in Temples made with hands And whether do you not understand that those Temples which are not Gods habitation are the reall Synagogues of Satan yea or nay Acts 17.24 Query 19 What rule have you in the Scripture to make a mock of Christ and the holy Apostles by carrying about Images which ye call their Pictures by day time with the light of Candles or Torches through your streets with many persons passing therewith hood-winked and disguised as Thieves and Robbers singing and rejoycing and making merry over the spoll of the innocent Query 20 What rule have you in the Scriptures or example from the life of the Apostles to light the dead Corps of men and women to the Graves or Sepulchres with Torches or Wax Candles Query 21 What precept have you in the Scriptures to call Elements and shaddows or any of those things which once were figures Sacraments and to carry Bread and Wine through your streets with a Canopie over it with Torches or Wax Candles lighted and one ringing a Bell before it like the hypocrires sounding Trumpets of their services and for all people that meets it to fall down upon their knees before it Query 22 What rule have you in the Scriptures or plain example from the life of the Apostles without adding unto or diminishing from the Scriptures or the acts of Christ or his Apostles for your sprinkling Infants with water and calling that an Ordinance of Christ or Sacrament of your Churches Query 23 What precept have you in the Scriptures or president from the life of the Apostles to pray upon Beads or to pray to Saints or to Mary and to crosse your selves with your hands in your prayers or thanksgivings or to make bowings before walls crossing your selves with your hands babling a few words before you go into your Beds Query 24 What precept or example have you in the Scriptures to make Inquisitions and Inquisitors to slay the life of Gods witnesses against your Idolatries and to make Fryaryes and Nunneryes Doctors Fryars Nuns Jesuits lay-brothers beggars Queristers Singers Ringers were ever such prophesied by Christ or his Apostles should come in the Truth or were ever such in their dayes yea or nay Query 25 Where did Christ ever teach or the Apostles practice the wearing of the garments and long robes of the several Officers of your Catholique Churches your long Gowns and Surplices and whipping Cords about your Loyns and other Girdles and Caps and other disfiguring garments Query 26 What rule have you in the Scriptures or example from the life of the Apostles for your grey Fryars crown-head shavings and for your other Officers with their great Bottles Wallets and begging Bags and others with many Boxes in disguised and hood-winked garments going through the streets and from house to house a begging Query 27 What rule have you in the Scriptures or example from the life of the Apostles for your observing set times and dayes of the week and year to eat Fish or Herbs or other fruit and no Flesh as in your Lents c. And to call such dayes Fast-dayes seeing you eat no flesh but do eat and drink your fill of other creatures and some with strong drink or Wine do make themselves drunk upon such dayes Query 28 What precept or president have you from the doctrine or life of Christ or his Apostles for some of your members to whip and scourge themselves upon some set dayes of the year and to draw blood from their bodyes and to make bruises and cuttings in their flesh and for others of your Officers to lay heavy burdens upon the backs of some your Members which they themselves will not touch with one of their fingers to make poor people go upon their knees through the streets as far as they please for the obtaining from them the Remission of their sins and are not you abominably deceitful as well in the manner as in the matter of this iniquity in laying only such shame and punishment upon the poor in the world and do not lay the same upon a transgressor in the same lust and nature who is very powerfull in the Authority and rich and wealthy in the world Query 29 What precept or president have you from the doctrine or life of Christ or his Apostles to keep and observe dayes and times and seasons which ye call Saints dayes saying that ye keep them in honour of the persons of Christ and his Apostles Are ye not rather a dishonour and stain of their life who spend such dayes in Idolatries in surfeiting and drunkenness in chambering and wantonnesse Coloss 2.17 Query 30 Whether is there any one among you that do witnesse Christ come in you which he that witnesseth not Christ so come in the flesh is Antichrist and if Christ be come in the flesh and dwelleth in you why then do ye with your flesh make Images of the flesh for your corruptible flesh to bowe unto and whilest the spirit which rules your flesh doth thus dictate and lead you doth not your minds in the flesh make a mock of Christ who is a Spirit and of God who will only be worshipped in spirit yea or nay 1 John 4.23 Rom. 8.10 John 4.23 24. In these Traditions deceitful shaddows and Idolatries professing the name of Christ enemies to the power of the Crosse and order of the doctrine and mystery of the life of Christ ye are a just occasion of stumbling to the Turk and an offence to the seed in the Jew and this the Lord God will require at the hands of your two Catholique Churches Concerning the Mystery of the Holy Faith Query 31 What
sin and iniquity and this hath brought blindness and spread ignorance as a thick cloud which covers the understanding part wherefore you are strangers unto and as a people not having knowledge of the seed of God which notwithstanding the hardships of your outward sufferings and the scourge of your bodyes yet the seed of the Kingdome lyes laden with your lightnesse and is heavily pressed down with the excessive weight of your numberlesse oaths and other abominable sins and transgressions Ye are blinded ye are blinded through the multitude of your corruptions your whole body is become a lump of misery You daily add murder unto mischief without respect or any regard to the life of the innocent and after your adulteries you retain not the thought of the succour of the life of the Virgin Daughter which ye have abused through the lusts of uncleannesse and so you add sin unto sin binding your selves under the perpetual oath and curse of cruelty in the bondage of your own misery and captivity Wo is me for you the love of my bowels to the seed is made a brook of bitterness in my belly For your sakes I am as one that hath eaten affliction and swallowed up sorrows as in the day of trouble Oh how hath the night been tedious to my watchful eyes which the strength of your miseries kept open when slumber had no power to shut them wherefore now I call and with a loud voice lifted over your Land I cry Come forth ye carelesse minds stretch forth your feet ye regardlesse hearts out of the Bed of the miserable slumber of your starved soules Awake awake to the mourning and arise and come forth to the lamentation for your losse O weep weep for the woe is your own for your own wickednesse Consider and lay it to heart should not the hour of distresse bring sorrows and mourning upon your hearts Oh wherefore then hath the Lord looked and behold your Land hath been filled with lightnesse and ye have not forgotten the vain words of the former Generation but with a foolish confidence have believed and trusted in their lyes as if the credit of the deceitfull words of their wicked inventions should stand the salvation of your miserable sinfull souls Seeing therefore unto this day ye have been grossely deluded and deceived under the profession of the name of the Roman Catholique Church I shall answer the vanity of your Faith with a few words of Truth God who in the dayes of old chose unto himself a peculiar people of the seed of Israel according to his promise unto Abraham also in the fulnesse of the dispensation of time sent his onely begotten Son a Light into the world that the world through him who is the Light might believe and have everlasting life by whom the Apostles and Saints in them dayes were gathered unto God and were made Members of the Heb. 12.23 Acts 20.28 Matth. 16.18 Church of the first born which are written in Heaven who is the Resurrection of the dead and of this Church of God and of his Son Jesus Christ of which Christ is now the Head as he was in the dayes of the Apostles who wrote of this Church who therefore was and is the Head Ephes 5.13 Coloss 1.18 That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish and that in all things he might have the preheminence And of this and none other Church did the Lord speak and the Apostles write but as for the Roman Catholique Church neither have I by any testimony heard or by any writing of the true Prophets the Declaration of Christ or in the writings of the Apostles read of any such Church should be as of the Truth or stand as in the Truth or that unto the Members thereof the Truth should be only committed Allthough this I say that the Scriptures do make mention that once there was an assembly of Saints which lived in Rome as there did also in other places and parts of the earth among whom the truth was in power received in the day of the prosperity thereof untill the time of the apostacy came in and the working of the mistery of iniquity waxed great and spread over the face of the earth even among all people who received the sound of the Declaration of the birth of a Son in the City of David Jesus the Christ whom the Prophets prophesied of should come and of this apostacy and falling away Christ himself who is the sum and substance of the Law and the Prophets spake of saying Math. 24.24 There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signes and wonders in so much that if it were possible they should deceive the very Elect. And this iniquity began to work in the dayes of the Apostles of which John in this manner did write They went out from us but they were not of us 1 Joh. 2.18 19. by which he knew that it was the last time as they had heard that Antichrist should come and saith he 1 John 4.1 even now there are many Antichrists Wherefore he also exhorted the Brethren that they should not believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets were then gone into the world And Paul he testifieth his knowledge saying Acts 20.29.30 31. After my departing shall grievous Wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock and also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw many Disciples after them therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with teares And this in measure came to passe whilest John was Paul also John 1.9 10. 1 Thess 2.7.8 9 he bore further witnesse that this thing must be even the falling away else this day which is now come and coming could not come and he said then in his day also That the Mystery of iniquity doth already work only he who letteth will let untill he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked one be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightnesse of his coming even him whose coming mark his coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse in them that perish and for this cause seeing they received not the love of the Truth God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse In which state and condition of vanity and unrighteousnesse I find the Roman Catholique Churches as a people miserably spoyled Coloss 2.8 through the deceit of vain Philosophy Walking after the Traditions of men after the Rudiments of
the hearts of your Fathers through the deceitful motions of Satan and so whereas you say That you have the doctrine of the ancient Fathers I answer It is true you stand in the error of their wayes I see and savour you in the foot-steps of their ungodly lusts as the Scriptures declares and not only those in the days of old but also unto this time you have many Fathers upon earth whereby your own confession bears witnesse against you that you have not learned of Christ who is the way to the Father which all that beleeve in him have but one Father which is in Heaven Math. 23.9 Furthermore in your prayers to Mary and supplication to the Saints to mediate and make intercession for you O miserable blindness and lamentable darknesse how strongly hath Satan chained your hearts that you lye under so great a cloud of ignorance Oh what is your losse through the vented conceptions of the inventions of your Fathers how in vain have they professed the Scriptures and in their words and smooth language owned Christ and the doctrine of the Apostles and how desperately wicked and unspeakably deceitful did the Devil work in his day to bind you under the belief and credit of their unrighteousness and falshood to hide knowledge from your eyes by training you up only under the vail of their Traditions not giving you liberty to read the Scriptures under the pretence that heresies thereby might not creep into their Church as if the knowledge of the Scriptures were the ground or cause of heresies but judge ye whether their doctrine is according to the Apostles instruction 1 Tim. 2.5 There is one God and one Mediator between God and men Paul doth not say that it was the woman Mary which was espoused to Joseph or that it was an Apostle which before him was offered up in the witnesse of the holy Faith neither doth he say that he should be the Interceder when after he should have finished his testimony and be offered up also but he truly testifieth of one Interceder and Mediator the man Christ Jesus And likewise also the Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought Rom. 8.26 27. but the Spirit it selfe maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God Greater Testimony cannot be declared unto you then the putting you in remembrance of your fruits which gives the certain savour and sight of your estate notwithstanding I know Romes learning will not fall so quickly but her Fathers by Sophistry will hold out and strive to stretch forth a leafe to cover your misery in iniquity have not I already heard the Disputer put forth his treacherous deceitful critical enquiry if peradventure his arm might help to make a Fence about the Wall which the hand of the Lord is digging down hath it not been already said by some of your Fathers Viz. Quest If the Apostasie in that time came in and since the time of the sâ—aughter of the Apostles hath stood unto this day where then in all the time since them dayes was the Church which is the Body of which Christ is the Head If since there hath not been a Church how then is Christ the Head of the Church but if since there hath been a Church we then affirm that we are that Church who have kept this our Faith of the Church of which Christ is the Head Answ I answer The woman hath been preserved in the wilderness mark in her place in the wilderness which God prepared for her Rev. 12.14 15. and there she hath been nourished for A time and times and halfe a time from the face of the Serpent and from the floods which the Dragon cast out of his mouth after her Your Fortresses and fenced Cityes and strong inhabited places the buildings of your Idolatrous Temples is not that wildernesse wherein God prepared the womans place of preservation In your City Rome are the streets which spiritually are called Sodom where our Lord was and is daily crucified Idleness and fulness of bread hath encreased your sin in lust and wantonness Your Land is Aegypt where the Onions and the Garlick and the Leeks and the Milleons grow and the flesh-pots are unto which your hearts are bound with unreasonable cords of Appetite It is a mighty hand that must draw you ere you be delivered out of the Land of bondage of captivity and slavery to come to the knowledge and to be joyned in your understandings and life to the sore travels of the seed and Remnant of the Lord in the wildernesse and by how much you are short of this you are short of the knowledge of Moses and of his faithfulnesse in all Gods house Numb 12.7 and by how much you are short of the life of Moses you are short of the knowledge of Christ the Head and of the Church the body for Moses he was a follower of Christ who was raised up for the Redemption of the seed with which your Fathers made war in their days even with the Remnant which was spared in the dayes of the coming in and spreading of the Apostacy which now the Lord hath returned and is returning the captivity of and hath delivered and is delivering the woman out of the solitarinesse of her flight in a secret place in the wildernesse whose tryals and travels and refuge and restauration and redemption ye are ignorant of And your darkness through your corruption and unrighteousnesse is the cause of your vain contentions against and stumbling at the high-way of truth and peace Quest And yet if you further enquire in what estate and condition your Fathers and Predecessors stood in their day which ye their successors are entred into and do stand in these dayes Answ I answer It was and is the estate and condition of the world in the nature of the world in the abominable wickednesse of the world who cannot cease from sin 2 Pet. 2.14 in the filthy unclean lusts of the world and in the deceit of Satan and ignorance of the world under the pronunciation of the word of Johns prophesie Rev. 12.12 Woe to the Inhabiters of the earth for the Devill is come down unto you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time and this in brief is your estate and time in which you stand Wherefore I am assured in the truth that as ye remain in the ground and nature of your cursed life ye have not in the least measure or appearance any good confidence to affirm that you are the true Church of Christ but rather your arguments assertions and all manner of disputations do arise from the foundation of impudence which hath a face to bear out your deceit and falacies I know the figure of your
prophesie falsly and their Priests bear rule by their means Even them which do lead them and cause them to erre Isa 3.12 and destroyeth the way of their path and the people love to have it so but what will ye do in the end thereof Mark this ye people Hosea 4.9 Behold I will punish them for their wayes and reward them their doings You that have already tasted of Gods vengeance shew ye the Cup to your brethren that if peradventure they may repent and not taste of that indignation which hath passed over your heads as a stream of fury reaching unto your present woe and misery As concerning the reading of the Scriptures by the people of severall of your Nations although it be such unto whom the Priests give licence yet are they not without the limit of the black chain of your Fathers Annotations whose imaginations drew Inferences and conclusions and have alledged constructions and meanings to hold forth their opinions and the draught of their Traditions through their abuse and perverting of the Scriptures that as they have brought themselves under that promise so they tye you with themselves under the condition thereof which John writes Rev. 22.18 For I testifie unto every man that hears the words of the Prophesie of this Book if any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this Book Under this promise and condition without controversie you are holden who are bound under the frame and fashion of your fathers constructions whose inventions have the dominion over your faith and that of God in you hid under the covert of the product of the iniquity of their life Wherefore all ye simple souls be awakened and feel that in you which with all that ever you have yet heard your breathing souls are not satisfied in secret feel the languishing desire which no mans meanings concerning the Scriptures could fill or preach life unto Feel your hunger that you may come to witnesse the blessing unto that state and condition understand also that if you or your Fathers were in the life of that by which the Scriptures were spoken forth they could not have written meanings upon them neither could your eye be turned to read them or your hearts inclined to receive them for the Prophets and all the Holy men they did mean the same thing which they spake they were far from corruptions in their declarations and spake not words but such as were punctually according to their intentions without any Equivocations and therefore if ye were but in the Life ye would understand the doctrine and so your fathers have erred in the order of their Instruction they have begun at the wrong end and therefore they cannot perfect or bring you to a good end This principal matter concerning your salvation they have neglected they never touched the feeling part of your heart whereby the vail thereof should be rent that you might see with your own eye and hear with your own eare and understand with your own heart but alwayes they bound your sences in the womb of conception of death and never brought you forth unto life and the choycest of your Members are but as dead stocks and Images and how could they lead you unto that where they themselves never entred They are not passed through the vail which is the flesh of Christ as Paul writing to the Brethren who after the manner of men knew not Christ according to the flesh saith 2 Cor. 5.16 Yea although we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more I say your Priests and Pastors they never passed through his flesh to the witnessing of the true entrance into his body as Members joyned unto the one Head which is the new and living way which Jesus by the power of his coming Heb. 10.20 hath consecrated for us who are Redeemed by the purchase of his blood which sprinkleth our consciences from every evil and dead word and work from the world and the unrighteousnesse of their way then how far short think you are ye in the life and practice if your Doctors Priests Pastors and Teachers are ignorant of the Scriptures and of the Gospel of Christ Jesus and his Cross which unto as many as have received is in the true life of the understanding of the truth that is to say the Gospel of Christ Rom. 1.16 1 Cor. 1.18 and the Crosse of the Lord Christ Jesus is the power of God unto salvation which if they were Ministers of the true Church and you Members also thereof then would you be all in one Life to wit in Christ John 14.6 who is the Life which if you were in Christ who is the Life then need you not another thing besides the Life to confirm your understandings in the reading of the Scriptures which by the Life were given forth Can your nations therefore look a little way before you that you may consider it in your hearts and ponder it soberly in your secret meditations however I know the Heathen will kick against and the high obstinate-hearted will desperately resist even such in whole sight the soules of the simple are not of any account neither the glory of the Lord their delight whose praise through criticall Arguments and Sophistry is in gaining dominion and obtaining such mastery thereby to make a boast of their vaine victory yet there is a seed which can receive my testimony which is the Remnant of the Lord which under the iniquities of your Leaders hath been held in Egypt under miserable bondage and cruell captivitie I say look a little way before you with diligence into that which I write concerning you You are not come unto the life of the first principle which leads to the understanding and knowledge of the oracles and mysteries of God and of his kingdome of salvation and so are farre short of receiving partaking and enjoying of the pure life and power of the Spirit of life in the power and the life in your hearts which in the particular unto every true member of the Church of Christ Jesus gives the infallible witnesse and testimony that they are born of the undefiled wombe and incorruptible seed of promise unto life everlasting By which also the Gospel of Christ Jesus was preached to the Spirits in prison and the Scriptures and Prophesies of old 1 Pet 3.19 were given forth and spoken 2 Pet 1.21 which came not by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost Which no minde nor heart of man or understanding of mankinde without the same Spirit can read aright No lyar swearer proud envious thiefe covetous nor Idolater ungodly or prophane person can read them except their own portions from them Mal 4.1 Psal 9.17 viz. The lake is the portion of the lyar the proud shall be as stubble in the day of the