Christ feed no longer upon imaginations nor vaine words cease from looking loe here and there for the kingdome of God will the Father reveal in you as you waite in the measure of the light in you by which he reveals himselfe in his sons and daughters and will bring them to his everlasting fold and true rest all who followes him through the denyall of all and to the loosing of all for him shall come to witnesse an incorruptible inheritance which never fades away And now a few words to you who would thrust your selves into the kingdome and would be called Christs Disciples and Church members who are gathered into confederacies and makes a likenesse unto your selves and are now professing the Saints conditions in words How come you hither to climb up so high in words when as you are what you were before if not worse Think it not a hard saying for it is so among many of you and in the light which is pure you are weighed and when one comes to try you your language bewrays you that you are not what you professe for when you are tryed by the Saints practises and life that was in them and the injoyment they had with God you are found so far from being any such that you even oppose the faith they believed in as some of your Pastors openly to my face in the hearing of two hundred people said all the Saints dyed sinners and so was so far from owning the perfect righteousnesse of Christ that he even denyed it and said it was heresie and others of you say you believe that all the graces the Saints enjoy are imperfect yea even faith is imperfect and others saying that all the righteousnesse that was wrought in them by faith was imperfect and others saying while the light of Christ Jesus condemned them yet Christ justified them and yet that which was wrought in them there was failings in it and so you have imagined a faith and righteousnesse of your own and such a Christ to talk on and a redemption as you may live in lusts and be men pleasers and in the customes and fashions of the world and coveteousnesse and pleads for sin and puts perfect righteousnesse to another world and thus the Devill hath deceived you and so you set up and makes covers but all will not hide you in the day of his appearance for God joynes not to that which is imperfect neither is that true faith which is imperfect and which layes hold upon an imperfect righteousnesse that is such a faith as never was professed by ony of the Saints whose words you professe for they had received faith the gift of God the least measure of which was perfect and as they stood in it though it was but as a graine of Mustard-seed they said to this mountaine be removed and it was so and that which was in them reveald by the Son led them that did believe in it to lay hold upon Christs righteousness which was and is perfect which had yea hath no spots nor wrinckles nor staine and this righteousnesse was made manifest in them by the faith of the Son by which they were justified in the sight of God and came with boldnesse before the throne of Christ for in them there was no condemnation neither guilt but became one with the Judge and reconciled unto him and his throne and to the Lamb by him who is the Midiator and hath made peace betwixt them and the Father and so were justified in the sight of God and this witnesse they had in them that they pleased God and were accepted of God and this righteousnesse was wrought in them and is now the same which is wrought in the Saints by him who is their light and life and this was the righteousnesse of faith and that which was wrought by Christ in the Saints as they believed in him and in the measure of grace received from him which saved them from sin which vvas not of themselves he perfected his ovvn vvork in them through and by faith and justified them and sanctified them and became their vvisdome by vvhich they vvere led into all truth out of failings and imperfection and vveaknesses and he became their strength and rock and they vvere builded upon him and as they stood upon him the rock they vvere preserved vvhen the vvaves did beat and vvhen temptations came and vvere sure and stedfast and immoveable and so overcame the Armies of Aliens and quenched the violence of fire and resisted the Devill and quenched his fiery darts and had victory over the Heathen and reigned as Kings over the Beasts of the field and over the deceit and by the receiving and believing of the word of him who was and is called Jesus by which faith came by the hearing of they overcame the enemies of their soules and him who hath the power of death and the strength of sin is the Law but by the blood of him who is eternall who is Jesus the Midiator of the new and living way they overcame the Dragon even by the word of his testimony which was revealed in them which word of faith Paul vvho vvas a Minister preached unto them even to them vvho had the vvord in them and turned them to it and as they believed in it they were sanctified by it and cleansed by it and made perfect and then they witnessed the bringing in of a better hope which perfects and makes perfect as pertaining to the conscience which while they stood without looking at Elementary things and divers washings and those things which were figures of the true Tabernacle made without hands which stood untill the time of Reformation and then done away to wit the hand writings and them that witnesses the new Covenant now they see them done away and the time of Reformation is come the same which they witnessed Glory for evermore And therefore all you professors who have builded high Towers and Castles in your imaginations and hath told of Reformation these many years but you have nothing but a hand-writing to establish your building upon and all your Reformation hath been but the washing of cups and pulling down one thing and set up another beggerly Elementary Images and doe not witnesse the better hope brought in nor the time of Reformation nor cannot abide that any should declare it unto you nor believe it nor hear it nor while your eyes are without and not in the head you cannot see when good comes but are as Heathens in the desart and although you are among the brambles and bryars yet you would be counted Kings and Heads over others and one making an Image in this manner and another in that of all sorts high and low but all stands in the earth and all in one ground and what doe they availe you for they cannot save for your highest enjoyment is imperfect you say what then serve these for onely for you to talk on and this is all they serve
The Inheritance OF JACOB Discovered AFTER HIS RETURN OUT OF AEGYPT And the Leading of the Lord to the Land of promise declared and some information of the way thither OR A word of exhortation to all Professors in England Scotland and Ireland and to all the world where this shall come wherein the common Salvation is declared in which the Saints believed and deceit discovered and made manifest Published in Love to all the honest hearted in the Nations in Love and bowels of compassion to your soules Also a few words of Exhortation to the Rulers of England and Ireland By a servant of Jesus Christ who delighteth in his Masters worke FRANCIS HOWGILL LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black spread Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1656. THE INHERITANCE OF JACOB Discovered After his returne out of Egypt and the leading of the Lord of the Land of promise declared and some information of the way thither AWAKE Oh Sion who hath long sitten in the dust in sorrow and bitternesse and hath been covered with ashes and none hath had compassion upon thee but all the Kings and mighty men of the earth who have worshipped the beast and received his marke and committed fornication with the whore which sitts upon many waters which is full of abomination and the Cup in her hand have all the men of the earth drunken off and are made drunke and staggers and now glories in their abominations and Oh Sion dispises thy virginity and thy scituation and hath pulled downe thy Towers and made thee as a desolate widow and hath gone over thee and trampled upon thy glory and hath made merry over thee and hath slaine thy Sons and Daughters in the streetes even in Babylon where the whore sits as a Queene and in Sodome and Aegypt with whom they are joyned where the witnesses lieth slaine But the time of thy deliverance is come and the yeares of thy Captivity is up Arise Oh Virgin who art not defiled who could not joyne with the Daughter of Babylon in her whoredomes Therefore they have mocked thee and wagged their heads at thee and hath said in their hearts who shall deliver thee Arise shine forth put on thy beautifull garments behold thy King cometh in his glory who will adorne thee and crowne thee with a royall Diadem in the sight of thine enemies who have reproached thee and thy reproach shall be taken away for thy Seed shall be as the starres in multitude yea they that have spoiled thee shall be spoiled and they that have destroyed thee shall be destroyed for the King is coming out of his Tent yea he hath lifted up his Standard against all that have spoiled thee yea the destroyer is come up against Babylon and Aegypt shall tremble and the Philistines hearts shall faile for feare and all the Canaanites shall be cast out and this shall be performed by the Lord of Hosts the God of Jacob who is now arisen in his Jealousie and it burnes as fire against all the Inhabitants of the earth and the Sea who hath joyned their strength together against the inheritance of the Lord rejoyce for evermore all that love his appearance and who have waited for him he is come and coming to take vengeance upon his and you adversaries for he hath a sacrifice in Babylon to performe even to cut off all her Children who hath despised thee Oh Sion Arm your selves oh yee high Cedars and mighty men put on your strength and gather together all your forces which you have trusted in call upon your gods and all your Soothsayers and Diviners together for now he is come and the Daughter of Sion now laughes you to scorne and Jerusalem the free Citizens doth wagg their heads at you for he will now plead the cause of the poore against you who have been too strong for them and now all that heareth this shall tremble For he will make Jerusalem a praise in the earth and from it doth the Law and the Prophets come forth Awake Oh Arme of the Lord and put one strength as in the dayes of old to redeeme thine own inheritance which hath long been by the heathen laid wast and hath been trampled upon by the uncircumcised art not thou he which was and is and is to come who wilt not give the glory to another arise and shine forth in thy brightnesse thou Starr of Jacob and Sun of Righteousnesse and let the earth be filled with thy Light and glory that Generations to come may call thee blessed Dry up the tongue of the Aegyptian Sea confound the wisdome of this world which never knew thee neither would owne nor receive thee make the Diviners and Sorcerers mad who have scattered thy sheep from the everlasting fold and have healed the hurts of thy people deceitfully and have caused them to erre in telling them thy power nor thy Arme was not to be looked for now as in the dayes of old nor thy immediate voyce nor word was to be looked or waited for now in the earth and so have deceived the people with their lying divinations which they have spoken from the imaginations of their owne hearts and have laid a stumbling block in the way as the Sonne of Nebat did who made Israel to sin But Oh Lord thou seest how thy owne Seed lyeth scattered and the ravenous beasts make a prey upon it and the devourers swallow it up therefore hast thou appeared in thy love and power for thine owne names sake and will not suffer thy Seed to be trodden upon any longer by the Prince of darknesse nor his Children whom he hath begotten in his own Image Arise shine forth thou everlasting Covenant of light and peace by which and in which all our Fathers believed and so obtained a good Report and were redeemed out of Captivity to serve the Lord for ever with one heart and minde and worshipped in one Spirit in which Faith they laid hold upon the perfect Righteousnesse of Christ made manifest in them and were justified but hath been hid for many Generations in the time of Antichrists Reigne and all the world hath wondered after the beâ—st and hath received his marke but now is the night farre spent and the day is at hand wherein all that hath been hid shall be made manifest and the Number of the beast is read and knowne by all that are redeemed from under his power and now the beast and the false Prophet is seene and the man of sin is made manifest in this the day of his everlasting power and the brightnesse of the Sun of Righteousnesse who is the light of the word hath made him manifest who is come and coming Glory unto him for evermore who alone is worthy to take the Kingdome Wherefore all honest hearted in and underall formes of professions who have travelled and are weary and all you that have kindled a fire and have warmed your selves at the sparkes thereof and yet still you lye
if ever the Lord you know in truth and righteousnesse even through the death of things in the curse of all knowledge and wisdome which is from below yea through the death of death that rules in you which must be slaine upon the Crosse of Christ Jesus if ever you come to true peace and witnesse eternall salvation And therefore Cease you Diviners and Imaginers who have feigned a faith and a Christ and a salvation in your imaginations and yet that you may live in the lust and filth of the world and the customes and fashions which perish I say your expectations shall faile and you will lie down in sorrow for where salvation is witnessed the life of Christ is witnessed but you would have salvation and the life of the Devil brought forth and lived in But unto all such I say This will be your sentence Depart into the lake Therefore take warning for it is not your good words without the life of godlinesse nor your swelling speeches that is accepted with God for he accepts nothing but what is of himselfe and by him wrought in the creature by his own will and power and this destroyes the carnall will and power and righteousnesse and this work which he worketh of himselfe and by his power and in his Covenant is perfect and is accepted of God and so it s no more the creature but Christ who is all in his Saints and so he brings all that follow him out of the works of condemnation which is acted in the disobedient nature and is accursed whether praying or plowing or whatsoever while Cain lives which is in the banishment out of the acceptance of God and all who follow him who is the light and leads all that believe and follow him into the living works of righteousnesse wrought by Christ through faith and is accepted and well pleasing unto God and here all boasting is excluded for all is of him and from him that works both the will and the deed and here the Lord is admired in all his works and his works praise him Wherefore all honest hearted who travells and are weary and have found no rest for your soules I say unto you Arise and come away lye not groveling in the earth like Moses nor seek not to know God in your fallen wisedome for the well is deep and if you know nothing but the old wisedome which is corrupt and naturall you cannot come to one drop of the living water therefore dwell no longer among the graves and Tombs where the unclean spirits dwell which troubles and vexeth all that passeth in their way neither dwell among the pits where there is no water he is risen he is not there look upward mind that which drawes you from the earth the Covenant of life is made manifest Glory unto him in the highest his Proclamation is Ho every one that thirsteth come freely and receive of him freely without money or price or any thing of yours or self nay self must be denied and that you must deny if you will receive of him that he may be all and you nothing for he gives freely and his gift is perfect and pure without spot staine or mixture and all that receive his gift comes by it to be presented perfect to the father And this is making manifest to you also who wait upon him who is given for a Covenant of light and peace and life and all that receive this gift shall come to hear glad tidings peace on earth and good will to you as you turn to the light and this shall be preached in you by him who is the annointed of God and the messenger of the Covenant and is sent to preach to the spirits in prison and to open the blind eyes and to set open the prison door that the Prisoner may come forth out of the mire and clay to follow and wait upon him who is the Rock of this age and all ages in which all the fathers believed and were justified and did eat and drink of this Rock and this Rock was and is Christ Jesus the light of the world and hath enlightned every one that comes into the world with his true light Therefore I say unto you who looks after righteousness come hither who are weary and I will shew you where you may have true everlasting rest which he hath shed abroad in my heart by his free grace and everlasting love made manifest after a long and a dark night in which I passed without a guide and so fell into the pit and stumbled and then sorrow and trouble compassed me about on every side as an armed man but now hath he shed abroad his grace in my heart which saves me from sin and leads out of the works of condemnation into his habitation where no unclean thing can enter and this grace hath separated me from sin and hath constrained me to deny my self and follow him through the death of the Crosse and through the deniall of all both Countrey and Nation kindreds and tongues and people and from wife and children and houses and lands to publish his name abroad contrary to my own will and to make known unto you the riches of his grace which all that wait in the light of Christ Jesus shall come to see and so you may see him whom your souls loves and longs after which hath long breathed after refreshment but none could speak a word in season to your condition Return home again yee that in your seeking have sought among the lead and joyned your selves to strangers and have get nothing but a husk a shadow and live in a dream you are further off in running out and seeking in your earthly wisedome and comprehension then you were before and hath got nothing but a report of what Christ said and did and how they worshipped him and so while your eyes have been without you never found him whom the Saints and all that knew him worshipped in spirit and witnessed him their salvation in them and was their hope and the ground of their hope was manifest in them and he that manifested his love in them then and was their redeemer he changeth not but is the same to his seed for ever And all who waits in the light of Christ the measure of God in you this shall come to see Now therefore every one that thirsts come unto Christ Jesus which is neer you and wait to know his word in you which it in the heart which faith comes by the Preaching of it in you as you diligently wait and keep your minds unto it and this which shewes you sin and evill is in you and makes manifest all that you have acted contrary unto it yea even all that ever you have done and will search your hearts and is the eye that sees the deceit in all its transforming in you and it will let you see it hath often checked and called but you have not answered its call and so
hath chosen your own way and so hath gone from the way which is the light of Christ in you and so you run into the broad way and that which desired after God hath not been nourished and fed but hath been famished and another hath been fed which now is for the slaughter But now as ye return home to within to the true light of Jesus which is that one thing which leads all men that own it to be guided by it to true rest and peace Now friends there is something in man which must receive Christ something of his own learn what it is which he comes to and nothing can he joyn with or be joyned unto but that which is pure and undefiled for the pure in heart sees God and not the mortall mind that despiseth his glory for to that mind that hunts abroad he doth not reveale himself that 's Esau the blessing is nothing to him nor that which the Covenant of God is with the Election he hates and to him its of no price nor value that 's the prophane person and Judas that betrayes him selleth him for a thing of naught nor the Pearl is nothing to the Swine now read within every one you that are painted with the attire of the Harlot trimmed and made beautifull in the eyes of the Aegyptians this is a small thing to you and to that seed which the promise is to and the Covenant established with is trodden upon and is famished in the streets of Sodome and Aegypt where Christ was and is slaine and his witnesses suffers in the streets and none hath compassion is this thing nothing to you all yee that passe by to slight the love of the father in sending his Son a light to you and him you despise and as the Pharisees could not own him they put the time far off and so doe you and cannot own that of him in you to be lead by it and so followes strangers and still are complaining and puts redemption to another world and so Satan hath deceived you in looking abroad and therefore that at home is of no price unto you and so you run away from the drawing of the father and from his dwelling where the least in his house hath bread enough but to the carnall mind which is at enmity with God who seeks him in the fallen wisedome he is of no value and that which was the Saints Rule is too low for you and yet you say the Sons of God are lead by his Spirit Now I say where doth the Spirit speak doth it not bear witnesse either with or against our Spirits and so all mens spirits and so that nature in you which is one with the Serpent and nourisheth the Harlot is exalted and lives and hath preheminence and yet you will talk of being reconciled unto God Now consider while you stand not in the Councel of God within and wait to hear his word you know not the word of Reconciliation for he takes none into union with himself but they that follow him and doth what he commands and are his fruit and off-spring And therefore O foolish and unwise how long will you feed on a dream that you are saved when your rebellion is open to your own sight To that of God in your consciences I speak All therefore that see your darknesse that you lye in return home and that which is low mind the meek spirit and be not forward nor rash but stand still in quietnesse and meeknesse that the still voyce you may hear which till you come downe low within you cannot hear for the loud voyces of the Aegyptians and Inchanters is so many and Pharaohs voyce and Herods is so loud and you whose minds are abroad you think as they thought its the voyce of God But I say be still he shall not cry nor lift up his voyce in the streets who you must hearken unto in you that your soules may live and so be low and still if you will hear his voyce and wait to hear that speak that separates betwixt the precious and the vile Now that which you must wait in is neer you yea in you the eye that seeth and the ear that heareth that is of the Lord for that which is visible is naturall and carnall and the naturall ear cannot hear the word of the spirituall God for that which hearkens without that ear must be deaf and that eye blind Now that which reveales the pure spirituall God must be in you pure and spirituall for none knowes the things of God but by the Spirit of God and did not his Spirit bear witnesse alwayes unto their spirits and doth it not so now to all that know him So in the light wait which comes from God who is light and dwells in the immortall light which the mortall eye cannot behold and it will lead you to know Christ who is immortall and not carnall but spirituall and eternall And as you love the light and keep your minds inward then you will hear the motion of Christ Jesus in you and so loving it the good you will come to see from God which will lead out of sin and sanctifie you and the acceptable year you will see and the day of vengeance and this is he whom the father hath given for a Covenant to bring man out of the alienation to himself again and to reconcile man unto himself even by the blood of the Crosse and he who is the light is the Covenant and he who is the Covenant is the light for they are one in him and this Covenant of peace is tendred unto you who are afar off And herein is the eternall love of God made manifest to the Jew and the Greeke and the life of his Son to be the light of the world and of men and so in the Covenant of light abide and you will see he is neer you the Peace-maker the gift of God which presents you perfect in himself to the father and this gift is free and offered freely to all that will receive it and yet you cannot receive the gift in your own wills but through the deniall of your own wills for the light is contrary to the will and so you will see the will of the earthly man and Gods will contrary and as you receive the will of God you deny your owne wills and so doth the will of another and another guides you and leads you and this is Gods alone work not of your selves but wrought by Christ in his owne way and truth and so the Covenant of God comes to be established to the seed and the foundation stands sure and his promise is fulfilled in you as you come to witnesse the seed which is one in whom the promise is fulfilled And friends Thus must you wait to have judgement set up within you and this is he who is the Judge and the light of the world and so wait to see the Law set up within which is
for and to contend and strive about one with another and all in your wills while the will of God in you is not hearkned unto but cast behind your backs and so the way of true peace you never come to attaine unto Oh when will you be weary of feeding upon the wind and of husks among swine and upon that which dies of it selfe and when will you enquire after the living God who is power how long have you talked of his power to come many years and you are still as far off if not further than you were before and hath told of the glory of the Lord to be revealed and of his Law being written in the heart and of God teaching his people himselfe and of his Spirit being poured out upon his sons and daughters and you cannot see that you have obtained nothing and you have prayed and what have you obtained nothing for you have asked amisse and one comes hungry and is still complaining and then you that are full feeds them with the old dregs and lees which you are setled upon and the old leaven of aiery notions and conceptions and wine of the sowre grape which sets on edge the childrens teeth and fills them to full that when the living bread is broken they cannot eate nor relish it nor tast and so cannot enter your selves nor suffer others to enter and when these things are witnessed in the life which you have talked on so long you cannot own them that doth declare it and when the power of God is declared unto you what it is and where it is to be waited for you cannot own it this is too low for you and except the Lord will come in your way that you prescribe unto him you will not look upon him but as the Jewes did whose eyes were without and your fallen wisdome cannot receive him nor compasse his eternall wisdome And yet you will say the Jewes did require a signe and were in the adultery and the Greeks sought after wisdome and they stumbled and yet you cannot see your selves in the same state Did ever God reveal himselfe to the fallen wisdome which is learned from that principle which is erred and gone out from God or to the will of man which is at enmity against God Nay nay He never did nor will reveal his counsell but to that which is of himselfe which is the least of all seeds in the world and it is he that is borne of God that heareth Gods word and what is borne of the Spirit is Spirit and is nourished by the Spirit and led by it and so the spirituall God reveals his Law and his Statutes to him and his testimony which is sure How long have you talked of the Spirit and worshipping in Spirit and yet indeed denies its leading and teaching and lives in the oldnesse of the letter and crying up and setting up things that are carnal and visible and Elementary and washing is not known from sin nor cleansing and so you may see what operation your Spirit you have talked on hath when you are still what you were Now the Spirit of God is operative and works a change in the ground and translateth all that follow and hearken unto it into its own nature when all those things you so much strive about were but a shadow for the vvord vvas in the beginning and gave life and is spiritual and vvhen it s knovvn and vvitnessed vvithin in the heart it separates from death and gives life to all that hear it and believe in it What Christ is this you preach and what Gospel is this you preach vvhich saves you not from guilt and condemnation for the vvord of the true Christ vvhere it is ovvned cleanseth and takes avvay sin and condemns it and blots it out and destroys the root from vvhence it flovvs forth and vvorks a nevv creation in righteousnesse and the Lamb of God takes avvay sin in which the Churches of Christ believed and is glad tidings to all that doe receive it now none can witnes gladness of soul where there is guilt which you all affirm is in every Christian while in this world and so you might see that it s not the true Christ nor the everlasting Gospell you preach but this you cannot bear Yet you say he hath taken away your sin How much is sin taken away if you say all how comes the guilt and trouble that is in you for if it be taken away and his justice satisfied this were to make God unjust to charge it upon you againe But I tell you when his witnesse in your conscience convinceth you and manifests unto you that you commit it and reproves for it I say you cannot witnesse his justice satisfied for the light is just which is one with God and when this condemns you there is no God that will justifie you But you use to say It s all done in Christ I ask where if it be not taken away and unlesse you have the witnesse of it in you your faith is vain for he that believes hath the witness in himselfe which none hath who walks contrary unto the light the pure vvitnes of Christ for this convinceth you of sin and bears witness against you Now shew your witnesse within you and your assurance I say unto you while the testimony of Jesus bears testimonie against you it bears not witnesse unto you and so see your confusion But after you have believed in Christ as you say and have received all his Ordinances if any thing after did judge you and bring trouble upon you this you used to call a temptation and so put light for darknesse and darknes for light I say there is no guilt where sin is taken away and crucified but peace and rest in the holy God who is unchangeable and so is his witnesse unchangeable which judgeth and condemnes the changeable But you use to say His love is unchangeable and whom he loves once he loves to the end Yea but it is him who is begotten by the immortall word which was in the beginning and which word leads to the beginning again before the Hatred was the Promise is to this seed not seeds as to many but the seed of the Covenant there he loves from the womb yea the womb that bears the seed of Jacob and the paps that gives them suck and where this is known as to enjoyment Esau is cast out and Ishmael and the seed of Abraham inherits the Promise and Edom and Moab is laid wast and Amaleck is slain by the edge of the sword and the seed of evil doers cut off blessed are they that can witnesse this in truth and till this be known the everlasting love of God is not known which is stronger then death and sin is death and where it is acted conceived love is not witnessed nor its strength but wrath comes upon the Children of disobedience and are you not Children of disobedience while you break
the holy Law of God in which is power which is in the heart and it bears witnesse against you and in you and yet say you cannot believe that ever you shall be able to fullfill it if you fullfill it not you break it and then the wrath abides upon you But then you say if we must fulfill the Law what use is Christ of I say he who abides for ever fulfilled it and fulfills it in them who know him and his work and this the Scriptures bears witnesse of and herein man comes to be jufied in Gods sight by Christ who works all our works in us and for us and self becomes dead and because he lives we live also Glory unto him for ever And therefore we cannot but lay open the deceit of Satan and exhort all to come up to Christ out of the works of condemnation Oh foolish people and unwise when will ye seek after wisedome and hearken that your soules may live How long will yee trust to the imaginations of your own hearts Verily verily I say unto you The time is coming your building shall fall and there shall not one stone be left upon another that shall not be thrown down and the shame of Ethiopia and Aegypt shall come upon you and your old Garments shall be torn off you and you shall walk naked and bare and shall see your shame and the holy Nation of the Lamb shall rejoyce and your sorrow the Lord hastens upon you who will not own the Crosse of Christ nor the word of life which would turn you from unrighteousnesse and out of the world and its nature but you harden your hearts and bend your browes and shoot your Arrowes against the Lord and his Anointed ones and takes part with all the uncircumcised in the Nations in the confederacy in the Nation against the Lamb yea even with them against whom you your selves have declared and many of you who have been a reproach now reproach O tell it not in Gath never let it come to other Nations Shame shame and blush at this you who thus requite the Lord evill for good Hath the Lord broken the band of the oppressor without And have you not seen the hand of the Lord against them that were oppressors cut off in his wrath and overthrown And are not many of you the highest professors both in England and Ireland now acting in their footsteps Even you who professe separation from the world who hath been taken from the sheepfold and as you were seeking the Asses and raised from a low estate in the World now to places of dignity and honour and to bear Rule and to sit as Judges among the people and now have you forgotten that you were servants under Pharaoh but now hath taken up his power and have forgot the afflictions of Joseph and your fingers is becoming heavier then your fathers loines and now you are joyning your strength with the Canaanites and Aegyptians against the Lord Where is the liberty of tender consciences you have told of And what is become of your Reformation Is it ended in this like Absolom when you are come to be Judges in the Gate acts in open Rebellion against the Lord and now would be Judges of him every where and would limit him and set a bound unto him and would break his eternall Decree which stands for ever Oh if them who had professed no love to God had done thus it might have been born but ye treacherous hearts your ingratitude and hypocrisie cannot be born but the Lord God will visit for these things that you should now act by those Lawes which you cryed out of as oppressive and should deliver your brethren up to the devourer and spoyler who have born a part of the suffering in the Nations distresse and grief in the greatest calamity would you thus be done by would you bear it well I will not complain but I will shew you the ground and lay it before you that if it be possible you may be ashamed and repent lest the Lord also avenge himself upon you as he did upon the enemies before you Have not many of you in England been acting in the steps of the prophane when the Lord hath given you what you sought after liberty and freedome in those things and now you labour by all your strength and power to oppresse them who walk blamelesse before the Lord and men also Oh what is all your preaching and praying and fighting and warring come to this that none must declare the mind of the Lord except it be in your way or will or time under paine of bonds and banishment fines and imprisonment stocking whipping stoning and you that have been sufferers your selves now comes to be chief oppressors and opposers of the Lord in his way and all manner of lyes and reproaches you cast upon the truth and you take part with the rest of the Priests and deceivers in the Nation which take part against you when you was for the Lord and numbers us among transgressors of every hand to make the truth odious to all These things and much more are found among you from the least to the greatest and yet you would be accounted Christians and if you say you have thus learned Christ I say you know him not Can you limit the Ocean from flowing or can you command the wind that it blow not or can you stop the windowes of Heaven that it raine not upon the Earth if you cannot at all doe it all lye down he that reproves God let him answer it Have you given counsell to the Lord or have you been his Instructer or can you limit him in his way if you cannot no more shall you be able to stop his way who is riding on in his power and overturns all the worlds wisedome and power and strength and who is able to resist him who dryes up the face of the deep and saith to the Sea be still and to the mountaines be removed and they are so and he vvill advance his ovvn glory and povver against all mens vvills and Lavves vvhich stands in mans vvill and vvill break all your cords as a Bull-rush and overthrovv all your counsell and make it even vvith the earth and shame shall cover all his opposers and therefore learne wisdome Oh ye Potsheards of the earth and cease to strive against the Lord and his power which will be too strong for you and you shall not be able to limit him nor stop him in his way who runs his course as a Gyant and bruises all his enemies heads and cuts them in peece by the two edged sword of his mouth which he hath put into the bands of his Saints who follow him in the Warr and our conquest is through suffering Glory unto him for ever who hath counted us worthy to suffer for his names sake and to be brought before Rulers and Councels for his names sake that the Scripture might be fullfilled in us