ye may Read in the Corinthians but their end was according to their Works The Antichrists and Wolves which got the sheeps Clothing who were the Deceivers these were the Persecutors and Worriers of the Lambs of Christ as we may Read Matth. 7.24 And you may see the Jews that Killed the Lord Jesus Christ and Persecuted the Church Now these Persecutors pleased not God who afterwards overthrew them 2 Thes 2. And it was said unto Saul Saul why Persecutest thou me I am Jesus whom thou Persecutest it is in vain for thee c. When that Saul was going with his Packet of Letters from the high Priest and Scribes to Persecute the Saints And Paul afterwards confessed that he was a Persecutor of the Church when as touching the righteousness of the Law he was blameless which Law did Command carnal Weapons Mark that and so he thought he had done God good Service in Persecuting those that were contrary minded But yet saith he through the grace of God I found Mercy because I did it ignorantly Phil. 3. David was often Persecuted of his Enemies without a Cause and he said They Persecuted the poor and needy And he prayed unto the Lord to deliver him from them that Persecuted him and to stop the Way of them that Persecuted him Psal 35. The true Christians who follow Christ cannot Revile them that Persecute them according to Christ's Doctrine Matth. 5. But the Persecutors never follow Christ in their Persecution for His Doctrine is to pray for them that do Persecute And Christ told his Disciples That they should be Persecuted from City to City And those Persecutors are such as are born after the flesh and are the makers of Sects And the Wisdom of God saith Behold I send you Prophets and Apostles and some of them they shall Persecute and Kill that all the Blood that have been shed from the Foundation of the VVorld may be required of this Generation Of that Persecuting Birth born of the flesh that cannot love Enemies And Christ saith If they Persecute me they will also Persecute you that keep my Sayings And they will not keep your Sayings that do not keep Christ's who saith love Enemies And therefore are we Persecuted because we keep Christ's Sayings and Commands who is the Redeemer and Saviour who saith Swear not at all c. Steven told the Jews when they did Persecute and Stone him to Death That they always resisted the holy Ghost and that their Fathers had been Persecutors of the Prophets And Paul after he was Converted told the Jews and Heathens how he had been exceeding Mad against the Christians and had Persecuted that VVay Christ the Light And now he was sent to turn People from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto God And how he had Persecuted the Church of God and thought he did God good service And was exceeding Envious against them and Injurious A Fanatick spirit Yet afterwards he saith that he himself was Persecuted but not forsaken for the Lord was with him when he exercised himself to keep his Conscience void of offence towards God and towards man Then those Persecuted him and were against him and forsook him who before were for him but the Lord did not forsake him but was with him 1 Cor. 15. Now here is the Two Births Paul was Persecuted when he was Born of the Spirit but when he was of the Flesh he was a Persecutor Now they that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer Persecution by the ungodly who are and ever were the Persecutors and unprofitable Talkers 2 Tim. 3. And the Apostle saith he was in Necessities and in Persecution and Affliction and endured Stripes Hunger and Nakedness And again he saith neither Persecution nor Famine nor Tribulation nor Distresse should separate them from the love of God And for Christ's sake they were killed all the day long and were accounted as sheep for the slaughter and through Christ they were more than Conquerors over all those Persecutors So he that is born of the Spirit is to suffer Persecution by the Birth born after the flesh and not again to Persecute And Jeremiah saith who was Persecuted of the Jews All their Persecutors ovetook them when God brought the Heathen upon them which were swifter than an Eagle from Heaven And this came upon Jeremiah's Persecutors who prayed to the Lord to Revenge him of his Persecutors Jer. 15. And the Apostle speaks of some that had been accounted Christians amongst them that were Doggs that after a time turned again and lickt up the Vomit as many do now and these Doggs were greedy and hungry Persecutors and Devourers that lick up their own Vomit and will not feed upon the bread that comes down from heaven Christ Jesus And some that went under the Name of Christians after that they were washed did run into the mire again So Consider this ye who are not Heirs of God and Elect before the World began see if ye be not of the Doggs and Swine renting and tearing and in the mire and licking up your own Vomit And the VVoman the true Church was Persecuted which brought forth the Man Child Sea Rev. 12. And the First-born who is born after the Flesh Persecuted him that was born after the Spirit Gal. 4. For he that is born after the Flesh is a Persecutor though he may Professe all the Scriptures Church-Worship and Ministry yet he is a Persecutor Queen Mary Persecuted the tender Vines and Budds and Plants as they sprang up Whose End and Dayes the Lord shortned And woeful and miserable was the end of many of those Bishops and Bloody Tyrants which in her dayes were the greatest Persecutors As ye may read in Foxe's Monuments And also we warned the Long-Parliament of their Persecution who heard not nor regarded the Prophets of the Lord who at the last were turned out as unfit for his use We warned Oliver Protector in whose Dominions there was Persecution almost in every place who would not here and consider as he ought to have done and so his Days also were shortned We warned other Parliaments of their Persecution and to stop and limit Persecutors We warned Richard Cromwel of Persecution and Persecutors to stop and limit them We warned the Committee of Safety so called of the Plagues and Judgements of God that were coming upon their heads and of the blood of the Innocent in the Nation that lay shed by Persecutors in Goals Prisons and Houses of Correction And mens Lives and Estates were taken from them by men in Tyranny and Persecution yet great Talking and Professing of God and Christ with the Lipps but out of his Life and Doctrine Last of all we have warned Charles the King who hath his day and all his Officers and Magistrates under him by whom many of the Innocent are cast into Goals lying on straw in Dungeons some whereof are sick and weak and some dead and Wives and Children and necessary things denyed them Therefore consider these things for this is the day now of your Tryal All you that do Persecute about Religion Church VVorship Ministry Sacrifice and Offerings are no more Respected of God than Cain was neither hath God any more regard to your Services than He had to his H. F. THE END 2 Pet. 2.4 Gen. 4. Gen. 6. 2 Pet. 2.5 Numb 24. Mich. 7.4 Mat. 25. 1 King 22. 2 Sam. 24 Psa 119.10 Ezek. 12. Dan. 3. Mich. 3. Act. 12. Luk. 13. Act. 5.40 Acts 21 22. chap. Act. 9.4 Luk. 11. John 14. Act. 22.26
A PLAIN Record or Declaration SHEWING The Original ROOT and RACE OF PERSECUTORS Together With the Nature Practice and End of that GENERATION in all Ages past since the Beginning as we may Read in the Scriptures of Truth from Genesis to the Revelation But more Particularly thus The Devil who was a Murderer and a Liar from the Beginning and the Original of all Sin is the Father of all Persecutors and Persecution which is the Birth born after the Flesh which the Egyptian Woman the Bond Woman is the Mother of who is cast out with her Son from being Heir whose End is Destruction CHRIST JESUS the Truth the Peace the Power of God which destroyes the Devil the Original of all Sin and Unrighteousness He is the Original and Everlasting Father of all the Righteous which is the Birth born after the Spirit whose Mother is Jerusalem from Above which is Free with her Children who are the Righteous which are Persecuted who will not persecute nor hate but love Enemies Now these are Abel's Generation who was a Righteous man whose Sacrifice was accepted of God him Cain slew who was wicked And so all Haters Murderers Persecutors about Religion Worship and Sacrifice from the Beginning even until this day they are of Cain's Generation the PERSECVTOR whose Sacrifices God hath no respect unto their hands are full of Blood though they Profess all the Scriptures of Truth they are Persecutors of the Just and so their Reward will be according to their Work H. F. Gal. 4. He that is born after the Fesh Persecutes him that is born after the Spirit London Printed for Robert Wilson in Martins Le Grand 1661. A Plain RECORD or DECLARATION Shewing The Original ROOT and RACE Of PERSECUTORS Together With the Nature Practice and End of that GENERATION c. NEver did any Prosper who were Persecutors of the Righteous For when the Devil went out of the Truth then did he snare and tempt others out of the Truth and their Habitation And being so the State was Lost which was in the Begining wherein all things were Blessed and Good And the Devil the Original of all Sin is the Father of Persecutors and Persecution who is out of the Truth in the whole World which was always Blind that lyes in Wickedness from which Foundation of the World hath the Lamb been slain the Just have Suffered and been Persecuted by them that have obeyed the Devil the Author and Original of all Sin Who hath entered into their Minds and defiled their Minds so that they have disobeyed the Good in them the Just in them which is the Cause of all the Persecution in Christendom and all the Persecution Ignorance in the whole World And People disobeying the Good that is in them and the Just and so obeying the Bad in them they are Aliens in their minds and Strangers to the Life of God and Covenant of Promise and Strangers to the Image and Likeness of GOD the Image of the Devil being within them and yet undefaced and unsubdued This is the Cause of the Enmity in the whole VVorld and the Cause of the Enmity in them that do profess the Scriptures both Jews and Christians being Aliens from the Life which they were in which spake them forth in which there is no Unity and Subjection unto God and to one Another So the Devil was the First Persecutor the Enemy of Mankind who is the Power of Death the Author of Sin which brings it forth which Christ the Truth and Prince of Life Destroys for he Ends all Persecution Cain the Second Persecutor who Persecuted righteous Abel though he was a Governour and built a City God said he was a Vagabond and Fugitive and his Brother's Blood stopped the Earth from yeelding its full strength So that a Persecutor Corrupteth the Earth and all that be Persecutors are of Cain Vagabonds to whom belongs the Woe though they be never so Great in the Earth the Woe is to them if they be Persecutors The Old World Persecuted Noah righteous Noah with whom was God's Covenant who was a Preacher of Righteousness And God overthrew the Old World for their Filthiness and Wickedness and Ungodliness who grieved him and had Corrupted the Earth and filled it with Violence who were Drowned and righteous Noah in the Ark was saved with Eight Persons So there was the End of those Persecutors The Sodomites were struck Blind by the Angel of the Lord who assaulted Lot's House in Sodom and afterwards the Lord Consumed their City with fire The Caldeans were Persecutors of Faithful Abraham from among whom God brought him who denied his Acquaintance Relations and Friends and Nation and Country Worship and Fathers House and went into a strange Land to Dwell And afterwards Abraham's Seed were Strangers in the Land of Egypt who by the Egyptians were four hundred years Afflicted and Persecuted but the Lord did Overthrow the Egyptians in the Red Sea and so Destroyed those Persecutors Ishmael the Son of Hagar the Bond-woman did Mock and Persecute Isaac the Son of Sarah the Free-woman who was cast out of Abraham's Family that he should not Inherit with the Righteous because he was a Persecutor Esau was a Persecutor of Jacob who fled from his Face and he despised his Birth-right for a messe of Pottage and morsel of Bread And Esau the Persecutor because he hated his Brother therefore the Lord said I have hated Esau and laid his mountain desolate and Jacob have I loved who was blesseded of God and there is an End of that Persecutor Nimrod and Cain were two old Hereticks the one Persecuted Abel and the other was called the Mighty Hunter before the Lord who did begin to build Babel which God confounded and declared Cain to be a Vagabond So a Persecutor is a Vagabond and a Fugitive Ioseph's Brethren Persecuted him and Sold him into Egypt and Pottiphar's Wife slandered righteous Joseph yet neverthelesse the Lord made him to prosper and cleared his Innocency Joseph's Brethren were made to Bow in the day of their Poverty to their Brother whom they had Sold and Persecuted Pharaoh the King that Old Persecutor because he would not let the Children of Israel go that they might Worship God the Lord Destroyed him And the Egyptians Persecuted the Children of Israel though to them Joseph had been a blessing and they killed their Children and Oppressed them by sore Labour and Taxes therefore the Lord overthrew those Persecutors and drowned them in the Sea and delivered His Persecuted and Oppressed People by a mighty hand and outstretched arm So that there was an end of those Oppressors and Persecutors And the Children of Israel Persecuted Moses and were ready to stone him in the Wilderness and Rebelled against him and neither regarded his word nor the Lord wherefore the Lord said they should not enter into his rest Whose carcasses fell in the Wilderness and perished as Pharaoh did in the Sea with his Host who
regarded not the word of the Lord nor of Moses that bid him get him out of his sight And so there was the end of those Persecutors Sampson was betrayed by his Dallilah and Persecuted by the Philistines but the Lord brought an end to his Persecutors Therefore beware all ye that Trust not in the Living God least you lose your Strength and be betrayed by your Dallilah's Balaam was a Persecutor who loved the Wages of Unrighteousness a Deceive and a Dissembler in whose way many go But mark their ways and his that go against the righteous Seed the End was destruction who went against the righteous Seed and Life and there was the End of that Persecutor Saul Persecuted David when the evil Spirit came upon him and the Spirit of the Lord departed from him and pursued him up and down and hunted him like a Partridge and a Fly but the Lord overthrew that Persecutor Absalom Persecuted his Father David and sought after his Life to get the Kingdom to himself and Ahithophel was his Counsellor whose Counsel God confounded and brought to nought and the Lord overthrew both him and Absalom and so they fell into the Pit which they had digged and there was the End of those Persecutors 2 Sam. 17 18. Chapters Shimei one of Saul's Family was a Persecutor who cursed King David and flung stones at him and cried out Come out thou bloody man and thou man of Belial c. 2 Sam. 16.6 7. Now though David did pardon Shimei that he did not take away his Life yet mark what came after Solomon his Son caused him to be slain See 1 King 2.46 and there was an End of that Persecutor Ioash the King and his Counsellors were Persecutors as ye may read 2 Chron. 24. what became of them and what was their End that persecuted the Prophets of the Lord and slew Zechariah a Prophet of God whom the King commanded to be stoned to death in the Court of the House of the Lord who in love warned them for their souls eternal good but to reproach they turned it and made a mock of the Prophets and slighted the Messengers of God and accounted of the Spiritual men as Mad-men and called the Prophets Fools But the uprightest of them is as sharp as a Thorn-hedge and the best of them as a Bryar Among whom many of the Prophets trembled shook and quaked in Sackcloath and Ashes and shewed several Signs and if they came Piping or if they came with Repentance to them they did not regard Therefore the Lord left them over to their own hearts lusts to perish in their gain-sayings as Corah Dathan and Abiram did whom the Earth opened and swallowed up quick Numb 1. Therefore consider all ye Persecutors upon the Earth and remember your Examples that be gone before read the Scriptures of Truth and see in whose paths and steps ye walk for they who love Enemies as Christ commanded and keep brotherly love and fellowship and esteem well of all men they can hurt no creature upon the Earth The Righteous hath alwayes suffered in the whole world and hath been persecuted unto death upon the account that they have been the Tares the false Prophets and the Deceivers for which doing Christ gave them no Example nor any Command for all the Persecution that hath been since the dayes of the Apostles Though in the Law they were not to spare their nearest Relations Wife Brother or Sister that drew them from the Law of God and went to set up another god if he were a Blasphemer or a false Prophet they were not to be spared but to be put to death by the Law of God Which Law of God Christ being put to death ended and he saith Love Enemies For the Jews said who persecuted Christ they had a Law by which if any man said he was the Son of God was to dye and to be put to death Therefore the People might say as they say now They were but subject to the higher Powers But mark the end of those Blasphemers that persecuted the Son of God to death the Prince of Life And mark the end of those Persecutors that persecute Christ where he is manifested in his Members that visited not them in Prison and came not to them when they were sick and cloathed them not and fed them not Such he saith must go into everlasting punishment much more them that cast into Prison shall receive the Reward of Persecutors The Children of Israel were persecuted by the Heathen whom the Lord overthrew Haman persecuted Mordecai and the Jews and would have had them all put to death and Mordecai hanged because he feared God and could not bow to proud Haman So the same thing that should have been done unto Mordecai befel Haman and so there was an end of that Persecutor Ahab the King persecuted Micaiah the Prophet and commanded that he should be cast into Prison and fed with Bread and Water till he returned from the Battel at Ramoth-Gilead because he could not flatter him and speak well of him as the false Prophets the Prophets of Baal did So Ahab the King was slain in the Battel and did not return in Peace according to Micaiah's words And there was an End of that Persecutor Ieroboam the King his hand Withered which he put forth against the Man of God who cryed against the Altar in Bethel and their Idolatry there See 1 King 13. Rechab and Baanah the Sons of Rimmon did Persecute and Slay Ishbosheth the Son of Saul a righteous person in his own house upon his Bed and cut off his Head and brought it to King David and looked for a Reward for this their Murder saying to David they had killed his Enemy and avenged him upon Saul and his seed But David commanded his young-men and they slew them both Rechab and Baanah and cut off their heads and that was their Reward for their Persecuting and Killing a Righteous Person Iob's Friends persecuted him and reviled him and see the end of them that Job was constrained to offer sacrifice for them and make intercession to God for them See Job 42. And though People reade in the Scriptures daily yet they do not consider The Iews persecuted David who was of the Royal Seed of whom David said Let their Children become Vagabonds And so they were according to his Prophecy and are at this day and their Eyes blinded and they bow down their backs alwayes So be all the Vagabonds and Blood-shedders whose eyes are blinded backs bowed down that be out of the Life and Power which the Jews went out of and Cain And so do all the Christians so called and all People upon the Earth whose eyes are blinded and they gone from the Life of God in themselves These let in the Devil the Murderer and Lyar that went forth of the Truth and so goes from the Principle of Life and Dominion These are the Vagabonds and the