may say that my Writings were against then as aforesaid could not I have written the things which I have written in your Inquisition-Prison Fifthly Because that all Righteous Laws of GOD in Nations touching Facts Criminal and Crimes Capital are no more to one person particular than unto all men in general And therefore my adhibition at last to write things of the same nature and purpose in Prison which at first I did in the fruition of Liberty demonstrates that your said self-nulled Law Under which contrary to the tenure of GOD's righteous Law I am yet irrationally and compulsively held in your house of Captivity was not at first so much a stable Law as an aiery variable nicity for that which in such cases adhibits to one and prohibits the same to another is rather like a wind of vanity than a body or pillar of solidity seeing that it will admit of the respect of persons in Judgement and consequently what equality there is in restraining of persons more than two years upon the account of a changeable curiosity and aiery nicity judge thee O thou righteous Iudge in the high seat of superiority Sixthly Because the Eternal Spirit of Righteousness my Maker which searcheth all hearts and tryeth all reins which is the greatest Witness of all Witnesses beareth testimony in my spirit that in all which I have written have stood and do stand in my Conscience clear naked and void of all and every part of a prejudicial mind or conception of Envy Wrath Malice Scorn or despightful Contempt of any man's person neither have I thereby wronged any man whatsoever for all that is therein inserted is none other but wholsom Admonitions exciting to a more peculiar holy and blessed life towards GOD and a man's Neighbour with certain solid sober Interrogations which tend not to the custom of heathenish strifes and contests in the envious and malicious spirit of bitterness but purely sincerely and reverently in the humble spirit of fear of the LORD GOD to the proper and sole end of the Glory of GOD through the Salvation of Souls by his heavenly enlightning of Understandings with the Glory of his holy Spirit And savoury reprehensions of that spirit which sinneth and testimony against the Evils of the Land and the insertion of sundry spiritual Mysteries of the heavenly Kingdom with the spiritual Witness of the Father Son and holy Ghost and nothing therein contrary to the New Testament of GOD the Blood of the Covenant and immaculate Life of the Lamb nor any thing in opposition to that chast Spirit of Sanctity which was in Mary or any which was or is as that blessed Virgin was which upon further and due tryal I am able in the grace and power of GOD and the Life of our Lord Jesus to make appear unto that of God in you and all men whatsoever which my Language can understand upon the face of the Earth In which thing being justified First by GOD which sent me Secondly By example of the holy Prophets of old Thirdly By the practice of CHRIST and his Apostles which at large through the Mercy of the Lord God Almighty I am also able to hold forth unto you in the day of due tryal according to the undeniable Record and Witness of the holy Scriptures of Truth And therfore Righteousness saith Because that the nature of the matter was of a pure purpose should rationally have been recompenced by you with none other than a pure and Christian-like practice Seventhly Because the sweet savour and good report of our Innocency came to your City before us which God made divers of your Ecclesiastical Members to confess in plainness of speech to my face Eighthly Because the Witness of GOD which is greater than the Witness of Man testified in my spirit That all my honest Queries sweet and holy Admonitions pure Advertisments godly Reprehensions proceeded from no other but as Crystal streams from the fountain of the Father's Love which he hath made as a Well of Waters in my bowels And principally because that Reprehension is an infallible token of the Father's Love to his Seed in all Nations and Lands testified by the Spirit to John the Apostle saying Whom I love I rebuke and chasten be zealous therefore and repent Ninthly Because it is the undeniable Duty of all men upon the face of the Earth to love the Rebukes of the LORD as it is purely the LORD's Mercy and of his infinite Love to send them as Visitations of his Love unto all Nations Tenthly Because the resisting of the Rebuke is the resisting of the token of the Favour and Love of GOD which renders men unworthy of the Love and Mercies of GOD their Maker And because it vails the heart from the life of the true Zeal in spirit and hardens the heart in the Wrath of Cain towards Abel of Esau to Jacob and of the Jews to Jesus 11. Because the Righteous Law of God is of the same nature full of Judgment and Reprehension of every Evil not respecting the Person of any man and is at unity with every such spirit of its own nature in so good a work for the which cause it was righteously added of GOD for if there were no bridle how should the Beast be tamed if no Helm how should the Ship be sailed And without Correction there is no perfect Instruction 12. Because the Rebuke of Life is as a Steel which smiteth at the Flint of man's heart and kindleth in his Internals the fire of the fear of his Creator which is the beginning of Wisdom which reveals the knowledge of the countenance of the Father whom to know is Life eternal and because of Solomon's proverbial commendation of the work of Reprehension saying The Reproof of the Righteous is like Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver 13. Because as the matter of my said Writings is manifestly composed of Righteousness and covered with the Countenance of the Word of GOD so the manner thereof stands in unity with the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles which were in the nature of Divinity which covereth not Iniquity with daubing Iniquity 14. Because Moses the Messenger of GOD justified him which prophesied in the Camp whom the People complained against thus answering and saying Would God all the Lords People were Prophets And because GOD Almighty is unchangeably the same as yesterday so this day and for ever of these stones able to raise a Seed unto Abraham 15. Because of the amiable Example of the gesture of David the King under the sharp Reprehension of Nathan the Prophet who persecuted not the Prophet but with a contrite spirit repented of his own sin And the like of the King and People of Niniveh who persecuted not Jonah though he cryed their Destruction in the Streets 16. Because the Prophet Isaiah prophesied it as the great Evil of such a People which would make a man an Offender for a Word 17. Because that for the same things like
regulating of that gluttonous Lust of the spirit of Revenge and so where the Judgment of Truth is alwayes suspended there the wrongs and injuries heaped upon the Innocent never come by the Magistrate to be removed and ended Fifthly Because that in the Land where Judgment is not equally practised but unrighteously detarded and tediously suspended the fame thereof breaks an inlet in that Land unto all Assaults Deceits Wrongs Robberies Riots Rapes and Murders For there the Judge's Insolencies is made the president of the Subjects Villanies and there the two can sup of one cup in the communication saying Give me of thy Broth and lo thou shalt partake of my Bread And thus the Just is violently led to languish in the Land Sixthly Because through the suspense of the Just Judgment of the Law which was added because of Transgression and provided as God's Ordinance for the removal of Oppression as the Innocent is thereby on the one hand oppressed and his Yoak not broken but strengthened so by the same on the other hand the Transgressor also receives not his due but a wrong and so no man hath right by the Law which God hath appointed for every man's right either of Condemnation or Justification by due and open Tryal at Tribunal of Law but thus the Law which GOD hath ordained for the removal of Oppression from all through violation is converted and made as an Instrument of Oppression unto all Seventhly Because the suspense of Judgment is contrary to the good Examples practised of God's holy men of old Witness Moses and his true Successors in the same seat and Solomon the wise King who when the cause of contest between the two women concerning the living Child came before him delayed it not but instantly called for a Sword and thereby in the Righteousness finding the true Mother immediatly gave her her due Likewise CHRIST who suspended not the Judgment of the Cause of the Harlot but quickly judged Whosoever is free from sin let him cast the first stone Eighthly Because the righteous Son of GOD marked out that unjust Judge by the name of a man that feared not God nor regarded man who suspended the Cause of the oppressed and wronged Widow and judged it not for the sake of Justice and Equity but detarded it until he found himself wearied with the Widows importunity Ninthly Because the very Jews hard-heartedness suspended not the Tryal of the Just Man JESUS by keeping him Two years or more under the temptation of the severity of Bonds to make him deny his Calling and consequently the Father which sent him but quickly and publickly though unrighteously and against Law judging Him worthy of Death exposed him to the pangs of the same and because also the Jews in the same unbelief and hardness of heart and the Gentiles in the Heathenism and Paganism divers times gave Audience to the open Declaration of Paul the Apostle in defence of his Righteous Cause Moreover though it might have been apprehended as an Affront to his Country-men when he the said Apostle in the day of his Tryal in the Court of Judicature appealed from them unto Caesar yet because of the Law had his Appeal assented him Tenthly Because That Person whosoever that under pretence of a Law violates the Righteousness of the Law by perverting the Law as the Jews did in the Judgment of Jesus or by unequal suspending of the Law which is given into his hands as a Stewardship to handle in equal administration of just Judgment unto all without suspense or respect of persons thus wilfully acting in contrariety to all true humanity the pure practice of Christianity the holy Law of GOD and Prophets and nature of the true GOD appears manifestly in the Chrystal glass of the Law of Equity but as a beastly lustful lawless fighter with his horns of Superiority upon the high mountain of Arrogancy an Oppressor of the Poor and Simple in his Innocency and so warreth not only against Moses and the Prophets purity and Christ's sanctity but also against GOD Almighty his Creator's Divinity and thus renders himself but as one in the Paganism and cursed Atheism a subject of the Vengeance of GOD's Just Judgments in the actual work of despairation which shuts from the true hope of the least drop of the Mercy of the LORD GOD. These things I call Silver seven times refined Drops of the Representation of Righteous Reason which in the substantial practical and living chanels run down like streams from the top of the Mountain of Sion which stands in the midst of the holy City of GOD the which if no man can confidently stand to oppose openly to my face yet if any man will wilfully withstand in secret behind my back let him send me in writing the strength of his Opposition and with further priviledge I in the only strength of GOD may haply shew his confusion that so the work of Righteousness may prosper in the Land the which is sincerely desired But finally if approved and not opposed then in Justice without further suspense let them serve to the effect of one of the ensuing Propositions 1. Either for my fair open cleer publick and legal Tryal at Tribunal of Law if any man hath justly to charge me as a Transgressor 2. Or if not a Trnsgressor then to be righteously acquitted of these Bonds In a word Consider in soberness O ye Heads and Rulers of ROME that if by any man's means I stand wrongfully represented before you as a transgressor whether more than Two years Imprisonment doth not equivolently answer such a Law as counteth not the represented Fact to be so criminal as that it is worthy of the cognizance of Judgment at the Bar of Tribunal For my God weigheth all things in an equal ballance Summarily if the strong will of causless irrational Revenge hath not glutted her appetite on me I am still the same in the same Kingdom of the Content and Patience as yesterday so also to day even unto the last day until her greedy mouth hath sucked my last blood and breath and so this very Prison to be made the Ax of Execution of a Martyr of Jesus And know ye to the utmost that I am of the Spirit of Stephen and Life of the Lord which prayed and despited not JOHN the lowly Lamb in the Life of JESUS the Son of GOD To the Pope of Rome THis City hath ill requited the simplicity of my bowels of the Eternal Love as well towards her Inhabitants as they have been largely manifested to thy Children in Ireland in the time of their most grievous distress Once when about 120 persons were imprisoned in the City of Kilkenny to be sent as Captives to the Barbadoes but one man more besides me in all that Land either English or Irish that durst to appear in their behalfs to plead their cause for them which the God of Heaven knows that I did without an Earthly Reward with the then Governor of
the manifest Salvation of GOD unto the ends of the Earth as was spoken by the Word unto Isaiah his Prophet in whose face expresly we have the Revelation of the Father in whom we behold the Glory of the Son as the Glory of the only begotton of GOD full of Power and Wisdom hereby knowing what we Worship whom the whole world alienated from the Power Life Wisdom and Holiness of GOD do ignorantly Worship in the imaginations of their own hearts which before the Lord are only evil continually Him therefore declare I unto you GOD the Eternal and unto every mortal Invisible and Incomprehensible Spirit who is not likened unto the Creation which by the Power of his Eternal Word was made to glorifie hiâ—… Name by the Spirit sheweth That he dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is he worshipped by the Works of mens hands as if he needed any thing who from the beginning determined the times appointed and made all mankind of one mould and gave unto them Life and Breath and added thereunto of the Grace of his Mercy a measure of the Divine Nature if haply that thereby they might seek and feel after him the LORD their Creator But Man whom the LORD made little lower than the Angels and gave him the fulness of the Earth to possess rebelled at all times against his GOD he departed from the beginning from the living Way and made Invention the joy of his Heart and made his Inventions a fence against God and his Imaginations a Bullwark of defence and in all Ages and Generations though the LORD visited with Judgements Destruction Mercies and wonderful Deliverances and sent his Servants the Prophets arising up early and lying down late with Precept upon Precept and Line upon Line speaking as afar off by Signes and Figures and Parables and as at hand by Iudgement and Mercy And always shewed how that he is GOD and altogether unlimited neither bound unto Words nor Wonders nor limited in Sea or in Land but still Man made marks for GOD and set bounds for the Arm of his Power who in no wise is measured as the waters in the Wells nor contained as the Rivers with the banks who was not conceived as the Seed of Man nor born as the Babe of the Womb who is not comprehended as the grass with the ground nor as the wide swelling Seas with the sands of the shores who is not known as he knoweth all fowls and calleth the Stars by name who is not measured as the Earth with the Moon nor as the Heavens with the course of the Sun and therefore Man alwayes lost the knowledge of the eternal Power of the God-head and still settled in his own will which at first rebelled against GOD and in the same Will made Laws and Statutes and Ordinances for Government for Worship and for punishment though even from the dayes of the first man Adam unto this day the hand of the LORD GOD was turned against that work as witness the preaching of the Spirit of Abel Enoch and Noah he who hath an ear let him hear witness also Abraham Isaac and Jacob among the Heathen and Moses among the Egyptians yea witness the Spirit of Moses among Israel by Preaching by Power by Judgement and Deliverance What may I more say They would build a Tower to reach unto Heaven and Arks and Cities and Tabernacles and Temple And all for GOD to be constrained in their Works and when they had Commandments and Sacrifices as appointed by the Word of the LORD the Spirit sheweth when in all these things they would have forced the Rest of GOD the LORD arose alwayes against them and sent his Servants the Prophets to cry against those things with the same Word which commanded them whom they did beat imprison wound and torture yea and put to death And thus it alwayes was He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit even as it is now and in like manner it hath been from the dayes of Abel until the Heir came and him they shamefully slew to possess the Vineyard Moreover of his dayes I may also speak even in the dayes of the LORD CHRIST when he was transfigured before his Disciples at the glorious appearance of Moses Eliah and the LORD the Disciples would build them Tabernacles but mercy appeared unto them in a Rebuke and they were instructed in the Way of GOD but yet and notwithstanding also that Paul the Apostle taught a pressing on from one degree of Faith unto another until all should be perfected unto the fulness of the measure of a compleat stature shewing also in the Resurrection who himself was risen with Christ the diversities of the measures of the Glories which were revealed and every measure as gathered into God in his fulness were respectively full shewing it by the figure of the Glories of the Lights of the Sun Moon and Stars and wrote to the Church how that he was caught up into the third Heaven and saw things which were unlawful to be uttered And John in the LORD'S Day in the Revelation of the Lord from Heaven saw the great things of GOD yet said the Angel unto him Come up hither I say notwithstanding all this the doctrine of GOD that he might be known to be GOD and not in any wise to be limited Man in his wilfulness and presumption unto this day hath set marks against him and made measures of words in their Wills as Cords of restraint to bind him yea the Heavens and the Earth and the depth of the Seas and all the increase of the Plant of the field and her seeding Seed the Sun Moon and Stars the Clouds the Winds the Hail and the Rain-bow of GOD shall witness against the Nations of the world in this matter They limit not God in their pleasure but do bow in subjection to his Will but the Nations of the Earth in the crookedness of their hearts have made walls against the passage of GOD. O Man lift up thine head and look and behold how the People and Inhabitants of the Earth do limit the LORD to their lusts O open thine Eye and see how they make GOD as a Transgressor in the Earth even as the Cattle of a Stranger which have fed in the fields of their Pasture and as the hand of a Thief and Robber which hath stolen the labour of another Look thorow the Earth among the Nations thereof and thou mayest read all their Professions as Prisons for the Reign of of GOD in the Conscience is limited by the forms of their Words and one cryeth Here and another saith There and another saith these are the Laws and the Precepts and he that will not Rest in this he is out of the Way of GOD and he that speaks against our Law and the Manners of our Worship he must bear the punishment thereof Concerning all which if the Conscience of GOD should demand Are your Words GOD
or Are your Customs the Arm of GOD yea I say if that Conscience in whom GOD liveth and reigneth should ask of them all Are your Words or Customs or Forms of Worship the immediate Commandment of the LORD GOD from Heaven which shall endure for ever not one of a thousand either could or would give a ready Answer thereunto which if they would honestly answer negatively concluding their words not to be GOD nor their Customs the Arm of GOD why then do they set their Words above GOD as a limit and bound to the Spirit of GOD And why set they their Customs and Forms of Worship in the Seat of GOD to judge in more Power than the Arm of GOD To the sons of men it may be fully said To whom is the Living GOD known and the Arm of the LORD revealed For if GOD be a Spirit and is only known in Spirit to live in Spirit and to dwell with men in the Spirit How remaineth the knowledge of this true GOD among the sons of men who by the limitations of their Customs and Forms of Worship and Words in the Will out of the unlimited Spirit do thrust him the unlimited Spirit out of his true habitation To all the sons of men upon the face of the Earth who have reached as far as the Tradition but want the Life even unto all Sects and among you all I might largely and plentifully declare your Judgments of others and not with that of GOD in the Conscience answers not that of GOD in the Conscience of any man and GOD hath no Unity with your Judgment but his hand he turneth against it even as in all Generations past The Customs of your Worships and not in the Spirit the Spirit turneth against you and the Spirit will have glory over you for be you not ignorant how that the Spirit created the Times and in time Tradition and Custom came forth And the Spirit which changeth the Times will change the Customs and Forms and when GOD hath put all these things under foot he will be known to be All in All in the Conscience his own proper Seat and Dominion What art thou O corruptible man in whom God created a Conscience that sits above GOD in thy Will making a Law against GOD in the Conscience of another Knowst thou not that GOD hath the whole Dominion there Knowest thou not that GOD hath granted a Law against all Sin and written it in the Conscience his own seat where he cometh to Judgment of the whole World of Mankind as well in it the Heathen who have not the Letter of the Law by the same which he will judge both Jew and Gentile who have the Law and in the Life are found transgressors of the Law And makest thou a Law against the Light of the Throne of GOD against that which thou makest and settest a bound-mark limitation and Law which is in another in and by the self same thing in thy self shalt thou be judged of GOD because of thy Law and the LORD GOD will be known to be the Lord of Spirits and Father of Lights whose Spirit and Light by all the Customs Traditions Laws and Forms of Worship in the World is not in any measure comprehended to be equally judged or made in Righteousness subordinate unto in the Conscience of another and that of GOD in you all shall witness this for ever and bear its everlasting Testimony against your comprehensible corrupt wills which make Laws and constrain Customs and Traditions by Laws against the incomprehensible measure of GOD in another Wherefore a Warning from the LORD GOD the Father of Spirits and Lights to you all is come to give you to take heed in due season lest you be found fighters against GOD your Creator in the day that he calleth to Account and draweth near unto Judgment in the Land And lay it to heart with understanding that for this cause only that he was fought against in the Conscience by Customs by Laws by Judgment by Life by Traditions by Forms of Worship by Sinners by Rebellion against the Power in the Conscience by Jews and by Gentiles all the Overtures Desolations Confusions Destructions Captivities and Revelation of the Wrath Indignation and Vengeance of GOD from Age to Age reaching unto this present Age came to passe in the Earth Witness the Flood witness Sodom and Gomorrah witness the Red Sea witness the Walls of Iericho witness the Mulberry-trees witness the Battels of Israel and the Captivity of his Children witness the Worms that ate Herod witness the Destruction of Ierusalem and the scattering of the Iews in the Earth witness Greece Germany Scotland England and Ireland and yet the LORD will call the whole Earth to witness and bring heap upon heap and destruction upon destruction and desolation upon desolation by Fire and Sword in every Land that standeth against the Word of the LORD GOD. But blessed is he that cometh to know the ground and root of a matter in him to know the end of the Desolations determined to be in the Earth I might say unto you how that in the dayes of Luther GOD moved in the Darkness upon the face of the deeps thereof but they which made him their Rest are confounded and their head is broken as Clay He appeared brighter by Behman and Brown but they which built their Travels as Towers the LORD confounded with many Languages and even running up to the height Baptists Seekers and Ranters some made bounds for the pure and others in their lusts revolted wherefore GOD hath laid them one upon the other as a heap of confusion together And thus he hath begun the work of his hand decreed to perfect his purpose And the LORD GOD will make the Nations to know That he hath not sent down his Word in the Earth to be likened unto a breath of Vanity in the Air and that he caused not his Prophets to run in vain as him which comes short of the mark but that his Law which he wrote upon the Tables of Stone he writeth upon the Table of he Heart and both the Law and the Prohets no more as in the dayes of continual ransgression shall be told as a tale of tatlers and as a history of vain bablers pointed upon the tongue of a deceitful mouth but that they shal be fulfilled and witnessed yea and perfected in the Spirit in Life and in Power as by the Spirit in Life and in Power they were revealed and given forth to this only end of GOD in his Creature For which cause lastly JESUS the Saviour was revealed to perfect that which was lacking and to compleat the Redemption in fulness Therefore all you dwellers in the Monuments of the Earth Awake from the deadness of your Forms and Worships and draw near unto the quickning Power of the Righteousness of GOD which leads to Life in the Truth and Salvation from all Sin To which end GOD sent the Immanuel a LIGHT unto
on the one hand and in how much you have spun a thrid beyond the staple on the other that you may see how you have lost the end your line not leading to Perfection nor your life out of sin and corruption Preach write and speak to the end of your dayes and time you shall never beget but by your own seed none other likeness but of your own nature You may come as far as the shadow shell and husk You may have the words but your nature cannot receive the Life and Power the Crosse of Christ which is the Power of GOD to Salvation is too hard a thing for you to bear You have the Image which is the loss of the Substance for where CHRIST who is the Substance is come there the end is come unto all Shadows Types and Figures which shadowed and figured out the Substance before it came Concerning Opinions I blow over them all as Chaff in as many as are in dissembling lyes hypocrisie swearing or cursed speaking Repent God's day is at hand Rome dispensed from the Inquisition-Prison J. P. I Could say many things unto you but you are not able to bear a little as the Priest concerning the Prophet complained saying The Land is not able to bear all his words you being not yet come unto the Charity which is in the Church of Christ which can bear all things and endure all things Wherefore at present I query a little further expecting first an Answer of the former and after that of these Concerning the Kingdom Query 1. What is the lost groat and the sweeping of the house to find it And whether have you found it yea or nay Que. 2. What is a Virgin's-state and are you in it and In which of the two the wise or the foolish What is the Lamp and the Oyl in the Lamp and do you possess it yea or nay Que. 3. Whether is not the Kingdom of Heaven as really in you as it was in the Scribes and Pharisees And whether are you in the Kingdom yea or nay Que. 4. Whether is any one of you a greater Prophet than John Baptist who was the greatest Prophet born of Women which went before him seeing he that is least in the Kingdom is greater than he Que. 5. If not one of you be in the Kingdom of God Are not all in the kingdom of Satan which are not in the Kingdom of God yea or nay Que. 6. What is the first Principle which leads to the understanding and knowledge of the Oracles of GOD And whether are you in it and doth your life answer it yea or nay Que. 7. What is the Key of David anâ—… who keeps it and whether is any thing opened or shut in Heaven or in Earth without it yea or nay Que. 8. What is the Book which is sealed with seven Seals and what are thâ—… Seals thereon which John said no man iâ—… Heaven nor in Earth was found worthâ—… to open Whether was Peter then in Heaven or in Earth or neither in Heaven nor iâ—… Earth And whether any now in your day is found worthy in Earth to do that which John in the Lord's day saw no man in Heaven or Earth was found worthy to do yeâ—… or nay Que. 9. VVhether is not the Prison anâ—… the Prison-house the seat of Sin and habitation of Corruption Or Is darkness anâ—… the shadow of death the Purgation from Sin for the Redemption out of Death Do you not know that the Seed is in Prison under the Clouds of darkness through Sin and Corruption in each one of you yea or nay Que. 10. VVhether have you Salt and Savour in your selves If you know not that it is in you are you otherwise fit but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men Que. 11. VVhat are the two Witnesses of whom it was said That they should again prophesie Whether are they not yet come or how know you but they be come Que. 12. VVhether is the Creation of Jerusalem anew unto you in Rome in the old Age of your sins which the Hebrews shall enter into according to Isaiah's Prophecy and which the Saints of the Most High are now entred into according to John's Prophecy where nothing that defiles can enter And whether is this any other than that which the Apostle said the Hebrews were entred into who were come unto the spirits of just men made perfect yea or nay The Prophecy is become unto all saith Isaiah as a Book that is sealed Friends spur up your Colledges to answer me For if once your Chariot wheels are clogged in the sand and your Host troubled know that Judgment is nigh and the Floods will soon close and joyn hands over your heads Dispensed from the Inquisition-Prison in Rome J. P. THat which is done in secret shall be preached upon the house top For the Bed is too short the Covering is too narrow the Nakedness is seen strip off the Fig-leaves they hide not the Line is stretched but yet the Stone is sealed Nevertheless if you will come forth come forth if you will enter enter come and be as a Roe and Hart upon the Mountains to run and read me to grow to the understanding of a Proverb and the Interpretation thereof the words of the Wise and their dark sayings For behold there cometh a Nation of a deeper speech than ye can perceive of a stammering tongue that you cannot understand they shall break over Walls and climb upon the tops of Houses and enter in at the Windows of the Closets A fiercer People hath not been saith the Spirit of the Prophet The Trumpet of the Lord of Hosts is sounding the Alarm his dreadful day is at hand the dead in Christ have heard and are partakers of the first Resurrection He that hath an Ear to hear let him hear and Repent Rome dispensed from the Inquisition-Prison J. P. To the Pope and Governour and the rest ruling in the City of Rome Friends IN your places it is necessary that you consider that which is indeed above all things honourable I crave not the breaking off the yoke of my bonds at your hands as being assured that your hands were bound of the Lord thus far unto my Imprisonment that you by the means thereof might have knowledge how you are bound with the Chain of Satan under the Curse through Sin and Transgression the LIGHT being come declared and testified unto you henceforth you have no more cloak for your sin This I desire not of you but concerning you of Him which openeth and no man shutteth that the Prisoner in you in the Prison-house within which sits in darkness under the shadow of death may be set at liberty and come forth with the high praise of GOD in his mouth This I offer unto you that I mighâ—… know either by your willing or nilling whether you exceed or fall short of the Nobility of the Bereans who searched the Scriptures to know the truth of the matter
it under the Judgment of Penalty To be brief I would draw to the understanding of the Root of a Matter which ought in Wisdom principally to be known in you all that you may know your Root of which I have seen much as ye daily bring forth the fruit thereof Que. 24. Whether the spirit of Oaths Envy Lust and Lyes is not of the ground and original root of Heresie yea or nay Que. 25. Whether that Spirit hath not an absolute and instant Ground and Root universally according to Confession in your Body yea or nay Que. 26. Whether is not all things which are contrary to the Doctrine and Life of CHRIST and his Apostles absolutely and undeniably Heresie and that assuredly Opinion which is the lesser as practice which makes it greater and they both but one in the Ground and Nature yea or nay Que. 27. What Rule of Truth or Precept in the Scriptures of Truth have you to condemn any man as an Heretick which denieth your evil spirit and in the Life utterly abhorreth all your beastly works and wicked words brought forth by the spirit of Heresie And to what purpose think you standeth the judgment of your spirit Do thou mind thy blind-hearted brother Thomas Courtney of these things who told me that Heresie speaking of some Opinion was a worser sin than Murder which weighed in the deeps le ts to see that it breaks a gap for more evil than a thousand of the like his lines is able to reconcile the which was his ignorance as if Murder were not the most abominable desperate act of wilfulness against GOD and a man's Neighbour brought forth by the spirit of Heresie which spirit abounds in all your Coasts which is the real cause of all the Oaths Curses Lyes Dissimulations Hypocrisies Drunkenness Gluttony Adulteries Pride Covetousness Envy all Uncleaness and Murders brought forth innumerably in your Land For which cause if you had all Words and understood all Mysteries yet the Saints interested in the simplicity of Truth dwelling in GOD cannot joyn hands with you to partake of your spirit and so of your evil deeds and lastly of the Wrath to be revealed which the Lord God in his Counsel hath determined shall sweep a secure Land When lastly thou wert with me I saw that thy visage was none of thine own as always unto thy own I desire not to judge thee rashly but let me exhort thee saying Carry not a Bears Paw under thy long Gown nor a Lion's Tooth within thy mincing Lips thy words many of them were as smooth as sweet Butter and fresh Oyl but see thou that under thy tongue there be not hid the poyson of Asps in such things as in the rest of the dead works signs shews and noises as the Magicians of Egypt about the Walls of the Prison and elswhere you may as they themselves did deceive your selves also but by all these things neither in my self nor in you am I at all deceived Settle your selves in Council I am bound within Walls yet blessed be the LORD GOD I savour the deeds of darkness and many of them would not be of good report to be told among your selves You know that I bear all the folly as being 〈◊〉 your Vâ—…ssal to that end but you know not how I trample upon the fruit and the spirit which yeelds it From the Inquisition-Prison in Rome J. P. To the Inhabitants of the bloody City the Mother of Cruelties and Murder REad the Declaration of the Righteousness of this Cause let it be spread in an open Parchment upon the Standard of your Host and let it be marked in your Ensign as a perpetual shame in the face of your Camp There was a certain Message sent by the hand of a Servant by the LORD of a strong Army who treated for the Surrender of the City He came not as a Coward to hide in a hole nor as treacherous to slay in secret but to deliver his service to the Chief to depart with the Answer of the Head of the Land He was foolishly entreated by the hands of the jealous and ilâ—… handled by the doubtful and timerous hearted they bound a Man of War in Chains and rejoyced often to smite him with rotten sticks they chused not to plead with him in open field nor to deal with him as do the Valiant and Honourable they bound him in their seat of contempt and sent Scorners to view him in secret he looked at the works of their hands and wrote them in the soals of his feet he setled his heart in the righteousness of the Message of his LORD and rather chose the Chain of his Enemies Yoak than to yeeld unto Cruelty and Flattery he was faithful to his Enemy in what he was sent as he was to his LORD that sent him he washed his hands of the Blood of the City and possessed the Peace of his LORD What will you say for your selves when this Servant's Cause shall be publickly pleaded to your faces I know your purpose concerning the Heir and the purpose also of the LORD of the Vineyard as the Reward of your wilful works You have been well warned but you have not well received but have ill rewarded and requited Yet in all I desire not that God may requite you as ye have requited me and therefore I have Consolation and you know not my Crown The putrified head of the corrupted body and rotten tayl yea the whole body even from head to tayl I tread upon for ever J. P. Rome from the Inquisition-Prison To the Priests appointed as Inquisitors and Keepers of the Inquisition-Prisons thereunto belonging A Visitation of the Lord God to you all is come ARise arise It is high time to Awake and Arise from the Seat of Blood For the LORD GOD is arisen to make Inquisition for the Blood of every Innocent Soul which hath been starved and slaughtered upon the face of the whole Earth Indignation flyeth with him as a pointed Arrow Vengeance is in his Right hand as a Spear for the Battel and Wrath as a Dart to pierce the Liver of the Wicked The LAMB is arisen for Slaughter as a Lion to devour the Prey a Burning fire proceedeth out of his mouth The Ungodly shall be consumed before him and because Iniquity is plentiful in the Land he hasteth the Iudgment of the Day neither Covering nor Cloud shall hide the Wicked nay nor the Clifts of the craggy Rocks from the fierceness of his provoked Fury He will smite suddenly even in a moment in the Land and bereave the habitation of the Dweller He will catch as a snare in the night and none shall deliver from his Wrath He will abide as burnings in the Earth Corruption shall not dwell in his Presence the Evil-doer is for the Wine-press of his Wrath but the Just shall dwell in his Pleasures It is at hand It is at hand the Day of Vengeance of the LORD according to the Prophecy The abundance of
Iniquity in the Land yea the fulness of the measure of Sin hath dragged the fulness of the determination of Time for the Revelation of Woe in the Earth and Vengeance upon the Inhabitants thereof Long have you made Inquisition after evil for evil banished the good from your Presence and shut it up in the Dens of Dragons Arise and draw out of the ground of the Curse where the righteous Blood of Abel was spilt For your sin is as Sodom and your transgression as the evil of Gomorrah Your Glory is the Kingdom of this World your Seats are as the dwellings of Princes You have fulness and ease in your houses you eat not the bread of carefulness You make the miseries of others your mirth and their mourning your song of rejoycing You stretch your Carcasses upon the burden of their sorrows and take pleasure to heap weight upon weight You make the simple to bend at your Bow and the wayfaring man to bow at your beck You stretch forth your necks in pride and bend your brows in presumption You have slain the Lamb in your streets and trampled on his blood in your secret habitations You crucifie the Lord afresh and put him to open shame You are not ashamed to say Lord though your lyes and your lightness abound You have provoked the LORD unto Jealousie and raised his Anger by constraint And therefore behold he cometh as with Voices and Lightning and will search your dark corners as with Candles He will rent the Coverings of your body and set you as in the day wherein you were born and place you as Butts for his Shafts even as you made the Innocent your mark to shoot your Arrows at in secret You are planted the Judges of the Citadels as the Chief of the Munitions in the Land and as the principal Castle of Refuge among all the Forts of the City But the LORD will make the Staff of your Trust as for a shout in Battel against you your Wallings he will make as a Wilderness and your houses as an habitation of Bitterness your pleasant Dreams shall have their end in sorrows and your Divinations of gladness be finished with the compass of trouble Vnbelief hasteth the Wo because Iniquity waxeth ripe in the Land And the LORD said unto Jonah Go down unto Niniveh and preach And Jonah cryed in the City Yet forty dayes and Niniveh shall be destroyed And when Tydings came to the King he questioned not the matter but considered the sins of the Land and through Faith there was Repentance found among them and the Lord turned back his Anger and spared the City Remember your Visitation which is come from the LORD in the day that you cry Peace peace in the Land saying none evil shall happen unto us had I turned to another Land the Lord would have had followed me with Storms even as he did Jonah with displeasure And God who said Go unto Rome said also Thus shalt thou say which things I have given forth among you and am clear from your works of Iniquity and from the Blood of the Land and City which else as the Lord liveth in Judgment and Righteousness he would have required the thing at my hand Concerning your Judgment I have this at least-wise to say You sit as Lords in the Land and your Wills are the Precepts of the People You constrain your words for a Law and make Envy the Judge thereof The mouth of Malice dealeth the Sentence for the instruments of Cruelty to execute your Wrath You will not that your Judgment be judged for you deal it in craft among the simple but this the LORD willeth although you will not I say the Lord willeth it and it shall come to passe For the LORD GOD will enquire after Judgement and bring Judgement as a spoyler of your Seat You will seek to escape the Day which cometh as a Thief in the night But the LORD will compass you as Fish in the Net and entrap you as Birds in the snare and you that have digged a Pit for another shall fall your selves therein Iudge judge the sin of your own hearts and the liberties of your own lusts and make inquisition after Judgment for the sake of the Righteousness of the Judgement of Truth which standeth against the Iniquities of your life and until it be perfected in you Judge not lest you be judged For ye have not received the measure in love for Judgment to justifie you in the sight of GOD and wanting the measure in your selves you heap up Oppression upon the head of another and wherein you judge another you are left inexcusable your selves for wherein you judge another you stand guilty of transgression in the self-same nature yea you judge as the Jews judged Jesus whom they blindly accused for Blasphemy and perversly condemned his Innocency to cover their Seat of Iniquity O man Judgest thou another as an Heretick and hast thou Oaths and Curses in thy mouth Judgest thou another for Heresie and thou an Hypocrite and Lyar in thy life Thou shalt bear the burden of thy Judgment for thy own spirit gave the entrance and yeelded the encrease of Heresie in the Earth and thou shalt not be excused in the sight of the LORD GOD And you shall all know That the Judgment of GOD is according to Truth against every one that doth evil Concerning your Restraints let me shew you the general Issues and Effects thereof A man that breaks the Covenant of your Wills as having eaten Flesh upon a sixth day of the week which you call Venus day after the manner of ascribing glory to a Heathen Goddess for so doing or otherwise you offending though not against GOD transgressing he is judged by you as a sinner against your Church and therefore receives the sentence for restraint in your Inquisition-Prison-house and then he is yours as the wild Ass that is caught in the Coller and knowing the nature of your own lusts you work upon the strength of the same in another you are experienced to deal with your own as the Falkoner to bring Hawks to the waving of the Leuer Man in the Fall as your Members have said not one of you restored unto the first Adam's estate in Paradise dwells in the cursed ground of Corruption Lust standing head over the whole Life which being a little curbed with your bridle of Restraint quickly languisheth in the Creature and with it also the mind of the Creature unto the bereaving and robbing the false Rest which through the subtilty of the Serpent was planted in the Creature A Sea of misery then floweth into the heart and the mind gathers up the remembrance of the delight of every pleasure that is past and painfully pleadeth in it self I have lost the fulness and choice of the Bread and Wine which I had in my liberty here is no vent for the performing of what my heart desireth either fulness or want doth but heap