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spirit_n	call_v	father_n	son_n	22,994	5	6.0917	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44800	Mistery Babylon the mother of harlots discovered her rise, and when, with many of her sorceries, with her merchants of divers orders, and ranks, and merchandize of divers sorts this many hundred years, also her last merchants, with their delicate merchandise discovered : in answer to a book tituled The directory for the publick worship of God through England, Scotland, and Ireland, which now is the chief traffick her last reformed merchants trades with, in all these nations / published by F.H.	Howgill, Francis, 1618-1669.	1659 (1659)	Wing H3173; ESTC R16766	30,606	42

Mistery Babylon the Mother of Harlots DISCOVERED Her Rise and when with many of her sorceries VVith her Merchants of divers orders and ranks and Merchandize of divers sorts this many hundred years Also her last Merchants with their delicate merchandise discovered In answer to a book tituled the Directory for the publick Worship of God through England Scotland and Ireland which now is the chief traffick her last reformed Merchants trades with in all these Nations Published by F. H. And the Merchants of the Earth shall weep and mourn over her for no man buyeth her merchandize any more Rev. 18.11 And every Ship-Master and all the company in ships and sailers and as many as trade by Sea stood a far off and they cast dust on their heads and cryed weeping and wailing saying Alas alas that great City wherein were made rich all that had ships on the Sea for in one hour she is made desolate Rev. 18.17.16 LONDON Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and Mouth neer Aldersgate 1659. Mystery Babylon c. IN the end of the primitive times when the Apostles had finished their Testimony committed unto them had gathered many out of the world and converted many unto God and many were established in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ which purifieth the heart and giveth victory over the world and were led to the beginning before the world was made and the Churches which were in God which had received the anointing by which they knew all things even the invisible things of God and the mysteries of his glorious Kingdom which God through the Spirit did reveal unto them which Spirit they had received being begotten of God by which spirit they called him father and by which Spirit of truth which was manifest from the ●od of truth in their hearts by which Spirit they were led into all truth and became Sons of God and heirs of the promise and this Spirit was their direction and led them to worship ●od aright to obey and glorifie him and his name which brought salvation unto them and into this Spirit they were all baptised by the one Spirit into one body and in this one Spirit they met and worshiped God and were of one heart and of one mind and did know their Director near them and in them and the time did come when they worshipped neither at Jerusalem nor at Samaria but in the Spirit and in the truth wherein the Father was glorified and came to see that fulfilled which the ●rophets bore witness of even him in whom all the Prophets ends in Christ made manifest in them the hope of glory whose voyce they heard from Heaven by which they were quickned raised from death to life by the effectual working of the mighty power of God which wrought in them that did believe and they were in the unity of the Faith by which all their hearts were purified who held it which is a mystery held in a pure Conscience by which they received an assurance and were made partakers of the promises and became Inheritors of life and light and immortality and heirs of the promise and Joynt-heirs with Christ and they sate together with him in heavenly places and eat with him and drank with him in the Kingdom of God which stood in power and in righteousness joy and peace and did not look like the Pharisees loe here or there but first felt it as a grain of Mustardseed in themselves or as a corn of wheat which afterwards springs up as a blade or as an ear of wheat to ripeness to a full corn and they did walk from Faith to Faith from strength to strength and did appear before God in Sion and the Hebr●ws were come to Mount Sion from whence God shined out in perfect beauty who became their satisfaction and peace who had revealed his Son in them whom God had made unto them Justification Sanctification wisdom and so they knew one God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and one Faith one hope one baptisme the one Spirit into which they were all baptised into which they all did drink by which all that did believe were sanctified and did receive the inheritance among the Saints in light and this was the Church that was in God which was begotten by God the father and preserved in Christ Jesus in the lively faith and in the lively hope by which their souls were anchored they established in the truth that made free and they had received the spirit of Prophecy and did speak one by one according to the Revelation of the spirit which led out of confusion into order and they being in the power of God did walk by its order in the order of the Gospel And now was the woman cloathed with the Sun who had the Crown of twelve stars upon her head and the Moon under her feet who stood in that which was unchangeable and immutable and now was the Man-child brought forth which was to rule the Nations and was revealed to the Church which was in God and he was the head by which all the members of the body was united together in one and reconciled to the Father in one and by his Obedience Justification did come upon all that did believe But since the woman fled into the wilderness and the Man-child was caught up unto God the mid-night of Darkness came upon the whole world and the sincerity was lost and the image of God lost the Heir caught up out of the worlds sight Faith was lost Hope lost the Spirit lost the Saints rule and direction And then the whore appeared and made all Nations drunk with the wine of her fornication and they staggered and reeled to and fro hither and thither having lost the Spirit became all waters and unstable and all the world wondered after the Beast which then arose after the primative times and after the Apostles daies and admired him and worsh●pped him who killed the Womans seed and made war against it And then the whore made Decrees who was gone from the Law-giver and she made confessions of faith and articles of faith being out of the power of God who is the Author of true faith being guided by the power of the Dragon she made orders of worship and gave directions for worship having gotten on the free womans attire the outside the Scriptures the form of Godliness but afterwards became more abominable having both lost the power and the form worshipped the Devils power and the Dragons power and came forth in the image of him and reached out the cup of fornication and made the Nations drunk with her Inchantments and sorceries and she drunk the blood of the Martyrs the blood of the Prophets and them that kept the testimony of Jesus the spirit of Prophecy and then prescribed forms of worship forms of prayer and made creeds and faiths and articles of faith and many faiths having lost the order of the Gospel she

Images and such other like merchandizes of the baser sort is all bought and received without question as merchandizes of great worth and things belonging to happiness and felicity but alas 't is almost day and the night is far spent and the people in these Nothern Regions are come past midnight some towards the dawning of the day and they question our merchandize and with some the night is quite over and they are come to the day-break and to the rising of the sun and with these there is no hope of trading though with the best of all our commodities though with Cinimon and odours and oyntment and frankincense yet they will buy none of our ware nor ther 's no hope of trading with them any more for they are come to know the Pearl which is more pretious than rubies and the heavenly treasure that doth not rust and the word which is sweeter than the honey and the honey comb ther 's no hope of them but this is the misery they will not be content with what they have found but imparts it to others and so begets a dislike in other peoples minds to the best of all our Merchandize However them that are gone from us and denies our mother and her golden cup and denies all her merchants great and small not onely them that trades in wood and vessels and brasse and iron but even them that trades with the best merchandize as gold and silver precious stones and pearls fine linen purple silk and scarlet however let us excommunicate them and give them up to Sathan and let us call to the beast with his seven heads and ten horns who is scarlet coloured dreadful and terrible and let us accuse them of heresie schism and blasphemy and call them seducers and deceivers and false Prophets and let us brand them with names of reproach as Sectaries and say they are seditious and rebellions and mutenous and they are enemies to Church and State and all good government peace-breakers factious and pestilent fellows that brings all the Nations into an uproar and if that will not do le ts petition to Kings Princes Dukes Parliaments Protectors and Counsels that some speedy and effectual course may be taken for suppressing of these hereticks and for stopping of these blasphemous doctrines as that the Steeple-house is not the Church and sprinckling of Infants no ordinance of Christ and singing of Psalms by tradition no part of the true worship of God and it may be we shall get some Law or Act of Parliament against them or call them vagabonds and get them whipt abroad and put in prisons while we take away their oxen and goods at home and so by this means it will stop others whom we traffique withal that they will not dare to hearken unto them for if they will not buy our wares and take our measures by a glasse in love to it yet because of fear of imprisonment or losse of their goods or estates they will be constrained to trade with us But alas it is otherwise with us now then it was in Queen Maries dayes when masse mattens and even-songs professionings Ave-maries Creeds and Pater-nosters took up most part of the time and went off ●mongst people for spiritual worship at a good rate neither is it with us now as it was in the days of Bishop Laud our great Metropolitan and the rest of our mothers merchants Then would common prayer translated out of the mass-book into the English and Creed Letany Pater noster with a Lor● have mercy upon us or we beseech thee to hear us good Lord fourty times over in a quarter of an hour with some of Davids Psalms turned into meeter by Hop●●ns and Srer●hold masters of musick sung with Organs with Choristers and boyes with bowing to the Altar and such like merchandize which then was precious in the eyes of our mothers children Then whosoever would not be obedient to all the Rites and Ceremonies then we branded them with the name of Puritans and Non-conformists and haled them before Sessions Courts and Magistrates cited them to appear before the Bishops served them up to the High-Commission Court before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal falsely so called and there the flesh was gnawn to the bone and ears cut off stigmatizing and burning with irons imprisonment and banishment Now as people came nearer the day they began to suspect all this as not to be the spiritual Worship of God having no ground nor footing from the Spirit of Truth nor example from the Scripture nor from the primitive Churches then them over whom our mother once reigned began to question her whether she was the Lambs wife yea or nay And whether our Predecessors and Brethren were the messengers sent out by the true Church yea or nay And whether the Ordinances and Practises were the institution of Christ and his Apostles yea or nay in the primitive times and the day dawning upon them and the spirit came to be revealed and did shine into their hearts and they began to search the Scriptures and to compare the true Church which was cloathed with the Sun and crowned with the crown of twelve Stars with our mother mystery Babylon and they began to compare the Apostles and Ministers in the primitive times with our Predecessors Babylons merchants and also compared the Institutions and Ordinances which were delivered to the true Church with the Institutions and Rites and Ceremonies and inventions of our mother mystery Babylon And so they found all out by the ●evelation of the Spirit and by searching of the Scriptures they found out the rise of our mother after the woman was fled into the wildernesse and that she sate not as a Queen upon Nations Kindreds Tongues and Peoples till after the woman did fly away upon the wings of an Eagle into the wildernesse for a time times and half a time and likewise they found out that our predecessors and fellow-merchants were not like the Ministers of Christ in the primitive times neither our Doctrines and Ordinances like the Ordinances and Doctrines which were once delivered to the Saints before ever wee merchants set sail or floated in a ship on the Sea And so finding our City to be raised up in its glory since the glory of God was lost in the earth and finding our Queen mystery Babylon ruling in our City since the Lambs wife fled and finding us merchants to receive her traffique from her City since the faith was lost that once was delivered to the Saints and did see our Creeds and Beliefs and Pater-nosters our prayers and our hymns that they are quite another thing which was part of her traffique they have concluded and that upon infallible grounds warranted by a cloud of witnesses in the Prophets and Apostles that our mother is a whore and her predecessors are her merchants and that our Ordinances are and traffique have been invented by some of our mothers children which are Apostates and they have found

us out And now alas a ship will bee hardly able to ride any more upon the waters nor the Sea will hardly bear up our vessels any more the Nations the kindreds the tongues and the peoples are almost dried up especially in the North Regions they will not buy our Merchandize any more our ships are like to stand still and our Merchandize is like to be all shipwrackt therefore let us take Councel least all the Sea dry up and we all sit down in solitarinesse and our song be turned into woe worth the day misery and alas Therefore now it behoves us all reverend Brethren who are of this last edition tything Presbyters to deny our Mother in her greatest fornication and adultery since she hath committed fornication with Kings and Nobles and since all Nations have drunk of her cup But yet let us own her three or four hundred years after the ascention of Christ for then though she was inclining to Adultery and it lodged in her heart yet it was not so openly known then but only to a few and then she held part of the form of Godliness and had part of the true Churches attire and ornaments on the outside and so let us all agree to stick close to her hear and vindi●ate her then and her Merchandize the form of Godliness for if this traffi●ue will not go off we are at an end for either this must serve in the North Regions of the world or we must pull down our sayles and let our ships stand still on dry land let us put on resolution there is some hope that this may serve a while for that our Mother was a true Church 3 hundred years after Christ hardly any in this will gain-say us and let us deny all the Popes Cardinals Legates Fryers Monks Jesuites Semenaries and all their several orders which are one distinct from another and let us deny the rest of our Fellow-Merchants or rather Fathers which did ordain us to be Merchants to trade at Sea seeing that kind of Merchandize which they then traded with which they received from our Mother will not go off now for Nations Kindreds Tongues and People now will not buy that kind of merchandize which hath not the face of Purity upon it and though we were made Ministers by them yet now when they are grown out of date a Parliament having voted them down it s not safe for us to hold them up nor none of their worship nor merchandize so we having a distinct order of our own and are rank'd into another fellowship distinct from the Fryers and the Monks let us keep our fellowship one with another and so we may set up our selves and so may bring honor to our mother Mystery Babylon under another name and so let Bishops Arch-bishops Arch-deacons Deans and Chapters Prelates Vicars and Curates be denyed and seeing their traditional traffi●ue before mentioned will not go off and all the forms of publique worship hath been contrary to the Scriptures and contrary to the primative times and seeing we cannot hinder people from seeing of it therefore we must let it all pass and deny both them and it at least in the hearing of them whom we trade with therefore let them merchandize with it in some other Country for our mother where she hath more reputation and where the beast hath more power and the time may come if we can but perswade People that they cannot understand the Scriptures nor come to know the mind of Christ without our Original Hebrew Greek and Latin in some time it may be this traffique will go off if we can keep People but ignorant enough that so we may be a means to bring our mother and her messengers that she hath sent forth into more reputation than they are Notwithstanding though the day be dawned every mans works made manifest of what sort it is yet it is well enough that we receive the maintenance which our mother Mystery Babylon gave unto our former merchants as Tythes Oblations Obventions and Offerings Easter-reckonings and Midsummer-dues and Mortuaries twenty shillings for a funeral Sermon ten groats at the Grave twelve pence an hour for ringing of bells and such other like commodities that befalls us and besides all this we have got something out of Bishops lands and Deans and Chapters and Prebends lands some good augmentations out of these so that all the merchandizing and traffique lyes in our hand and all the wages that our mother gave to other Officers and Ambassadors of several orders which to speak plainly is the very reins and finews of our Gospel which we preach and therefore if we cannot keep the people blind but they will see our error in most things yet while we have the Powers of the Earth to make us a Law that all may be forced and compelled to pay that unto us which our mother the Church gave us when she was in her exaltation while this is kept up we shall cary about our ships and merchandi●e though the people have no great heart to it we shall cry out to the Magistrates to compel them to buy it or else the people will turn Atheists and Barbarians and however get our price Yet now reverend brethren seeing we cannot keep the People in ignorance and darkness nor hinder the day from dawning nor the Sun from rising while it is but even yet twylight let us work and carry about our traffique for the best sort of merchandize which our mother hath will hardly please now for now it comes to that that nothing but spiritual Ordinances will be accepted among people now therefore we which are of the tything Presbyterian order though we have denyed our mother in some of her sorceries and though we have denyed the Bishops our Fathers and ordinances and their established form of worship we being heirs apparent to their Inheritance and Revenues and wages now we being come to maturity and goes under the name of Reformers yet let our mother Mystery Babylons wages stand unalterable as the Law of the Medes and Persians and though the professions of publick worship have been denyed and abolished let us perswade the Magistrates and Rulers that if they abolish our tythes and set wages then the Gospel will cease to flourish in these Nations and though the Mass-book or book of Common-prayer and the Lateny will not go off for Gospel and longer we shall set something else up in its stead to be called the Gospel and because we have not an immediate Spirit nor an infallable neither ever looks to have it its requisite that we prescribe some form or Directory of worship to be as a rule of Direction to all of our order and if we can get a Parliament to make an ordinance for the recommendation of it to the Nations as the publick worship of God then we may trade yet with out merchandize and whilst our set wages is not altered the matter is of less moment and though

be not streightned Answ. As for reading the Scripture it is a thing so harmless and honest and just and good that I wish that all their whole Ordinances so called had been all waved and given place to this and if it were read oftner to the people without adding or diminishing the understandings of people would be more opened then by their cloudy and dark packt up speeches which is called preachin● but preaching I am not against that is to say to declare the mind of God as it is revealed by his Eternal Spirit to and in them that speaks and why do you pref●r one part of your Worship before another Was not a Psalm in the Church of Co●inth acceptable unto God when it was sung in the Spirit and with understanding as good as an Interpretation And was not Prophesie as acceptable as speaking with Tongues if your Expounding so called of the Scripture be by the Spirit of God why should that give way to a sprinkling of an Infant till the Spirit cease to speak in him that spake by it Direct The next pie●e of Merchandize is of their publike prayer bef●re Sermon and to pray after this manner to acknowledge your great sinfulness by your Original sin which makes you liable to everlasting damnatio● and doth defile your best ●ctions if it were not re●●roined by Gods grace as in page the fift●enth Answ. What is Original sin unwasht away and is a deprived nature alive that poysons all your faculties and defiles your best actions What is not this taken away yet then you have confounded your Orthodox Doctrine or else never have been bapti●ed when you were Infants For did not you use to say that when an Infant was sprinkled that he was regenerate and born again and ingrafted into the body of Christs Congregation And furthermore to give thanks to God on this wise we yeeld thee hearty thanks that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this Infant and to receive it for thy own child by Adoption and to incorporate this child into thy own Congregation then seeing that all that are baptized are regenerate as you say how is it that original sin and the guilt is not taken away and how is it that the best of your actions is defiled for Regeneration is a cleansing work and the actions of the Regenerate are pure and holy but your best actions are defiled then you are not Regenerate by your own Doctrine and if Sin be restrained by Gods grace then Actions do not defile for Grace is one that which restrains and that which saves for it s written by Grace you are saved and if you are restrained from Sin or saved by Grace then your Actions would not be defiled what ●ankered rusty merchandize is this but I shall proceed to shew more of the like nature Direct The next Doctrine is to conf●ss your actual sins the sins of your Magistrates Ministers and whole Nation and how that you have broken all the holy just ●aws of God doing that which is forbidden and leaving undone that which is injoyned and not only ignorantly but presumptuously against the light of our minds and checks of our Consciences but also despising Gods forbearance and standing out against all the offers of Grace in the Gospel Answ. Was not the baptized Infant incorporated into a holy Congregation and now you confessed you are a sinfull Congregation not only ignorant but presumptuous also and have sinned against the light of your minds and the light of your Consciences what is there any thing in your minds or consciences worth taking notice of what will the light in the Conscience shew sin and reprove for it then how is it that you Merchants of this Rank cryes out against it as delusion and heretical Doctrine when any exhorts them that they sin not against the light of their own Consciences and if you stand out against all Gods invitations and offers of Grace then are you none of Christs Ministers And never blame me for calling you Babylons-merchants for the Ministers and Disciples of Christ they came at Christs invitation and Peter and John left their Nets and followed Christ when he invited them and they resisted not the offers of Grace but received it when it was offered and were saved by it and if you walk so unworthy of him in your selves then repent and cease carrying abroad such trumpery as this to deceive the People withall Direct In the sixteen Page you Reformers say you ought to bewaile your blindness of mind and hardness of heart and unbelief impenitency secureness lukewarmness and barrenness and not endeavouring mortification nor to keep your garments unspotted Answ. You had need to bewaill your state indeed if this be it but see that you be not Hypocrites to confess that before the Lord and your Congregation and if any say you are hard-hearted unbelievers you deny it again and so ma●e your lives transgress and your ●ongues utter forth deceit what is such a company of blind minds and hard-hearted Impenitent unbelieving secure lukewarm barren whom God will spue out of his mouth who doth not so much as endeavour after mortification nor to keep your selves unspotted and have broken promises and vows and covenants That ever such a company as you should carry a Ship at Sea or think in your hearts to give directions to others to reform when you are unreformed your selves and full of unbelief what people will take directions at such a company of heart-blind Guides as you If this be Reformation what is Deformity the wise in heart may judge of this merchandize Direct Yet you say notwithstanding in the 18th page let us draw near to the Throne of Grace and incourage our selves with hope of a gracious Answer of our Prayer● Answ. He that sits upon the Throne of Grace before whose face the Heavens and the Earth shall fly away he will reject your Offering notwithstanding all the encouragement you may take to your selves and how can you have hope to receive a gracious Answer its but the hope of the Hypocrite you that are blind in mind and hard in heart and doth not so much as endeavour after mortificaon David a messenger of God said If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear my Prayers and you that are so presumptuous and are so full of vain hopes as to think that God will hear your Prayers who are in unbelief and endeavours not after mortification he will send you empty away Direct The next Doctrine is about preaching the word the subject of his Sermon is to be some Text of Scripture sutable to some emergent occasions and he may go on in some Chapter or Psalm as he shall think fit Answ. Here Reader thou mayest take notice these Artificers of the last edition have traffique of divers sorts to fit the several places and occasions as when they come before some Princes or Courtiers or some Convocations or Councels then some great swelling words

life and that you are blind hard-hearted full of unbelief impenitent secure and luke-warm and have not so much as endeavoured to receive Christ into your hearts by Faith as in the sixteenth page of your Directory may be seen and how your Church and the bosome of it is distinct from the world if your Church be as you have said the understanding may judge for you that are impenitent and full of unbelief and have not received Christ into your hearts you are of the world and your bosome full of deceit and are none of the Church of Christ Direct And moreover the Minister that baptized the Infant which is a Popish invention and not an Institution of Christ however he is to press it upon people as such a one and to exhort them to look back to their Baptisme and to repent of their sins against God and to stir up their faith Answ. Said ye not even now that Baptisme with water was an ingrafting into Christ and of Regeneration and of Eternal Life and he that is baptized hath the Seal of all this and yet they are to repent of their sins and how should their Faith be stirred up that hath none which yet hath to repent What blind Doctrine is this that these blind merchants of this last edition hath given out for a plat-form Direct In the 44. page the Minister is to joyn prayer with the word of Institution for sanctifying the water to this spiritual use Answ. Mark Reader what Sorcery is here Was not the water instituted in the beginning by the word and gathered together into one place by the Word and then i● was sanctified and holy and how became it unholy again and how hath the water transgressed that it s become unholy that it needs sanctifying again but in stead of sanctifying it you abuse it and would make it serve for that end which God never ordained viz. to be a Seal of the Remission of sins a Seal of Regeneration and Eternal Life all which is contrary to the Scripture contrary to the Ministers of Christ and contrary to the precepts of the Ministers of Christ but are indeed institutions of your Mother mystery Babylon Direct And now I come to the celebration of your great Sacrament of Bread and Wine you say in the 48. page we judge it convenient to be done after the Morning Sermon and that all ignorant and scandalous are not fit to receive this Sacrament Answ. And why after the Morning Sermon ye great Reformers If you intend that Christs breaking of bread and giving the Cup to his Disciples that this must be your foundation for your Sacrament that was at Supper in the same night he was betrayed and if he had judged it more convenient why could he not have given it them after some Morning Sermon What example have you for so doing it may be Saint G●egory Benedict or Damasen or some other of your Mothers Merchants And if they be unfit that are ignorant and scandalous to receive this Sacrament as you call it then none more unfit then your selves none more ignorant and scandalous which hath left that undone which God hath injoyned and hath done that which he never commanded and that not only out of ignorance but also presumptiously against the checks of your own consciences and motions of his Holy Spirit what not so much as endeavoured after mortification or newness of life but are a blind hard-hearted unbelieveing and impenitent people witness the sixteenth page of your Directory and if such as you be fit to receive this Sacrament as you call it I know none unfit to receive it ●irect In the 50. page the Minister is to warn all that are ignorant and scandalous and prophane that live in any sin or offence against their conscience that they come not to this Holy Table and on the other hand to incourage and assure them of refreshment and strength by coming to this Table if they desire a farther progress in grace Answ. Whom do you call ignorant and prophane and scandalous Is not he a scandalous person that sins presumptiously and against the checks of his own conscience and Gods Holy Spirit and if such be prohibited all you Reformers are excluded and if you do come you are like to have no refreshment or strength here if your own Doctrine must stand good for refreshment and strength you promise to them that hath a desire after the progress in grace But say you of your selves we have no desire after mortification or amendment of life and so you are without hope come or not come Furthermore Bread and Wine was a Seal of Eternal Life before you said and now ease refreshment and strength is promised to the weak I say as the Apostle said to them who discerned not the Lords Body but came unworthily For this cause many are weak and many are sick and many are fallen asleep and though they have come to your Table they have come sick and weakly and have gone away so and hath found your promises and assurances of no effect at all Dir. And now I come to the Consecration The Minister is to begin the action with blessing the bread and wine setting them aside for this holy use An. I say bread and wine was sanctified by the Word for that end and use that God created them that is to say for the nourishment of man and they were holy and good before ever the Priest touched them as it is written Vnto you that believe are all things clean but if you set them apart for any such end or use as to be a Seal of remission of sins Regeneration and Eternal Life then you convert them or rather pervert them to that end which God never intended But this is like the rest of your idolatrous merchandize Dir. Then after the Sacrament is taken in the 55 page The Minister is to put them in mind of the Grace of God held forth in the Sacrament and to entreat for pardon for the defects of the whole service An. The Church of Rome your Mother saith that the Body and Blood of Christ is held forth in the Sacrament and you say the Grace is held forth in the Sacrament and the Seal of Eternal Life What do you think to make it the Fountain of Life from whence all good comes in the conclusion of all the whole a Sacrifice must be offered up for the defects of your whole service what pitifull blind Merchandize is this before it was a Seal of the Vocation and Election eternal life and pledges of Adoption and by it the Comers thereunto are not made perfect but are full of defects and sinfull your whole services full of iniquty and sin and defects will not any who hath but the least sight abhor your ●ypocritical Sacrifice and your mouldy rusty cankered Traffique and now their holy Ordinance and their most holy things is ended in defect in sin and iniquity and these Worshippers the more

of Christ and drank his blood and a Church-member as you call it and is his Evidence now to seek and the Seal now wanting utter darkness is your dwelling place Direct And now we come to the Directory for solemn fasts that when some great and not able judgement is inflicted upon some people or app●rently evident or when some special blessing is to be sought or obtained then solemn fasting is a duty that God expects from a Nation or people an● they are to abstain from all food and from wordly labour and discourses and bodily delights and rich apparrel and ornaments and such like although lawfull at other times and gorgious attire and lascivious habits and if any such things be the Minister may reprove them at a Fast Answ. To fast unto the Lord is not to set a day apart by the will of man but by being moved thereunto by the Lord and not to hang down the head for a day like a Bull-rush nor to smite with the fists of wickedness but to loose the band of wickedness and let the oppressed go free And as for gorgious attire and rich apparrel and ornaments it s no where found so much as amongst you Steeple-house Fasters and for delights and pleasures and these things which you say is lawful at other times that which so judgeth will not forsake them in your set times and if they be lawful at any time then the Apostles exhortation is made void who said Not in gold nor costly array nor broidered hair that which abstains from them one day and takes them up another day is hypocrisie and deceit And as for your abstinence from one set meal in a day and it may be go to a banquet or a riot the next day after this is abomination to the Lord And how should the Minister reprove any for pride when it may be he hath as many Points at his knees as a ●esom Ribons Cuffs and a long Robe to his heels and a broad Harband enough to cover one most part down to the wast if it were spread out and who do you think will receive this mans reproof for pride that is thus gorgiously attired And what do you judge this man will have on the Thanksgiving-Day Direct The next comes on the performance of the worship which is reading preaching with singing of Psalms fit to quicken the affections and es●ecially prayer wherein sin is to be confest with several aggravation● and with greater inlargement then at other times An. You that have nothing to quicken your affections but to turn Davids cryings and tears into a Song and sing you roar for the disqui●tness of your hearts and as men distracted when your hearts are whole and unrent and you that think to be heard for your feigned confessions and if you speak from your hearts as you say the Minister ought to do there is no such hypocrisie and deceit among any people as amongst you who doth ●hat which is forbidden and leaves that undone that is commanded and presumptiously sins against the light of your own consciences as you confess and doth not so much as endeavour to receive Christ into your hearts nor so much as endeavour after mortification and newness of life And how can you think for your multitude of words and inlargement of words and seeming importunancy God Will hear you for your much babling Many hypocritical Fasts hath been made which ● have observed as well as some other men what would be the end thereof the beginning thereof was feignedness and the performance thereof like them that Amos speaks of that howled for their corn and wine and oyl and mocked God and drew near with their lips but their hearts were far from him Direct But to proceed such Texts ought to be used for preaching that may best work the hearts of the hearers into humiliation and repentance and the Minister is to exhort before they depart that their Assembly may improve their whole life to the glory of God by re-inforcing themselves and their families in all private resolutions towards God which they professed in publike Answ. You that have no other thing to bring people to humility and repentance but by a Text as you call it of Scripture which you may judge in your carnal minds will do it and pick and chuse too the Scripture where you like What was not the Scripture spoken forth by the Spirit of God and cannot be broken and one Scripture is as good as another and is as effectual as another but none is effectual without the Spirit which is that which leads to repentance and brings down the pride of the transgressor and except people come to receive the Spirit and believe in it which convinceth them of sin and leads them to repentance all your stirring up and composing and re-inforcing will do no good at all and so re-inforcing of self began your fast and there it will end without Christ which who so comes to follow denies themselves and are otherwise taught then to take the Kingdome by force And concerning their humiliatio● 〈◊〉 hast heard and mayest judge Reader what their Thank●giving will be like the rest Dir. The Minister is to make some pithy Narration of Gods deliverances and sing some pertinent Psalms and choose a pertinent text to the occasion An. The Thanksgiving doth not arise from any sencibility that people feels in themselves but it arises from the pithy story as they call it of the Minister and likewise from his devised Sermon which hath fed the carnal minds to re●oyce in words without the life and then ring the consecrated Bells and get Bonfires and eat and drink and satisfie the flesh these are the thanksgivings and the rejoycings that the world makes over the Witness in themselves Dir. And now I come to the singing Psalms and their Mass-house the place of their Worship and so I have done with their traffique First they say that singing of Psalms publikely in a Congregation with a tuneable voice is a Christians duty An Where was it injoyned by Christ or any of his Ministers I am ignorant and yet the Scripture I know but no where read in it that singing of Prophefies and Prayers and other mens conditions turned into Rime and Meeter by Poets and Masters of Musick in an invented tune in the same mind which invents tunes for Ballet-mongers and to sing such conditions amongst proud wanton and disdainful people covetous envious and such as hath not so much as endeavoured after mortification or newness of life as generally your Parochial Congregations are as you have confest in your Directory for Publike Worship this is no way accounted as a Christian duty for whose souls are not brought out of death cannot praise the Lord and you confess Ministers and Congregation that you are blind in mind and hard in heart and full of unbelief impenitency luke-warmness and barrenness not endeavouring to receive Christ into your hearts your state is howling and lamentation and not rejoycing yet singing with the Spirit is owned and with understanding Dir. And now we come to the place of publike Worship They say it is not unlawful or unconvenient for Christians to meet together in the place which was dedicated to Idolatry or consecrated to an idolatrous use yet we hold it requisite that the places of publike Worship should be imployed and continued to that use A● And upon what account do you count it lawful convenient and requisite to meet in an Idols Temple or a Mass-house your account will be but slender and poor which will be without example from the Saints Did Josiah or Hezekiah when they had broken down the Altars of Baal and thrown down the high places did they say its requisite and convenient that our Priests and the Levites the Congregation do meet at the Altar of Baal or at the high places Or did the Apostles bid the Gentiles who did believe go to their Idols Temple again and say it was a convenient place to worship the true God in And have you forgotten that exhortation or precept Abstain from every appearance of evil And though some do know that an Idol is nothing in the world howbeit there is not in every man that knowledg and is it not yet called by most of you yet The House of God House of Prayer But as you did begin so will you end to carry no traffique but for your mother mystery Babylon And thus Reader I have led thee through many things from the rise of the Whore and through the most of her merchants and through the most of her traffique merchants of divers orders and ranks but I find them all to trade with nothing but Inchantments and Sorceries which hath long bewitched the Nations but the time is come that she is manifest with her merchandize and Sorceries and turned from by me and many thousands more which is my exhortation to thee that so thou may come to the Church which is in God and to the elect assembly and to know the seed which is heir of the promise and of the Life which is without end Which mystery Babylon with all her merchants have sought to destroy since she got up to ride upon the Beast who hath compelled all both small and great to worship him and also all Nations to buy the Whores merchandize and traffique which hath deceived the Nations and bewitched them but the time is come that she shall be hated of her Lovers and they shall forsake her and her merchants shall say Alas alas which day is dawning and dawned which discovers the Whore the Beast and false Prophet with all their sorceries and the Lamb shall reign and the holy men of God and Prophets shall rejoyce over her when the smoak of her torment ascends up for ever and ever which the Lord hasten saith my Spirit Amen London the 12 Month the 26 day 1658. THE END