discontent in families and hard thoughts of God and men and being well acquainted with the constitutions of all bodies and influences of the stars he quickeneth the sanguine complexion to lust frothiness He kindleth his owne fire in the cholerick over the melancholick he spreadeth his owne black curtain of despairing of good The flegmatick also he imprisoneth in earthinesse sloth and fatnesse of heart 17. If the Government of a nation be changed It is his policy to make his slaves free to accept of places of trust as magistrates under that present Government for he well knowes that such will let his kingdome of sin alone and not terrifie evill doers In the mean time he createth scruples of the Governments in the consciences of honest men who durst they take power would overthrow his dominion and all licencious practices in their respective quarters And thus he layeth useful men upon their backs so that by reason of their needlesse scrupulosities to do good as publique men under such a government they spend their short life in an incapacity of serving God and their generation and suffer Satan to swagger in all deboistnesse before their faces and they dare not touch him O Ye tender consciences be not guiled by the devil in this matter Take all occasions under all to do good before the river of your time emptieth it self into the sea of eternity 18. It is sufficiently known that breaking bread and baptism were instituted by Jesus Christ to expresse the love of his heart and union of his saints But now Satan hath learnt how to traverse these canons and Ordinances of Jesus So as that water baptisme is the great text of uselesse disputes and endlesse janglings and awakenings of carnal wits and galling one another and rubbing on the weaknesse of their arguments whereas love covers a multitude of sins and a heap of mistakes Yet these exercises called Sacraments by some are made occasions of wranglings and heart-burnings and at this also Satan laugheth and pipeth on the divisions 19. Who seeth not by this time that all Ordinances and governments of Churches and of nations too have been and still are made Imageries of jealousies And like that Altar on that side Jordan that great Altar to looke to saith the Scriptures which occasioned honest Phineas and others to seem to inveigh against their brethren and threaten war too until they heard them speake for themselves now the enemie with his bellowes of flesh and blood stands near at hand to blow up all such animosities in the wrath of God wherein he lives His intent is to fret the sweet meeke Spirit of God to burne up poore soules in this kindling and to warme himself with more of the coales of eternall wrath Yea if he were not mad with fury and pride he would for his owne ease be quiet and not be ever laying of snares for those birds he knowes he can never catch 20. His malice will not let him alone The violence of his nature makes him ripe for the judgement of the great day He hath now been at his studie almost six thousand years and never slept a wink all that time yea he studied and travelled too over all the earth seas and natures of things He is a great schollar proud one and the father of all such conceited Linguists or Gnosticks To his shame and theirs be it spoken that their learning swels them as empty bladders to increase their account before the meeke and lowly lamb 21. Satan is so called from Sitnah Hatred The flames of enmity are his bone-fires envy wrath jealousie and malice are his trappings Thence it is he also loveth to feed on his own dung and to feed others with amaritude and bitternesse Now the devils filth is malice which all that live therein find more sutable to them then the Manna of God or the Divine Nature of Christ 22. Inexcusable therefore is that soule that chooseth Satans concocted wickednesse called kakia rather then the flect and blood of the Son of God unto such a poor soule it is more naturall to live in contention sournesse and hatred then in love sweetnesse and peace These are no other then the firebrands of hell whom Satan bloweth to keep himselfe warme for the love of God is such a cold thing to him he is ready to freez among them that walk in the love of the Lord Jesus 23. Thence it is that Satan fils the courts of justice with litigious cunning venemous querimonies and maketh one neighbour so apt to finger and to scratch blood out of the scabs and deformities of another that so provoking him to anger he may have somewhat above board wherewith to charge and reproach him 24. This subtile and yet foolish vagabond whereof I speake is discovered with his nature by the names and titles given him Hee is called Beelzebub God of flies because his angels are numerous and various and flying thick in the Aire of nature or Baalzebub because he loveth the dung and filth of nature Apolluon the destroyer the serpent the dragon the lier the sower of cares the adversary of man-kind and the enemy of all righteousnesse holinesse and humility 25. And because there be legions of these spirits ordered to quarter in all ages over several Countries they therefore have observed thy Ancestors in what sins they most naturally wallowed the same they will lay close to thee and before thee as a net in thy nature to bring thee to death 26. But if thou wilt needs live in love Behold saith he here is the pleasant love of the flesh or common love of mankind for thee to dwell in If thou saith he wilt needs live in joy get thee wine and strong drink make thy self merry for that solace is better then silver spend them prodigally away upon thy lusts I see saith Satan thou wilt live in peace being so well natured as thou art A quiet harmlesse man or woman well then be it so Thy conscience shall not trouble thee nor reproofs awaken thee but thou shalt be an easie-hearted sot or a voluptuous hog of whom much shall be made in the Swine-house untill it be fully fattened for the house of slaughter 27. Thus the cheater cozeneth Millions of soules by affording them counters for gold and the love joy and peace of this world for that which is of God And the cunning wit of hell for the wisedome which is from above And the lying wonders and angelicall glorious flashes of deceit for the true light of Paradise And in these things he coucheth hideth himselfe in the very heart and bosome of the sinner and hypocrite but he is not awaked because he is not fully aware of the guest that dwelleth within him 28. Now when we speak of this enemy thou must by no means imagine him to be some outwardly visible bugbear or brickbrack afar off from thee But rather a malignant powerfull subtile and agile influence that mingleth
in your self and your self in God and in his Son and Word who is his Love and his all how long must the children of men run on as beasts they know not where nor yet whence nor yet in what they move and breath and subsist Lord God Almighty put a stop to their minds by the flaming sword of Truth in the hand of thy Covenant-Angel whom the Asse seeth and the Oxe knoweth O that the thousands of Israel and millions of the Gentils might now all at length under thy fifth sixth and seventh Seal Trumpet and Vial know and understand thy own Personal Being and appearance in the glasse-windows of their own spirits for thou art not far from any of them But many are far from thee so as that they neither see thee nor hear thee nor feel thee nor smell thee nor taste thee the Only God who fillest all And I poor worm am naturally as senselesse as any man living and as dark as black as unworthy as any child of Adam according to this outward Man But the new Adam within which is thy new creature and thy child waiteth on thee daily and silently to heare what thou Lord sayst and commandest to be spoken or written 2. My heart is boiling in sorrow and fear yea in indignation and love when I am made to see my brethren and sisters according to nature sunk into the deep pit of corruption And there is scarce above water as much as the crown of the head the haire yea their breath is stopped The spirit of crying to God is gone and but a form of prayer left for a carcasse of Religion and a wave of some filthy worldly lust or another comes one in the neck of another over the head of the conscience and over the crown of the learning of the souls of the people My spirit within me is baked and parched in the furnace of my secret sorrows and fears crying out Woe is me I cannot help any I my self want help of God as much as any I am scarce above water yet I am swimming towards the shore by believing in Jesus to the obedience of the eternal will But O how gastly is it to see all about so many hairy scalps floating on the top of the great deep as so many sure symptomes of dead souls dead hearts toward God and yet immortal spirits All such are the men women or children drowned in selfe and flesh O ye friends that are perfect in Christ Jesus pity pity and help both them and me I am almost arrived and landed and sometimes allowed to stand on a bank in Sion 3. Now when in spirit I am helped to stand on Mount Sion above out of the waters and deluge of Babylon I see the dead world generally and the people of divers opinions particularly burying themselves in blood and warring one with another and persecuting their brethren and yet making truce and peace with sin it self in their own closets Every one in the common rode of nature crying out Here is Truth follow me and my judgement for it is solid it is according to the rule the word of God the Scriptures the Orthodox best Interpretation My Ware is the best Ware Buy it of me or else it is just with God to leave you to errours and then it is also fit that men should make war upon you O my fellow-friend say not so not so the treasures of Truth are wonderfull God is good There is but love in him though there be wrath eternal by him Do not kindle up a fiery flame by working up a whirlwind in thy own spirit towards any Look about How many millions of lives perished in a blinde War How few follow Peace and pursue it in God Where be Gods children like Him that requite good for evill love for hatred peace for war How easily mast thou slip into this malicious or passionate pit But when thou art once in and hel-fire is kindled into flames canst thou tell when thou shalt come out of this wickednesse cruelty and evill surmisings of heart Also O ye stern austere people that are so zealously hot and rigidly censorious be warned lest ye be swallowed up in this gulfe this dark womb principle of wrath John the Baptist the morning star must give way to the pleasant Sun Terror trembling shaking is indeed the end of flesh but not of Godlinesse But while ye are afraid of the invisible one ye know not fully of what spirit ye are Howbeit others in the interim live in boastings mockings and scoldings and scufflings about outward things They project and undermine and deceive and war to to gain a name to get Scepters and Nations gold and silver pleasures and preferments and care not who they kill that stand in their way 4. Man setteth up his own mind and judgement And when he saith the Scripture is the word of God he himselfe takes upon him to judge the sense of that word and so he will needs judge his own Judge And if any other mans conscience strikes not saile to his opinion he passionately gives him a broad side and desireth to have him sunk as an heretick or formalist and so send him quick to hell And all that while the children of Adam thus violently act and dispute they are as divers sorts of birds fighting on the top of the same tree and not understand nor revere that one root of this tree which bears them all up O ye opinionists goe up to this Ramoth Gilead and prosper The false Prophets in your hearts have deceived you But they that feed onely on the true bread and water and are meek in heart have told you the truth but ye will not hear them till the arrow from God strike through your harnesse and the end will be this The dogs shall lick up your blood that was shed amongst you by one another Yet we say God is one Truth is one Love is the chief grace there should be but one Church The holy Scriptures are venerable and to be admired But who shall interpret the Scriptures and say This is the meaning You will say the Church or rather the holy spirit in the true holy Church But your neighbours ask you what Church doe you mean Is it the Baptised or Independent or Prosbyterial or Shaken or Episcopal or Lutheran or Popish or Eastern or Western Church The answer from God in ye is There is none of these righteous there is none of these perfect no not one The Baptised are narrow thoughted The Independent is corrupted the Presbyter and Episcopal are dead and swollen up the shaken too much mistaken in their censures and justifications the Lutheran too sparing in the Doctrine of the New Birth the Papal people Jewish looking out too much through the spectacles of corrupt Reason to dote on vain glosses in Divine worship the Eastern and Western both named Christian not yielding to one another the time of the day devoured the one the
men Woe is the world The world in Turky The world in Christendome for there is but one world under Satan in all in all hearts opinions Churches agitations The same body of sinne and mystery of iniquity works in them called Christians for with God there is not a jot not a whit of difference nor respect of persons He delights not in a Christian more then a Turke if that Chrian be not more like Christ Jesus his love then the Turke is for if the Turke be as honest as just as diligent in the use of his talent as the nominall Christian is he is as acceptable as he with that God that rewardeth every one according to his deeds And the Almighty hateth the sins of all equally and is a lover of all soules as they are spirits branched forth out of him All soules are mine saith the Lord yet by the fall all soules are not his as he is love but many are children of his wrath and thereun to appointed 7. But as the Sodomites sought Lots door so the Christians sought for the sepulchre in the holy land so called and their retreat is shamefull and much noted by the major part of this habitable world Howbeit the Papists generally remain very presumptuous of their cause and confident of their way And as they did in Sodome it is even so now in the universall Sodome of depraved flesh Mens fleshly minds seek for Lots doore to attaine to the angelicall seed and beauty for their own self ends And God in his Just power strikes them blind so that they never so enter through his gate into his City but fume and quarrell and babble and divide about opinions and texts of Scriptures and Churches Sacraments and doctrines and duties right governmen and headships and in many vanities and vexations of the Holy Spirit who all the while waiteth within for the resignation of their own wills unto him But thus they will still certainly certainly continue whatever shall be written and this I see beforehand nothing shall availe untill the fire of God devour divide or convince them in their bold blind and filthy contentions Man would fain finde God any where but in his own heart and walk about in all streets professing to enter to Lots doore but he wilfully or carefully shuts the doore of his own heart within him and barrs and bolts it fast with his own wilfull conceited corrupt principles opinions and self interests He would goe into Paradise but not out of himselfe He thinks to bring his beasts into God and the flesh of his minde into the spirituall Kingdome And so the selfish praying preaching and disputings become meer pratings bablings and scoldings before the Spirit of God He that witnesseth this hath had a tast of most religions or opinions in the habitable world a prospect of the lamentable diversities among men called Christians Jews Turks and certainly knoweth that this approaching Generall or Catholique Day of God shall swallow up and rule so amongst all that the combustible pieces of all religions shall be consumed by the Lord the spirit and by the breath of his mouth with his impartiall over-flowing to the very neck He shall divide and cut asunder the light from the darknesse at the last as he did the day and the night at the first And God will sharply reprove and condemne that of man which would have others to follow his light and his judgement when he himself in many other things walketh contrary to his own conscience and Vnderstanding He will have others be of his opinion contrary to their owne conscience and best knowledge when he himselfe imprisoneth the Truth in his knowledge from practice God will fire that Beame which the hypocrite will not see in himselfe and so his whole building must fall upon him and the weight of his own thoughts he shall not be able to beare with himselfe he could have patience but others he rashly censured And the only True Judge will have pitty on the weeping eye that had the moate in it and put an end to his long-suffering towards the censorious hypocrite 8. What a noise doth Magistracy and Ministry make in the Christened world and how have they hitherto kissed and clasped hands in blood and blindnesse together The clergy must preach up Magistracy and the sword of Authority must seem heathenish if hee doth not only protect but also forcibly use his Authority for the defence of his own opinion in Christian Religion whatsoever that be he must be judge himself I may not I do not denie the one nor the other Magistracy or Ministry but I must proclaime that there is a Bill of divorce written by the Lord Jesus his owne hand which he himselfe will shortly explain Among the children of Adam there hath been but two lawes of God in all since the beginning though men have coyned many or at least would mixe these two into one The law of nature for to rule men as the Moone by night and the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus to Saints as the Sun by day The interest of Antichrist hath been to marry these to one another that they might engender an impure seed of doubts difficulties and wars bloodsheds and hellfires and all under pretence of religion by the Magistrate and of covercive Church-discipline by the Ministers of the Gospel so called For saith the Magistrate My sword shall force differing consciences to that forme of form of knowledge or Church-government which I judge most agreeable to the rule of Christ And the clergy also solicited the Magistrate to strike them with the fist of punishment whom they thought erroneous in their judgement Moreover when these two concurred in opinion then were alwaies the best people the world had persecuted as Hereticks as Schismaticks and unsound But when these differed and varied upon humoursome and ambitious grounds thence also came forth treasons wars Jealousies combinations and evill concussions in States and Common-wealths And just it was with God to let them both Magistracy and Ministery thus to wrangle to much blood in the dark when both mistooke their own bounds or neglected their proper respective charge Now when I say that a Magistrate as he is a Magistrate hath nothing at all to doe with the regulating of mens opinions and consciences I finde him allowed and stinted to his owne statute-booke which is the law of nature And I challenge that Magistrate or officer of State to answer that hath learned the measure of the circumference of the law of nature though he should as man attain to know his own nature in particular And yet where is the man that hath known himselfe in all naturals Now the great law of nature is but in part expressed in the Judiciall law of Moses and not fashioned in all particulars to all nations But let the Magistrates study this law that takes notice even of mans long hair as Paul saith and he shall finde