whose office is to stand betweene the living and the dead Hee thou prayest unto is a Spirit thou must worship him in spirit and in truth Againe doth he put no confidence in the flesh What meanes then his knowing of Christ after the flesh his will worship all his carnall services Doth he renounce his owne righteousnes is it as filthy raggs What meanes then his meritts his satisfaction his worke of supererrogation Doth he forgetting those things which are behind reaching forth unto those things which are before presse toward the marke that he may apprehend that for which hee was apprehended of Christ Iesus What meaneth then his fancy of perfection in this life This man cannot frame to pronunce Christ aright yet scales are before his eyes let him looke to it It will prove as deadly as Sibboleth to the Ephramite then they tooke him slew him at the passage of Iordan Iud. 12. I haue beene long about this yet I know no parent will blame me The Mother hath beene looking into hir Childs Eye and she feares it will be lost now you know the Eye is to this little body as the Sunne to the great the light of the body is the eye if that be darke the body lives in a continued night then if there be any remedie the Mother bestirres hir selfe how much more then if the inward eye bee in danger for when that is darke how great is that darkenesse A man knowes not where hee shall fall O the Mother would fame have that cleare because the loue of an outward sense may be supplied by the strength of another but if the light within a man bee darknesse what can recompence that losse I cannot then leave my Childs eye thus the counsaile is behind so is the eye salue thou shalt find them both if of what hath beene said thou shalt make this use Trust not my sweete Child thine owne eye it will present unto thee shaddowes for substances that is one grosse mistake for what is the shaddow to the substance no more then is the Chaffe to the Wheate It will tell thee it sees clearly when it is not onely dim and darke but quite put out that is another and can there be a greater Goe then my deare Child in the sense of this thy blindnesse for thou art blind also there is no question of it to him that is the Light the effect of whose comming is that they which see not to wit in the conscience of their owne blindnesse might see and that they which see might be made blind Ioh. 9. Go I say unto him it is not my counsell onely and say Son of David have mercie upon me that I may receive my sight and bee instant with him give him no rest till he make darkenesse light before thee and crooked things straight Till he bid the Prisoners come forth and say to the blind receive sight Isai 42. 16. Then and not till then shall thine eyes bee cleared then and not till then shall thy tongue bee loosed then not till then shalt thou frame to pronounce Christ right SONNE God knowes before whome I am our day to giue an accompt of my duty towards you that there passeth not a day or night either when you and yours take your rest wherein there is not intercession made for you MOTHER And dost thou begge vs of the Lord my sweete child Now the Lord unfold thy vnderstanding he cure thy zeale he adde knowledge to it he can doe it But all this while thou hast not fulfilled my ioy I reioyced greatly that I found of my children walkeing in the truth as we haue receiued a commandement of the Father they are Iohns words to to the elect Lady v. 4. Heare what he wâ—â—ts to Gaius I reioyced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the Trueth that is in thee even as thou walkest in the Trueth I haue no greater ioy then to heare that my children walke in the truth Beloued thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren to strangers I restraine this now to the matter in hand prayer though whatsoever a man doth that he doth it faithfully Crownes the worker the worke thou doest pray for thy Mother and her children doe it faithfully my deare child Faithfully in respect of those things that must be requested Faithfully in respect of that heart by which this Sacrifice must be presented Faithfully in respect of him to whom only it must bee directed Psal 65. 2. Faithfully in respect of that mediation through whom only it must bee accepted So pray on and begge vs of the Lord. Behold he prayeth Acts 9. 11 It is the spirits testimony of Paul after hee had left Gamaliels feete and his owne righteousnes and had attained to the knowledge of Christ and to the power of his Resurrection then behold he prayeth it yeldes a notable consideration no question Saul had prayed long and often while he satt at Gamaliels feete yet as if his prayers then had ben rather an houling then praying the spirit giues this testimony of him after the light had shined unto him behold he prayeth then and not till then Pray thus and pray on so begging vs of the Lord. I should haue no greater Ioy then to heare that my child walks in truth Beloved child thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to thy Mother and her children Oh what joy were here doe this and thou fulfillest my joy and thy owne for else thy labour of loue will be lost thy watching lost thy prayers lost thy selfe lost all lost looke to thy selfe then it is Iohns caveat that thou loose not the things that thou hast wrought but that thou receiuest a full reward In the meane time the Mother will pray for the child too that his loue may abound yet more and more how In knowledge and in all iudgement Philip. 1. 9. then shall we loue both in the flesh in the Lord Phil. 16. SONNE What more to doe in this my state I know not when my Mother is misled from the way of truth without knowledge and I must obey her but in the Lord in this thing then I must be excused and she must be plainely told that it stands not with the duty of a sonne to yeeld the least to so uniust demaunds of a Mother yet that she may know how duetifull a Sonne shee hath and how couragious for the witnessing of that which hee professeth were it with his owne blood Oh! that the commands were of the same nature with hers in the Maccabees who did incourage her children to suffer euen to the death surely I should be as ready to obey as shee to command but alas my Mothers commaunds are unreasonable nay unnaturall tending to the forsaking my Religion Gods Church his trueth himselfe MOTHER And is it so my Son an unreasonable request indeed and unnaturall O but hearken my Child and if it bee so let thine owne Mother bee hated O
cruelty I think The Children of the Church have answered this Argument with teares prayers martyrdome there is patience I thinke I have two paths to track they lie neare together the one iâ— dyed with blood the other be dewed with teares both lead us through the streets before Israell and before the Sunne and meet at the stake there is cruelty there is patience We track the holy Mother first we can not misse her which way soever shee goes hir footstepps drop blood Looke upon that little booke of Martyrâ— Heb. 11. What bloody footsteps are there But that you will say was shed by Ethnick Rome It s true But Christian Rome hath justified hir sister For aske the later times they shall teach thee that Christian Rome hath risen up a cruell generation in hir sisters stead so filling up that measure of blood which must be visited upon hir Aske I say and they will tell thee not only what Christian Rome hath done in the Citty of Orange or of that in Roane or that in Deipe but they will tell thee of that horrible massacre in Paris where this mothers instruments went forth like a destroying Angell and within the space of three dayes or little more cruelly murthered above ten thousand and all this after a marriage feast Act. et Mon. 1948. Could here be truth could this be a true Mother A Divell she was for like a beare robbed of hir whelpes she went about seeking whom she might destroy I assure thee she hath killed the Mother upon the Child witneâ— that lamentable Tragedy acted in Garnsey where the infant bursting from the Mothers wombe in the midst of the flame and taken from hir was by instruments sacrificed againe to the flame there to receive its baptisme Acts. Mon. 1764. Cursed be their wrath for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruell into their secret let not my Sonnes soule come nor let thy glory be ioyned with their assemblies for in their wrath they have slaine millions and the instruments of death were in their habitations Wilt thou looke nearer into thine owne Country then see our Marian dayes I know my Childs eyes will stand with teares what prisons empty what racking what tearing what whipping what scourging what burning whar bone fires were made of the bones of the Saints Was this a Mother Certainly that very sword which did not divide the Mother from the Child was a sure meanes to divide the Mother from the Harlot You have heard them pleading in that text let us heare them pleading againe Nor will we put downe theâ—â— names their words shall difference them to the meanest capacity for this name Mother is the sweetest name under the Sunne and as she is such are hir words Oh let the Child live he is stubborne he vvill not worship that which Longs wife hath made and the holy Priest hath consecrated he calls it Bread because it appeares so to the eye not considering how miraculously God can worke nor will hee bend unto that the workman hath made as a devout representation he calls that no better then a block but he shall to the block forit I will bow him or breake him A hard Argument yet let the Child live For he can take God to record upon his soule that he doth not this in a stubbornesse but for pure conscience sake he doth acknowledge an unlimited power in God and it is his crutch his pillar to hold him up when the nations take counsell against the Lord and his annointed ones he knowes God can turne bread into flesh he doth it daily and the commonnesse abates the sense of that power But now in that his eye and tast tells him the Accidents remaine he eates it as true bread with the teeth of his body and yet cheweth the living Bread Christ and his benefitts with the faith of his heart and so doth truly eat the flesh drinke the blood of the sonne of man and yet as benefitts a sacrament spiritually my words saith Christ are spirit and trath Hee doth in that ordinance truly enjoy his welbeloved his welbeloved looking upon him and he upon his welbeloved and yet as through a Lattice And for that representation he knows it is inferiour to the workman he must worship the Lord his God and him only He is a stubborne Child It is not proved but grant he be If that be all yet doe not blow his body up into the ayre he cannot mend in the passage Doe not turne his body into a coal he cannot mend then When once the breath is out all passages are stopt there is no comming in there is no going forth Now speak unto him he can heare you now give him his booke he can read it evidence his stubbornesse to him from a true and infallible testimony which cannot erre Looke to your witnesses when they passe upon life and death for when you haue kindled the flame about his eares you haue defaced that sacred Image stampt upon him which made him little inferiour to the Angels Consider of it a heathen could say demorte hominis nulla est cunctatio longa ye cannot consider too much nor can ye consult too long when in giving up your sentence ye giue away a mans life too You haue heard the pleading and for ought was proved against the child he might have lived to this day but there was an Argument produced from the Stake which he could not answer but by suffering So blood was spilt by whose Law for they said we haue a Law the holy mothers A holy Harlot curssed be her rage for it was feirce like the rage of him who cast the man into the fire into the water we know who it was or like that possessed man who was so feirce that none might passe that way Come a little nearer child yet perhaps thou thou maist discerne thy owne preservation though then in thy cradle hast thou not heard of our fift of November I know thou hast I must now take a little leaue I assure thee I thought that after that very day the name of a Papist would presently haue rotted and that the stinke and stentch of it would have gone over all the earth and surely it did and doth so and it is unsavory in the nostrils of the very heathen and would be so unto all but that these Iaels Tents afford so much sweet milke where with to bring the heart a sleepe in securitie But my child thou doest remember this day doest thou not thou doest why then thou standest amazed at the beastly crueltie of the mother and of her children and at the exceeding loue and super-aboundant mercy words are too scantie at the admirable kindnes of our God Tell me for thou shalt be iudge was not our Land at that time compacted as into a compendious body which was to sit in Parliament as the representation of the whole Land and now had it but one neck had not the whore
done Why he was no more able to hurt then a dead dog could bite and therefore art thou O Lord my King and thou also Abner alive at this time and your eyes may behold both the speare and pott that was so nigh thy Masters Pillovv and my Master Saul may heare too and now I hope both my Lord and Abner from this very day will be able to discerne truth and innocency from wickednesse which ever proceedeth from the wicked man and be able to point at it too with the finger saying there it is behold Child Saul doth it he knowes the voice of David and it melts him into teares and see what he saith thou art more righteous then I thou hast rewarded me good when I rewarded thee evill and now my Child rhou hast seene truths guize and hir childrens carriage how meeke how harmlesse Thou maist likewise discerne the Beasts mark and from whence wickednesse doth proceed I know no motive in the world except the secret working of Gods Spirit more prevalent to cause thee to come away unlesse thou hast not a Sauls discerning But because I know thou art blind folded and hast no light but what comes in by chaunes and crevises I will contract what hath been sayd concerning these two Mothers into an Embleme one or two which thou maist perceiue by the least glimmering Then I will turne thee to two places of Scriptures from which thou shalt make thine owne collection The first Emblem shall bee of the holy Mother and a Mother shall be it An Hecuba in travell with a fire brand and forth it comes rushing into the Bush of the Church Or a Iezabell plotting the death of poore Naboth because he will not part with the Vinyard the inheritance of his Fathers She must not keep it for all her painting downe she must be cast like a milstone The Doggs did eate the flesh of Iezabel Take the Embleme of hir eldest sonnes and sonnes shall be it Samsons three hundred foxes running about the field with firebrands at their tailes see what hurt they doe the shockâ— are burnt Or for variety sake look upon the Gadarens heard of swine but not running into the lake though an evill spirit be in them The day of recompence for Sions controversie is not yet yet the enemy is not brought to the valley of Iehosophat to bee iudged there we must looke on them running into the vineyard that must be more wâ—st we leave them rooting there But here is the coÌ„fort Is it wast is Sharon a wildernes now I will up saith the Lord I will give to Israel the opening of the month in the midst of them and they shall know that I am the Lord. Ezech. 29. 21. Take the Embleme of she true Mother and that is made to our hands you heard hir begging of the Childs life Take the Embleme of hir Children David cursed and pelted at by Shimes and praying the while Steven stoning and even then saying Lord lay not this ot their charge We have done with the Emblemes wee turne to the Scriptures the first is 1 Kings 19. 11. There came a great strong wind but the Lord was not in the wind nor in the earth-quake nor in the fire There came a still and soft voice there the Lord was Make thy collection now here are two both would be Mothers both would speake in the evidence of the same spirits which of these comes like a wind renting as it goes like an earth-quake opening graves as it goes like a fire scorching as it goes or in a still and soft voice instructing perswading blessing praying as it goes with whom the soft voice is there the Lord is Answer this unto him who understands thy thoughts long before I have done with that Scripture we find the other 2 Sam. 7. compared with 1 Chron. 22. 8. where is something will hold us from our purpose a little for the Readers sake We find David sitting in his house and in peace yet not confined to his owne particular interest and looking no further one eye is on his house the other on the Arke and he sees no correspondency And yet he that hath Davids observation may observe a greater disproportion betwixt his conveniences the Arks now then was betwixt Davids and the Arkes then he sitts in his house of hewed stone he heares no complaining in the streetes Gods footstepps drop fatnesse towards him there are his conveniences What are the Arkes The enemy hath raised a mighty storme and the Arke hath scarce curtaines to keep it off I know well on the glory there iâ— a defence but I speak of that covering the outward eye may discerne Certainly if the consideration of David be this mans precept the practise of David will be his patterne whose mind was presently on worke how he might build an house for the Arke too Yet Nathan must stay his hand that must not be put to the worke We came purposely hither to enquire the reason of that but I desire the Reader would marke one thing by the way Though it were taken out of the power of Davids hand to build an house for the Arke yet the Lord tells him thou didst well in that it was in thy heart 2 Chro. 6. 8. A mans hand may be kept from the Arke every one cannot visibly worke the securitie of it nor bring it within Cedars Nay though the Arke shake every hand is not worthy to hold it up A man must looke to his warrant specially when he goes about the busines of the Arke But marke this they shall prosper that loue thee We wish you prosperitie in the name of the Lord O it is a gratious thing even when the hand can doe nothing But Mâ—roz with the inhabitants were cursâ— bitterly Iudg 5. 23. And the men of Sâ—câ—oth were taught that iâ— the word by briers and thâ—râ—â—â— Iudg. 8. 16. That was a sore teaching but who can help it They that will not be taught by instruction must be taught by paine 2. Esd 9. 12. It is Apocryphâ— thou maist keep it in thy Bible when it â—out of thy Creed and let it teach thee when thou look'st upon thy house of Ceder I meane thy many many conveniences many positrue many privatiue to haue the Arke in thy heart for this is to remember the Chareâ—â— of Israel and the horse men thereof that is the Church The glory of Israel that is the Gospell The Paules in prison and she Iaseps in affliction for this glorie for thy sake are we killed all the day long now what thou doest for these or any of these they â—â—e so like thou canst not distinguish them thou doest it to Christ and thou shewest mercy to thy owe soule For these will pray that thy mercy may be returned to thee thine in the tempestivitie of time The Lord â—â—ew mercy to Onesiphorus in that day Nor is that all the Lord shew mercy to the whole house of Onesiphorus Now to