must be the Author thereof if we will believe them that sendeth them hither or thither that they know not whither to go or to what person till they come to the place or person and when they are come whither they apprehend they were sent yet they say that they know not what to do or speak untill that be given them by Inspiration also Now let us return and examine the manner of the Lords sending his servants and Prophets upon such particular messages and we shall finde it to be far otherwise for the Lord was wont when he sent them to tell them unto whom to go and likewise what to speak When Moses was sent to Pharaoh he was taught at first by the Lord to whom to go and what to say When Nathan was sent to David he was told to whom to go and what to say 2 Sa. 12. the beginning When Ezekiel was to go to the River of Chebar he was told to whom to go onely at that time I never read the like any where else to my present remembrance he was made to wait upon the Lord for the manifestation of his pleasure When Jonah was sent to Nineveh he was told from the beginning to whom to go and what to say When Ananias was sent to Paul he was told to whom to go and what to say Acts 9.10.11 When Peter was sent to Cornelius he was instructed by his Vision what to say and by three men that came to him to whom to go Acts 10. Note well this difference and so judg Secondly concerning their going naked I never knew the minde of the Lord so discovered by any of his servants either under the old or new Covenant And as for that of Sauls stripping off his cloaths and lying down naked among the Prophets there is nothing in that place that doth prove it to be the will of the Lord or that he was so acted and commanded of him and let it not scruple any one that the Lord gave him a spirit of Prophesie at that time for why might not the Lord make Saul prophesie as well as make Balaams Ass speak Numb 23. seeing he was a more likely creature for such a work Thirdly whereas they give over their Callings Professions honest Imployments in the world and give themselves over to idleness and pretend they must have nothing to do with the World but must be ready at a beck to run hither and thither when the Lord shall send them and the like Such who reade the Scriptures know how the Spirit of God was wont to speak and teach his servants about these things that their moderation must be known unto all men and that they should use the World as though they used it not and that it was more honorable to give than receive and that he that would not work should not eat and that every man should provide things honest before all men and take care for their families and housholds which they call the Language of Antichrist but Nature and Grace for the one destroyeth not but rather perfecteth the other do both teach the servants of CHRIST that this is true in the main and how to use it in a mean and do we not know how Paul was wont sometimes to labor had night and day at his Calling because he would not be troublesom or chargeable to a poor people And did not the Disciples of CHRIST follow their Callings when they had need or conveniency And doth not Paul advise such as should be called to the knowledg of the Truth to rest satisfied in that estate condition or calling wherein they should be called if any were called being a servant that he should not be dissatisfied if any were called being free he should rather desire to continue so I must intreat my Readers to note these Scriptures as they reade them for in regard of the scarcity of my time and multiplicity of business I am constrained to neglect the quotation of them here and so to pass more briefly and scantingly over things than I would otherwise have done willingly and glad I am to finde so much time as that my Pen might run with much speed to what it doth singlely without any Copy I shall now give the World but this one discovery more in this nature and that shall be such an one that had I spake no more might have given a sufficient understanding of this most horrible and dangerous deceit under which these creatures lie Demostr 5. I do collect from that spirit of enmity bitterness and prejudice which is conceived and brought forth in their hearts towards such of the servants of Christ who walk most strictly and orderly in their fellowships and communions togegether and towards such of them especially such as are the Pillars of the Truth in the Churches of Christ and that are most eminently gifted and most instrumental in the hands of Christ for the advancement of his Kingdom This I know to be too true by what I observed in my own experience of this nature when I was under those Satanish-angelical-metamorphosings beside that I have heard them say several times their hearts were more drawn out towards the creatures of the world that they were more tenderly affected toward such who were meetly atheistical and profane creatures than towards such and such Societies Fellowships Professions and Professors and the like And this may be witnessed by their railing lying clamorous false accusing Letters which they have writ against many pretious honest-hearted men that I know and yet they pretend all this is done in love Now will we try whether this inward core secret prejudice false surmise and heart-burning against the servants of Christ be the work of Christ or Antichrist It will every way appear they are under an horrible delusion in this very thing when the matter is clearly examined for First if they cannot see the servants of Christ that walk according to the manifest Rules of the Gospel to be the servants of Christ but reckon them to be the servants of sin hypocrites men in the first Adam acted onely by that first created excellency or light received and the like as they do commonly why then they prove themselves to be blinded and led forth by a lying and deceivable spirit of delusion by Antichrist like unto the men of the world that do not know the Servants and Disciples of Christ from his professed Enemies but speak evil of the things and men they know not and so there needs no further proof than their own open and professed mistake ranking themselves with the carnal and sinfull men of the world who are all under the power of Antichrist as you shall finde in the words of Paul to Ephes 2.2 In times past saith he meaning the time of irregeneration Ye walked according to the course of this world and according to the Prince of the power of the Air the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience and moreover saith
appear at all in my words or expressions concerning those enslaved creatures And thus trusting to my God and desiring his holy and blessed assistance withall intending a publick good as I spake I have thought best for the more clear manifestation of this mystery of iniquity to lay it down in several particular operations and workings according to my knowledg and understanding therein and that observing altogether this order 1. Laying down the Mystery or Work it self 2. Shewing what ground or colour Satan findeth out for the same in scripture-Scripture-words and instance 3. In giving my own once uncomfortable experience and testimony unto the said Works 4. To give in the way and manner of the teaching of the Spirit of God to each particular in its place Although I am ignorant whether the Lord hath drawn forth the heart of any man in all the Regions of our Gospel-professions to write and speak against this subtle archievment of Antichrist or no yet in this me thinks I am conscientious to my self that there is hardly a man to be found that hath been so much ensnared as I have been and delivered through divine love by reason whereof I am best able to give the truest demonstration and for ought that I do at the present know this might be one end in the Lord to suffer me to wade so far in that troubled Sea that I might afterward give an experimental testimony of the great danger and trouble thereof for the sake of others that they may learn to beware the same danger Faelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum Praemonitus praemunitus If Dives being in torment parabolically seemeth to discover so much natural affection as to desire his brethrens timely admonition and caution it would be a strange thing and miserable if any of the Lords servants should want what such a one should have while the law of nature teacheth us to be Alteri quod nobis that to another which we would have another be to us These considerations make me willing to use my best endeavour for a full and profitable unfolding of this secret work with all possible plainness and fitted language for the meanest capacities and so to return unto particular Demonstrations Demonstrat 1. It must needs be the spirit of Antichrist and delusion A misinformation of the understanding that doth misinform the heart and so maketh it judg amiss of things for the soul being possessed with an understanding of any thing accordingly discovereth it self while it is sincere and void of hypocrisie and by reason of this wrong information it proceedeth to wrong judgment disowning and condemning what it ought to own and approve and contrariwise owning and approving what it ought to disown and condemn This base deceit doth Antichrist bring forth in the hearts of those people called the Quakers who are so clearly mistaken in judgment that they call evil good and good evil knowing not what they say nor whereof they affirm they do judg the ways actings and practices of all people to be abominable Antichristian and unjust except their own and above all people do they cry out against and disown such who by the world are reproached and disowned as the Church and Disciples of CHRIST But I need not speak of the mistake in them in order to other people while I have so clear a testimony thereof in relation to my self for however I may be ignorant what is in the hearts of some others yet I cannot be altogether ignorant of my own because the spirit that is in man knoweth his heart and manifesteth the hidden things thereof 1 Cor. 2.11 I have been charged and accused by Letters from several of them First of Hypocrisie My own first charge was Hypocrisie now the Lord knoweth and I my self know how hatefull a thing hypocrisie dissimulation and double dealing both with God and man hath ever been unto me even in those days while I lived onely in the light life power and gifts of the first Adam And therefore knowing my own heart in this thing to be free I do clearly apprehend them to be mistaken and to judg with unrighteous judgment which a knowing man will confess to be of Antichrist Secondly they charge and accuse me for acting against my own conscience meaning my living For acting against my own conscience dwelling and preaching constantly unto a particular people in a publick meeting-place this they say is against my own light and convictions of heart as though they knew my conscience better than my self hereby do I see again they are acted through delusion and mistake for they urge that with confidence such as it is which I can with much more confidence and boldness in the Lord deny and justifie the the contrary hereof for I do with much peace of minde and that in the Lord I bless him for it preach that part of the Gospel which I have received from him unto this people with much tenderness of affections and out-goings of my heart towards them as they are my witnesses and it is noted and observed by this people generally I do not say how much more by my self that I am carried forth to speak unto them far more powerfully from time to time and more prevailingly upon their affections and understandings since I did freely knowingly and considerately in publick manner renounce Tyths than ever I did before Now let any sober man observe by what power these creatures are acted while they charge me with doing this against my conscience and light seeing the Lord qualifieth me more and more for the work and attends it with greater blessing Thirdly they charge me with being an Enemy to the Lords people meaning themselves I suppose I confess they are the Lords creatures To be an Enemy to the Lords people but how to call them in their present Apostacy and delusion properly his people I know not yet as they are his creatures I hate them not for I have not so learned Christ but rather to love and to desire to do good in my place unto all but to shew the world their great delusion and mistake in this I have had something from divine grace always working in me while I was not under this temptation of theirs an holy tenderness and honorable respect unto all that which I could discern to be the work of the Father through his Son upon the hearts of any people in whatsoever form they walked And I am perswaded the Churches of mine acquaintance in all countreys where I have been to see observe the work of God among them will witness on my behalf in this thing for this thing they did and I hope do still love tender me although I never did walk with any of them in their Church order since I came forth of Legalism Yet notwithstanding I am able to speak this truth from my own heart which is better known unto me than any of them and beside the testimony of
made thus to write abundantly unto men charging and accusing of them without knowledg or truth they are not able to justifie and make good their wrongfull accusations but when any man is moved of the Lord to write unto a man or people telling them in love and according to truth of their transgressions or failings he is able to justifie what he hath writ and to declare the truth of things more fully and that with so much power and majesty that it doth beget an acknowledgment commonly or filence in the heart of the transgressor but when they write especially unto people of sound judgment and well grounded and established in the faith of Christ it is so far from begetting any silence or convictions upon them that it doth rather discover it self to be what it is indeed delusion and good for nothing but to be returned back and strongly resisted in the Name and power of the Lord 2. This kinde of writing I know what I speak by experience is with such a kinde of lording and vain-glorying over the estate of such unto whom it is written as though they were not worthy to be writ unto I can hardly tell how to express this deceit in words it is with so much undervaluing and vilifying of men that in cannot match it self with the teachings of God in this kinde but when the soul is moved hereunto from that power as it cometh purely from God it is mixed with so much love and tenderness it remembers it self and remembers anothers condition it doth make anothers condition its own and its own anothers and so it was wont to work in the hearts of the servants of Christ as we may find by Pauls words when he saith Gal. 6.1 2. Brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering thy self lest thou also be tempted And as for that fulness of knowledg and words and the like which is a most strong and prevailing delusion and carrieth more the heart of a creature away than any other thing I know as yet manifested whither it be the heart of him in whom it is already conceived or of another that shall once clearly know it to be so for to see one as it were yesterday not able to write or say any thing although to a mean capacity to be able this day to write in such a large manner as I my self know some it begetteth abundance of admiration and silence for a time in the beholders especially such who are of small knowledg and understanding in mysterious things But let not this blinde any man you shall finde it nothing but delusion in considering these Particulars 1. It is like a lightning from the Sky come and gone in a little time for at another time as they confess themselves they cannot do so much if it were to gain the world and yet at that very instant of time while this deceitfull power worketh them thereunto they must do so nay if it be to rise of their beds and if they be not very observative hereunto they shall be made to suffer most unheard of troubles agonies and passions as they have often told me untill they do yield obedience unto that wicked spirit and then they apprehend themselves at very much peace for a time untill Satan have a desire to make use of them again Now that fulness of knowledg and words which are wrought in the soul from the power of truth is more lasting and durable it is the owners to day and to morrow the Lord doth not use to steal away his truth and his knowledg from his servants in this manner but if they see good and just ground of writing or speaking once they can do so twice or thrice or oftner and I have this thing to bless the Lord for in a special manner I cannot say that I do remember the time since I was in any noted and considerable measure endowed with the gifts of God through his beloved Son that ever I did want matter or expressions either to write or speak in publick or private to many or to few but have always found my self abundantly furnished with some kinde of experimental knowledg in order to one particular truth or other whereof I was to deliver my self that I needed not to go and create things by long digested serious meditations readings writings and the like for in my apprehensions it is very easie for a man to divulge that which he is truly and soundly taught of God as the Apostle saith 1 John 1.2 3. That Life and Light which we have seen and heard declare we unto you But I must confess that I do very well know it to be a difficult thing for such who are untaught in that thing they are to communicate unto others while they must be digging for it out of earthly mines 2. Me thinks if these creatures were moved and necessitated in this nature from the power and Spirit of God to write and speak such sharp things in such a terrible and threatning manner unto particular souls or people that their writing and speaking would be of great power and prevalency with them that they should be convinced by it and should not be able to defie it as delusion and madness When Nathan was sent in such a particular manner from the Lord unto David it presently convinced him and when Jonah was sent to Nineveh with that sad news from God they were presently convinced by it but I see no conviction or subjection or fear or love or any such thing wrought by it it being like the chirping of Birds in the air for matter of weight and worth which maketh me judg and so may any man else that hath his judgment rectified by divine Light that all this fulness of words and expressions as I have mentioned are meerly suggested and inspired into their hearts by Antichrist disguised This shall suffice for the Examination and Trial of the first Demonstration and I will now proceed to a second The second Demonstration of this deceit is thus to be considered It must needs be the power of Antichrist working through deceit that robbeth and depriveth the soul of all those former ways and means wherein the Lord did work faith Domonstr 2. is a robbing the soul of its former knowledg c. knowledg and enjoyments in the hearts of his children nay and which robbeth them of all those former excellent things which were brought forth in them by the power of Truth and as it stealeth away all those ways wherein God hath manifested his love and grace to them so it hath deprived them of the use of those ways of walking wherein they have manifested any love or obedience to God so that they are people bereaved of all things of this nature and they reckon it their happiness and their perfection so to be and I have heard them complain exceedingly that they were not wholly taken
10 11. They desite to become fools and to be made weak and I know not what And they had one expression which did stumble me a great while and it was this That the best things that ever we received from God mentioning knowledg and faith and high enjoyments as I well remember yet their words must be burnt up and destroyed this I thought to be a very strange kinde of language and indeed so it is when it is compared with that of the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8.9 where the Holy Ghost commandeth the servants of the Lord to be carefull to seek after the increasings of grace in their hearts and telleth them that while such things shall increase it will make them be fruitfull but if they shall lack these things it will cause them to be blinde that they shall not be able to see far off and truly so are these people that are thus misled for they are so far from being able to see things a far off that they cannot see the present horrible and devilish delusions under which they live and this is the just recompence of reward for such creatures who will negligently use those gifts and graces they have once received It is no marvel they say they have lost all their former experiences and enjoyments and the like for CHRIST taught so much in the Parable of the Talents where we may learn that idle sluggish people who will not improve their Talents shall have them taken away from them The understanding of this moved the Apostle Paul to give such a strict charge unto his Scholar Timothy 1 Tim. 4.13 14 15 16. Till I come give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine not neglecting the gift that is in thee c. and meditate upon these things and give thy self wholly unto them that thy profiting may appear unto all and further saith he Take heed unto thy self and unto thy Dectrine continuing in them for in so doing thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee Here we finde the Holy Ghost judgeth it meet and convenient that all care and diligence should be used both in reading exhorting one another and in the exercising of those graces where with the Lord had â—â—dowed the soul that so they might be kept alive but these beguiled wretches pretend they must not reade or speak a good word to one another or do any thing of this nature unless they can finde as they pretend themselves moved thereunto of the Spirit as it were by some extraordinary and immediate revelation or inspiration but the Spirit of the Lord teacheth his servants to know that it is always the minde of the Lord that those measures and proportions of grace which he hath bestowed should beused to the utter most of their extentâ— and it is the nature of the grace of God manifessed in CHRIST to enable and quicken the soul for a constant course of obedience and holy exercitations A description of spiritual prayer and therefore the Spirit of CHRIST is called a quickning Spirit and hence the Apostle biddeth the people to pray always with all manner of prayer and supplication in the Spirit Ephes 6.18 that is with that life power and strength which remains in the heart from that measure and operation of divine grace or love already received and saith he in this place Watch thereunto with all perseverance And again 1 Thess 5.17 Pray without ceasing 19. Quench not the Spirit These teachings you see of the Spirit of God are altogether contrary unto this negligence in them and a vain deceitfull waiting for a power as they call it if it be so they have no power the greater and more miserable is their loss I said before that when I lay under these kinde of Temptations my self that I did not finde my power gone but me thoughts I could have prayed and have spoken at some other times yet me thinks my will and desire was very cold thereunto and I found something disswading of me from the using of my gifts c. And as they are thus deprived of all abilities as they say themselves for reading and praying and the like so they say they have no freedom to speak admonish or discourse about any thing that they may glorifie the Lord or do good unto others but rather say that they must cease from their own words and wait till they have some immediate stirring or working of the Spirit as they fancy it for that purpose also How contrary this is unto the minde of the Lord you shall see 2 Tim. 4.2 Be instant in season and out of season to preach reprove rebuke exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine and as Paul saith 2 Tim. 1.13 Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me And v 6 7. Stir up the gift of God which is in thee for God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound minde Here is you may easily finde such a vasâ— difference between both these sorts of Teaching and Language that without all dispute there can be but one of them the Language and Teaching of Christ the other must needs be the Teaching and mysterious deceits of Antichrist I will now end this and proceed to a third Demonstration Demonst. 3. Which I gather from those strange and unheard of Passions and Agonies those great burthens and exercitations of body in so much that they are sometimes in Trances or Sounings and if they are not brought unto such a state of deadness as it were yet they suffer most extreme Tortures of body that hath been visible to me and several others many times nay so much extremity that it maketh them roar out for very bitterness and I do clearly judg that if the Lord did not limit the Devil in their behalf as he did for Job saying Thou shalt not touch his life it would be impossible for their concaves to hold their in wards in those violent motions for they are made under those Agonies to tremble and quake as though their flesh must part from their bones and ligatures like unto men in the strongest fits of an Ague that ever you saw as though they had seen Belshazzars Vision Dan. 10. that made his knees smite one against another in these strange Passions they are exercised with so much heat I know not of what sort that it maketh them cry out for Drink and maketh them sweat like men in most violent Feavers now they call these Agonies the fiery Trial and they fay it is the power of the Holy Ghost burning up and destroying their corruptions and purifying them like Gold that is tried seven times in the fire and that which is very strange when they are thus in the midst of these extreme Shakings Quakings Trials Roarings and Perplexities that one would think there could not be more Torment upon the damned spirits than is upon them at the present yet many times
Darkness and Valley of Death Fourth Rule is the manner of the Teaching of God and his holy and blessed Spirit The fourth Rule in Demonstr 3. about this thing First where as they compare their sufferings and Agonies with those of CHRIST and say they must suffer the wrath of God and the like as he did and yet reckon themselves the servants of the Lord the Spirit of God will prove this to be a horrible Lie and delusion because that CHRIST suffered for his servants and bore the wrath and curse of God for them and made satisfaction to his Fathers Law and Justice in his own Bloud and his Father was pleased to accept it and so forth indeed it is true of the damned that they shall undergo the eternal wrath and justice of God upon their own consciences because they refused to believe love and obey the will of CHRIST concerning them and made known in them that so they might have had the benefit of that sacrifice which Christ gave unto his Father for the sins of others But this is not true concerning the Lords faithfull ones and that any judicious man may see by these ensuing testimonies of Scripture Isai 53. all that Chapter Reade O ye people all this blessed Truth and give your mindes to believe and by believing it let your souls love him that did so much for the sinfull sons of men and in loving of him give him up willing and chearfull obedience which if you shall continue unto the end your souls shall know in the testimony of Truth what this Scripture is worth and you shall be able through the witness of the Holy Spirit of Promise to say and prove it is a most devilish Lie and delusion to conceive that any who are one with God in Christ shall undergo the wrath of God in that manner that they speak of by this they make the Death of Christ of none effect Reade also about this matter the ninth Chapter to the Hebrews and when you have weighed it see whether it can stand with the Lords Justice to call any of his servants to hear so in their bodies and spirits as they do his Justice and exact Judgment untill he have wrought out of them his own satisfaction recompence in that nature But if Satan shall teach them a point of Sophistry and make them say they do not undergo this Wrath and Torment for Satisfaction but for Sanctification yet it will be a Lie and delusion that way for the Spirit of the Lord when it sanctifieth the hearts of his servants doth not go about to tear their hearts out of their bodies and their flesh off their bones in that nature And although it be compared and many times called Fire in the Scripture it is rather from the work wrought than from the manner of its working and therefore the Holy Spirit is compared unto Water Isai 55. John 4. And the Apostle saith concerning the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6.11 that they were washed from their former transgressions by the Spirit of the Lord by which seemingly contrary expressions an impartial man may judg that the Spirit of the Lord worketh sanctification in the soul in a blessed sweet moderate and peaceable manner First as it is a Light so it discovereth unto the soul the dangerousness and ugliness of sin and the unpleasingness thereof unto the Lord. The manner of the Spirit sanctifying the heart Secondly when it hath thus discovered it it bringeth the soul to a disliking thereof it begins to take away the affections and the delights of the heart from it Thirdly in as much as the Spirit of the Lord is called a quickening Spirit it doth raise up the soul to the contemplations of heavenly ways and duties wherein the Lord would have his people to walk and engageth the heart to love them and so in an holy blessed alluring manner stealeth the heart away to God who in the manifestation of that Spirit of Light is made appear to the soul more lovely excellent rich satisfactory and the like than all those former things were they riches or profane pleasures wherein the soul delighted it self before herein I appeal to the witness of such who have tasted of that Spirit hence it is that the Lord is said to allure his Church and to speak kindly unto her and you shall finde how blessedly the Lord speaketh unto a back-sliding people the worst of all sorts upon their returnings unto him Hosea 14.4 I will heal their back slidings I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from them Me thinks if the Lord would have used such fiâ—e and fagot like burnings upon the hearts and consciences of any people for to have sanctified them withall it should have been upon such a people as these are But to end this which the Saints know by experience and most others by report to be true I shall turn over all that reade my Book unto that Parable of the polluted childe in Ezek. 16. from the beginning to vers 15. where you shall finde both the Lords purpose for acceptation of that polluted Babe and his powerfull operations for its sanctification in vers 9. and others Moreover if they shall urge Davids complaining that his bones were broken and his flesh would scarce cleave unto them and how he had no free part in his body and the like It is far from me to think that this was under an apprehension of wrath or that his soul did now bear the weight of Justice for its transgressions or so for David had long before said and known that the Lord was wont to cover the sins of his people and not to impute them to their charge and therefore he calls them blessed Psalm 32.1 2. and from this conifortable Doctrine of free forg veness and acceptation he concludeth his Psalm with this Be glad in the Lord and rejoye O ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart for as he saith in the beginning of the next Psalm Praise is comely for the upright so is a chearfull spirit upon this account I rather take Davids complaining thus to be for want of his communion with God as he seemeth to teach in that word Thou hidest thy face and I was sore troubled I am sure the soul that hath had sweet communion and refreshment with and from the Lord in the want of this will complain heavily as you may finde in Psalm 42. throughout And by the Spouse running so earnestly after CHRIST when she had lost him Cant. 3. in the beginning And this made her cry out she was sick of love for Christ. Was it not the want of the continued enjoyment of that extraordinary apprehension of love and glory in the presence of God that made Paul complain 2 Cor. 12.7 and suffer temptation which he calleth a messenger of Satan Shall any man think that he suffered this for his sanctifying Nay will you now in the last place
of I take literally according to our computation of time The binding and chaining up of the Devil I take to be such a powerfull and blessed appearance of God in the hearts of his people who shall through the teachings of himself be brought to such an holy Conformity and Uniformity both in affection judgment and walking that Antichrist shall not be able to break in upon them to delude or entice them or the like but they through the glorious and in dwelling of God in their hearts shall be able to resist all the deceivable ways of Satan that he will be as it were no Devil at all unto them he will be as though he were tied with a Chain or cast into a I le not able to hurt or wrong any of them as now he doth Now this thousand years being taken out wherein the Church of CHRIST shall thus triumph over him and conquer him there remaineth but three hundred and fifty or there about which must likewise be divided into two parts one part must be for Satan to go about into all the corners of the earth to deceive and beguile the people again v. 7 8. at the exspiration of the thousand year after the manner as now he doth in my judgment and so to bring them into a state of apostacy which he cannot do probably under an age and a half or two ages for we see in our own experience there is no ground error or superstition sucked into the hearts of a people or rooted out under an age and an half at least and therefore I think he must have such an allowance as this for to bring an universal apostacy into all the earth before its destruction and if you shall allow him but an hundred and fifty years for this then there wil be but even two hundred before that thousand which is but a short time in comparison of what he hath had ever since he first beguiled Eve with the forbidden Apple and therefore no marvel he doth so bestir himself now and finde out new and more dangerous ways This is my present apprehension concerning the ending of the World and concerning that mystery in Rev. 20. Si quid novisti rectius istis Candidus imperti si non his utere mecum Question 2. In order to the people themselves called Quakers Peradventure some are inquiring seeing they are so exceedingly deluded and such a dangerous people what course should be taken by them whether it were best to imprison them or banish them or the like In my Answer hereunto I shall direct my speech unto two sorts of people First unto the common sort of people I do hear and believe it is true that the ordinary sort of people in all Countreys and Towns whither these poor creatures come do abuse them very much and beat them and despitefully use them I do not conceive that this is the right way to deal with them neither can any good ground be given for this kinde of usage of them seeing they come to places in a peaceable manner pretending they come for the peoples good and me thinks it is great inhumanity to use any people so uncivilly that come so civilly and withall they speak nothing in that nature but what their hearers themselves must confess to be true reproving them sharply for some unjust and unrighteous actings or other or for some carnal and secure conditions wherein they live c. And therefore I would counsel all such people to whom they shall come in this kinde to take a right way of opposing them which is through a strong knowledg and understanding of the Scripture to reason with them and to prove them fairly according to the rules of the Scripture and such rules as I have here given you in my Book to be those deluders and deluded people that are spoken of by Christ and his Apostles and upon that account neither to own them nor their Doctrine This is the warrantable way of the Gosple and I think I may be bold to tell you this for your encouragment that if you shall stick up closely and unanimously to this way you will finde the Devil a very Coward according to that word of St James Resist the devil and he will fly from But if any of you shall say that you are not able to deal with them in this nature they are too full of knowledg and you are not so well acquainted with the Scriptures as they c. I fear it is too true as you say but is not the fault your own Hive not you Bibles as well as they How comes it to pass that you are so empty of knowledg in the Word of God but for want of diligent reading and meditating in the same And therefore I would counsel all men both Preachers and people to be hereafter better armed against them for I suppose you will be more troubled with them than you have been and indeed when you have done all this your natural attainments of this kinde will prove too short to deal with them by therefore by all means laber father and feek to gain the spiritual armour of Christ Jesus which you shall have from him if you will receive him John 1.12 and hearken diligently unto the voice of God calling you and do not stand still and rest your selves satisfied in your ignorant and carnal conditions but remember that word Ephes 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light yea and power and strength also to overcome the assaults of Satan and you must pray with all your might unto the Lord to furnish your souls with his grace and holy Spirit that you may be able to stand fast in such perillous times Secondly I direct my speech unto the civil Magistrate and desire him to consider what he doth to these people I hear they are from City to City and Countrey to Countrey persecuted and imprisoned by you but by what Law of yours I know not I do not hear that they do transgress any of your Laws by sinfull and unrighteous actings if they should I shall give my consent they might have double punishment if they do not I would have you forbear them and see that they have not greater grounds to speak against your abominations than you have to punish them I fear because they tell you your own many of you they turn your Patience into Passion and from thence rather than from any Principle you have to do justice you act against them for if you were generally men possessed with a zeal to do justice we should not have such abominable and crying sins calling at the Throne of God for justice against such injusticers as many are If you will not believe the Truth because it comes from them yet I hope you will believe it as it comes from the mouth of God Isai 1.23 24. Thy Princes are rebellious and companions of Thieves every one loveth gifts and followeth after
language as ever I prayed when I enjoyed most of the divine operations and presence of God I can witness this several times And because you shall have a little farther discovery of this I will turn you over unto a book of Hannah Trapnels if ever you have seen it she was a maid in London that as I have heard by credible reporte would be cast into traunces and swounings sometimes a whole day and a whole night and sometimes twelve hours that to the view of the beholders she would be dead and yet in the coming out of those fits would sometimes speak and sometimes pray as though she had been an Angel from Heaven I have seen her Book and that which I was stumbled at even in those times when I thought she was sent as an Angel from God to speak unto men rather than one deluded by Antichrist was that confusion that was in her spirit about Oliver Cromwell as she calls him for sometimes for one while she would be raging and raving and railing at him with such kinde of language that I never heard any servant of CHRIST use and another while it may be in the same breath praying for him again with such words and expressions that were admirable and some of the beholders standing by that could write short-hand took most of her expressions for she was but slow in delivery That Book will give any one a perfect form of Antichrists teaching men to pray and to speak and withall to prophesie a little for in many things in that Book she is like a Prophet and although it be in undeniable words and expressions peradventure yet I am sure the Spirit of God doth not act any of his people to pray and curse so both in a breath and as for Oliver that she speaketh so much of the se vants of CHRIST are not acted to rage nor rail against him but to speak with wisdom and sound judgment when they tell him of what they conceive amiss in him This business of praying whereat many simple people might stumble as much if not more than any thing else they see by them yet hath procured these Lines and I hope this may be a usefull hint to one and many Here you have seen the Seekers Principles which the Quakers hold yet entirely because they are acted as Ministers of Righteousness But as for the Ranters they have had new Principles or apprehensions added unto these 1. That God is all in all things and that all things are God c. 2. That God is all in all in them and they all in him and then by consequence they are not themselves neither can do any thing of themselves but God acteth and doth all in them and by them c. 3. That God acting all in them will act nothing against himself and all that he doth must be good and therefore whatsoever they do must be good because they are acted thereunto of God c. and to the pure all things are pure c. These Ranters are the most unworthy of all sorts of creatures that ever were known and I reckon them far more wicked than any other profane wicked people in as much as profane men be they never so wicked dare not justifie their ungodly deeds but these deluded creatures justifie their actings and reckon them perfect pure and good as being done of God There were a people deluded and acted after the very same manner as these are in the days of the Apostles for such were they of whom Peter and Jude speak of 2 Pet. 2.2 Jude the beginning to v. 20. Most of all those Apostates in the days of the Apostles were acted like unto these Ranters now or else as meer worldlings like unto Demas forsaking all former professions of the faith and Gospel to embrace this present world I can hardly finde any in reading all the New Testament that were acted as Ministers of Righteousness as these Quakers are and I suppose they were onely foreseen and prophesied of against this time by Christ and Paul here in my Tex and in 1 Tim. 41 2 3. Herein I observe not only the subtilty but also the diligence of Antichrist who finding his time to be short and willing to enlarge his Kingdom acteth his servants several ways under several pretences and forms that so such as would not be held in through open profaneness because they themselves do condemn and disown it in their judgments might be brought to see through a Lie in Hypocrisie that there is no sin at all but to him that doth so esteem it and upon that account to justifie all their ways and actions laying it all upon the score of God saying he doth all in them and by them they are wholly crucified into the will of the Lord c. And again such as would not be deceived by him in neither of both these ways might be acted as Ministers of Righteousness as false Apostles or false Christs not being seen either to own or to practice any uncleanness at all but rather to be ready to do all good as Christ and the Apostles were I remember that I have sometimes told these Quakers that I did conceive the design of Antichrist was in the end to bring them to work all manner of uncleanness but since I have taken farther notice of the prophesies of Scripture concerning them and also noting that Satan hath acted another sort of people that way already viz. the Ranters I do now judg that they shall be carried on from one degree unto another to act righteousness all along as I have declared at large before In what I have lately writ all the world may see that Antichrist doth act three manner of ways in three sorts of people But little did I think once to have seen the people called the Seekers whom I did esteem to be so heavenly and spiritual both in principle and practice carried away with such spiritual delusion and truly I fear there are but few of them but what are ensnared already so that I know not whether any admonition here may come soon enough for their prevention yet rather than I would spare my Pen for a few Lines if it might be but for the sake of very few in this Nation I will tell them what I apprehend they ought to do with speed 1. Either to consort themselves among themselves and regain their lost time and exercise their fading graces 2. To joyn themselves into the societies of other servants of Christ and especially such as do live the best life and walk most agreeable to the order of the Gospel For I know no other ordinary way of preventing the delusion from such as are yet escaped But me thinks I have strong perswasions that all of them will be hurried up and down unto one of these shamefull conditions of Ranters Quakers or meer worldlings I have too much reason for what I speak The second word to the people called Baptists I have been a
he in v. 12. At that time meaning this time last mentioned ye were without Christ aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the world O ye poor deluded creatures of the world also your spirits and persons I love and wish well unto and therefore as my brethren in the first creation I desire you all in the bowels and mercies of Christ to weigh well and consider this Scripture for here is your condition exactly and truly characterized and held forth unto you and when any of you shall finde it so give neither the Lord nor your own souls any rest untill you finde your selves in some measure washed and sanctified by the Spirit of Christ from that uncomfortable condition But to return Secondly if these poor beguiled wretches of whom we are speaking all along shall judg them to be the servants of Christ and reckon themselves the servants of Christ also why then they are brethren and if brethren and yet hate their brethren they must needs be under delusion and the words of the Apostle John will render them to be Liars and a deceived people to take the words of the Apostle before us 1 John 3.10 In this the Children of God are manifest and the Children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousness Look to that O ye unrighteous men is not born of God neither he that loveth not his brother Vers 14. We know that we are passed from Death to Life because we love the brethren he that loveth not his brother abideth in death Vers 15. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer and ye know no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him Chap. 4. v. 7. Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God Vers 8. He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love Vers 12. No man hath seen God at any time if we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is made perfect in us Vers 16. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Vers 20. If any man say he loveth God and hateth his brother he is a Lyar. This testimony of John proveth all manner of envy hatred bitterness evil surmisings and the like against the servants of Christ to be none of the work of God because God is love and acteth all in love and as he doth act and as he is so are his servants in this present world 1 John 4.17 But if they shall go about to perswade further and to say that notwithstanding they speak sharp and harsh language yet it is all from a principle of love This will not agree with that operation of divine love which the Apostle Paul mentioneth 1 Cor. 13.4 5 6 7. Charity suffereth long and is kinde it envieth not it vaunteth not it self it doth not behave it self unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh none evil rejoyceth not in iniquity but rejoyceth in the Truth beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things Now let any judicious man compare the operations of that which they call divine love and these operations which the Apostle doth here mention and see whether they are like to proceed from one author If I had used onely this one Demonstration it might have suffreed to have proved them to be under a most deceitfull power of Antichrist but while here are variety of discoveries with plain and easie Rules for manifestation thereof I suppose he must be wilfully blind that will be lead away with these people and their pernicious Errors when he shall have well weighed and compared one thing with another I do not for the present apprehend any thing more material to have been illustrated in this nature beside what I have done I will therefore proceed to what I finde next to be considered in the Apostles discoverings of them which is that as Satan transforms himself into an Angel of Light so it will be no great thing to see his ministers transformed as ministers of righteousness The second remarkable Truth from the Text is thus That such as are be guiled by Satans angelical transformings of himself in the manner as hath been shewed are likewise transformed themselves as though they were Ministers of Righteousness For if it were not so they would presently discover it themselves to be of Antichrist if such a wonderfull and extraordinary power should appear exercising and terrifying both their bodies and mindes and yet they themselves carried forth as ministers of unrighteousness they would apprehend it not to be of God and all other people for the most part would know it so likewise whereas they now stand amazed not knowing what to think of it for every one can see and say that is not quite blinde that all open profane wicked lewd unconscionable and unrighteous men are deluded of the Devil and by him lead into those wicked ways of sin and uncleanness for God never leadeth men into such courses Note this all you that go astray from the ways of holiness and sin against your own Light and being so in the ways of unrighteousness Satan findeth himself to be open and unmasked he transforms his ministers as well as himself and so maketh them act as though they were Ministers of Righteousness and that they were indeed moved thereunto of the Lord. And this is the reason why this prodigious Comet doth through these its scintillations and sparklings beget such a dreadfulness in the hearts of the beholders and to speak out I am afraid it doth prognosticate a sad destiny unto many people as I shall shew toward the end of my Book onely such who walk in the statutes and ordinances of CHRIST shall be kept by him as Lambs in his bosom but let all other wandring stars and empty clouds such who are mighty in words and expressions little or nothing in a sound experimental and lively knowledg of CHRIST look to themselves and if this cautionary word make any of them wise let them glorifie God on that behalf Did you ever know a people acted through a more glorious shew or appearance of righteousness than they are Their denying and throwing off the world and all the cares and pains thereof for Christs sake as they say and their forsaking father mother wife and children What a fair colour hath this Their enduring so much affliction opposition persecution and disgrace from men Is not this like the Cross of Christ and like the susterings of Christ and his Apostles Their running and travelling so many miles from place to place and speaking so boldly unto great men crying out against their abominations Doth not this blace abroad mightily in the eys of the world Their writing so many Letters and dealing so plainly with men carrieth a fair shew of holiness And there are hardly a people to be found that cry out more against