many of your fore-fathers even you your selves varied from Apostolicall knowings and livings in the Spirit If I did think Antichrist would not lye or if you were competent Judges of your own hearts in this great time of your contention for Masteries for power and authority for the sitting in the uppermost Rooms of feasts for Judging according to your selves you would tell me that you have all gone out of the way and that you are altogether become abominable even in the eyes of the divine invisible presence as it is in the Son of the Fathers love and also in your own eyes Have not many of you endeavoured to finde out the profound unsearchable riches of the incomprehensible God who is every where in all the natures of things and yet can hide himself in relation to any thing beside himself so that they shall not perceive him May not God work upon the Left hand and upon the Right hand you see him not surely it 's recorded that Job was in such a condition Job 23.9 Have you not endeavoured to finde out that one indivisible mind that one unalterable God as if you contained him in the hollow of your hands in one associated assembled company Oh! then truly those that you are pleased to call Sectaries of all men are most miserable Have not you thought you might finde truth's glory by the knowledge of the Etymologie of words by your artificiall learning and parts by finding out the fallible derivations and nationall changings of Termes Have not your Sermons been cunningly and artificially composed like Menander his two Comoedies Andria and Perinthia which were very unlike in composition And hath not this deceived the hearts of the people though your subject matter as you will say differ little Do not you in your great contentions endeavour to make a Uniformity in worship which you are pleased to call circumstantials or to give some other slight name to it and also an Uniformity in your substantialls so that the Magistrates have been as the Priests or the Priests as the Magistrates and so Priests Magistrates and people have been almost all one But you must likewise go to the Sepulchre of your fathers to be intoombed or hidden mystically in the conteyning Bowels of the earth the grave of the eternall God for all Yesterday it was to a persecuting Papist afterwards to a persecuting Protestant power and to day is to a domineering Presbyter Hinc illae Lachrymae here is unstedfastness in all our wayes here is persecution under 3. adulterated formes though I mention only these formes I complicate other formes whatsoever they are in the world that are not of God even the Father as considered in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ Give me leave to reason with you and take all in good part for I freely give in a loving consideration but let me tell you in this little Tract that which I apprehend will in the time of the invisible omnipotent Father peirce you to the very heart even some of you in this Generation before it passeth away by that word which endures for ever Oh thou Papist hast thou Iesus Iesus so much in thy mouth Oh thou Protestant hast thou Christ as much in thine and thou Presbyter hast thou the Lord Jesus as much in thy mouth as either of the former to throw both down and others also that are in a form of contrariety to thee and to make thy self an absolute Lord an absolute lover of thy self an absolute pleaser of thy self an absolute liver to thy self I only give these names because you are capable of those names you own your selves by and distinguish your selves and indeed are distinguished in the world therefore be not offended at it You speak much of Christ and your own ordinary and frequent expressions to maintain your own Jus Divinum are frequently in your mouths nay I think in your hearts You say indeed Interrogemus Christum but you do take councell with your selves and if you or any of you shall be subject to the sweet teachings of God of the most holy true and absolute you will tell me hereafter or others if not me or your selves if not others or be told of God that you did proclaim a Fast but you intēded to cut of Naboaths head before hand to stone poor Naboath all because he will live in the inheritance of his Father You will say that you had self-contrivings and Law-makings to destroy those that would walk and live and speak as being the inheritance and in the inheritance of the Father of freeness love and excellencie You will say that you with the will of your selves and the minde of your selves though unseeingly to you the minde of the incomprehensible did make way for Stigmatizing and Stigmatizing Informers if you fasted from your selves if you did not ask councell of your selves in the forms of truth make interrogatories to your selves and answer your own questions it would be a great question whether you obeyed the voyce of God or walked after your own premeditated Ordinances Laws and Designes What though your Counsels as it is recorded of Herod in the peoples apprehensions do speak as the Oracles of God what though you make your selves strong by arguments drawn from your vast Humane Intellects according to the formall denomination of wisdom and understanding in the world it is all but your selves it is but the high glory of an exterior and mysticall Antichrist it is but ad res inanes studia convertere It is that that hath deceived all the Nations of the world and doth deceive the people multitudes of the earth and make them to wonder at you and indeed it hath not only drawn the earthly and beguiled the simple ignorant of God through deceipt but also the heavenly the Saints of the most high those that are in the fathers bosome glorious teachings even to make a Disciple for a season to deny his Master till the substance the invisible incomprehensible God hath given them to see himself more and also themselves and others and to see and live to themselves and others less and to see him inmost of all within every vail within whom nothing is and without whom nothing is or is not is it not evident in the world that Synods and Assemblies have more looked upon and judged truth to be according to mens various argumentative varieties according to the seeing of the eye and the hearing of the ear rather then the true and reall discendings of God in their own understandings by the absolute spirit witness Testimonie or manifestation of the sole supream How many thousands of adulterous voyces have the world heard and worshiped with even with the Supereminentest names of Glory how many false and uncertain sounds have the Plebeians so called by many in scorn affected from a Causidick or a Terrestriall Polititian or an affected self-affecting Priest when the sound have been given by those that have the power of
to be delighted in it thou that hast habitation and habitations and yet hast no habitation at all to inclose thee comprehend thee inviron thee do good unto thee if thou hast eternally will'd it let me be the habitation of thy wisdome though a prison shall be a habitation for me Oh sweet God! how sweet will it be that I should be a habitation for thy invisible indivisible self in the spirit of understanding conquer that Divell for me whom thou hast made and given power to deceive and yet hast power to conquer him and if thou hast a minde that I shall speak of thee and acknowledge thee manifest it and then let me not fear the face of a man whose breath is in his nostrils but yet Lord let me have that courage that belongs to thy immutable life and to those that live unto God and not themselves When I shall or if I shall be brought before Magistrates Kings Counsellours or Judges of the earth let not that move me let me not be tossed to and fro by them so as to give up or make recantation of those thngs thou manifestest by thy eternall impress let me be before the Magistrate and judge as knowingly in the presence of the judge of Magistrates and Judges and let me speak as in thy presence Lord I have spoken in private of thee and to thee and thou vouchsafest to reason with with me and discourse with me but man is vain man is sensuall man is proud and the lofty ones would be more lofty then the lofty one that inhabits eternity Wilt thou invisible God draw me to speak to thee and furnish me with arguments and shall I be afraid to speak of thee to thee in the face and hearing of a dying man But Lords of the earth Lords in time I may truly say as in the presence of the Lord of times and seasons Oh Lord my God! other Lords besides thee have had Dominion over me have been in me the head of a designe but by thee will I only make mention of thy name Temporarie Lords Counsellours Synods if he that sees would make you see that say you see if he that apprehends would make you apprehend you would see your selves neither Lords to your selves nor Lords to others in things concerning the invisible life you would be glad to have your selves dethroned and the absolute supream in all your titular momentary glories alone dignified and exalted But Mutable Dominion what will it avail in the day of the Triumph of the absolute perpetuall Triumphant when sorrow and mourning shall flie away from your abjects the off-scum and off-scouring of your worldly glory when fears death and Hell when worse then the Plagues of Egypt shall fall upon you possess you even you that have had the pleasures of Egypt power given not only to your selves but pleasure in your selves to scourge the Nations especially the refining Jewels of the great God of heaven and earth Me thinks I see and hear that the Lords of the earth the Potentates of the world the praying the preaching the fasting the fleshly glories and the spirits of Antichrist but I must confess with some comfort it is only during their time of dominion and whilst their place is to be found endeavour to destroy the prayers of Saints by praying the declarations of Saints by Preaching to destroy the glory of true reall and absolute fasting by fasting This Nationall Interrogatory may be indeed asked What Religion do you profess May there not be a generall cry by those that see May there not be a Trumpet sounded in the Nations of the World but more especially in the commonly called house of Jacob or England that seemingly there is a daily delight to know the wayes of the most high as if a Nation that did righteously and did not forsake the ordinances of the great God as if they walked according to the dictamen of the absolute sole supream and lived according to the absolute spirit of the eternall God in the truth of understanding do they not seem to ask of God he Ordinances of Justice when their own praemeditated praeordinated fleshly Antichristian Ordinances Lawes and Statutes are maintained by their fleshly carnall accomplishing power But these delight in their approaching to and by the name of the eternall God Have we not the Monarchs the powers of the world of Nations the spirits of darkness death hell and the Grave that challenge the holy one of Israel to his face that insultingly and domineeringly and as much as in them lie blaspheme the absolute supream wisdome and would be in the place of the supream Cause or would have the supream Cause to be their servant and they to be Master to that eternall absolute undefiled immutable glory as if they should say we have fasted and thou seest not have we observed dayes and moneths and years and observest thou not We love the Nation with our hearts and we will preserve the Nation with our prayers Shall we observe a day and wilt thou not observe both the day and us We have not only afflicted our bodies but our very souls if bodily whippings scourgings and lashings of our selves as many of us are perswaded in our understandings will not move thee yet our afflicting our soules piercing our selves through with many sorrows or reducing our selves in body soul into a super-superlative way of sadness and affliction will must move thee Wilt thou take no knowledge of this excellent daies work of ours We came with an intent to have thee know what we would have thee know and do what we would have thee do against Hereticks and Sectaries disturbers of the Peace we would have thee our servant our slave but we wil not say so for that wil too much undeceive the world if out of our own mouth we should judge our selves we should no more binde the world in temporarie chains and in fetters of our own devising But Oh Lords Oh you Monarchs in a Nation and Nations you have here in this little Tract but an earnest of your charge drawn up but when the interiorest of all when that knowing seeing and judging God that lofty one shall come and judge you according to that you are within for you are not alwaies the same without that you are within What are yee What difference shall you see Shall you not see a change and a vast disproportion betweeen a Lord and a Lazarus that was captivated to the light and knowledg of the absolute Lord But Lords or powers of the World by what name or title soever distinguished what though in the day of your fasting you found pleasure and delight yet it was but an exaction of your own labours ye fasted for strife and prayed for debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness as a Nation that did righteousness justice and mercie as if you lived to the highest formes of truth in relation to humanity and likewise to
give forth some way or other to discover the thoughts of all hearts Oh Lord Supereminent Thou hast made all men almost to differ one from another and thou hast set the world in their hearts to some thou didst give the gift of prophesie it may be in some measure to some Tongues to some discerning of spirits to some working of miracles to some wisdom to some knowledge to some Faith if thou givest me but the glimmerings of love in the least of these or in any one let me not despise him that hath more or judge him that hath more nor yet despise him that hath less or judge him that hath less if any have less then my self in relation to capacity or understanding for thou art the same let me not pretēd to know above what I really know though the powers of the world would have me do that I am not convinced of or leave undone that which I cannot because I am thine not their servant Oh then the absolute Lord over-rule the lords in me and let me see thee and walk before thee in the understanding yet if thou wilt have a Nero a Domitian a Caligula or any power of the visible world to scourge me Give my back to the smiters and let me know and see thou givest it and then let me take pleasure in it For oh Lord me thinks I see that a man may have a vision of God and may see a star to arise out of Jacob and may be convinced in his conscience that the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and that God is the alone Lawgiver Judge and absolute supream as many or most of the Nationall Priests and Lords confess yet at the request of a base sensitive lust and divilish desire will endeavour to have Altars built yea Altar upon Altar to see whether they can curse the Israel of God Let us proclaim a Fast that so God may hear our Prayers and grant our desires the longing of our souls But Lord how far is this from the true life of Saintship and love in the World But O Lord refine me and then let me walk as refined Thirteenth The mandates of the Scripture even the Scriptures from which the Potentates and powers of the earth have and do maintain persecution and violence to others do all of them extend to the Magistrate and if he were in a Christian constitution as he pretends he ought not in that relation to use carnall weapons neither will he unless he supposes himself wiser then ever Christ or an Apostle was or hath received the Spirit more then an Apostle had or hath received the Spirit to maintain and defend such a practise as the Apostle could not neither did 2 Cor. 10.4 Christ saith when they were persecuted should pray when cursed bless Christ could have had twelve Legions of Angels to defend him in this visible world but he would not take any invisible glory or visible excellency of God to defend him And if the Magistrates will tell us plainly that they have that power given them as considered in a constitution of holiness and truth which the Father would not give Jesus the Son or which he would not assume or exercise nor give his Apostles power to assume or exercise Let them prove that they or this or that particular Magistrate had or have that which neither of them had neither Jesus Christ nor Apostles And let those whom they are pleased to call Hereticks and to banish imprison and afflict see their Arguments that they have in themselves as in the presence though they think it not nor perceive it or know it or though knowing it will not acknowledge it of the Eternall incomprehensible Judge non-respecter of persons the interiorest discerner that can describe that which man describes with a fuller description and judge with a fuller judgement then man or any visible glory or rationall intellect in the world who is without the exteriorest and within the interiorest and indivisible in himself who judges with a more absolute judgement then all the Councels Potentates Lords Synods or Parliaments of the earth And when he enters into judgement the flesh of a Lord is no more then the flesh of another man nor shall more be justified by him or be able to justifie it self But I beleeve if things were demonstrated in the world according to the spirit of truth reallity and non-confusion the Lords Potentates and Counsels of the earth would appear to be the greatest Anti-scripturists though in words they would not have it so expressed or so express it themselves Fourteenth Is it not a case of conscience or is there not necessity that every particular man should be perswaded in his own minde for what he doth or for what he is commanded to do least he call good evil and evil good least he call oppressing persecuting Lords Magistrates Counsels Synods followers of the God of heaven in love light and truth Citizens of the New Ierusalem Saints of the most high God livers in the Spirit those that walk with God when indeed they are not so but grinders of the faces of the poor Idolaters carnall sensuall and divilish having not the spirit having mens persons in admiration because of advantage making a prey of the poor and needy having wisdom yet are not wise unto God but to themselves oppressours though not of their friends or themselves of the Saints of the most High or those that are not perswaded in their consciences by the Divine Supream God It is not strange to say know and think that magistrates and ministers so called have been so are and may be so The Scriptures of the most High God testifie it the saints have witnessed it and still do witness it with their blood and bodies Are there not men magistrates and ministers of such mindes as Caesar Caligula was of that wished that all the people of Rome had but one neck that he might destroy many at once Many can apply this But Hell must inlarge her self Gods design must be accomplished in Hell as well as in Heaven Saints give your backs to the smiters In this my last Demonstration and apprehension I was in the conclusion desiring in my own spirit of that eternall Jehovah and everlasting God that I might be so swallowed up into that eternall glory wisdom power will that I might not manifest my self with my self but that my self or rather himself might be manifested in me by me and from me then though the mutable Lords of the Aire oppose me yet my alone substantiall ever-remaining supereminent Lord remaines If I live he is if I die those that live after me shall not truly say he is not but he is the same I also desired that I might be so swallowed up to the life of the Lord that in seeing of that Lord in the things of that Lord I might not respect persons that it might be all one to me to be hated and to be loved to
would scarce afford him to write or seeme to write upon the ground If he did we should have a gangraena made presently to condemn this Heretick this Belzebub this friend to publicans sinners But Lords But Counsailes but Synods in fine but men when the absolute Lord and supereminent God shal tell you though a poore man it may be that is iudged and condemned before you may not neither doth that you who were or are called Lords in the sublunary Visible Kingdome glory did endeavour to cast a moate out of anothers eye you had a beame in your owne and that you having a beam are no competent judges of a mote But it may be you will say that you are infallible in this and also say that that saying of Christ doth not appertain to you Let him that is without sin cast the first stone when God shall discover himself and manifest you what you are even that you that judge other are Cast-awaies your selves are Hereticks your selves you would not be very willing to finde a stone for another When the Lord shall say though you cried Templum Domini Templum Domini yet the everlasting was not in your esteem even he that can when he will both cast out Beam and Mote But thus it is when the Lord is not or will not be understandingly supereminently in the Lords thoughts though he be neer and sees yet he will not be seen but they say how doth God know can he judge through the dark Cloud thick Clouds are a covering to him that he seeth not and he walketh in the circuit of heaven Job 22 23 24. But Oh Immortality thy righteousness thy seeing and thy seeing to be seen thy knowing to be known and thy understanding to be understood shines not upon all Thou hast O Lord set the world in my heart so that no man can finde out the work that thou hast made from the beginning to the end Ecclesiastes 3.11 Therefore Lord if thou wilt give a Crown Power and Authority to Temporarie Lords to excercise their Dominion and power even upon me if thou shalt manifest me and make me a little flame of thy self thy will be done It is only in thy self to comprehend the works that thou hast made from the beginning to the end if man indeavours to comprehend endeavours to inthrone himself in a state of comprehending others and persecuting others from an apprehension that he comprehends when he doth not in deed and in truth and though I shall if thou comprehending incomprehensib e willest be afflicted scorrned contemned by that generation yet let me in particular lie down and be satisfied that I am apprehended and comprehended of thee and that I know see and speake according to the true and reall nature of knowing seeing speaking living and injoying as comprehended let me see before I say I see know before I say I know and be spoken to before I speak Oh! thou immutable knower see'r and absolute speaker as to the things that thou hast made capable of seeing knowing and speaking let thy loving spirit of righteousness and wisdom uphold me and though thou deliverest me to the ungodly and turnest me over into the hands of the wicked let me say truly knowingly and understandingly my witness is in heaven and my record is on high in love Job 26.19 But Counsellours of the Earth Weak Contenders of the Earth with the absolute Lord I see and consider oppressions though I see not all oppressions under the Sun But a comfort it is that the absolute Lord sees Eccles 4.1 2. But it may be Lords you will say when you persecute there is no remedy in the death of a man it is sutable to conveniency and the constitution of a Kingdom to destroy a man so as it was indeed to crucifie the Son of God who was known is known to some not to be held of the grave But you it may be will say you have not known any man to returne it may be you will say men are born at an adventure and shall be hereafter as though they had never bin that the breath of your nostrils is as smoake a little spark in the moving of your Breast which being extinguished your body shall be turned into ashes and your spirit shall vanish as the soft Aire therefore you will lie in waite for the righteous because he is not for your turn he is clean contrary to your doings because he professeth to have the knowledge of God and he calleth himself the child of the Lord he is made to reprove your doings therefore he is grievous to behold because his life is not like other mens his waies are of another fashion because you are esteemed of him as counterfeits and he abstaineth from your filthiness and because he maketh his boast that God is his Father And therefore you will examine him with despightfulness and torture to know his meekness and prove his Patience But Potentates I shall present a few things to your consideration paradventure you may see with your eyes and heare with your ears and when you are converted if ever you shall you may set to your seals that these things are true to the praise and glory of the absolute infallible God Judge power wisdome and true glory 1. God is the alone supream King of kings Lord of lords and God may as well as he hath already give the Nations or those to whom he intends to shew and manifest himself unto a light and glorious understanding to see that Lords by speciall authority and power formerly constituted are but types and shadowes of the absolute supream immortall God and Judge but this is true though the Lords and Kings see it not themselves for I know they will say you Prophecie not good unto them in these things 2. Christ the perfect pattern of the Fathers manifested perfection to men never gave any such power or kingly authority to any that then were in the world either Magistrates or Apostles he never gave the Apostles power to exercise themselves with scourgings whippings imprisonments banishments or oppositions of such a kind therefore there is no such successive Magistracy 2 Cor. 11.3 4. verses If he that cometh Preacheth another Jesus whom we have not Preached and if ye receive another Spirit whom ye have not received or another Gospel which ye have not accepted ye might well bear with him Likewise there was power given or the manifestation of the most High in a way supereminent that the Saints should do great things by the power of the Spirit and in the name of the Lord Jesus that supereminent name that name above every name In whose name the seventy returned with joy and said the Devils were subject unto them by it Luke 10.17 I know no other authority power or glory given to any that should profess that name according to the spirit 3. Christs commanding the Apostles to give Caesar his due and God