End of a Gospel-minister is according to the dispensation of the Spirit to establish the Saints and Churches in the present Truth and Work or to build them up 2 Pet. 1.12 13. Acts 16.3 1 Thess 3.2 13. 2 Thess 2.17 Col. 2.7 I dare not omit my duty herein to do all I can from a Prison to dissolve those doubts and establish those hearts that pant after the Truth For Doubtings are like Quagmires the longer men stand on them the more they sink into them Sim. and indeed there is need of a Daniel's spirit and wisdom to dissolve All Doubts Dan. 5.12 and what man dare undertake it To loose knots says the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or open aenigmatical Scriptures and Cases cut Gordian-knots with the Sword of Gods Word Yet if the Lord will let me have so much of my inheritance of his wisdom as I need for such a Task and Treatise as this is I shall be enabled to dissolve some Doubts resolve some Cases quicken comfort and establish some Consciences So that by faith I I go about this Work that whereas others are always troubling stirring and thicking the Waters I may minister them in those very Prophecies of Daniel Apocalypse and other Scriptures so clearly as may refresh the spirits of the Saints And therefore help me O Father O Fountain of light and O thou that hast the seven Spirits that men may easily see as in clear water to the very bottom where the Truth lies and what they would clearly understand which they can never do in thick muddy and troubled waters Sim. And as the honest Draper is content to have his Ware brought to light and examin'd by the sun-beams so shall I to have this Book Therefore as when one takes a piece of money if he doubts the goodness of it he takes it turns it rubs it views it diligently and tries it every way whether it be sound or no before he puts it up or rests satisfied so do with this Treatise believe not what men say of it but search and see lege intellige turn it over and over man line by line page by page peruse it until thou dost even unspirit it into thy self pray for understanding read without prejudice and that Doctrine which builds you up most in Christ tends most to mortifie you redeem you from the world wealth pleasures honours c. to quicken you and establish you to put you upon present work for Christ against Antichrist to keep you upon your watch waiting praying longing for the day of Christ to enlighten you in the Prophecies promise of his coming c. that take and practise But so much for the sixth 7. Experience of fresh Incoms of Light 7. I finde in few days a sudden and sweet transition of a very Chaos of Darkness and Confusion by divine Command and whiles the Spirit moves upon the face of the waters light breaks in upon me brighter and brighter and shining more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4.18 which will bring forth little by little from me to the Saints abroad and although the Light forces a passage into my intellect by a redundant and more then ordinary irradiation yet many a time it breaks out at a dark cloud upon my spirit Job 37.21 Men see not the bright light that is in the clouds but the winde of the Spirit for so I finde it passeth Expos and cleanseth them from all earthliness caliginous thickness of vapours or fancies and so I trust the Reader that heareth and readeth what the Spirit saith shall finde it yea the most heavenly light is such a light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which few arrive at or derive from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Since a participation whereof with the fastning of some promises full upon my spirit I can finde no Truce within me without sounding a Call to the Lambs number in order to their Muster upon mount Sion or the New Covenant and blowing a Trumpet in the ensuing Tract which I hope will give a more certain sound then hath been hitherto for unto the upright there ariseth a light in the darkness Psal 112.4 a sweet word or per nubilum tempus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it ariseth by xpos through or in a dark and cloudy time as this is it doth so to the faithful Saints whiles others grope at noon-day as the Prophet says caecutiunt in luce That also in Isai 58.10 11. is much upon my heart If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfie the afflicted then shall thy light arise in obscurity an odde word to humane reason flesh and blood or mans wisdom and thy darkness shall be as the noon-day and Jehovah shall guide thee continually c. O blessed word to my faith for my very soul and heart-bowels have been drawn out to poor hungry hearts yea to minister my daily bread at the prison-bars to the persecuted Remnant and I need no more methinks now to fetch me out of Prison as I may say to so publike a work wherein I was so backward because so darkward therein yet I have many other promises upon motion as Isai 42.16 I will make darkness light before thee and that of Dan. 12.4 Shut up the words seal the book even to the time of the end the 3 yeers and half end vers 7. when the Witnesses shall appear peditatim and the Little Stone begin to strike the Powers of the fourth Monarchy all to pieces then many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased yea light shall break out abundantly Rev. 18.1 which begins in the last three yeers and an half of Daniel's 1290 and John's 1260 Prophetical days I have a more then ordinary confidence if not clear assurance that the Visions of Daniel's sealed and the light of the Lamb's book Rev. 5. shall be opened to me as I am able to bear it by degrees yea be let out upon me like a Sluice and overtake me in full streams if I faithfully pursue the Light already given me which with the Lords grace I will do though I die for it He saith our Saviour Joh. 14.21 22. shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and I will manifest my self to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Expos i. e. as by the light of the Sun not by Parts Arts or Sciences but so or in such manifestations as the world never had vers 22. in New-Covenant-Light or Truth breaking out with the brightness or lustre of the Covenant of Grace and the Fathers love to him such a one shall be like an Angel in the Sun Rev. 19.17 18. or cloathed with the Sun in a fulness body and subsistence of Light communicative to others who wait for the benefit of it who would be refreshed by it and do the work of the day in it which the Light sets on foot and is unto us a witness call support comfort assistance and
JEGAR-SAHADVTHA AN OYLED PILLAR Set up for Posterity Against the present Wickednesses Hypocrisies Blasphemies Persecutions and Cruelties of this Serpent power now up in England the Our-Street of the Beast Or a HEART APPEALE to HEAVEN and EARTH broken out of Bonds and Banishment at last in a Relation of some part of the past and present Sufferings of JOHN ROGERS in close Prison and continued Banishment for the most blessed Cause and Testimony of JESVS the sound of the Seventh Trumpet and the Gospel of the seven Thunders or holy Oracles called rayling by them in Power sealed up to the time of the End From Carisbrook Castle in the third Year of my Captivity the Fifth-Prison and the third in Exile having been hurried about from post to pillar Quia perdere nolo substantiam propter Accidentia Gen. 31.36 37. What is my trespasse What is my sin that thou hast so hotly persued after me Set it here before my Bretheren and thy Brethren that they may judge betwixt us both Lam. 4.3 The very Sea-monster or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tannin the old Serpent drawn out the Breast they suckle their young ones or Protected ones from the root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gur he sojourned with or dwelt under the daughter of my people to a cruell one as the Ostritch in the Wildernesse Lam. 3.52 53 55. Mine enemies have hunted hunting me like a Sparrow without Cause or grace of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chen they have cut off my dayes in the dungeon and cast a stone upon me I called upon thy name O Jehovah out of the under dungeon Non Vindictâ sed Victoriâ The poore Prisoner Pilgrime and Exile in Caines-br-Castle from the top of Amana the top of Shenir and Hermon from the Lions dens from the Mountains of the Leopards To all his fellow-Citizens in Sion and fellow-separates out of Babylon and to such as are not ashamed of our Chaine especially in that Church society whereof the Holy Ghost hath made him an Overseer Christians Readers Friends and Brethren COuld the trumpet talking with mee be heard with you the distinct sound to all of us as one would be come hither but oh how few can heare it heare it or receive it If you be our fellow waiters or Witnesses of the Kingdome of Christ at hand then I may say of each of you as of Joseph Luk. 22.50 51. He was a good man and a just the same had not consented to the counsell and deed of them that persecuted Christ for he waited also for the Kingdome of God But oh how many have acted or at least consented with the sins of this Generation and how many are monstruously and most wilfully ignorant of this Kingdome which we suffer and wait for in the new world yea libenter ignorantur liberius peccant they had rather be ignorant then in the pure light thereof to loose the great things of this wicked world or their great lusts which they must do that follow the Lamb ly with the 24. Rev. 4 5. about the Throne or look to rise and reign with him on earth in the thousand years the glory of which state I have at large delineated as the most lucid florid Dogmaticall Discovery of this day in my first Treat called Prison-born Morning beams if it be in being demonstrating the truth as all the Orthognomones orthodox professors and Preachers maintained it in primitive times the Woman or true Church travelling with this Male-childe leaping in the womb of her till she brought it forth spight of the Dragon power that persecuted it Rev. 12.2 3 5. Who was to rule all Nations but the Beast hindred and he was caught up unto God and the poore Woman fled into the wildernesse for 1260. dayes or the 42. monthes the period of which is upon us It seems this Doctrine of the reigne of Christ on Earth had at the birth thereof a most noble reception both of the Christians or few excepted Valentinian Jovinian and others as I have proved in that Treatise being Chronicled or Millenaâ—ieâ— or the reign of Christ on Earth and this continued indubitable till Pope Damaâ—us by the means of Jerome Gaius and others got it anotomatized Now we do expect this Man-childe to come down again and to take his great power and reigne and the Woman with her seed to come out of their Caves for which prophesie according to the comments of the little Book Rev. 10.11 Is it that I am bound with these bonds and banishment where I have been hitherto these two years beholding the terrible things that are a comming upon the World and heaing the contents of the seven thunders which John in Pathmos was bid to seal up as also was declared to Daniel cap. 12.4 9. should be sealed and shut up tiâ—l these times and notwithstanding I understand but little for mulâ—ò plura nescio quam scio as Aug. sayes yet so much I understand and will assert it in the Lord and his truth with mee that as some are wilfully ignorant of this great Gospel-Mystery of the Kingly Office of Christ which we contend for so others are most brutishly ignorant thereof for want of a thorough search into the Prophesies and Scriptures especially the common and carnall Clergy ond Rulers and so they persecute and speak evill of they know not what and that most impudently too and with very uncivill courtship inventing and deposing principles for us which our soules abhor and then rendring us odious to the poor people upon conclusions and deductions of their own making and composing But this I professe before the Lord that as I desire nothing more than a Christian conuiction out of the word of God in the spirit power and authority of the Lord where ever it shall light so I see plainly that our enemies are as much afraid of that weapon as ever were the Papists or Prelates and therefore with them do fly to the force fury and violence sword and fire persecuting oppressing plundering imprisoning and banishing as you see and then behinde our backs fall to lying rayling and slandering of us and our principles But as Tully in another case said of some Mihi quidem nulli satis eruditi videntur quibus nostra sunt ignota so say I I cannot take them for learned at this time of day I mean sanctè magis quam scirè 2 Pet. 3.16 who partake not the learning of the Fifth-Kingdome this hope of Israel for which we are bound with this Chain And because the cruelty of this Serpent in England whom our effeminate lusting Eve-like professors have faln in and faln off and down with from whose face we fly till the time times and a divident Rev. 12.14 is hardly heard of known or believed abroad his horns looking so like a Lamb but that ye may hear a little how he speaks and persecutes like a Dragon I have held it a duty for further discovery of him and his spirit to publish thus much
and hatred to the cause and to us 5. To hinder Preaching and Praying to poor Souls is beyond the Tyranny of the Heathens 5. They fall short of Heathen civility in the Allowance the Romans gave yea Nero as notorious a Tyrant as he was to Paul Act. 28.31 Preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ no man forbidding him yea and this at Rome under Nero's nose yea the Martyrs in Queen Maries dayes in the Compter and in the Bishop's Coal-house behind his Kitchin they Preached Prayed and Sang together none forbidding them But we are forbidden to Preach in Prison and our Friends forbidden to come to us to hear us yea Serg. Dendy sent a Letter at large which I have by me to forbid it yea the Church-Society I walk with are not suffered to come at me to Pray or Exercise with me And after they had an express Order to turn me out from the air and use of the Common hall in Lambeth because I Preached and Prayed there They said also they had Order to keep Prisoner any man that should dare to pray with me in my Chamber The same day when Jonathan Taylor of Warwick-Church was with me and Prayed they gave warning thereof And after that they took strict notice of any that look'd like a gifted-brother that they suspected would Pray or Preach in my Chamber c. would not let him of Any have access so much as to see me unless he would engage to come down presently again not to Pray or the like with me in my Chamber so precise were they against preaching and praying Here also at Windsor we have like experience having been beaten abused and clap'd up close for it as we shall shew ere long This is doubtless so high a crime among Christians too that Nero shall finde more mercy at the day of judgement and it shall be easier for him then for these men in this matter But O! it is no little comfort that we can suffer this and a thousand times more we hope by the grace of God with great joy for his sake who hath made us worthy Acts 5.51 Unto you says the Apostle Phil. 1. is given not onely to Believe but to Suffer which all Saints cannot do And as it is Acts 28.20 It is for the Hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain as I shall shew in this Treatise Et signum est mihi majoris Gloriae ut omnes impii ferè me detestantur I might mention other Particulars wherein our Persecutors and Goalers are worse to us then Heathens or Romanes under the Dragon-Government or Papists and Prelates under the Beast's Government as in that they were allowed to dispute the Truth with the Word of God which we are not and the like But by this you see it a true assertion That we are under a worse then Romane tyranny of the greatest aggravation By our brethren too and for our Consciences too and at such a time too and after such vast streams and treasures of our blood estates faith tears and prayers too to purchase our undoubted priviledges and immunities in another manner of liberty too and to us too who have all along fought in the field raised men spent our estates and ventur'd our lives and for the very Truths and upon the same Principles we now suffer in too all this is the Aggravation of the Threnody Much might we say of Paul's Plea of Free-born Act. 23.28 and as we are the Conquerors and never yet the Conquered though cheated and deceived Side and much according to the Laws of the Nation whereof the General was a Member that made them which are duely Enrolled Proclaimed in due order Acted upon Executed and Unrepealed to which have been many Solemn Engagements Oaths Declarations and Wars and much more I might say but that the Sword as it is hath neither eyes nor ears and therefore can neither pity us as English-men nor as Christians The Souldiers counsel was Acts 27.42 and is it not to kill the Prisoners But stay brother Red-coat we Except against thee for we will have no Butcher for a Jury-man The main Causes which moved Serg. Dendy to be so long a Suitor as I hear to the Council for my removal to Windsor according to his several threatnings by Letters Messages and Word of mouth at White-hall that day I was before them was the Complaint the Prisoners made being afraid to take that freedom excess in sin night and day as they would do whiles I was there and then the Gains which he lost by my being there both in Fees and otherwise as Acts 16.19 When they saw that the hope of their gains was gone they brought Paul and Silas and drew them to the market-place to the rulers and the rulers cast them into prison vers 23 24. yea they were thrust into the Inner prison but there they sang Praises and so do we our Antelucanos Hymnos and so we will till the Foundations of this Earthly Government rend Amen! Hallelujah Though for these Reasons and for others more publike as for Preaching Praying c. Lambeth became inhabitable to me under the Torrid Zone of these Persecutors and Goalers anger yet I can tell them if I may boast in the Lord with greater comfort confidence then they can look Christ his Saints or Cause which they have betrayed in the face or look for favour from the Righteous Judge That I live in the most Temperate Zone of heaven do what they can for their hearts and with a better Conscience which is my continual feast can look out at these Iron bars and sing whiles the thorn is at my brest to keep me wakeful then they can at their Belcona's or ratling Coaches or ruffle in their gold and gaudiness dyed in the blood of the Saints or gotten by Hypocrisie and cozening It is a true saying of Aug. de bon pers cap. 6. Tutiores autem sumus si Totum Deo damus non autem nos illi ex parte nobis ex parte committimus We are best and safest when we give God All and not seek to share or part stakes with God much less like the Apostates of these Times who are so far from giving God All and they be Nothing but what God will have them that they Themselves will be All in Civils Military and Ecclesiasticks and God or Christ shall be Nothing but what they will have them Therefore no wonder they are alarm'd with continual fears whiles we poor Worms in prison need none of their courts of Guard but can sleep sweetly and securely in the warm bosome of Eternal Love though Mad-men Drunkards and Devils are about us day and night for with no little sap solace and sweetness have I suck'd in Luther's saying which is mine now Ipse viderit ubi anima mea sit mansura qui pro ea sit sollicitus fuit ut vitam pro ea posuerit and therefore
could not in conscience so do for his standing there was only to hear prayer yet intreated B. F. to come away and when he found his argumâ—nts of no more force with him in that duty the Serjeant was returning but in the way this wicked Ensigne whose feet were swift to shed blood saluted him as an enemy for not tearing him a way by head and shoulders at first with sword and scabbard struck blows in such strength that the yron thereof cut through his skull and brake his brain-pan so sadly gashed mangled and wounded the blood spinning out a great distance from him he with much ado reel'd to a seat where he assayed to break his sword and throw away his scabberd with a witnesse against them to wear it no more in such service but in the mean-time this enraged Morster with his naked Sword laid about the rest who now ran away with B. F. as with a light burthen and so like the Dâ—â—gge in the Smiths Forge they that would not stirre at the many stroaks upon Gods anvill whiles we were at our work could run now at the sight of a wand yea with winde in their wings lift up their Ephah Zach. 5.9 Work poore whetches Such miserable slaves are they all According to the Arabick Adage which for want of characters the presse omits Men ' la a-rifo-lchaira mina-Isecri alhiqho bi-lbeha ima they that cannot discriminate are company for beasts The Serjeant was conveyed into a house and as it was by the Chirurgeon himselfe supposed mortally wounded and a dead man for after hâ— had taken out two or three pieces of his skull he concluded him doubtfull of recovery if not beyond it it being so contiguous and ambiguous for at last he found it but a hairs-breadth between him and death being hewed to the Caruncles and concavity of the head and should have utterly despaired but that the Cerebrain-skin was marvelously kept from the cuts Thus blood was shed in their rage against Religion and the Worship of God who formerly and when it was their interest have with blood contended for it yea the Blood of Warre in the time of Peace 1 King 2.5 And as tame Foxes once loose do the most miscriefe so do these Et ad extremum lupus manebit etiamsi inter homines educatus fuerit as the Persians say Wolves will be Wolves though brought up amongst men or put into sheeps cloathing Mat. 10 But the Avenger of blood will pursue these sonnes of Belial and wo unto them that build their Citty in blood Isa 1.5 for when their plague comes the name of their place shall be Kibroth-hataavah the Graves of Iust for whiles the flesh is between their teeth the Lord shall smite them in the interim consider First That we lie as yet among the pots in the hot kiln the yron furnace of Aegypt Lam 4.2 How are ye precious ones of Sion compable to solid gold accounted as earthen potsheards yet with the reversion promised us we will not part Psal 68.13 Though ye have lien among the pots as the wings of a Dove oppressed of Janah made a prey overlaid with silver and her feathers with beaten gold of Charatz cut a sunder for though we be Chenshe phatta of shaphattariim order'd and disposed between the very hearths where the fire is kindled in the hottest Urn among the Tile pots I mean in those Ovens of mens wrath viz. Garisons of Souldiers to be scorched far exceeding in that sense the common Goals and Prisons yet praised be our God for his presence is with us which was with the three Children in the fiery furnace and as Psal 66.11 12. Thou laidst affliction such as comes from oppression of Gnuk upon our loines thou hast caused men to rid over our heads or beginnings of rosh we went through fire and through water but thou hast brought us out into a wealthy place or larevajah to an overflowing and afulnesse of moisture and anointing as Psal 23.5 where the word is and herein shall we yet more abundantly rejoyce for such earthen pots as we are in the Lords house shall be like the Bowles or Bâ—sons before the Altar Zach. 14.20 that is ever full of the hott blood oâ— the Sacrifice which is our sure mercy and Nâ—w-Covenant-Comfort in this State of patience Secondly we may see the è polupragmoseume the pragmaticall proclyvitie activity of the Cavalerish spirit to prosecute and execute the rage of the Beast upon us under this Sword soveraignty with the same Antipathy and principle they had in the Kings dâ—yâ—s though under a shew of more religion refinednessâ— and zeal like Balâ—k Numb 22. and 23. that to curse the Lords people and get power over them with great readinesse and real ran to the worship of the true God as if he had renounced his false God Chemosh when in truth he retained still his old principles and yet with them he seemed a new Proselyte he offered seven Oxen and 7. Rams so far exceeding the true Saints in his seeming zeale to the true God and stands by his sacrifices fasting and praying and his Princes too with so great devotion and why so why all to get Power over the Lords Chosen ones So these have seemed to have laid aside their old principles of enmity hatred animosity revenge persecution and opposition so of prophanesse Atheisme and open wickednesse of that kinde thereby to get a power of revenge over us to curse and diminish us for our faithfulnesse and constant adhaesiâ—n to the good Cause both now and in the late wars this also lying in the road of their preferment so to treat us for the Cavaleers highest Counsels ar this day are to fall in with this Power in order to the bringing of Ch. Stuart ruining us and precipitating of them and all this by their old principle 3. It appears a conviction of Conscience is a capital crime with them and merits cutâ—â—ng slashing and shedding of blood without mercy for as the Jews Jo 9.22 Had agreed that if any man did confesse that he was Christ he should be put out oâ— the Synagogue So have these agreed to cast them out from amongst them that acknowledge the Lord Jesus in Power and truth according to the dictates of an enlightened Conscience for a blind men restored to sight they will not endure amongst thâ—m who in such a mixture and complication of sinister interests prefer butchery before the liberal arts as they say of the Jews yea revenge above Religion and Coin above Conscience calling the touch of conscience contempt melancholly and madnesse and punishing of them they themselves being â—eared and having made shipwrack thereof whiles we as Paul saies 2 Cor. 4 2. Have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftinesse nor handling the Word of God deceitâ—ully but by manifestation of the truth commend our selve to every mans conscience in the sight of God Fourthly It is evident we are under as barbarous a Spirit
every one submit himself 2. In that my most gracious over-ruling Father hath made the enemy to imprison and persecute me not onely is the same way and spirit but in the very same places where the Martyrs of old were imprisoned and persecuted which did refresh me indeed as at Lambeth that old Butchers shop and shambles of the Saints where so many even Wickliff himself and all along since have suffered their rings whereto they were chained remaining in the walls to this day which did affect me much to see And after that at Winsor where the eminent Martyrs Cranmer Ridley and Latimer were put in their way to Oxford in bloudy Queen Maries dayes 3. In that I am also instructed how to want as well as to abound and so in all conditions as the Apostle saith to be therewith content Phil. 4.11 1 Tim. 6.8 having passed through prisons reproaches tumults beatings bufferings often throwings headlong banishment spitting upon yea spoyling of my goods which hath been much one Letter hath signified to me the losse of an hundred pounds at one time and in plundrings often and in perills of life sicknesse Feavours storms cold snow tempests without bed without bread in sore travells and severall other tryalls yet all this which is the life of all for my most dear Christ against Cromwell and the whole Earth blessed be Jehovah therefore I wait but for Whitehall or the Pretorium-hall 4. In that the enemy though he hath sought it greedily yet to this day hath not found any just cause or colour for my imprisonment and exile nor so much as signified why in their Orders of commitment which is my great comfort and advantage for as Paul said in his fourth defence Acts 25.7 8. and they utter many and grievous complaints which they cannot prove for neither against the Law of Christians nor against the Temple nor against the faith have I offended at all So Acts 24.12 13. neither found they me in the Temple disputing with any man neither raising up the people neither in the Synagogue nor in the City 5. In that the Persecution upon me hath been above many others so sweet though sharpe a primitive-like diogmos or chasing Persecution from one place to another not letting me rest in our own Countrey nor in Exile but hunting me about like a Partridge from place to place with Nimrâ—dian Tyranny like them of whom the Worlâ— was not worthy although I am not worthy of the happy number or race Heb. 11.38 who confessed v. 13 14. they were strangers and pilgrims on earth declaring plainly that they sought a far beâ—â—â—r Countrey 6. For that this their spreading and hurrying Persecution did so primitive-like sow and advantage the Gospell of the Kingdome in all places where I was carried round about this Island the report of this Doctrine running and inclining the poor people to enquiry reading and search and so was the Gospell at first spread and sowâ—n in all Asiae Cyprus Cappadocia Macedonia and indeed over all Nations by such a chasing Persecution which I praise the Lord for that it fell out to be my lot in this Island to sow this seed Paul plants Apollo waters but the Lord must give the encrease And indeed I dare not deny but our God hath given a very great encrease hereby insomuch as the very women who have enquired into the very truth as at Newport do professe openly this is the way of God that we are imprisoned for and that they will part with all they have in this heavenly Cause and Quarrell between the Prisoners and the Powers which is very much considering in what exceeding slavery people in this Island are kept by the sword So that as the Gentleman in Scotland told the Bishop Bettoun upon the burning of that Martyr Mr. Patrick Hamilton My Lord if you burn any more of them you will ruine your selves if you burn them let them be burnt in hollow Cellars for the smoak of Mr. Patrick Hamilton hath infected as many as it blew upon it may be is the policy that our Persecutors have taken to imprison plunder and banish and make no noise no mention in news-Books of it least it should be known yea to coop us up so closse Prisoners in Banishment and Cellar us up from all noise of their cruelty to us least it may be our breathing or as Bull saies seducing which is the old note of Persecutors and Goalers over the imprisoned Martyrs But as we know Beggars by their chanting so do we Bull and his Masters by their language with the same spirit lying traducing and opprobriously abusing as those base Monsters both Heathenish and Popish Goalers and Tyrants did that were their Predecessors but for all these Atopos absurd men 2 Thess 3.1 2. Shall the Word of the Lord have free course and be glorified Amen Hallelujah 7. In that the Lord hath in this School instructed me to Preach in tumults and uproars as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 6.4 5 6. in all things to approve my self the Minister of my God In much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments in tumults in labours in watchings in fastings by purenesse by knowledge by long-suffering by the holy Ghost by love unfained by the Word of truth by the power of God by the Armour of Righteousnesse on the right hand and on the left by honour and dishonour by evill report and good report as a deceiver and yet true as unknown and yet well known as dying and yet behold we live as chastened and not killed as sorrowfull yet alwayes rejoycdng as poor yet making many rich as having nothing and yet possessing all things O blessâ—d be that bondlesse love and grace of God unto me herein yea I tell you he hath been teaching me a strange way of Preaching as if I were a pouring ouâ— of my bloud with my words at once to seal the truth and in expectation of leaving my life with my Light of the dashing my brains about my Exhortations O this this is me thinks to bear about in my body the dying of our Lord Jesus indeed who did preach thus and so did the Apostles and thus am I become dead to the Laws yea to my own life by the life of Jesus and body of Christ I think I can say sometimes most sweetly Tossanus in Anâ—olia had such a time of it too among the Barbarous Souldiers for he preached every Sermon not looking to come out alive and in a Barn too where the Church met Ah Lord let me thy poor worm be such a Preacher all my dayes to speak in every Sermon as my last words to poor Souls yea as if I were sealing them on a Scaffold with my bloud Amen so be it Amen He had that honest saying of Seneca it seems often over Vir bonus quod honesâ—è se facturum putaverit faciet etiamsi periculosum sit ab honesto nullâ re deterribitur ad
he made a scoff at what I said and turnd away in great fury then I said wel the LORD wil look down and see all these things at which he turn'd and said pish the LORD what do you tel us the LORD who is the L you are not the LORD aâ—e you and so went on raging and blaspheming and the rest scoffing for company as ful of fury as they could hold who indeed have not the patience to hear the Lords name so much as mention unless at Alehouses and in sin so sadly prophane are they and indeed how can they be otherwise when men with wicked and idle courses have spent al their meanes and cannot or wil not work they get into these Garrisons to drink and guzzle their Pay out before their pay-day comes and for other misdemeanours deserving to be chashiered can find no way to secure their places but by their brutish premeditated and barbarous cruelty to us wherein they merit most that are monstrous and these things I declare as in the sight of the God of truth to be true having read over again and again what I have written and do not know one line I have written too large the Lord knows whatever some may think but in many that I have written too little rather intending hereby to give but hints to the Saints of the continued and multiplied Series of our sufferings especially to such at London as through their ignoance and our forced silence say it is but a flea biting that we suffer and not worth speaking of but it is a sign they have not a fellow feeling for as the Lord said to Ezek 2.46 They are impudent and stiff necked but be not afraid of them though BRIARS AND THORNS be with thee and thou art among SCORPIONS and therefore it is we are so torn and stung every day and indeed in a sense it is a suffering worse then Death as slight as men make it It is true in reproach to us the Soldiers after they have beaten and abused us bid us to complain if we wil and if we do not like it help it knowing that the cure is worse then the Disease to us and that we have none to complain unto but the Lord who surely wil hear us and save us at last before they have wearied us out and broken our very heart-strings and which doubtless they designe in one kind or other before they have done with us But matters of greater moment I must refer to a fitter season and blesse Jehovah with us O ye upright ones that sympathy with us for he hath yet lined us with a good conscience within and a good cause without and we trust We shal not fear what flesh can do unto us and pray for us yet more abundantly I had thought long ere this to have been at an END and that this Persecution would have added or imposed a Quietus est to my body by death out of the continuance of their cruelty but it pleases the Father that I should yet live as one alwaies dying under their immanity and now since that of the poor Maids sufferings by their so immodest dragging her al at length in the yard before mentioned I am intreated by friends to inlarge this sad History which I write with no great delight though I hope I suffer it with joy a little further but I had rather a thousand times to set it before the Lord my God then once to make mention of it to any below yet by reason of Friends importunity to whom I must not be ungrateful I shal give you a short view of this new link added to my chain since that of Joseph in his round Caines-brook-Castle or Tower too Gen 3.20 running much in my mind for the Lord was with him and although I never read of such rigor in his bonds as are in mine renewed often yet of him the Holy G saith Psal 105.18 19. Whose FEET they hurt with fetters he was laid in Iron VNTIL the time that his Word came the word of the Lord TRYED him yea not only my feet have they hurt but my back bones and whole body hath been hurt beaten bruised and are aking every day with these heavy fetters and furies Since the Maids such monstrous usage without any cause and being last out at the gate with her clothes rent and torn where besides that she lay on the ground lame like Lazarus at the gate six or seven hours the next day for admittance and at last was let in again with no little stir and threatning I had liberty to go in to my dear Co-Exiles chamber not knowing of any design they had upon me which it seems they watched for and had Orders from BULL as they say to observe when I did so being now resolved to take their rage from the lame Creature having little credit of their cruelty to her and to wreak it upon me and my poor weak Wife which they did at present thus but O Lord let the remainder of their Wrath PRAISE thee Upon a sudden after my fellow prisoner had invited me into his Chamber four or six Musketeirs with Swords Guns and light Matches were set upon me there and soon after more followed them they set also Soldiers upon my weak Wife and Family yea into the very room raging which frighted her for the suddenness of it she being as ignorant as I of the meaning of this new piece of tyranny and so keeping us asunder that we could not come at one another see or hear so as to know of each others condition or what the matter was which made it look like a bad business as bad as if forthwith they had intended to murther me at least my Wives sickness subjecting her withal to very frightful fancies feares and apprehensions wondring vvhat would become of me stil asking after me and what was become of me or what they had done with me and besides to make it a through piece of a monstrous matter to her they set within her chamber the most uncivil drunken raging wretches stamping threatning grinding their teeth calling Jade Quean Carrion with a many such obscene names bending their fists striking tearing thumping raiâ—ing with their staggering if any offered to go in the room not suffering them to stir for necessaries within the rooms offering and drawing the naked sword upon them with asseverations several times vvithout any provocation given them in Word or deed and soon after followed ten or twelve more as they inform me and filled the room vvith such rude creatures and doings vvithout any regard at all to Sex sickness or condition As they vvere at this inhumane sport persecuting my Wife and Family those armed Soldiers with me were not wanting with great violence and fury to execute their Orders as they called it for I offering to go to the door with desire to see my Wife being fearful of some mischeif to her though I knew not of this cruel usage of
Vapours and exhaled from the Dunghill of one CRAFTON a Malignant Priest in London a little before my imprisonment escaped the publique Fire upon its slimy Matter so as to have burnt it up in the sight of the Sun whose Tabernacle he fumed and fomed against but the long lawlesse Sword interposed took away my papers and plundered from me amongst them the Reply to what is Sober in his Stage-play-Treatise Neverthelesse I doe yet more abundantly blesse the Lord for his light of the seven Lamps of fire which burn before the throne Rev. 4.5 whereby I see the better end of the staff in my hand while the Truth is still with Mee onely I must intreat thee my Reader and Friend to wait with patience and in hope with us till Deliverance and Liberty to the truth be restored and in the interim mend with thy pen the following Errataes before thou proceedest in this part called the Introduction c. What the other part called Jegar-Shabadutha or a Heart-Appeale c. is for Errataes I am ignorant nor have I yet seen sheet of it Onely I fear so hard a travel through so many extraordinary obstructions of the birth and so little help from the Neighbourhood will at the least deform it if not indarger the very being of it in my absence and exile which accordingly you must consider because the cruel Decree of Pharaoh hath put the Hebrews upon bringing forth such male-truths without the help or skill of the Egyptian Midwives Yea and which is worse I am informed those few seeming friends that do assist the birth have agreed to cut off some Members if not integrals of that little Treatise to facilitate the birth but how can it then live or if it doe so monstrously mishapen as they think I heare to make it I shall want will and affection to own it for mine for I differ from their vote who had rather have it born a Creple then not at all My Dear Reader a word more It may be thou wilt wonder to see the Introduction to a yeer or two's prison-travel of spirit put in this place and therein here news of an ensuing Treatise or two about the two Brittish Witnesses and of a more obvious supputation of times according to the Danielian and Apocalyptick accounts then hath ever yet been extant a matter so important to be cleared and of the two Beasts with all the apurtenances Characters Seals works times and signes and also all the 42 m speriod upon us and of the slaughter of the two Witnesses in this street for the single time duall time and a devident with the mystery of that number 666. giving my reasons why I differ in the root from learned Mr. Potter canvasing traversing and trajecting his Arguments with modesty and submission Also a Synopsis of the Lambs Government shewing the difference between the Lambs and Beasts G. Civil and so between the Lambs and Beasts martiall Laws in all duties of Officers and of Souldiers the apparent discrepancy seen at once the Beasts in one Collume and the Lambs in the other Also a very lucid discovery of the Kingdom of Christ on Earth and the present work of Saints in England the order instruments and matter of the viols the holy war at hand the 1000 yeers and first Resur with the order thereof and much other matter which you hear of but see nothing Alas alasse as Lam. 4.3 it is because this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tâ—nniu Serpent-Seamonster hath sought to devour it and the truth betrayers and Murtherers have pursued these males in the womb that they stick in the birth and cannot come forth none being so hardy to help them he that offers it makes himself a prey But this poor miscelany of generall matter hath with much a doe remained untaken to declare aloud their cruelty who have hindred and stifled the most speciail Wherefore in pitty I pray give quarter to this maimed that hath so hardly escaped the hands of the Cut-throats and allow it a little House-room with the other called a Heart-Appeale c. because it is a kind to that which delineates our Winforsuffrings and the present in this exile this beginning an abstract of our first triall at Lambeth in both which you wil have a History of above two yeers bonds and banishment in severall prisons to this present abiding me and mine which therefore may the more justly claim the company of each other Much more might be added in this Tragedy of our hard trials to the flesh both as to the present condition of my own body so much distempered in this unwholsome hole of this Castle whereinto I am cast it rising up with blisters aching with pains burning with hot humors and falling into unusuall fits full of pains inwardly and very often at the heart So also my Wife whose sufferings have been so great in this Gaole that severall Doctors of Physick in London have affirmed her sickness to have risen from the rude handlings and frights with the unwholsomnesse of the pit we are put into together to the evident hazzard of her life This is known to him in power Yea and the rest of my family with me some or other or all being continually ill and afflicted with distempers pains sicknesse lameness and other sore trials of the flesh But I much rather affect to make my condition known to God who hath the bowels of a father then to men who have not the bowels of men whose interest is neither to heare us nor believe us for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tsammetu babbor they have cut down into the pit ditch and Dungeon those sanctified ones that rejoyce in thy Highnesse Isa 13.3 whom thou Oh Jehovah wilt raise up Wherefore karenu shemcha Jehovah mibbor We have called upon thee O God from this Grievous Pit of Caines-Brook-Chaines To Conclude forasmuch loving Reader as I finde no faith no truth or constancy in Men but through the persecution of undoubted foes and perfidiousnesse of dawbing and doubtfull friends who promise faire but perform foully all I doe for the Publick is either betrayed pilled spoyled or obstructed in my absence and a true friend to one in prison being rara avis in terris I am forced now in this third yeere of my imprisonment and banishment to convert my time more particularly then I had intended to my own use and profit by perfecting my search of and studies in the holy Scriptures through the Hebrew Chald. Syriack Arabick and so Persian roets which is my present and daily Work and I doe blesse my God for this great blessing upon me in that little progresse which through his grace I have made into the Pentateuch Psalms and Prophets For by the Hebrew Chald. Samaritan Rabbinic Arabic Persian Aethiopick Armenian and Topick Tongues in all which except the two last I am now perusing the Scriptures of holy inspiration I have received a most sweet Light taste and singular comfort to my own soule