of the eternal being brought forth in the hearts of the sincere and faithfull servants of Christ You know that Christ saith If a strong man keep the house then all things are safe untill a stronger than he cometh but then Minima cedant maximis What would a wicked drunken profane ungodly man say for himself if one of these creatures in whom there is such a mighty power of Antichrist should come unto him with so much audacity and boldness of speech as the Devil came to the face of Christ Mark 5.7 saying I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not and tell him plainly and with all authority Thou art a damned wretch there shall no such as thou art enter into the Kingdom of Heaven thou art such and such a creature and all such are fit for nothing but to undergo the eternal wrath of God and the like What would such a miserable creature be able to say for himself he is conscientious to himself that he is told truth Where is the power now to resist this mighty apparances rance and to filence this accuser of the brethren you will be lest like Belshazzar one knee smiting against another Moreover what if one of these creatures should be sent with much power and boldness unto a profane scandalous Preacher and made to tell him He is a blinde Leader of a blinde People and a man that crieth Lord Lord and that speaketh of a Christ without but knoweth not neither hath he received any of the power grace or Spirit of that Christ within he speaketh he knows not what he telleth his people hey should not be envetous proud or sinfull and yet he him self the Ring-leader of these base things he is told further he is onely an hireling preacheth for Tyths and stipends and if it were not for this he would not preach at all and that he knows not what to say till he hath stollen it from other mens lines he hath no experience of truth in his own soul and lays this hard upon his conscience which will joyn with this his adversary and tell him all this is true and by that time he hath charged him home with truth to his own knowledg What a trembling dumb and miserable condition will this poor man be in standing like one ready for his dissolution notable to reply any wise word like unto a pale-faced image that the stander by must cry Opertet aliquid intus and yet may be the man a good Scholar of great natural parts a blazing star in his countrey but what is this star-light worth when the Sun ariseth all his light is become darkness now by reason of that angelical light which appeared in one of the ministers of Satan become a false Apostle or a false Christ This me thinks should be wonder big enough for such who will not believe except they see wonders but what will you say if you should see Satan stirring up one of his foresaid ministers to fall upon any such creature that is so naked and unarmed from all power of Christ and his powerfull Spirit and to tear him hurt him wound him and peradventure take away his life also Remember still that instance Acts 19.16 then it would make your hearts ake with wonders and when by such time you shall be told your own in this nature you carnal and ignorant creatures of the world you will believe it is not well with you notwithstanding you had been told the same things several times before by the servants of Christ by their preachings writings and discourses in much love and tenderness and moreover when you shall see your selves not able to defend your selves against them and yet shall see those people you so much vilified and reckoned the Hereteticks and Deluders upon whom the Scripture was fulfilled able to silence them to defie them to prove them through the power of Truth to be Deceivers and false Christs and false Apostles and in the end to make the Devil flee from them as James saith by their strong resistings of him with that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or compleat armour of God spoken of Eph. 6.11 Reade on this Scripture you feeble creatures of the world and you shall finde that for want of this spiritual armour of proof it is that you are not able to deal with that mighty appearance and power in them and on the other side by reason of the investing of the soul with this armour it is that the servants of Christ are able thus to foil them and the more holy heavenly humble selidenying any of the servants of Christ are A Caution for Saints the more powerfully they will be able to withstand all these fiery durts of the Devil Note this all you holy ones of the Lord and take heed that Satan finde no hole of covetousness pride vain-glory or the like in any of your coats for I will assure you if he do you will have an hard match of him as I know by experience in others The breaking forth of things in this nature will bring honor to God and his servants before all the world and convince them of the Truth and make them see and know the people of God from others and that there are none able to withstand such assaults of the Devil as these are either upon themselves or others but onely such who have received power from Christ. I had here thoughts to have gone unto the last thing in the Text but fearing lest there should be any scruple in the hearts of some ignorant people about their prevailing so much and encreasing their number in so many places of this Land I will take away if I can the ground of this first There hath been enough in my thoughts spoken to this already upon this last Doctrine of doing false works for here I have shewed that they must act as Ministers of Righteousness and thence they must come to act as false Apostles nay as false Christs and if they shall be brought to this as Christ and his Apostles did true signs and wonders so these must do lying signs and wonders even such things as Christ and his Apostles did and if those things wrought by Christ and the Apostles did convince and draw in many into their ways why shall not the same things done now under the same shew and pretences draw in many as well into the ways of those that do them And beside you shall reade in Acts 5.36 that there was one Theudas that rose up among the people boasting himself to be some-body it is like far short of these Quakers to whom a number of men about four hundred joyned themselves who was slain and as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to nought After him rose up one Judas of Galile in the days of the Taxing and drew much people after him he also perished and as many as obeyed him were scattered I hope in the consideration of this there will remain no jealousie
The Worlds Wonder OR THE QUAKERS BLAZING STARR WITH An Astronomical Judgment given upon the same from 2 Cor. 11.13 14 15. Proving them to be altogether deluded by Satan both in their judgments and walkings Together with a probable conjecture of the end of the World and the estate of things in the interval By EDMUND SKIPP Preacher of the Gospel unto the People at Bodenham in Herefordshire Matth. 24.24 There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect LONDON Printed by Henry Hills and are to be sold at the Sign of Sir John Oldcastle near Py-corner 1655. To all those who are willing to hold fast the Faith of the Gospel and to be guided by the Truth Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and the Lord JESUS CHRIST TWo things have much moved my affections unto this Work following 1. The one that herein I might shew an humble acknowledgment of love unto the Lord who delivered my soul from under those obscurities which would utterly have disabled me from being good to my own heart or others 2. That I might herein become a means of staying and directing many an unestablished soul to beware of those horrible Delusions and mysterious Deceits which I have in this ensuing Treatise with as much plainness and brevity as I judged convenient demonstrated for the sake of all who are unacquainted with these Apostacies and are willing to search out untill they gain an establishment in the knowledg of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus For it would have been great unworthiness in me if when I was brought so experimentally to the knowledg of these unheard-of ways of Satans deceiving the hearts of poor Creatures under fair pretences and glorious shews of righteousness and doing great signs and wonders I should have concealed from my generations such things that were never yet manifested in such a manner The writing of common experiences either of good or evil operations would neither have been an incitement to my Pen or my Readers attention but having an extraordinary understanding in an extraordinary apparition of a prodigious Comet whose beautifull scintillations make all the World to wonder what might be her fate I durst not for fear of wronging my own conscience but put my Light like a Candle upon the house-top that so it might be seen into all the Regions of Gospel-professions manifesting unto them that this Monster amongst men or this unnatural and unparalleld Planet promiseth nothing but Vae misero mihi sadness and loss of all the riches of Gods grace unto every soul that liveth under its malevolent and contagious influences My Book will expound my Allegory therefore I leave my Readers to that and rest Their Servant in the Gospel-service Edmund Skipp To the Reader COurteous Reader I have here presented thee with a little Tract as my New-years Gift unto thee and must desire thee to carry a favorable aspect in thy judgment towards it and me although thou maist finde it unpolished and void of such a method and eloquence of words as thou mightst judg would better have become me and it as well as many an acute Genius that shall honor it in the reading But give me leave to tell thee truth I have had but a fortnights time to begin and finish these lines which time I have through much difficulty borrowed from my other Studies and Employments and they are now calling upon me for a recompence with double diligence which hath been so little that I have not had time to write any one line from the first to the last twice but am necessitated to send forth these Conceptions of mine thus Embrio-like into the open view of the world and therefore I desire to receive from thee what I shall be willing to give unto thee or any other in the like ease a candid censure desiring also for thy good that thou maist have an heart more ready to receive sound judgment from it than to give a wrong judgment upon it I rest Ever willing to serve thee in the Lord Edmund Skipp From my Study at Bodenham this New-years day so called in the year 1654. The Worlds Wonder OR The QUAKERS Blazing Starr A sensible Discovery of some high and spiritual Delusions wrought by Antichrist in the hearts of of many poor Creatures and especially those that go under the notion of QUAKERS BY that power which bringeth good out of evil it cometh to pass that afflictions fallings back temptations overwhelmings of the soul with a deluge of spiritual troubles dejections and disconsolations are many times profitable and teaching to the hearts of the Lords sincere ones who are kept by himself through faith unto salvation and they are laid in as so many several advantages and as it were Land-marks to direct the soul in the perfect paths of peace that they turn not aside either to the right hand or to the left so that it may make the children of the Most High admire his continued faithfulness in his love and watchfulness manifested in their behalf while they are run a whoring after their own inventions Satans deceivable transformings of himself into glorious appearances words and actings If a reasonable heart should but digest it self into a methodical observation of the Lords Law of Retaliation Lev. 26.14 to 34. and correspondent dealings unto the standings and fallings of his creatures it might be overcome in the apprehensions of that great patience long-suffering and gentleness of the Lord to Apostates and unstable-minded people who have itching ears carried about with every winde of Doctrine But to the end he may gain himself a name in Judah is he pleased to wait upon poor sinners to be gracious unto them and to suffer many of them to fall to be tempted to be darkned with cloudy and obscure apprehensions of the eternal being that so their weakness and his strength their nothingness and his all-sufficiency their sluggishness and his watchfulness might more clearly appear in their proper place and to make good his former word and practice in gathering his servants together out of all Lands whither they had been scattered in the dark and cloudy day And surely were it not for the hopes of some such glorious and wise end that the Lord doth now intend in the fulness of time to make known amongst the sons of men it would minister cause of most unspeakable sorrow unto such who are established in the faith of our Lord JESUS CHRIST to see so many forsaking their faith and former knowledg and profession of the truth and instead hereof believing lyes 2 Thess 2.11 1 Tim. 4.1 and giving heed unto Doctrines of Devils walking according to the suggestions of the Prince of Darkness and every foolish idle fantastical imagination of their own deceitfull hearts These things do apparently teach the world to see how vigilant that great Enemy of mankinde
the Churches wherein I am bold these poor beguiled creatures through that mysterious spirit of deceit and lying in them do lay this thing unto my charge Fourthly they charge me that I never passed the new birth but am onely acted by my natural parts to all that I do If it be so Not passing the new birth I wish all natural men were so acted too that they might bear witness unto what they affirm Although I do know that a natural man may make a very large progress in a Gospel profession and conversation yet I am through the rich grace and love of God shed abroad in my heart able to give a perfect and experimental discovery unto such who are able to judg thereof by that one Spirit we have both received of that new birth or creation in Christ 2 Cor. 5.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for otherwise there could be but little sound peace or joy in my soul seeing I know very well how little satisfactory the utmost attainments in the first creation would be unto me that have so much knowledg in the second Adam if my knowledg were meerly notional and formal and besides I hope there hath been long ago and many times good satisfaction given unto most of the Lords servants with whom there hath been mutual givings and receivings of testimonies and manifestations in that one common grace of God in Christ to the rejoycing of each others hearts and the building up of one another in that grace and faith wherein we were called But were it so that I lived in a Wilderness and all the men in the World were unsatisfied and ignorant in this thing so that I my self were knowingly satisfied and that upon good grounds it would be sufficient for my faith and hopes of an eternal weight of glory at the righteous revelation of the Judg of Heaven and Earthe and therefore let this unjust Charge prove a blank for all uses beside proving its original to be a spirit of Anitchrist and delusion Fifthly they charge me with back-sliding indeed in their senfe they may do so justly Back-sliding For it is the great mercy of God unto me I was delivered from under those grievous delusions and temptations unto which they are yet in bondage but that which they call back-sliding is my retuming back unto my God and my holding fast and contending for that faith which I had once received Jude 2. according to the minde of the Lord discovered Heb. 3.6 concerning the holding fast of confidence of rejoycing of hope firm unto the end Thus you may see that which they reckon my judgment is my mercy and that which they call my back-sliding is my owning and receiving my former principles and teachings according to truth Now let him that hath an eye see and who so hath an heart let him judg whence cometh this great mistake unjust judgment c. and when ye have well weighed these things ye shall finde it cannot stand with the honor of God to teach a people things which are not true as to my comfort and their shame doth clearly appear notwithstanding they pretend and say they were made to write these things as from the Lord. These five acousations are most that I have received from any of them and I suppose the most they were prompt with all from that spirit of deceit for had there been any more given in unto them it is like they would have disclosed it as well as this And it is not onely to myself they write thus but unto most people of any note or quality above others especially amongst those that make any profession of the ways of the Lord differing from the men of the world as I hear by several and by their own confession to myself formerly And I would have all the world observe how they write with abundance of railing and clamorous words and unjust accusations as you have heard me prove and their language is much after the same sort unto whom they write which maketh me note that they are exemplary one to another in their writing taking up the same form of words and it teacheth me also to consider how Satan is no Niggard as we say of his skill and power for they pretend they are abundantly filled up with matter of that nature as though they could never vent themselves of it all Now I have laid down the work or deceit it self in this nature I will return unto my second Rule The second Rule to find the colour in the Scripture which to finde out where Satan doth colour over and blinde this fallacy with some Scripture words or instances First for their railing and reviling language they will not own it as such but count it a sharp rebuking and reptoving men as though they had some special authority or power of truth in them acting of them thereunto and so Satan doth hide this deceit under that command which Paul giveth Titus in Chap. 1. vers 13. where he biddeth him rebuke the Cretians and others sharply and Chap. 3.15 he biddeth him rebuke with all authority and they observe the Prophet Nathans coming unto David and saying Thou art the man and why may not they who say they are sent of the Lord as Nathan was speak in that manner unto men be they Rulers or others seeing that God is no respecter of persons and besides this Satan cannot be ignorant of the manner of Christs reproving Peter when he called him Satan These and such like Examples carry out the deceit very fairly unto such who are ignorant of his devices Secondly as for their charging men with hypocrisie backsliding and being but onely in the first Adam for they judg all beside themselves to be ignorant of the new-birth be they never so well gifted and taught of God and the like it proceedeth from that blindness which Antichist hath cast in upon their understandings from whence they cannot chuse but speak evil of the things they know not Jude 10. And so judging all men to be in this estate they take the Example of CHRIST in calling them Hypocrites as he did the Scribes and Pharises and pronouncing Woes against them as they do against many people and places as they have told me themselves how they have declared Judgment and Woes against a place called Kendall in the North I know not well in what County it is but I will onely say this one word unto ye O people of Kendall if it be for your holding fast unto the faith of the Gospel and your bold courage to withstand Antichrist and all his mysterious actings of unrighteousness that you are so vilified and disowned by them it may be your grace and glory but if it be through a kinde of wilfulness and spirit of malice revenge and bitterness against the poor creatures that you are so carried against them I commend you not Therefore look unto it O what a vail or cover hath Satan got himself here under
suspition I have of my memory in this particular of time I shall not be positive yet I do well remember they have told me of three days and three nights and so many more presently after that several of them have been commanded to fast but here is the little-great wonder this man having fasted whether twice seven days and nights or twice three it matters not much to me but having so fasted as he was commanded by his Enemy under pretence of a friend he was commanded to go into such a Well in a certain place that he knew and so he did and he was appointed to drink of that water which he did having taken something with him for that purpose and when he drank he apprehended it to be pure and perfect good Wine and so he drank no more but on the morrow he returned unto the said Well to see whether it were so continued or not and then he found it meer Water as at other times Here was a remarkable thing which I believe to be true for I am perswaded they dare not tell a Lie knowing it to be so and if this were true then I shall be bold to affirm there was a false Christ appeared for we know that Christ converted Water into Wine at a Marriage in Cana of Galilee and because Christ did so therefore Satan he cometh as it were the same Christ doing the same thing but let not this be thought very strange by any one that reades my lines that Satan should be able to do this for it was a far easier matter for him to turn one Cup of Water into Wine to deceive this poor silly man than it was for him to turn all the Rivers streams and Ponds that were in Egypt into bloud Exod. 7.19 22. Or haply he might not really turn this Water into Wine and yet he might really deceive the man in deluding his taste for you must know that Satan can easily delude a mans senses as I have seen by these Jugglings and Popper-plays and the like I have heard them tell me some other fine things of this nature which I shall forbear to cite in regard they are no news to me because I do apprehend that they must become false Apostles and false Christs to do great signs and wonders yet this I do observe by the way that Satan is so politick that he will not do as yet any terrible acts by them whereby he might fear or amaze the people as he did by that man in Acts 19. for then he might lose them before he had gained them but he will rather chuse to do things that may be delightfull and pleasing unto the people such as healing some infirmities and turning of Water into Wine and the like and truly this is such a deceivable way that if he should use it much it would be enough to make all the Drunkards and Sack-belly-gods in England to become Quakers Comes hilaris quasi vehiculum viatori if it were but for that they might not empty their Purses to fill their bellies I should gladly hear of the charge of that Principle therefore that maketh so many ignorant people look after lying signs and wonders and to see them inquire after faith and knowledg and the grace of our Lord JESUS CHRIST that so they might be able to stand in such evil times as these are while Satan is playing his last game and let all the world assure themselves that we are now living in those last times that the servants of Christ hinted in so many places and indeed the most ignorant and scandalous men of our Nation called by the people like themselves Ministers and Preachers have of late years been telling their people over and over this thing but here was their mistake not in the time but in the persons and things for they have reckoned and railed at the Churches and servants of Christ who did most endeavour to demean themselves unto an exemplary and visible order of the Gospel to be those Hereticks and deluders of deluded people that are mentioned in the Scripture but considering their ignorance and blindness unto the things ways administrations and servants of Christ it was well they could come so near as to point at the time so rightly and I will forbear with them in this Yet let not the Readers of my Book think that I take their testimony for my own confirmation or shall offer it unto any other but if you will forbear me in this place you shall have my own grounds and reasons with the Scripture to prove this thing hereafter in my first question onely I shall be bold before I go any further to tell all carnal and natural men in the world be they Preachers or People that they must be beholding to those People whom they have ignorantly called Hereticks and Deluders I mean the servants of Christ not in form onely but in power evidence and demonstration of the Spirit to encounter with this spirituall mystery of iniquity that reigneth in such an high nature in the poor undone people There is nothing in any carnal man in the world that can enable him for this work if they had all Apollo's wisdom Minerva's learning or Sampsons strength it would not help them unless it were vi armis by an arm of flesh and that would be next unto nothing Peradventure this little labor of mine may make many thousands able to refuse their Errors and Delusions but it will not make any one able to resist and encounter with it Delinquere sed non evincere because it can be done no way but through a greater power and strength and light than is in Antichrist and he that shall observe me in this one thing shall see the reason hereof because Satan is by his creation an Angel of Light such as the rest of them were and we know that God made all things pure and good he made no Devil nor wicked man he made Adam an innocent righteous man he made the Angels innocent and righteous and far more excellent creatures than Adam was now if you compare the greatest excellency or glory in Adam while he was unchanged with that light and glory of the blested Angels into which Satan hath now transformed himself again you shall finde as much difference as you can judg between the light of a little star and the great Sun how much more then when you finde but the relicks reversions and some small remainders of Adams first excellency in any man that now liveth in that apostatized condition Therefore I would sain know how any man living in such a low carnal state of apostasie should be able to deal or to encounter with such an angelical and mighty appearance of Antichrist as is now manifest Will not it be now a Truth unto your understandings that there must be a greater light power glory and excellency thin his be found out to match and overcome him even that light power glory and excellency
rewards they judg not the fatherless neither doth the cause of the widow come before them therefore saith the Lord I will ease me of mine adversaties and avenge me of mine enemies And I would desire you to reade judiciously over most part of the second Chapter of Isaiah there you shall finde the minde of God against self-seeking and pride c. But that my counsel may appear more fully I shall desire you to give me leave to instruct you with much love and single-heartedness in these two things First that you will carefully in the fear of the Lord see to your selves and your ways that these people may not charge you justly with any coverousness pride vain-glory self-seeking oppression or injustice or profane and loose walking and in so doing you will in a most victorious manner disarm them of their offensive weapons Secondly that you would with all possible diligence seek for the armour of Christ Jesus and have your selves strengthned with that faith and knowledg which comes from him and these will be your defensive weapons and then by that time you shall have disarmed them and armed your selves in this kinde I know you will prove so able to deal with them your selves that you will never need to cry for your Sergeants and Officers to imprison them This I apprehend to be the most Gospel-like and most honourable way for Magistrates Ministers and People to take against the Quakers I have now through the good hand of the Lord attained unto the end of my thoughts and mediatations about this mysterious work and workers and have no more behinde but a few single words and then I have done Let not any wonder while I am speaking some particular words in a particular manner that I have not a word for the Quakers seeing they have been the whole object of my discourse my reason is because I finde the strongest of them to be beyond all hopes of returning or being convinced by such means for I have had some trial by reasonings with them and writings unto them and I finde it bringeth forth nothing in them but more obdurateness of heart and some railing unchristian-like expressions in their Letters so that I chuse rather to leave them to the wisdom and power of God in this thing and shall onely give these Cautions to such younglings of them who never were yet in any powerfull working of the Truth and Light of Christ and are but as it were entring into that deceitfull condition 1. With speed forsake their society wholly both in publick and private manner for although they may not prevail upon a knowing Christian yet they may easily carry away your hearts 2. Adjoyn your selves unto the societies of such people especially who walk according to the most plain and sure Rules of the Gospel and they are the Baptists so called 3. If there be any power or faculty to pray left in you I would have you use it to the utmost desiring the Lord in sincerity and with diligence from time to time to teach and shew you the ways that you shall chuse and then to establish and keep you in the same and undoubtedly if the Lord through his mercy will be pleased to help you to observe these three things it may be much for his glory and your comfort First a word to the Seekers so called You are that progeny of mankinde or parentage of people that have born forth unto the world that uncomfortable fraternity of Quakers and Ranters These brethren in iniquity are now in a state of desperate apostacy who were once a people of most blessed principles and great attainments for which things sake I was in my affections and judgment engaged to maintain fellowship and society with them in a special manner above and beyond all other people professing the ways of the Lord for the space of six years compleat For the worth of those principles sake which did so much affect me I shall make bold to mention three above the rest in this place 1. Was their readiness and willingness to own and receive any farther manifestations or appearances of God in power and truth that he should be pleased to shew unto them and this was no small mercy or attainment when I consider how many other poor creatures are possessed with a selfish rigid principle crying out against any farther manifestations or operations of God than what they have received as Heresie Error and the like 2. Was their chearfull owning and embracing all the workings of the grace of God in truth that did appear in the hearts of any poor creatures with much love and tender-heartedness towards them This was much compared with the frame of spirit that possesseth most professors 3. Was a greater careand seeking after a power life and spirit from the Lord to perform their worship and duty withall then standing upon the form or outward appearance of such worship or duty Which 3. Principles as I did so I do own them and judg them to be very heavenly and spiritual onely by these poor creatures sad example I hope I shall be more carefull to try well what I receive under either of them As you see these to be very high and spiritual so they ly very open to temptation and deceit And I will shew all people how Satan hath insinuated himself into the hearts of these people under every one of these principles and that with a very fair and unknowne guile First whereas they were ever ready and willing to receive all further discoveries and manifestations from the Lord he transforming himself into an Angel of Light that so he might seemingly act the part of God hath presented some new things or ways and operations un o them more seemingly spiritual than any they had before such as you have seen throughout this book and so easily engageth their hearts to receive what their principles led them unto Secondly they being very tenderly affected to all such whom they judged to be sincere although under the lowest discovery of truth Here Satan deceiving of them maketh them to become very much affected with the carnal creatures of the world and to disown such as they formerly owned and tendered under small attainments as though they were in a worse estate than meer carnal and atheistical persons Thirdly in as much as they did more look after the power of godliness than the form and more after spiritual enablings of the soule to duties than its going forth in its own strength Here the Deceiver beguileth them and carrieth them first away from that form they did use and secondly under waiting for spiritual endowments he suggesteth by fits much power of speaking and praying likewise for he can enable men to pray as well as to speak rumable words I know this to be true for when some of them have been under the greatest delusion that might be in speaking they have been carried out to pray in as ample manner and as good