and spirit of envie is pouring out of stoods of reviling bitternes not onely when she assembles in her harlots houses and Idol Temples with the rest of the proud and persecuting World where the Churches of Christ after they were gathered did never assemble but in her books and pamphlets speaking evil as she can not only of the Church ways of Christ which she understands not but of Christ Jesus himself who is come a light into the World ane is the light of the World which hath enlightned every man that cometh into the World and this is clear and plain and no studied accusation but a real thing and her proper sentence justly due is gone forth from the presence of the Lord and over her head doth stand And notvvithstanding ye say I gave no vvord or reason of my departure the sober Christian ye mention will easily perceive that this is another refuge of lies for it was reason enough of my departure to deny you to be a Church of Christ and to prove you an harlot a Synagogue of Satan a cage c. And all this I have done notwithstanding ye blush not to say I gave no reason of my departure c. But I perceive that which troubles you is that I who so well knew you and was so long as an Elder amongst you whom ye did so often chuse and elect to that employment and so highly esteemed should now so sadly apostatize as ye call it as not to acknowledge you a Church To which I reply Were ye indeed a Church of Christ how gladly would I acknowledge ye But till ye prove your selves so I may in the words of Thomas Ewins to Ralph Farmer in the 60 page of your book tell you though you be so wise to propose I cannot be so foolish as to grant it lest I make my selfe a transgressor like unto you and rebell against the light which hath manifested you But now let me demand your proof for although ye say ye would prove every tittle and had proved every tittle of what ye charged me withal yet is here no proof at all produced to prove that I drew any from the Church grieved and sadned many or opened the mouths of any to speak evill of the wayes of Christ yet is this more than a tittle or a syllable it is many words and sentences Oh foolish people and unwise how hath the Devill the god of the world and Rulers of the darknesse blinded you why is there no feare of God before your eyes who are adding one iniquity to another as drunkennesse to thirst and yet bespeak your selves a Church And because ye have recovered a veile with which your selves are blinded do think all others must be veiled too but where Christ is witnessed the veile is removed and in the light of Christ which ye have despised and set at nought are ye seen and comprehended and your hypocrisies inventions and traditions will-worships carnall ordinances together with that lying spirit to which ye give heed are in the same light judged denyed and witnessed against as that which to the Lord is abominable and burthensome in which he hath no delight but his soule hates because it is iniquity and a loathsome thing Isa 1.16 But from you whom have I drawn away Why had ye not mentioned one that some colour of truth might appear or that by it also ye might be reproved who of the strong and mighty arme and power of the Lord are ignorant by which he hath powerfully drawn and gathered many from amongst you as well as from others who in the like deceit are worshipping they know not what into his mountain of holinesse which he in this his day is setting up and establishing over your heads and a top of all mountains in which to his people the Lord is making a feast of fat things of which those that pour out a drink offering to that number must not eat in which mountain the Veile is removed the shadows taken away no Lyon or carnall devouring beastly thing can ever come but in it is the way of holinesse known and witnessed and life light and immortality reigns for evermore and the true and living God in spirit life and power known and worshipped who is light and in whom there is no darknesse at all And so although gross darknesse hath overspread the Aegyptian land where the Diviners the Sorcerers the Taskmasters and oppressors dwell yet in Jacobs Tent there is light by which the deeds of darknesse are seen and reproved And therefore although ye have taken liberty to vent your lies and slaunders and false accusations against the innocent over your high places when ye assemble by troops in harlots houses where the children of light dare not come to reproove and gainsay it except they are thereunto powerfully moved of the Lord to testifie against your deceipt and abhomination Yet must ye learn wisdome and take heed of printing and publishing such stuffe to the world else may ye be sure whilst ye seek to cover it with a veile your iniquities will be marked your filthy sepulchre opened which is already but badly painted your skirts more discovered so that shame and confusion will be your portion for evermore except ye repent And therefore of this be ye warned In your third branch ye lay the charge thus viz. your extream censoriousnesse and rash judging not onely of persons abroad but also of the Church c. And tell the world ye will prove yea that ye have proved every tittle and syllable of these things to be true when ye have not endeavoured so much as a shew of proof for ought ye speak touching persons abroad but past it over as if ye had never spoken it And yet this is tittles and syllables yea words c. But a bridle for your tongue ye want who have so long given heed to lying spirits that now ye appear to love lying more then to speak truth and being out of the fear of the Lord speak ye care not what I come now to your fifth branch and shall not trouble my selfe again with those many lies falshoods and contradictions which I there finde in what you say is verbatim having mentioned some of them before but shall examine your proof of that also and see if every tittle of it be proved or whether ye may not be proved lyars in this as in the rest Ye say I did at a meeting at mine house affirme the first part of this branch viz. That the Scriptures were blinde and a plague to souls And for proof ye again produce your own saying it is so and that some of you sitting over against me do well remember how I spake it Clapping my hand upon the book or table saying That Book or Scriptures was one of the greatest blindes and plagues to mens souls this day in England And that ye will again affirme and set your hands to it that I spake those very words To which I say There was a time in which many false witnesses were brought against him who was the truth and
probability of truth can be in vvhat they say I affirmed viz. That the Scriptures of truth were one of the greatest blindes and plagues to mens soules this day in England as if truth could be a blinde and a plague to soules vvhen it is a lying spirit is so to yours And notvvithstanding I never made a trade of the Scriptures nor preach't for hire nor divined for money as others do nor ever coveted any mans gold or silver or apparel amongst you nor accepted thereof vvhen by some I was earnestly prest thereunto but on the contrary have administred something largely of these things amongst you Yet from the Scriptures did I daily discourse as opportunity I had and by it have convinced many amongst you of your pride formality and other evils so that once ye were very much awakened and brought to some sense of your condition after ye had been too much taken with the doctrine of some called Notionists which it may be is the same ye now call Ranters whose principles and doctrines by the Scriptures I did withstand and oppose and with much labour and sore wrestlings was I instrumental to deliver you out of their mouths to whom many of you were become a prey I say much awakened ye were and the spirit which convinceth of sin began to work until another Ministry of unrighteousness came which for the wages of iniquity taught you to erre and when ye were convinced of sin and troubled within and saw your filth and wickedness appear by which your peace was broken and your consciences awakened and true judgement took hold on the transgressor prest you to believe lyes and shut out that which troubled and said it was temptations of the Devil and that your sin was done away and that God saw it not that it was all pardoned daubing with untempered morter crying peace peace to that to which no peace is spoken from God by which your bonds were made strong and the hands of evil doers strengthened that they turned not nor repented which wicked doctrine of the Devil by the Scripture I opposed and withstood perswading you to the last not to build on the sand but come down to the rock and told you your peace was but security which the Devil 's goods may attain and that all your assurance in which ye gloried was but vain confidence which in the time of tryal would deceive you and so far did I dispute it with you dailie by the Scripture that Thomas Ewins your publique Preacher told me I dasht his comforts and weakened his hands so that he was not able to preach but when into the Pulpit he was to go fear and trembling sometimes took hold upon him so that if necessity had not been upon him to speak the people being assembled he should not have spoken a word and told me of retiring to his former Calling and leaving the City with much more Others who loved to have smooth things spoken that they might be at ease in Zion who put far away the evil day complained as he said that all the comforts and joy they received and gathered from his Ministry all the day was dasht and broken by me in the evening Others complaining at last confest I led you safely though not comfortably and all was because the Devils Kingdom was disturbed and his goods not suffered to be at peace and in your consciences do you know that by the Scriptures I demonstrated what I said to which I was as true as any amongst you whatsoever And if in this ye shall say I boast remember it s you that have compelled me and if ye have a mind to gain-say or contradict any particular of it do it honestly plainly and down-rightly not coverty and deceitfullie as ye have done before that when I come to reply I may have something like as from men to speak unto and not as from a company of foolish tost children For although to this was I was at first averse yet by the power and presence of the living God shall I be free and able to quench your thorns scatter your deceit and remove your veil and discover the Harlots skirts But friends suppose all ye say were granted and that I had indeed whilst I was amongst you entertained and asserted many principles contrary to truth and said that the Scriptures of truth were a blinde to souls and one of the greatest plagues of the land which I have and utterly do deny And suppose it were granted an error and a very great sin so to say and affirm yet was not all this done in your meeting whilst I was one and amongst you and not then reproved nor gain sayed And was it not then time for all that feared the Lord and loved the truth to depart out of such an Assembly in which such things are permitted to be entertained and published without rebuke Was there any safety in being one with such an Harlot though she call her self a Church And are not these things spots whilst the true Church of Christ which is his glorious body is without spot or wrinckle Surely little cause have any who know the truth and love and believe in the light to be grieved or sad'ned that any be drawn from such an Assembly and happy for me was the day in which the light manifested you and from amongst you separated me to another people where no such principles are entertained nor permitted to be vented And for mine own part I do freely declare to all the world that since by the power of the good shepherd I was gathered from amongst you I am fan from entertaining or uttering any such things but do dearly own the Scriptures of truth as given by inspiration and see them of great use and service And if I received and entertained such principles contrary to truth amongst you with you I also left them to whom the Scripture is of little use more then to talk of and trade with for an advantage and by wresting and corrupting the same make use of it as a veil to cover your deceipt and filthiness but the life thereof do not witness But I have not yet done with your testimony in pag. 13. where ye say ye insert your admonition verbatim Ye charge me with asserting in the Church doctrines contrary to truth one of which is that the Scriptures are not the Word of God and every tittle of this ye say ye have proved notwithstanding ye have not proved any thing of it to be true but only ask if I did not at a meeting at the Red-lodge in the Garden-house before near twenty people say so one of you being by c. Truly the Harlots fore-head is very hard if at this she do not blush What! Lay a general charge and say ye will prove and have proved every tittle and yet can say nothing but ask me if it were not so And in pag 12. 13. ye lay this thing to be asserted in the Church
men how soon was he turned Presbyter and in wickedness excelled acting speaking and railing as aforesaid But when the times of refreshing from the presence of God appeared and life and immortality which for ages past had been â—â—â—id was brought to light and witnessed in power by those who were chosen heirs of salvation what a woful persecutor is he become who if he can but obtain a power to do according to his will it s like both Saul and Bonner in comparison of him might be accounted merciful men and therefore I need not spend much time in manifesting him who is so loathsom already to many of his own generation When such a man as Richard Fowler of Westerleigh in the County of Gloucester who about the year 1645 was Preacher to a people without Algate London a man once accounted as famous for Religion and godliness for tenderness of conscience and self-denial as most I then knew in England a man that in the time of the late Bishops was by them accounted factious not submitting to their corrupt decrees but refused to wear a Surpless to take upon him a Parish charge to baptize and administer Sacraments so called to multitudes with the rest of that stuff and declared against Tythes and forced maintenance for preaching and took but a little voluntary contribution from the people to whom he preached and perceiving some of them to give it grudgingly declared it a burthen and much against him to receive that which came not freely and desired his friend that gathered it not to receive it yea and accounted it persecution and a grievous thing in the Bishops and their generation to summon him to their Court for refusing that which thorough tenderness of conscience he could not do complaining grievously under the burthen thereof pressing hard upon his friends to suffer him to depart the Nation for the liberty of his conscience is now so wofully fallen and degenerated become worse then his former persecutors that through him far more cruelty is done unto others then ever was by those unto him who being become a Parish Priest bearing the name of the lawful inducted Vicar of the Parish Church of Westerleigh hath occasioned a Declaration to be put into the Court of Exchequer in the year 1657. against 15. persons of the said Parish for not paying him Tythes four of which cast into prison for refusing to swear how many apples and eggs oblations offerings and Tythes were due to Richard Fowler or to his Elders in his behalf In which Declaration it is said that for years past he the said Richard Fowler hath been invested and inducted into the Vicaridge c. whereby he is lawfully intituled to receive oblations and Tythes and that from the time of his induction into the said Parish Church hath continued Vicar and officiated the Cure in administring the Sacraments c. to the Inhabitants of the Parish and that all kinds of Vicaridge Tythes are due to him as Calves Colts Lambs Wool Milk Piggs Geese Apples Eggs fruits of Gardens Offerings and other Tythes accustomed to be paid to Vicars c. Oh how is it that he doth not blush at this I well remember the time in which he would have been ashamed to own such stuff What! to professe himself a Minister of Christ and a Vicar of a parish Church and a Minister of Christ and inducted into a Vicaridge a Preacher of righteousnesse and officiate Cures in administring Sacraments to parishes for which all kinds of Tythes become due to him a Preacher of the Gospel and the new Covenant or Testament and claim a right to Tythe Colts Calves Lambs Piggs Geese Ducks Hens Bees Milk Wool Apples and Eggs nay to oblations and offerings the very name of which in this kind is loathsom and long hath appeared so to those that believe and know the truth And is not the false Prophet the great Bishops of Rome the chief of Vicars the head of the rest whom Christ the head of the true Church will and doth judge and confound Oh poor man how is blindness happened unto him And how far is he degenerated and gone back from his former tendernesse and honesty hath not only taken upon him the loathsome name but entertained the cruel nature of the enemies of the Lord occasioned a malicious false lying Declaration to be put into the Court of Exchequer against 15 persons for not paying him Oblations Offerings Tyths due to him as the lawful inducted Vicar of the Parish Church of Westerleigh All which being out of the Doctrine of Christ and of the Scripture and in the constitutions and appointments of the chief Vicar of Rome from whence his Title his Office and dues his come all that keep the word of Gods patience in this hour of temptation that hath tryed him do testifie against and deny For which and to ensnare the innocent hath he occasioned a request to the Court of Exchequer that the 15 persons aforesaid might be commanded under certain penalties to appear at the said Court and put upon their corporall oaths to declare what Oblations Offerings and Tythes are due or how many Hens Ducks Geese Pigs Eggs Apples Lambs Calves Colts c. they have kept in severall years O horrible wickednesse how doth he abase himselfe to hell sucking up such filthy stuffe the vâ—râ— excrements of those whom God hath cast out and left their names as a curse to his chosen Was ever Minister of Christ so ignoble and base as to sue people that feare the Lord in Courts for Tythe eggs and apples hens ducks geese beef and pigs And did ever Minister of Christ occasion his people to be commanded upon great penalties to appear in Courts to swear how many apples and eggs they had that of it he might have Tythes when Christ Jesus himself expresly commanded his not to sweare at all And he that was his Minister said Above all things my brethren swear not at all And yet this man who would be accounted a Minister labours to have the servants of God compelled to swear how many eggs apples hens ducks geese and piggs they had that of it he might have tythes due to Vicars as if he had never read in the Scripture That he that breaketh the least of the commands and teacheth men so shall be called least in the Kingdome of Heaven who doth not only teach but to his power compell men to break them that by it he may have gain And is not he in this a Minister of unrighteousness whose end must be according to his works who hath not onely occasioned the foresaid request to be made to the Court but a Writ of Subpoena to be procured by which four of the foresaid persons were commanded under very great penalties to appear at Westminster upon a certain day where they all appeared in their persons to answer the accusations yet because through tendernesse of conscience they could not swear thereby to break the command of
general and yet ye say it s verbatim But in this also not onely your falshood but also your confusion is so fully manifested that I need say no more but leave it to the Reader to judge But ye say It is for speaking against the Scriptures affirming they were blind and a plague to souls and that they are not the Word of God nor rule of life and this ye would have understood to be verbatim though like the rest it will easily appear to be a parcel of falshood hypocrisie and deceit for besides your own confusions before mentioned in the Coppy delivered to me by Robert Simpson which he saith is true and ye 〈◊〉 testimony he is faithful it is thus Your speaking reproachfully of the pretious Scriptures of truth as first affirming that it was a blind to souls and secondly one of the greatest plagues of the Land and thirdly affirming farther that it is not the Word of God nor rule of life Now let the Reader whose eye is opened judge how these agree The person sent to admonish at the same time or thereahouts gives it under his hand that what he writ out and delivered to me was a true Coppy of what he received And the whole company after they received an answer thereunto deviseth and publisheth another and say it is verbatim though it much differs from the former The latter saith the charge there mentioned was verbatim in these words Speaking reproachfully of the blessed Scriptures affirming they were blind and a plague to souls c. the former in these words Speaking reproachfully of the precious Scripture of truth as first affirming that it was a blind to souls and aly one of the greatest plagues of the land The one puts both together The Scripture is blind and a plague the other divides them into two particulars and saith first a blind to souls and 2ly one of the greatest plagues of the Land the one that the Scriptures were blind the other that it is a blind the one that they were blind and a plague to souls and never mentions the Land The other that it is first a blind to souls and 2ly a plague yea one of the greatest plagues of the Land and mentions not souls The one saith The pretious Scriptures of truth The other the blessed Scriptures and mentions not the words of truth And yet if any man is given over to believe lies ye will perswade him all this is true and verbatim that is word for word according to the copy And that notwithstanding this lying spirit which is found in your mouths to which ye give heed ye are a Church of Christ or a mystical body a word of deceit from the bottomlesse pit which may be subject to this spirit as it plainly appears to all beholders ye are by what your selves have published And truly the day hath manifested you very much and ye cannot be hid but by the light your deeds of darknesse are and will be reproved and your pretended admonition farther manifested to be but studied accusations and from your father the devil who was a liar from the beginning and abode not in the truth Now as that which ye call your admonition and say ye did insert verbatim as a bundle of lies and confusion as hath been manifested so is that which ye call your proof for in page 13. ye say because I said those things that is to say your charge are studied accusations and from the father of lies c. ye shall therefore prove every tittle to be true And in page 18. ye say ye have proved every tittle to be true and clear and in page 26. your 3 Messengers who boast that they received their Commission from God to this work say that the things that they charged me withall are all true in every sillable of it as doth appear by the foregoing answer of the whole Church Now then if ye have not proved every tittle of your charge to be true and if it do not appear by your foregoing answer that every sillable of that with which your Messengers charged me is true then are ye proved both those that did send and those that were sent no Church of Christ but a company of lyars and false asserters But ye have not proved every title and every sillable thereof to be true and therefore are ye no Church of Christ but a company of lyars for first ye charged me for leaving the Church and now ye say that I have left the Church is true but no proof thereof have ye given neither is it true which ye say for the Church I have not left but to witness the Church I have left the harlot and that I have absolutely forsaken left and renounced fellowship with you in all your idolatrous heathenish wayes and worships which stand in the will and time of man and not in the will and power of God and by the mighty arm and power of the Lord am I separated from amongst you never again to have fellowship nor communion with you in those unfruitful works of darkness which by the light are reproved is granted else could I never know nor witness the Church of Christ which is in God the father But that ye are the Church of Christ is denyed and was denyed and by your fruits and what lodged in you were ye proved an harlot a synagogue of Satan c. which stands vvholly unansvvered by you And therefore it is not true but a lie to say I left the Church when I was separated from the Harlot that I might witness the Church But suppose it had been true that I had left the Church by vvhat have ye proved it Why onely your selves say it is so but that is no proof and yet this is more than tittles and syllables it is vvhole sentences ye a general charge not proved except vvhat the harlot speaks to save her head vvhen to judgement she is brought is to be believed and admitted as a proof But ye go on and say that my so doing hath drawn away some grieved others and opened the mouehs of many to speak evil of the wayes of Christ which is clear and plain and not a studied accusation but a real thing which hath been grief and sadness to the Church To which I reply if the Harlot or Synagogue of Satan might be believed in her own case when she speaks not truth then what ye say were of some value But from the Church have I drawn none nor been a grief nor sadness that I know to her with whom in some measure I have unity Neither do I know of any whose mouths I have justly opened to speak evil of the wayes of Christ which are pure and spiritual So that the whorish and adulterous harlot cannot see it who is grieved and sadned at my departure whose judgement is come and her torments from the living God are pouring and therefore hath she opened her mouth very wide and from her unclean fountain
vindicate or cover himself from what was truly laid upon him yet from it hath he not delivered himselfe but the charge stands good in sound and sober words in the power of truth and whiles he covereth his sin be cannot prosper And whiles he addeth one iniquity to another he cannot come into Gods righteousnesse And oh that he would consider it and lay it to heart whiles he hath time that in the day of the Lords anger which is at hand and as a destruction from the Almighty shall come he might be hid and find mercy of the Lord with whom his vain speaking of a witnesse he hath in heaven brought from thence into his heart and confirmed by the Spirit of Truth and of his being taken up into the Mount to confer with him who hath all power given him and of a Warrant sealed and given forth from him that hath al power c. is of little accompt whiles he understands not what he speaks For the Kingdom of God cometh not with observation but the kingdome of God is within and in his Kingdom he is who dwells in heaven where the Father the Word and Spirit agree of which all blind Pharisaical Professors are ignorant and cannot know it till in the light and by the spirit it be revealed and made manifest And whereas he saith All that he with the rest laid at my door was to a tittle true and that neither he nor his brethren have any reluctance for it This is all fals for I have before proved it lies and deceit and themselves have confest they found that which boiled like a furnace and scalded all that stand near it and they were near it and so resolved not to stay another time And judgement is now laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet and all refuges of lies and deceit are to be swept away and by truth and soberness such hiding places are overflown and in soberness do I stand and so much to my self am I come that I see many of his words there mentioned to veil and cover himself to be light and vain and not worth answering and that what I writ was both sober and true without fawning and flattery in which many among you are too much exercised who love to have smooth not true things spoken and would have me peaceable gentle and full of mercy to hypocrisie deceit and wickedness all which is for judgement and no peace from God is spoken to it And therefore without partiality do I declare against it in him and you as well as in others and to my self am I not a stranger And this is pure wisdom from above and moderation known unto all that receive and believe in the light by which that spirit appearing in my former book is justified though to you that hate the light and by the light are condemned it is as gall and worm-word And for sporting my self and insulting over him I did it not but it is another refuge of lies for I told him before I did not insult over him nor delight in his wo and misery but was sorely grieved as still I am to see how the wicked one whom the Lord would destroy was exalted in him and you and what I writ is true And whereas he saith I was not a in a sober mind but at a distance from it and true speaking when I mentioned to him the portion of lyars and that not any thing he said was a lie but what he said I had not his hand to as his particular affirmation and so goes on speaking many words but to what purpose I cannot see except it be by words to darken the Readers understanding But if I mistake not that which he would do is to vindicate himself from being a lyar with what else I charged upon him in my former Letter by telling me he said I had not his hand to it as his particular accusation And if this be his meaning then is it gross deceit for I never said or thought it was his particular accusation but a general accusation delivered by him in which himself and each other particular was included and so I spake to him in soberness and pitty my very howels moving towards him knowing my self innocent and that it was a dreadful thing for him in the Name or the Lord to speak a false vision or thing I asked him how he durst come to me and in the name of the Lord tell me I said the Scriptures of truth were one of the greatest plagues of the land when I never spake nor thought such a thing To which he replyed he never spake it nor laid it to my charge though out of his own mouth it came and when I told him I had it under his hand he denyed it When I told him I could shew it him he replied if I could he would acknowledge himself a lyar upon which ground I charged him for it as before and so I do still and good were it for him if he owned the judgement and repented for otherwise he cannot escape But if he forgeting that his hand was to his paper did run himself into the evil of denying it as is before exprest yet if when he came to the sight of his error he had clearly acknowledged it and owned his condemnation and repented to which in love he was advised there had been mercy for him but being convinced and reproved of the evil hardened his neck and labours to hide and cover his sin adding one iniquity unto another here he cannot prosper but brings himself justly under not onely the judgement and condemnation mentioned in my former Letter but more and more misery due to those that rebel against the light by which they are reproved and to those that add iniquity unto iniquity and must not come into Gods righteousness And from it all the waters in Jordan can never wash him not the Rocks and Mountains cover him nor all your outward observations imaginations and will-worships preserve him till he own the light by which he is convinced and reproved and the just condemnation thereof pass upon the rebellious and the transgressor which hath sinned and he brought to repentance and the acknowledgement of the truth and so his soul come to be saved in this mighty day of the Lords power And this is not from a violent heat of wild-fire as he calls it but from a spirit of soberness soundness and truth and is true love to his soul and the time is near in which he that rebuketh plainly shall find more favour then he that flattereth with his lips and my end is not to make him a transgressor before all as he supposeth but according to my measure to advise him into the way the light the life and the truth which leadeth out of transgression into the inheritance of the Saints in light and in this I do not equivocate nor evade as he falsely chargeth me but do speak plainly and truly though at
it was not he that formerly was not free to take a parish charge to be maintained by Tythes nor voluntary contribution from those that gave it grudgingly and accounted persecution a grievous thing in the Bishops dayes from him onely to be summoned to their Courts though by them he was not imprisoned that hath committed this villainy aforesaid but it was his two Elders viz. Richard Hollister of Cop-hill and Thomas Prigg that have done it and that he by Indenture hath let them his Tythes I say if he thus plead then is the wickedness of his heart and the naughtiness of his spirit the more made manifest who being convinced of the badness of the work was ashamed in it to appear himself and yet would put others upon the doing thereof And for him to pretend the letting his Tythes by Indenture is horrible deceipt and the priest and the Elders are not wise who in their own declaration put into the Court have said the Lease bears date the 17. day of March 1656 when as the Subpoena by which they summoned the aforesaid persons was dated long before so that either his zealous Elders and proselytes were complaining and persecuting their neighbours for Tythes before their Indenture was made or they had that shew of a title or else Richard Fowler himself was the man that did it of which being ashamed he afterwards for a cloak makes a pretended Lease to others or rather the Priest with the Elders and people of Westerleigh consult and agree to persecute the innocent and therefore supplication was made that they might be sent for and commanded to swear how may eggs and apples were due to Richard Fowler which they in obedience to Christ refusing to do for whose name sake they suffer presently solicitation was made that power be given to cast them into prison as it was by the wicked Caldaeans to cast the three children into the firery furnace be-because to the Lord they stood faithful did not bow to that to which by the command of the Babylonish King they were required and so the Scripture is fulfilled and the Devil hath cast some into prison where being faithful unto death they will receive the crown of life in the approaching day in which the cruel Beast the false Prophet and those that make war with the Lamb is to be cast alive into the lake and tormented for evermore But hath Richard Fowler done honestly or as he would be done unto in this matter If yea why then did he cry out of violence and wrong of grievousness and persecution when by the former persecutors he was much more tenderly dealt withal and not commanded to swear to accuse himself nor was ever imprisoned for refusing thereof And would he not have accounted it a vile and a most wicked thing in the Bishops and their generation if they by their means and interest had not onely cast him into prison but his family out of doors using all means they were able so unjustly to ruinate spoyle and undo him in his outward estate whilst they kept him in bonds and that for so small a matter as a few Tythe-apples and eggs c. unjustly demanded If so why then doth he allow himself in the practice of that which he condemneth in others since God is no respecter of persons And were it not good for him to remember from whence he is fallen and repent and call to minde what himself hath spoken in my hearing in many of his Sermons made in the former persecutors dayes from these and the like Scriptures Matth. 23.37 O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest â—he Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee c. Mark 10.29 30. There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sister or father or mother or wife or children or land for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold c. But many that are first shall be last and the last first 2. Thes 2.3 c. Let no man deceive you by any meanes for the day of the Lord shall not come except there be a â—aâ—ling away first and the man of sin be revealed the son of perdition c. And when dangers appeared very near and he with others kept a publique Fast in the Steeple-house of Westerleigh Esther 4.14 If thou at this time altogether hold thy peace then shall their enlargement and delivernance arise for the Jewes from another place c. And how he then applyed it against the persecutors in behalfe of the persecuted And are not Philip Rampington Edmond Bonner fit subjects for him to mind who for a time professeth the truth as it was made manifest in those dayes and suffered great persecutions for the same especially Philip Rampington as the histories of Martyrs declare Yet at length growing great in favour with the world and embracing the same became as vile persecutors as any of the rest under whose bloody spirit the innocent servants of God who stood faithful to him suffered very grievous tormentings And how Rich Fowler is degenerated may be seen who once cryed out grievously of persecution which himself endured yet hath occasioned and doth occasion the servants of God at this day to suffer manifold more than himselfe endured by the Bishops and that upon the same ground and for the very same things for which the former servants of God did suffer by their persecutors And did not he know or believe that Richard Hollister Richard Atwood Henry Alsop and John Champneys could not in conscience swear at all before he occasioned that request to the Court that they might be sent for and commanded to swear And if so then whether himselfe with his Elders did it not to ensnare and betray the innocent And whether in this he is like a Minister of Christ Or whether in it both himselfe and his Elders are not one with the wicked Presidents and Princes of Babylon who sought an occasion against Daniel which the Reader may read Dan. 6. All which at present is left to the consideration of those therein concerned till another opportunity by the wisdome of God is administred for laying open the wickedness of this generation of which this is but a little onely let all the world take heed and beware of a generation of deceivers and false Prophets who come in sheeps cloathing but inwardly are ravening wolves who by their fruits may be known they are greedy dogs that can never have enough that seek for their gain from their quarter That bite with their teeth and cry peace peace and prepare war against them that put not into their mouths That make merchandize of the people and destroy soules for dishonest gaine casting men into prison for not breaking the Commandements of Christ and sue them at the Law for Oblations Offerings and Tythes c. For since Richard Fowler one of the best of that generation who once was so tender as before is said is so wofully