getting many of the outward forms and words of the Saints the sheeps cloathing but inwardly adulterated from the life and Spirit of Jesus Christ the only foundation of the true Church and was not the ground of the Dragons Whores Beasts false Prophets quarrel against the Martyrs and witnesses of Christ principally this that they held the testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of Prophecie Rev. 19.10 and bear witness against the Whore who had the form retained without the power yea denyed the power of godliness denyed the teachings and leadings of the Spirit of Christ and the Revelation of him in the hearts of the children of men this is the Antichrist who denies Christ the Son come thus in the revelation of himself in the heart for that coming of Christ in his bodily appearance at Ierusalem Antichrist will not does not deny it being he knows it will never harm his Kingdom so to confess him come providing Christ his Kingdom be not set up in the heart now was there not such a dispensation in the earth were there not a people in the Apostles dayes who witnessed Christ come again in spirit according to his promise who said If any keep my commands I and my Father will come and dwell with him And again I go away but I will not leave you comfortless I will come again unto you Iohn 17. And after the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ were they not indued with the Spirit from on high and filled with the holy Ghost did they not live in the Spirit walk after the Spirit did it not give the knowledge of the mysteries of God's Kingdom unto them did not the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation open the eyes of their understanding to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge and while they kept here did they not remain a pure chast Church unto Christ and while the eye was kept open and single by the revelation of the Spirit of Truth could the Dragon or Whore or Antichrist prevail over them could the many traditions or inventions get place as the Ordinances of Christ had they kept to the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit of God Now was not the principal Defection and Apostacy from this even the pure chast Light Life and Spirit of Christ revealing God and the things of this Kingdom unto them and when people wandred from this there the inventions took place and Babylons cup was drunk for the vail came over whereby the true discerning was lost and a wrong eye opened which could not but judge amiss of the things of God and of his People and wrest and abuse the Scriptures Now ye who say That there was indeed such a dispensation but now it hath ceased and is never any more to take footing in the eaâ—th do ye not hereby demonstrate your selves to be of the whorish Church for hath not this been her plea all along this dark night of Apostacy that the Revelation Teachings and leadings of the Spirit of Chirst is ceased therefore another Head was set up in the Church then Christ Jesus and the Pope and his Council was made Judge to determine all controversies of Religion and no man was to look at an infallible Judge the spirit of Truth within him and are ye not become as bad who openly affirm that ye are not led by the infallible Spirit and consequently not by the Spirit of God and your Church Confession of Faith saith The former way of God's revealing himself by Prophecy and immediate Revelation is ceased and God hath committed his counsel wholly into writing or to the Scriptures and nothing is to be added thereto by any new revelation of the Spirit And oh how faâ— are ye in this point degenerated and apostatized from the primitive Protestants and Reformers who not only affirmed that there was immediate Revelations from God and that the Spirit of Prophecie was not ceased but witnessed the same in themselves and foretold many things of consequence by the spirit of Prophecie which came to pass did not Iohn Knox and George Wishard prophecie exceeding clearly of whom it was said That from the day he entred upon his Ministry tâ— his death there never came a storm upon the Church but he foresaw the end of it as may be seen in the Book of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland and many others did prophecie as ye may read in Fox's Book of Martyrs and was not this the main and only pillar of the Protestant cause against the Papists who should be the Judge of Controversies and the interpreter of Scriptures The Pope and his Council with the Fathers said The Papists no said the Protestants but the Spirit of God And I read in the fore-cited Book of Martyrs how when some who were burnt for their testimony to the Truth in Queen Maries dayes were called before the Popish Clergy and Bishops who disputed with them and when the controversie arose concerning such points or Scriptures the Popish party alleadged the determination of the Church but the Martyrs pleaded for the determination of the Spirit of God and when it was queried if such had the Spirit of God and it was answered Yea and one brought that Scripture for his assertion who is Antichrist but he that denyeth that Christ is come in the flesh the people partly flouted thereat and laughed them to scorn as yee do us at this day because we affirm that we have the Spirit of God and that Christ is come and his life made manifest in our mortal flesh as saith the Apostle Paul And that which sounds very harsh in your ears at this day and is mocked at by you yea accounted delusion and blasphemy viz. Enthusiasm or the Inspiration of God and the motion of his Spirit was a thing usually known professed and possessed also by them as may be read at large in the aforesaid books and they said faith was the Inspiration of Gods Spirit and so it is and I deny that there is any true faith but that which comes as really and immediately from the inspiration of the Spirit as ever Paul or Peter or any of the Apostles and Prophets witnessed the same whom yee your selves acknowledge to have been inspired and were they now living yee would hiss at them as yee do at us calling them Inthusiasts and Oh what a time are we fallen in that the inspiration of the Spirit of God which is the very breath of life into the souls of the Lords people should be scorned and such as witness such a blessed and glorious dispensation nick-named Fanaticks and mad men even by them who have pretended so highly to be the reformed Church and at such a time wherein the day of God is broke up in such clearness in the midst of them yet they know it not 2. Your fore-fathers the primitive Protestants and Reformers who saw a little further into mysterie Babylon then others that went before them for the day brake up gradually and
hearts for they are not come to the Light and Word of Truth whereby to discern the true upright genuine desire from the false and hypocritical and this thing hath proved also a great share unto the people who hath heaped up to themselves Teachers after their own hearts lusts who might speak false peace unto them and that whereon there is so much stress laid to wit the calling of the people or Patrons is not of God but of Babylon for in the state they are in they will be loth ever to call a good man unto them supposing he could be found but such who will wink at their faults and run with them thereinto and when at any time they let a reproof fall it stinks out of their mouths being guilty of the same things themselves and away with the education of youth at Universities and Colledges of Philosophy so called I may say of them which Luther stuck not to call them in his day That they are the stews of Antichrist for out of them comes this ignorant profane scandalous Ministry wherein they learn to talk of things they understand not and to prate in mans wisdom which is carnal earthly and devillish And the Philosophy so called which is taught them is but meer deceit and pedantry which even I came to see when among them and many of themselves see it and confess it to be but vanity and none can teach either the knowledge of God or of the creation but such who come to be indued with a measure of the wisdom of God which made the creation in number weight and measure according to it 's pure holy Law and neither God nor the work of his hands can be truly known but in the light which makes all manifest which the Doctors and disputers of this world are strangers unto and it's follishness to them and many among themselves have attempted the reformation of their so called Philosophy and squeezed their brains to find out a new one but all in vain it shall never be found out till they come to the Cross of Christ and under his cross denying their own wisdom become the disciples of Christ and learn of him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom knowledge the true Science of the creation as well as the of the Creator for the world was made by him and he can best teach it and in him manifest in man the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made which carry upon them indeed the characters of infinite wisdom goodness and power but are a sealed book no less then the Scriptures to such who are not come to the teachings of him who made them and can only give an eye to read them with a true understanding and to advantage And this I testifie who have had a tryal and experience both of the one and the other the wisdom of man wherein I laboured much and long and profited above many of my nighbours and the wisdom of God in which now I see and for which I truly account that other loss and dung even for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ the Wisdom which was vvith the Father before the World began and I certainly know the humane Wisdom or learning is one of the main Bulwarks of Antichrist against the Revelation and setting up the Kingdom of Christ in the Earth and because this is arising and shall rise down must the other go and all who seek to uphold it shall fall therewith And away with the many Doctrins and opinions yee have drunken from your teachers who have abused the Scriptures and you both giving you to believe they were grounded on Scripture and are nothing but their own imaginations which the erring mind through Sathans suggestions hath begot both in them and you and rid your selves of all whatsoever yee have taken upon trust and what yee have not seen and learned in the openings and manifestation of the Word and Spirit of truth in each particular and make the revelation of the Spirit of truth in all things the rule and analogy of your faith believing nothing less or more then what is revealed to you therefrom and where that opens not keep wholy back from passing any determination for or against And away with that manner of interpreting Scripture and searching truth by drawing and knitting consequences by the fallible erring mind and natural understanding keep close in all things to the judgment and determination of the Spirit of God and where that leads you as it did lead Christ to infer upon the Saduces the Resurrection from the dead from that Scripture I am the God of Abraham and God is not the God of the dead but of the Living to draw a consequence or frame an argument do it else forbear And away with determining of things as yee have hitherto done by Plurality of Votes it 's not the way of God and will never further the Lords work or truth their votes or consents not being in the unity of the Spirit of truth And away with thinking general Assemblies Counsils or Parliaments in the state they stand in will do you any good in order to a perfect and through Reformation they will certainly marre it but never help it forward being out of Gods wisdom and its foolishness unto them And your looking too much to these things in former times hath been a great snare unto you And thus now I have showed you good advice and councel concerning your becoming a perfect and thoroughly reformed people and the witness of God in all your Consciences as yee heed it will not fail to answer me to the truth and expedience of these things I have laid before you And principally every one mind the through reformation and change of your own hearts and lifes by turning in your minds to the Light of Christ in all your consciences which must do the work else it never will be done and as the reformatiâ— of particulars grows so will the same do in the general And now what I have declared unto you and the manifestation of the Spirit of truth will shew you much more even the perfect patern of the house of God in the Mount concerning these things which are necessary and expedient in order to a thorough cleanly and perfect reformation we the people of the Lord called Quakers have fallen upon them being taught and directed thereto by the wisdom of God which buildeth the house else the building is in vain and we have found and do find the blessed usefulness of them as ye shall also find if ye be followers of us as we are of Christ And now ye who say or shall say Tush all this is but vanity and folly we will not daine to take councel from you we are wiser then your selves we will not learn at you and yee but boast of things yee know not and we expect a glorious comfortable breaking up of the day of God in order to a more perfect and thorough reformation then as yet hath been among us but it shall never come to us through your airth we can never expect good of you for yee are but a pack of poor silly deluded brainsick fools therefore get yee from us we will none of your councel the day shall never dawn upon us if it rise not in another airth then yee tell us of To such I say Oh yee foolish and unwise how like are yee to the former generations who ever were enemies to the wisdom of God through their carnal earthly and devilish wisdom and to the Iewes of old who despised the son of God and crucified him the Lord of Glory whom at that very time they were expecting to come the promised Messiah and when he came they mistook him and received him not because of his weak lowly contemptible appearance to the carnal eye but such who had the eye of Faith saw the glory of the only begotten of God upon him thorough the vaile which covered him from the sight of others and he disappointed them in all their carnal expectations and they are yet looking for him and have looked these sixteen hundred years but have never seen him nor shall see him in the way they look for him as neither shall yee and your judgment shall be one with theirs you being shut forth into utter darkness and plagued with hardness of heart if yee do not speedily repent And now whether ye will hear or forbear this I do declare unto you in the name and power and authority of the living God the day of the Lord is of a truth broken up among us and ye shall look till your eyes fail you and rote within your eye-holes e're ever yee see another day or appearance of Jesus Christ to your comfort then what we the people of the Lord called Quakers do witness come and yet more abundantly coming and if yee will not hear my soul shall mourn for you in secret places and weep before the Lord on your behalf And yee who in the perverseness and obstinacy of your hearts gain-stand and oppose with all your might and power the appearance of Jesus Christ in this day and yet are calling for the day of the Lord To what purpose do yee call for it that I may use the Prophets words in the like case Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you the day of the Lord is darkness and not light as if a man did flee from a Lyon and a Bear met him or went unto the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him shall not the day of Lord be darkness and not light even very dark and no brightness in it Writ about the beginning of the 11 Month in the year 1664. THE END ERRATA IN Page 5. line 38. for and read an p. 16. l. 39. f. live r. alive p. 17. l. 39. f. these r. those p. 20. l. 30. r. in the world p. 22. l. 37. f. this r. his p. 30. l. 4. f. Laâ—ely r. Layety p. 44. l. 35. f. ease r. case p. 60. l. 8. r. did arise p. 63. l. 38. f. one r. an p. 64. l. 21. f. an r. one p. 66. l. 4. f. hear r. heart p. 68. l. 29. f. their r. her
that hitherto yee have been labouring but in the fire as to the producing any work of Reformation which God allowes of yea and going rather backwards from what was once attained to loosing and plainly contradicting the true and honest principles of your worthy Predecessors which one thing rightly considered may evidently demonstrate to you that your work hath not been nor is of God The presence of God having been very eminently with the Author of these Papers in his enquiry after these things this his service may be very useful for you and will be so found and acknowledged by those whose eyes shall be opened to behold how the Lord comes forth in this day of his power to try every work of man and by the foolish things of the World to confound the wise And to what is there said as to that particular annent the qualifications of a true Minister I shall only add these few words that which so was necessary from the beginning that which we have heard and seen and handled with our hands of the word of Life even the power and presence of the Lord in his people do we whom in scorn yee call Quakers declare unto you as the only essential qualification of a true Minister of Christ. And if this be it yee are so affraid of that through the increase of this the spirit of Prophesie the true Church and Ministers of Christ shall suffer loss your fear upon this account is groundless for these must stand and only in that way must they prosper so as that the gates of Hell shall never prevail against them but if your fear be for the fall of that supposed Church which they the hirelings I mean and yee so contend for both among your selves and with others which is truly Antichristian and no better then undoubtedly your fear is coming upon you and for preventing of it as yee may suppose it is no marvel that ye so fall in with them for the defence of Rome and her Ministry or else as some who have been and yet are famous among you have both spoke and written that yee must not only lose your Church and ministry but your Baptism and the Bible which the witness of God in your Consciences cannot but tell you how much yee did sometime detest and abhor so to say or think untill of late through the growing light of this day in these and in many other truths of the like nature your skirts are so discovered and your heels made bare and your way so hedged up of the Lord that yee cannot escape either to own Rome as your mother Church and so to return to her again or fully to part with and come out of her for ever and thence not to bring with you a stone of hers either for a foundation to Zion or for a corner nay she must not be healed any more which yee have been for a long time so endeavouring but destroyed for ever Ier. 51.9.26 and the time draws near and yet thereby neither the Church nor Ministers of Christ nor the true Baptisme nor the holy Scriptures of truth nor any other of his true Ordinances shall thereby sâ—ffer loss but great and glorious advantage to them who wait for it And because there be some with whom I have had sweet fellowship in the Lord who its very like would have expected some other thing from me then such sharp and peremptory expressions and conclusions against them and the way of the so called Kirk of Scotland in which I was bred with them and had my beginning in the way of Godliness I know very well as things now stands with you yee may think so of what I have said as also that it may be yee would rather have expected some account of the grounds moving me to and the advantages that I either looked for or have found by such a thing Now to speak shortly a word to this I trust for it yea I am not without hope in it that the day is coming and frequently have I sought it of the Lord on your behalf when ye shall so come to see the truth of what I say and the necessity that on your account was on me for it as that ye shall willingly acknowledge that it was the greatest evidence of my dear and tender love in the Lord to you which next to his glory led me to it and that otherwise I should have been wanting of the expression of that true and sincere love which still I have unto you as to the advantages I have found which might be also offered as the reasons whereby I was moved of the Lord to make that so strange a change as yee account it in owning these despised people called Quakers I need say but little if what is in this and the following Papers be well considered of and I know it is my place to lie low in the fear of the Lord and to speak but little as to advantages or any progress that I have made and I acknowledge no man hath more matter so to do yet in this case I may not be silent but must in the fear of the Lord give this my Testimony to the pretious people and the truths of God asserted by them that they do truely and really both profess and practice the new and living way in which holiness by mortification and subduing a body of sin and death is attained and have indeed come to the discovery of these things even the life and power which throughout the dark night of Apostacy hath lyen much hid and hath been but very little felt or known yet such is the goodness of God to that pretious people count of them and call them what yee will the true power and life of holiness is more truly known to them and eminently holden forth by them then by any people else that have come forth since the Apostles dayes and a greater measure do they yet wait for and as they are faithful it will be multiplied on them for the presence of the Lord is with them and all their opposers must fall before them Dear Friends consider then how far yee have been mistaken concerning them and with groundless jealousies carryed on with prejudice against them as grosly erronious blasphemers and the like Nay nay friends it is not so and upon search yee shall find it far otherwayes let your informers who many of them sinfully take things on report without tryal and others who for maintaining of your own interests have made lies their refuge let such say what they will they are and will be found a blessed people who as instruments in the Lords hands may be called the repairers of the breach and the restorers of the paths to dwell in they own dearly and rejoyce in the use of the holy Scriptures and desire to live up to the practice of all the truths of God declared in them Beware then what yee say or think of them and that yee approve
came in and the tongues of the sons of men were confounded so that they could not know nor understand one another And now ye who talk of the tryal of the Ministry have ye not lost the touch-stone of tryal which was among the primitive Christians and was lost but is found again among us even the spirit of discerning whereby we feel the true Minister in the power and discern him from the false so that his fairest yea soundest words that he hath stoln from the Saints cannot deceive us and this was Paul's rule to try them who boasted to be the true Ministers and were not I will know said he not the words of them that are puffed up but the power here was a deeper search then into the best of words into the power what power they spoke from if from the Dragons power and the ravening Wolves power within them which may stand with the finest words which aâ—e the sheeps cloathing wherewith that power decks it self to deceive and so to devour the ignorant or if from the Lamb's power the power and Spirit of Christ and from grace in the heart Oh is not that a parable unto you we cannot judge the heart say ye nor know the spirit within man which manifests you to be strangers unto the anointing whereby spirits can be tryed and to the spiritual man which judgeth all things and though sometimes ye would give it forth to the people that ye are not against the teachings of God's Spirit to you the Teachers I speak yet ye plainly deny it both in word and practice and ye have no other means to uphold your selves whereby to purchase your Hires and your Dignities and Honour which comes from below but to keep poor people in ignorance from the teachings of God therefore ye cry out so much against the Light calling it delusion and bididng people beware of it for if any people were come to the Light in their particulars they would turn their back upon you and deny you your Hires and then your Kitchins would not smoak so as now nor would ye be so gorgious and sumptuous in your gaudy Apparel nor your Wives either which is a shame for to see and the grief of many sober people to think upon your pride and vanity the cry whereof hath come up before God to his throne and ye may read your doom Isa. 3.24 25 26. and were it not that ye deny the teachings of God's Spirit why pass ye so many years course at Schools to learn from men what ye may say to the People and why buy ye so many books and have your book-dayes and take no imployment but your books except when some few hours in the first day of the week ye talk to people what ye have gathered and collected together out of old Authors or then what some of you which are better Artists have moulded together by the forge of your own imaginations and natural understandings or when ye were and that very sparingly too some little time in that you call your Catechizing and Visitations of Families and the bad fruit of all this shews its much lost labour and ye could be better imployed in holding a Plow or digging in a field or any other honest occupation then to be deluding poor people whom ye are ever learning and yet ye are never able to bring them to the knowledge of the Truth and the gross palpable ignorance of your Parishioners all abroad the Nation with their wicked lives shews they are evil master-stead and that ye are not taught of God your selves else your teachings would have better effect and why will ye not suffer such who are not book-learned nor passed their course at your Colledges to learn the trade of it to preach the Gospel were ye for the teachings of God's Spirit would ye limit him to use only bookish Clergy-men for the Ministry when the Spirit of the Lord instructs a man though he could not read a letter is he not well learned is he not an able Minister who hath his ability given him of God though man hath not taught him and yet ye cannot away with this and why persecute ye such who are taught of God and ye dare not say but their practice answers their profession and that they are better taught then your disciples are though they come not at you to learn and what means the form and manner of your Sermons when ye will take a sentence of Scripture or common head as it is called and branch it out as Aristotle's or Ronius Logick hath taught you and it is one main piece of tryal to young-men coming forth to the Ministry to make a Logical Analysis as it is called upon such a piece of Scripture as is allotted unto him and he is counted a brave Preacher who can handle his Text in such a Scholastick method and an honest plain man who is not acquainted with your School-method nor topical places such as Aristotle an Heathen hath taught you out of which as so many 〈◊〉 ye gather together your points of Doctrine Observations Reasons Motives Means Uses Applications Amplifications I say an honest simple plain man who is not acquainted with such trifles but can speak feelingly of the work of God on his heart should he come and speak among people ye will laugh him to scorn and say of him he hath neither rhime nor reason he speaks confusedly and non-sense he hath no method he is not worth the hearing and yet by such foolishness of preaching many hundreds at this day are converted unto God for the power of God hath accompanied such poor foolish mens Ministry and the Lord hath made them true Pastors to feed the people with knowledge and understanding and they have been instrumental to bring people to Jesus Christ the great Bishop and Shepherd of their souls whereas ye have nothing to feed the people with but wind and airy notions and at best words of truth ye have stoln out of the Scripture which spoke out of a mans mouth not declaring in nor the power of God accompanying the words are but a killing letter and let any sober spiritual minded man in the least measure judge if such things above-mentioned which are made the qualifications of a Minister and usually practised by them smells of mans wisdom or of the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit or if any of the Apostles or Prophets used such things who were taught of God 9. Your fathers the primitive Protestants were against Tythes and that Ministers should have temporal possessions as an Hire for their preaching so said Iohn Wicklife and they had not their hundreds and thousands allorted to maintain them far less would they force people against their wills to give them maintenance and poynd them or put them to horn and imprison them as ye will do And your fathers did bear a notable testimony against the greediness and covetousness of the then Priests as we do against you for
in Synods with them and coming in the ordering of Church affairs together and your obeying their commands a disowning them Nay yee cannot say it except yee bewray your exceeding folly well then ye neither own them nor disown them and is not this the detestable neutrality yee vowed against and if perhaps some of you have not given any oath or promise to these men and it is rare if it be so yet your practice is as real a breach as an hundred oaths and promises and whereas yee say obedience may be given to their lawfâ—l commands I answer such as are not lawfully constitute Rulers but Usurpers as many of you affirm no command proceeding from them is lawful as such though never so lawful upon the matter for there are a great many Circumstances required more then the matter of the thing commanded to make it lawful one maine is that the imposer of the command have a just and lawful authority and power from God thereto for there is no power but from him the powers that be are ordained of God Romans 13. And as for your alledging these things are not so weighty required of you as that yee should be put from your preaching I answer admitting yee were true Preachers or Ministers for I argue according to your own principles yet e're the least circumstance yee should yield unto 〈◊〉 which is sinful and forbidden of God yee were to give up the service of your Ministry were it never so useful for that yee are not to ballance your Ministry with the smalness of the things upon the matter on the one hand and the service yee can do on the other but to look alwayes to the command of God and the honour of his name and truth which is weighty enough to down-weigh all other considerations though never so weighty 13. And your Fathers the Primitive Protestants affirmed that when any thing contrary to sound Doctrine was set up and brought in the Ministers who stand upon the watch tower should not keep silence but testifie against such a thing and forewarn the people to be aware thereof and they judged silence to be a sinful connivence witness the Protestations made several times against such things and but of late dayes the Protestation made at the Cross of Edenburgh on the 22. day of the Month called September in the year 1638. wherein they largely shew backing what they spoke with pertinent Scriptures to that purpose that they ought not to be silent Likewise it was a principle among them the first Reformers that they should not forbear to preach though all the powers on earth should forbid them whatever punishment could be inflicted upon them therefore and it was their practice also for they put their lives in hazard and many of them lost their lives bearing their testimony and they accounted the winning of souls of people of more worth then the saving their bodily lives and as yee may read in the History of the Reformation in Scotland to such who queried why was not obedience given to the Magistrates command it was answered its better to obey God then man as Peter answered the Rulers of the Iews Now such of you of the National Ministry who stuck to take the Canonical oath or to make an active complyance with the Bishops as the rest of you have done yet have yee not shamefully shrunk he ein yee who could open your mouths wide against these things now set up before they were brought in among you when there was no hazard of speaking and talk boldly against the Bishops and their corruptions and spend a good part of the hour glass on such a purpose but now are yee not shrunk dumb with a panick fear that hath overtaken you and yee have quit your Ministry at the command of man far unlike the good Shepherd that flees not when the Wolf comes but stands up to defend the flock from the Wolf and laies down his life for the sheep but the hireling flies because he is an hireling as yee have done and have yee not rather obeyed man then God if ever the Lord called you to your Ministry had man power to have taken it from you is it not too manâ—fest a proof that your call and power to preach was but of men who as they gave it you can take it from you as they have done and yet poor men ye think ye are suffering for a testimony of a good conscience but alass it 's a thred-bare testimony so to speak and as it stands the Lord will not take it off your hands for have yee not chosen a lesser suffering to shun a greater your stipends are taken from you but is that enough to make you leave off feeding the flock I speak according to your own principles regard yee no more their souls nor your bodily maintenance or is there any other put in your Pulpits is that enough either can yee not preach elsewhere then in a Pulpit may yee not preach in a field or from house to house as did Paul and many others yea your Fathers did so or do the people refuse to hear you then yee have but badly learned them they are not taught so much love as to stick to their Pastor when the wolf comes but should yee not preach to them whither they will hear or forbear as Ezekiel did and was commanded of the Lord so to do or have they commanded some of you to go over Seas should yee have obeyed that unjust command or if they had taken you away by violence what hinders but yee may return to the flock were not the fear of man over you I know nothing in the will of God but prisonment or death or some such outward violence could hinder a true Pastor from the Flock or hath the so called Church commanded you silence but if their sentence be unjust as yee think it is should yee have obeyed it and yee have but a poor plea when yee say it 's for peace sake yee so do for the peace which is in hazard for the testimony of the truth is but false and so not worth the keeping but that it was not the peace sake of your Church or any reverence to their authority though this be your main defence but the fear of man that hath prevailed with you to quit your charge manifestly appears by your practice but a very few years ago when you called Church men could either 〈◊〉 the Magistrate or when he winked at you then yee were busie with your Protestations and yee became divided into two parties or factions called Protestators and publick resolutioneâ—s and your brethren charged you who either protested or adhered to the Protestation with breaking the peace of the Church and disobedience to its Authority and in that day yee could roundly answer them that yee were to be more careful for the preservation of the truth then of a peace that could not stand therewith and their authority yee
nearer the letter of the Scriptures then that other cast down by you yet it was as far from being the Temple or House of God being not of his Spirit for this ye had gone from in your own particulars and at length became so impudent as to deny such a thing could be expected to wit the leadings of the infallible Spirit of Christ to teach you and guide you infallibly in your proceedings and ye set the letter of the Scriptures above it and in it's room together with your own imaginations for ye being gone from the Spirit of Truth the eye which read the Scriptures aright came to be put out and the false eye opened which read them backward and the Scriptures were perverted by you to a wrong sence or meaning and ye drew them to the square and rule of your opinions which the erring mind through Satans suggestion had begot in you and now ye fathered your opinions upon the Scripture and they were but the brats of your own imagination And oh what were the materials of your building were they living stones polished and smoothed by the power of God or rather were they not the most rude profane rabble and multitude of the world the same whereof the Prelatical and popish frame was composed of and who were the builders were they men taught of God standing in his wisdom was your Ministry a spiritual Ministry were they able Ministers of the new Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit such as the Scriptures speak of were they called from heaven by the Revelation of Christ or rather was not your Ministry even such as the former of mens making which stood in man's wisdom and taught of men as among the very Papists yea it was even so Oh how little hath the teaching of God's Spirit been regarded were they not accounted able Ministers who could talk upon the letter and give many good and fine words to the people and speak the Saints experiences recorded in Scripture which generally they never knew themselves or if any knew somewhat of that nature as some did it was not principally regarded and men were let pass for Ministers who were gifted with humane learning and gifts under which the best induments of knowledge or utterance which come not immediately from the Revelation of the infallible Spirit of Truth may be comprehended and after ye had quit the Service-book and that way of worship in set forms and denyed them as dead life-less things your humane learning and abilities together with the customary way ye had inured your selves to prompted you to talk and utter many words before God which yet was as far from spiritual worship as the other and if at any time somewhat of the Lord's Spirit moved and breathed among you as it did for the Lord much pittied for his seeds sake yet it was much suffocated and choaked by your running forth after the imaginations of your own hearts ye not knowing the Cross which stayes the mind and gives a check to the forward proposterous spirit which is rejected of the Lord with all its services and because your minding more the words and form and visible things then the living power whereby the Lord was provoked more and more to withdraw from among you and leave your house desolate as at this day it is And your Presbyterian form of Church-discipline Order and Government it was nothing upon the matter better then the Episcopal there being no material difference in the sight of God to render it more acceptable to him beâ—wixt the one and the other neither of you knowing Christ the head in you teaching you by the Revelation of his Spirit to determine of things coming before you so that ye could not say with that Synod Act. 15.28 It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us but ye went on in the same manner with them of determining of particulars in mans wisdom and by plurality of voices or consents which is but a very fallible way and hath done more evil then ever it did good and it is all one before the Lord whether one or a few should determine particulars as it is among the Bishops or whether many by an equality should do it as among the Presbyterians you being both out of God's wisdom and asking counsel and not out of his mouth and ye called Presbyterian Ministers did step into many things ye 〈…〉 the Bishops out of or things much what alike and of the same nature ye denyed their Lordships and took to your selves selves Masterships both being equally forbidden by Christ ye would not suffer them to Lord it over you but ye would Lord it over the People yea and did as tyrannically as ever the Bishops had done and ye were offended at the Surplices and the Canonical Coats and Belts of their Clergy and yet ye were equally superstitious and vain in your black cloaths and Gowns with Pasments and Ribbons upon them and other superfluity of naughtiness and ye were angry at their Revenues being so great and yet ye stept in also to many of them and some of you had as much by the year as some of them and into their pride covetousness lightness vanity ambition carelessness concerning the work of Jesus Christ and the salvation of poor people whereof ye took up the charge and many other iniquities they were found in for which the Lord was provoked against them ye have taken as it were a succession of and ye thought the Lord should have winked at you and indeed he boâ—e much with you and had respect unto that poor honest tender simple zealous thing that was once among you in a day but he could no longer forbear for the cry of your sins was great and his oppressed seed in your hearts as a Cart pressed with sheaves under your wickedness cryed likewise against you and he heard and brought desolation upon you also and laid all your stately building in the dust and now great is the lamentation and sorrow of your hearts because of the fall of your building and ye are crying in the anguish of your souls for a day again wherein ye may have an opportunity to repair the breaches and build up the old ruinous heaps and ye are saying in your hearts the tyles are fallen but we will build with hewn stones the Sycomers are cut down but we will build with Cedars and make the frame more able and firm then before to stand out the storm But I say unto you in the name and authority of the living God should ye attempt such a thing till ye come to his Light and the leadings of the infallible Spirit of Truth in your particulars it shall not prosper it shall be as with them who attempted the rebuilding the walls of Ierico and have no better success and ye shall but labour as in the very fire and weary your selves for very vanity I have determined saith the Lord God Almighty to race all to the
all your Idols of silver and gold all the wares and pleasant things of Babylon and the Jewels and ear-rings ye have of the Egiptians to wit the many Inventions that hath crept in in the night of Apostacy to the ensnaring and bewitching of your people and father nothing upon the Scriptures nor upon God but that which is purely of him and revealed unto you from the Spirit of truth opening and interpreting the Scriptures unto you which holy men of God did write from the Inspiration of his Spirit and can only be understood in and from a measure of the same and put not the name of the Ordinances of Jesus Christ upon Babylons brats which whoso taketh them and dasheth to pieces against the stones blessed shall they be And away with all the Wisdom of this World which God is a confounding and all consultings and reasonings with flesh and blood and judging or determining of things but in the wisdom and councel of God in the Revelation of the Spirit of truth in each particular let that be your rule in all things and ye shall walk surely and put away this dead life-less ignorant prophane scandalous Ministry own no Ministery but such who is taught of God speaks because he believes and ministers from the power and spirit of life and away with makeing any humane gifts or indowments of Learning which is but flesh and must die and wither the qualifications of a Minister and do not limit the Spirit of the Lord in chusing or refusing any for the work of the Ministry they are well fitted whom he enables though foolish and contemptible to the carnal eye and by these foolish weak and despicable things the Lord hath brought and is bringing great things to pass and away with your dead life-less worship praying and singing which comes not from the breathings and movings of the spirit of life from God and away with your mungrel Church patch'd up of the prophance rable of the World let such who fear God separate and come out from among them and disown them for fellow members of the body whereof Christ is the head and have no communion with them in their worship which is Idolatry and away with your sprinklings of Infants it s but of Babylon with many other things the Light of Christ as ye heed it will discover unto you which in the night of darkness hath passed for Gods ordinance but the day hath discovered them to have the Beasts mark and superscription and away with setting Bread and Wine before a prophane wicked multiude who hath nothing but the bare name of a Christian telling them its the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ it 's abomination to God and away with the carnal false licentious unbounded liberty ye take to your selves in words diet apparel and worldly conversation mind the cross diligently and it will teach you the golden path of Mediocrity or Moderation in all things and away with all respecting of persons and the honour which comes not from God whose service is only to feed the lust of the eye the lust of the flesh and the pride of life and be willing and desirous to see the glory of the pride of all flesh stained and the Lord alone exalted honoured and glorified in and among the Children of men And away with all Uniformity which is not of the Lords Spirit and away with all force and constraint in the matter of Conscience and Religion and away with all carnal weapons either to defend or propagate the truth away with your Lording and mastering and monopolizing ministry who would limit the Spirit of the Lord and make a monopoly of the gifts of God away with your distinctions of Clergy and Laicks and superstitious Habits and attires for discriminating them and away with your set and alloted hires and maintenance for a Ministry and forcing of people to pay them which hath been a great snare unto many and hath lyen nigh all who from a principle of covetousness seeing thereby means of a livelihood hath intruded themselves into the ministerial Function and given poor people to believe they were called of God thereto whereas generally it is a thing well known they get into Parishes by worldly means they setting their friends and relations on work to sollicite and move the Patrons of the Parishes or such most concerned therein to give them entrance and when the thing is granted then he called the Minister steps up into a Pulpit and sayes thus to the people Beloved by the providence of God I am called to be your Pastor and a watch-man over you as one who must give an account for your souls in the day of judgement and the Lord knows it 's not any other principle but a vehement desire thorough love to your souls to teach and instruct you in the knowledge of God and to edifie you in the Faith that hath moved me to come among you and I have received a talent and I must improve it and the ability God hath given me to instruct you together with the great desire I have to use it for your edification I take for a sufficient call from God and I have also the Patrons and the most considerable in the Parish their call Whereas they make it manifestly appear that covetousness hath set them thereon for how soon any of their brethren dies so that another Parish becomes vacant which hath a greater stipend or maintenance they fall upon their first trade of solliciting for an entrance thereto and they stick not to quit the charge of their first Flock and to give their Wife to wit the Kirk which they say they are married to a Bill of divorce though oft-times there be no occasion on her part and it 's not the Patrons or people who hath called them but they first called them and when the people refuses to pay them their allotted hire they pursue them with horning and poinding which shews them to be far from the affection of husbands to their wives or parents to their children or Pastors to the Flock all which they pretend to be and were they good Pastors their Flock would afford them milk and wool not of constraint but willingly so that they needed not either squeeze the pap to the causing it bleed or tear the fleece off before the time of casting it to the pulling the skin in pieces many times and the ability they talk of is not of God but of men and it 's not God's free gift for it hath cost them both much money and time at Schools to purchase it and were it the talent of the Lord it would prove more effectual to the bettering of the people which it does not for at ten twenty thirty forty years end and upwards they are as bad as at the first coming among them and in many places much worse and the vehement desire to do the people good they tell of is but a suggestion of their deceitful