Christ doth administer much matter unto us Christ uttereth his voice three manner of wayes 1. Way for Christ speaketh unto his sheep three manner of wayes 1. By the inward inspiration of his spirit which suggesteth good motions into the hearts and heads of his sheep 2. By his holy Word that is written unto us by his Prophets and Apostles 2 Way to declare his will that is his Laws Statutes and Ordinances his decrees promises and threatnings that we might obey his precepts believe his promises and fear his threatnings 3. By the lively voice of his under Shepherds 3 Way those Preachers that he continually sendeth to instruct his sheep and to inform them of the truth and true meaning of his will that is set down in his written Word 1. And because there are many spirits we are not to believe every spirit 1 Iohn 4.1 but we ought to be very careful to try the spirits whether those motions and inspirations of the spirit that we have be agreeable to the written Word of God which if they be not they are the suggestions of the lying spirit and not the inspiration of Gods Spirit 2. And because the written Word is but the dead letter a dumb Judge and full of mysteries and obscurities Christ sends his servants to explain that written Word as Councellors do the written Law unto his sheep or if it were not so there was no need of Teachers but every one that had a Bible and could read ir could understand the voice of Christ But Christ knew how necessary it was for his sheep to have Instructors and explainers of his will and therefore he sendeth his under-Shepherds continually to sound forth his voice unto them and he tells us plainly Luke 10.16 He that heareth them heareth him But here by the voice of Christ which the preachers are to explain unto the sheep the question is whether they ought to alledge or cite any other voice or the voice of any other man then what is set down by the divine Pen-men of the holy Scriptures in the Canonical books of the Old and New Testament which are the only writings that are of divine inspiration and infallibly true without any commixion of any errour For some will believe nothing and would have nothing said or alledged but what is set down directis terminis in the holy Scriptures that are the only undoubted voice of Christ therefore they do blame them much and tax them sore that cite any other Author or produce any other proof of any truth then what is found in the holy Bible To these men I answer that as I love their Zeal to Gods Word so I pity their Ignorance of Gods Will for they should know that as every lie is the voice of the Devil who is a lier from the beginning and the Father of all lies as our Saviour saith so every one that is of the truth heareth my voice saith Christ and as he is Pater luminum the Father of Lights so he is Pater veritatum the Father of Truths and every truth qua truth John 8.44 John 18.37 1 Sam. 10.12 is the Voice of God and comes from God as when Saul prophesied it became a Proverb in Israel Is Saul also among the Prophets and when Caiphas the high Priest that condemned Christ to death prophesied that it was expedient for the Jews That one man should die for the people that the whole nation perish not John 11.10 his words were the Truth of God and they are registred in the holy Scriptures nay more when Satan said I know who thou art even the holy one of God And again Thou art Christ the Son of God And when Peter said Thou art Christ the son of the living God Luke 4.34 4â— Utriusque confessionis non neganda sed agnoscenda est veritas the truth of either of their confession cannot be denied but must be acknowledged ought to be believed for truth not because either of them hath said it but because what either of them hath said is true otherwise if we refuse to believe the truth because the Devil speaks it his malice is so great that to hinder our Faith he would perchance very often say the truth that we might not believe iâ— which is his aim and desire alwayes when he doth speak truth and therefore Quamvis hic laudatur iste tamen vituperatur though S. Peter was commended yet Satan was reproved for his confession because he had no command nor commission to speak that truth and he spake it to none other end but that it might not be believed because he hoped that none would believe the Devil Galat. 1.8 but S. Paul tells us That if an angel from heaven should preach to us any other gospel then what was truth he should be accursed to teach us that neither the worthiness nor the unworthiness of the persons speaking but the lawful commission and authority of the speaker the truth of what is spoken is most chiefly to be regarded by the hearers and therefore Christ saith The Scribes and Pharisees that were wicked men and his enemies do sit in Moses chair that is they are lawfully called to teach the people and to expound the law of God All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe Mat. 23.2 3. that observe and do but do not ye after their works because they say and do not And therefore though the holy Scriptures primarily infallibly and perfectly without errour be the voice of Christ and the true Word of God yet this denieth no but that other Writings either of holy Faith witty Poets and learned Philosophets or whosoever they be that write the Truth either Historically or Physically or Morally may secondarily be stiled the voice of Christ so far forth as they are the words of truth otherwise S. Paul would never have cited three Testimonies of the Heathens to justifie the truth of what he delivered which was like the fact of David to cut off Goliah's head with his own sword or as the Israelites robb'd the Egyptians of their Gold and of their Jewels when we take what is good out of prophine Authors as S. Aug. sheweth at large De doct Chr. l. 2. c. 40. and produceth many excellent points out of their Writings De civ dei l. 8. c. 6 7 8. And if it were not lawfull and useful to quote other Authors as the Voice of Christ unto the people it had been but a vain thing either for the Fathers of old or for any other learned Divine now to write any thing at all if their writings bare no credit or was of no use either with the Readers or the Hearers of their explications or shall we think that all the learned Authors that have written since the Apostles tiâ—e were such fools as to take such pains as they have done to no purpose which must needs be to no purpose if no use can be made of
fashion devised by the false Prophets now serving him in his Temple and consecrated house dedicated for his worship and presently serving him in Chambers in the Groves and under every green Tree But I conceive that the Prophet means according to Tremelius translation that they erred from the right service of God and from the performance of their duties unto their neighbours and so straid like lost sheep without a shepherd The Law of God is the way wherein we ought to walk both from the way of piety and from the rules of equity and the further they go on the harder it is for them to return to the right way for you must know that the way wherein we ought to walk is the Law of God even as the Prophet David sheweth saying Blessed are they that are undefiled in the way Psal 119.1 that walk in the Law of the Lord and not in the way of sinners which is the transgression and aberration from the right way that is the Law of the Lord. And this people The Jews and ourselves like the Egyptians and why the Jews were as we are for the most part of us like unto the Egyptians that received the most plentifull benefits of the river Nilus and yet they knew not the fountain from whence it sprang so did they reap all the favours of God his Oracles his Prophets and his blessings more then any other Nation of the World and yet they neither knew God nor the will of God Hos 4.1 Vide Esay 1.3 for as the Prophet Hosea saith There was neither truth nor mercy nor knowledg of God in the Land and therefore they wandered indeed and wandered far out of the way But you will say it is very strange that the Jews of all other people should be ignorant either of God or of the law of God when as the Apostle saith Vnto them were committed the Oracles of God and Rom 3.2 chap. 9.4 Psal 76.1 What great means the Iews had to understand learn the true service of God Amos 3.7 as the Prophet saith In Jurie is God known and his name is great in Israel and he gave unto them Priests and Levits Scribes and Pharisees that should continually expound his Laws both to them and to their children for ever and when they failed to do their duties he raised up his Prophets to direct them to the right way and to shew them how they should both worship God and love their neighbour and as the Prophet Amos saith Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he reveileth his secrets unto his servants the Prophets and therefore How could this people be ignorant of God or wander out of his waies To this the Prophet answereth in the next point and sheweth the true cause of their wandering and of all their deviation and starting aside from the right service of God for 2. He saith They loved to wander therefore what wonder is it Where the Jews erred that they should erre and go out of the right way when they loved desired and were well pleased to go out of it but it is strange and a great deal more strange for men to love to erre then it is to erre For humanum est errare God alone is truth and every man a lyer the best of us all is subject unto error when as ever since the fall of Adam there were four things Four things imposed on Adam and on all his seed for his transgression saith Beda most justly imposed upon all his seed for his unjust transgression 1. Ignorance 2. Impotence 3. Concupiscence 4. Malice For the healing of which four maladies the second Adam was made unto us as the Apostle saith 1. Wisdom 2. Righteousness 3. Sanctification 1 Cor. 1.20 4. Redemption Therefore seeing ignorance is incident unto all men and every man is born blind every one may well say with the Eunuch How can I understand without a Teacher or Act. 8.31 how can I walk in the right way without a guide But for a man to put out the light or for a blind man to refuse a guide and for an ignorant man to refuse knowledge this is the condemnation whereof our Saviour speaketh That light is come into the world Joh. 3.19 and men love darkness more then light And yet this was the Epidemicall disease of this people and it hath continued among all Nations to this very day for as the Scripture testifieth of the ungodly Noluerunt intelligere ut bene agerent but they say to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy waies So it is true of too too many they will not understand the truth that they might do right they will not hear the true Preachers Job 21.14 2 Chr. 18.7 but as the King of Israel would not hear Micaiah but hated him so will not many men hearken to the true Prophets but they will do as Ahab said he did to Micaiah hate them and as the Jews dealt with the teachers of Gods true worship that is stone the Prophets and kill them that were sent unto them as Samuel was rejected Esay sawed in pieces Jeremy thrown to a filthy dungeon Zachary the son of Jehâ—ida was stoned with stones even in the court of the House of the Lord Micheas thrown down by Joram to break his neck because he rebuked him for the sins of his fathers Amos killed with a club Ezechiel slain Vrias the son of Semeiah for Prophesying against Jerusalem was killed by Joakim Jer. 26.23 Elias persecuted and threatned to be killed by Jezabel and the spirit of God demandeth of the Jews Act. 7.52 Which of the Prophets had not their fathers persecuted Even so do many men in many places and in most Countreys use the true Preachers and teachers of Gods true worship and the repairers of their errors in these very daies and if the true Preachers say with this Prophet Jer. 6.16 Ask for the old pathes where is the good way and walk therein and you shall find rest for your souls I am affraid our people will answer with the words of this people and say We will not walk therein But to proceed to shew unto you the doings of this people the Prophet tels us they have not only rejected the true Prophets and refused the bright shining light of the truth and right service of God offered unto them by the legitimate messengers of God but as our Prophet speaketh they have committed two evils 1. Jer. 32.33 chap. 7.25 They have forsaken the Fountain of living waters 2. They have hewed them out Cisterns even broken Cisterns that can hold no water And these two evils do commonly go together to silence and deprive the old and true Preachers and to advance and magnify the young novices that are fitter to be taught then to teach yea to forsake God and then to adore the Calf to throw away the service of
he devised the way to depose her and to set the Crown upon the right Heirs Head whose example we ought all to follow when opportunity serveth Or were I not so that we must renounce usurped power how shall we protect and maintain the just and lawful authority 2 Sam. 15 16. surely the people that followed Abso lon when he had the power to trample Justice under foot to possesse the royal City and to drive the lawful King to flie from place to place and the followers of those perfideous Rebels of Killkenney that so barbarously massacred the poor Protestants and so foully so falsely deluded both the good King and all the Kings friends and have now as themselves pretend the great power in this Kingdom may well be justified not to have offended if this doctrine may be defended that usurped authority is not to be resisted but to be obeyed when its power is most prevalent But the Apostle tells us plainly Rom. 14.2 that whatsoever is not of faith is sin and with what faith I pray you can I obey that power and submit my self to that authority which my conscience tells me to be against truth and without Justice But Tertull. ad Scapulam makes this most clear where he sheweth how tender the Christians were to preserve the right to the lawful Emperours and therefore though Albinus was most powerful in the West and Pisen Niger in the East yet the Christians would be nec Albiniani nec Cassiani nec Nigriani Yet this much I must tell you that where the right heir is not apparent as it was not amongst many of the Primitive Emperours who were often lifted up to that royal dignity by none other right than the Sword of the tumultuous Souldiers and unconstant cohorts and were therefore obeyed by the good Christians because they knew not of any other that had any better right unto the Empire the same as yet being unsetled to continue in any hereditary line or when the just Title to the Crown is not cleered as perhaps it was not to all the Subjects in the time of Hen. 4. Edw. 4. and Rich. 3. and the like doubtful claimes then it is not for every private mechanick or ignorant Rustick to determine the right to the Crown and decide the equity or the iniquity of such powers but as the Apostle saith and as it was most learnedly handled by a most Reverend and a most learned Prelate of our Church not long since in this place they ought to study to be quiet to follow their own Trades 1 Thes 4 11. and to do their own business and not to polupragmatize in matters so transcendent and so metaphysical to their Mechanick and Rustick capacities And in this qualified sence you must understand and not mistake the meaning of the same most Reverend Prelate in this place upon our last Kings day that when it is doubtful to whom the right of the Soveraign Power should belong or who hath right unto the Soveraignty then all ignorant and private men are excused though they resist not the Government that hath the present power over them but do obey the same especially by their passive obedience and likewise by their active obedience in all honest and lawful demands All which with all that I said before I say to clear the integrity of the said Reverend Prelates intention from any sinister apprehension of misunderstanding hearers But where the right is indubitable and the soveraignty not to be questioned whose it is as it is with our most gracious King whom all the Irish Rebels of Kilkenny and all the other Rebels of these three Kingdoms deny not to be their lawful Soveraign I say that what Power soever exalteth it self above him or against him which the Parliament of England doth not when it challengeth only a kind of co-ordination with him we are not to yield any obedience unto the same especially if the same command or require any thing contrary to his commands because as the Son of Syrach saith We are to stand with the right and in the truth and as our Saviour saith To continue faithful therein unto death if we desire to enjoy the Crown of life And therefore though the dumb devil may hold my tongue Rev. 2.10 so that I shall be able to say nothing of what truth should be delivered yet all the power of hell shall never open my mouth and cause me to say that untruth which my conscience telleth me cannot be justified because this love to the truth of Scripture is a singular Testimony of our love to God 3. The next sign of the love of God is to love the honour of God without which we cannot be said to love God 2 To love Gods honour 4. The next sign is to love Gods Image that is Man 5. To observe Gods Precepts 6. To hate Sin 7. A longing desire to be with God to have an Union and Communion with him for it is an impregnable property of a person loving to desire to be united to the person loved and therefore Pyramus loving Thisbe cries out to the wall that hindered them to meet together Invide dicebat paries quid amantibus obstas Many other signs of Gods love I should shew unto you and the impediments that hinders us to love God such as are 1. The ignorance of the incomprehensible sweetness and unspeakable goodness of God 2. The too much love of our selves and of our carnal desires 3. The bewitching allurements of the pleasures profits and other vanities of this present world and the like that do hinder blind and suffocate our love to God And then last of all I should shew unto you the helps and furtherances to beget and to nourish the love of God in us such as are 1. The continual meditation of Gods goodness towards us and his excellencies in himself 2. The daily reading and hearing of Gods Word and the reading of other godly Books that do incite and invite us to love the Lord above all the things of this World 3. Continual Prayers to God for Grace and the assistance of his Holy Spirit to encline our hearts to love him 4. Often discourse and conference with good and holy men about the goodness of God and heavenly things and the like All which I should more fully and amply inlarge unto you but that the time binds me to defer the same to a fitter opportunity and in the interim to pray to God for grace to abandon the love of this World and to love God and to encrease in our love to him more and more through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom be Glory and Honour and Thanks now and for evermore Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE DECLARATION OF THE Just Judgments of GOD. THE Man that was according to God's own heart the best Subject that ever we read of and the greatest Ring that ever Israel saw David the Son of Jesse saith that the LORD is righteous in
taught their children to do the like even as you may see how the Lord saith unto Isaac I am the God of Abraham thy father and I will bless thee and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake And you may be sure they are more to be commended and more accepted of God that in the night of ignorance of blindness and superstition have done the good works of the day as the pious works of building and beautifying Gods House and the charitable works of relieving the poor and erecting alms-houses than those men that in the day-light of knowledg and such cleer preaching of the Gospel as we have had do the works of darkness and the very deeds of the Devil as are the persecuting of the Prophets Quia melior est fidelis ignorantia August quà m temeraria scientia 2. 2 Who were persecuted Having heard of the persecutors their Fathers we are now to speak of the persecuted and they were the Prophets for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted saith this holy Martyr The Prophets were men sent from God to declare his will to teach his people to bring them unto God and it was their own defire that God would reveal his will unto them by men that were like themselves and not by Himself whose Majesty was so glorious and so terrible that their weakness was not able to endure it for when God descended upon Mount Sinai to talk unto his people and to deliver his Statutes and Ordinances unto them and all the people saw the thunders and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoaking they all removed and stood afar off Exod. 20.19 and they said unto Moses Speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we die for this great fire will consume us and if we hear the voice of the Lord our God we shall die Deut. 5.25 26 27. and therefore go thou near unto God and hear all that the Lord our God shall say and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee and we will heare it and do it and the Lord heard the voice of their Words and yielded to their desire and as the Prophet Amos saith Amos 3.7 he revealeth his will and his secrets unto his servants the Prophets and he sent them early and late to reveale the same unto his people And as Jehosaphat said unto Juda and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem 2 Chro. 20.20 Esay 7.9 If they believe in the Lord their God they shall be established and if they believe his Prophets they shall prosper and if they will not believe them then surely saith the Prophet Esay they shall not be established they cannot be blessed And therefore not only not to believe these men that are thus and to this end sent from God but also to persecute them is an offence beyond mine ability of expression for to render good for evill and to do good to them that hate us is charity and to do as Christ adviseth us and to render evil for evil is iniquity and to do what God forbiddeth us who saith Vengeance is mine and I will repay for the evil that is done Deut. 32.35 But to render evil for good and to persecute and destroy them that would preserve us is a devillish sin and a degree beyond all ingratitude which is but the retention and deniall of the thanks that we owe and not the reddition and offering the evil that we owe not and should no waies be rendered to any one And besides this unkind requitall of the great good that the Prophets and publishers of Gods will do unto the people with such great evil as is the persecuting of them to persecute the Prophets and Messengers of God is a breach and a transgression of a special precept of God who doth peremptorily say to every one Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm 1 Chro. 16.22 And how then dares any man to persecute them which is so high a degree and so large a measure of harm But here you must observe with some diligence What Prophets What Persecution is and whose Prophets we must not harm for the Lord saith not this in general of all Prophets but do My Prophets no harm and therefore we must examine what and whose Prophets they were whom their Fathers persecuted For the Scripture maketh mention of two sorts of Prophets 1. The one sort is of false Prophets That there are two sorts of Prophets such as were the Prophets of the Groves and the Prophets of Baal and of the Beast that you may read of in the Revelation 2. The other sort is of the true Prophets such as were the Prophets of the Lord and these God owneth and calleth them my Prophets and bids every one to take heed that they do them no harm and saith further that Whosoever toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye Zechary 2.8 And for the first sort that is the false Prophets as the Poet saith that Saepe sub agnina latet hirtus pelle Lycaon Subque Catone pio perfidus ille Nero. The Wolf doth often lurk under the Lamb-skin So our Saviour tels us that these false Prophets will come to us in sheeps cloathing Apoc. 13.11 but inwardly they are ravening Wolves and the Holy Ghost saith that the false Prophet signified by the Beast that arose out of the Earth had two horns like a Lamb that is although every truth is from God which is the God of all truth and truth is truth as well from Simon Magus as from Simon Peter from Plato the Philosopher as from Paul the Apostle yet because the Heathens truths are mingled with some errors and those false Prophets The very practice of the false Prophets either have not the Wit or will not take the Pains to sift the wheat from the chaff and the truth from their errors therefore they will have nothing but the two horns of the Lamb the Two Testaments which are the strength to uphold the Christian Religion as Cornelius à Lapide rightly expoundeth them Corn. à Lapid in Apoc. c. 13. and yet he spake like the Dragon to shew unto us the true properties and practice of your false teachers to alleadge nothing but the pure Scripture the very words of the Old and New Testament and yet in their Expositions and Apptications of them to speak the words of the Dragon that is falshoods and lies As the Dragon did unto Eve when he told them they should be like gods Luk. 12 49. and he made them like Devils and so the false Prophets though they pretend to bring down fire from heaven that is the same fire which our Saviour saith he came to bring upon the earth which is the fiery zeal of Gods glory and fervent charity among neighbours yet in very
truth as the Poet saith of Ibis Tincta Lycambaeo sanguine tela dabunt Ovid. in Ibin Their sword is dipt in blood and â—ats the flesh of Innocents and they will give you poyson in a golden cup and deceive you even with Scripture Phrases when as Claudian saith de voluptate Stiliconis Blanda quidem vâ—ltu Claudian de volupt l. 2. Stilic sed qua non tetrior ulla Interius fucata genas amicia dolosis Illecebris So their Doctrine hath the Countenance of truth and the shews of a great deale of piety and charity but you can not see so far as the further end of their intention or at least of his intention that sets them on this course which is to divide the seamless coat of Christ to bring sects and divisions into the Church and to break the two staffes wherewith the Church of Christ is guided and subsisteth Beauty and Bands i.e. the pure Doctrine and the discreet Discipline of the Governors of the Church that these Governors being suppressed and their discipline destroyed and the bands which are the Fences of Gods Vine-yard being broken all to pieces the wild Bore out of the Forrest and all the Beasts out of the Field may destroy the Vine-yard at their pleasure and make the Church of Christ to become the Synagogue of Satan and the House of God a Den of thieves And therefore when any of these false Prophets should arise and seek to withdraw Gods servants from the Truth and true God Deut 13.5 1 Reg. 18.40 the Lord commands his people to put that Prophet to death and so Elias caused all the Prophets of Baal to be slain and Jehu did the like and though our Saviour Christ be not so severe in the New Testament as God was in the Old Testament to command us to put the false Prophets to death yet he doth most seriously advise us to beware of them Apoc. 22.15 and the Holy Ghost calleth them Dogs barking dogs of whom the Apostle biddeth us to beware lest they bite us And truely we have the greatest reason in the world to beware of them because these false Prophets that seduce the people with their smooth Preaching and with the Words of God are worse then any other wicked men that destroy none but themselves and they bring thousands after them out of the right way and from the right service of God And yet these false Prophets were the only Prophets whom the Jews magnified and the true Prophets of God they persecuted for Jezabel fed 400. of these false Prophets at her own Table which was a pretty company for one woman to maintain and for Elias which was the true Prophet of the Lord she swore that she would be the death of him as you may see in 1 Reg. 19.2 1 Reg. 19.2 And the rest of the People of the Jews walked in the same waies And therefore the Lord saith Micah 2.11 If a man walking in the spirit and falshood do lie or walk with the wind and lie falfly he shall even be the Prophet of this people And this hath been the Common course of the world in all ages For all wicked men and all worldlings that would notwithstanding seem to be Religious and pretend to serve God as well as the best and rather then the best will therefore have Preachers and Prophets to instruct them in the way of God as they pretend but it is indeed to cover and to cloak their Hypocrisie and therefore their Preachers must be like Jezabels Prophets Prophets like themselves that will Prophesie what they please and serve what god they please and with what service they like best And such Prophets and Preachers as will do so to follow their directory they shall want no preferment they shall have annuities and pensions and augmentations and eat at Jezabels Table Thus did the Jews lay down a pattern to magnify the false Prophets and now the Christians follow them But how did they deal with the other sort of Prophets that were the Prophets of the Lord the Prophet Esay tels you To the Seers they said see not Esay 30.10 and to the true Prophets they said Prophesy not to us right things and because the true Prophets that the Lord owned to be His Prophets would not dissemble and smooth them up by sowing pillows under their elbows and prophesying placentia deceits and pleasing things unto them therefore the Holy Ghost tels us they mocked these Messengers of God 2 Chr. 36.16 and despised his words that is the Words of God that were spoken to them by his Messengers and they misused his Prophets as you may see in 2 Chron. 36.16 And as S. Stephen saith they persecuted them from time to time and from place to place And thus did the Jews use or rather abuse the true Prophets And have we not seen the like dealings in our own time and the people imitating these Jews to a hair Persecuting all the Reverend Bishops and all the grave Preachers and spoyling them of all their Livelihoods to make them the very scorn of the World as we have been above these two Lustra's of years and yet in a deep Hypocrisy to magnify and to advance the false Prophets and those young novices and Preachers that commended their waies and walked after their steps though now the tide being turn'd the most of them cry Peccavi and say with the Jews We have sinned with our Fathers we have done amiss and dealt wickedly to let you see what kind of Prophets they were and what you should conceive of their extorted confession but enough of this that sheweth you what Prophets and whose Prophets their Fathers persecuted the true Prophets of the Lord. Yet here is one point more and that is 3. The Generality of their persecution for Quem Prophetarum 3 The Generality of the Persecution saith the Martyr Which of the Prophets have not your Fathers persecuted Can you name any one of Gods Prophets that hath escaped their persecuting hands And is it not strange that there is no Bound nor Measure of their malice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Devil is Gods ape but it must extend and reach to all Gods Prophets Surely no For the Devil is Gods apâ—â—â—nd as in many things else so he would fain imitate God herein As God would have all the Prophets of Baal destroyed that there might not be a false Prophet left to seduce his people so the Devill would have all the Prophets of the Lord destroyed that there might not be one true Prophet left to instruct Gods people and therefore he crieth out unto his instruments Down with them down with them even to the ground and let the foundations be cast down that their building may be quite demolished like the re-edifying of Jericho whose builder should be accursed and should lay the foundation thereof in his First born Josh 6.26 and set up the gates thereof in his