Creature that help to put on the Garment viz. Conscience and he was pleased and delighted to be sucking and drawing at that Pipe for there issued from the vertue of that Garment a certain sweetness which distilled through that Pipe and with that was he well pleased and by it his frighting looks was changed in smiles and by this he was satisfyed and sat in great silence and quietness Now the name of this Pipe was called Vnregarding of the heart and the oyl or vertue that passed there-through was called Secret reflecting upon outward actings and when Conscience was well satisfied by the vertue he sucketh through that Pipe then doth he rest and to salute him in his peace I saw the three former Beasts viz. Self-wisdom self-power and self-righteousness And I saw an unclean spirit attend them and he was like a Lamp and shined like a lightning and they all were compassed about with that light and this spirit was called The Angel of darkness transformed into an Angel of light and amongst them there was great triumph and mirth and this was called Seeming joy in the Holy Ghost And I saw them make a certain Law or Act amongst themselves to which they all subscribed and they sealed it with the promises and they delivered it to the Conscience to be kept and they grounded this act upon antiquity viz. Predestination and Eternal decree And this act was like the Laws of the Medes and Persians for it was concluded by them it should never be broken And this Law was named Full assurance of Salvation So when I had seen and heard all this it was said unto me Behold and understand for this is no other then the Great Mystery of Iniquity hid under outward Formality and to this day it hath been undiscovered amongst most of those who profess the name of Religion Therefore bend thy Bow and let those Arrows committed to thee flie abroad if thou hit or miss do not thou care for I will be thy warrant fear not what may be done or spoken against thee be not backward in delivering what is committed to thee Now my Bow being ready bent and the Arrow committed to me I let flie at thee thou false-hearted Presbytery thou which couzenest them that adhere to thee Come and let me expostulate the business with thee for it seemeth thou must be called in question before the face of the most High and before thou be called thither let me give thee warning to repent of thy folly and learn in time to see how thou art befooled in and with thy own conceit Thou wilt hardly believe that this foresaid Mystery is in thy heart for thou hast never found it there for thou hast covered thy self from it with thy outward Formality and if thou have but half an eye open I will let thee see thy forms is nothing but things of and within thy own power to act and that they be all or most of them but grounded upon rotten foundations of thy own wisdoms invention and that thou art carried on in them by thine own good thinking whereby thou art become the enemy of God whatever thou pretend And first I will draw my Bow at thy Priests but this name they will not own because say they it doth not belong to them for it is a ceremonial eptithite yet I say thou needst not dislike them for it were well if thou wert a Priest indeed for then shouldst thou be that spiritually which the Priests in the time of the Law were ceremonially and thou shouldst do that office and offer these gifts spiritually which they did ceremonially And this then shouldst thou be which I fear thou art not one redeemed from the earth and thy sins would be washed from thee by the blood of Jesus Christ Revel 1.5 But this name thou wilt not own and indeed thou dost well in not owning it for it doth not belong to thee But yet I know what name thou wilt own viz. a Minister of the Gospel but this name thou dost but assume to thy self for thou knowest not what the Gospel is neither was or is it committed to thee to deliver therefore thou canst not give to others that which thou wantest thy self but I will tell thee what thy right name is if thou wilt but own it and that name is a taker from men that which thou hast no right to have And if this should be rightly understood thy proper name would prove none other then the name theft And I am sure if I or any other should out take an hundred shillings from any man which I or they had no right to take and yet as good right to take it as thou hast to take an hundred pound per annum I know by the Law of the Land I or he should be hanged for so doing yea and we deserved it too then be thine own judge what thou deservest for taking so much unjustly every year But I know how thou wilt avoide this and clear thy self of being this great theif for thou wilt say thou hast nothing but what belongeth to thee of right and thou wilt prove it by Scripture too having the word of the Apostle to back thine Argument where he saith by way of comparison Who goeth a warfare at any time c. 1 Cor. 9.7 And likewise he useth other metaphors As he that plougheth and thresheth should be partaker of his hope and I kewise he bringeth in the comparison of sowing spiritual things And further he saith The Lord hath so ordained that they that Preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel c. Here is as much as thou canst properly alleage for thy self in thy doing to keep thee from being guilty of being a theif and thou thinkest this will be thy warrant for what thou dost for I know thy interpretation of these words well enough and thou understandest them as well as thou dost the Mysteries of the Gospel and both alike but I pray thee hearken and I will expound the same unto thee truly But it may be thou wilt not believe the truth when thou hearest it spoken for if it please thee not thou wilt question that I have not been at the University to get my spirit inspired thereby to understand Scripture rightly But let my inspiration come from what Fountain it is come from at present I will not give thee account from whence I had it but minde thou what I here hold out to thee and let me give thee out the truth of the thing in hand In the first place I would have thee to consider who the Apostle meaneth on when he spake these words Was it those that preached Christ by hear-say and by Schollership and their own brain-knowledge gathered from the works and words of other men and that chused out one sentence of Scripture as thou dost and falleth to thy wit studying the minde of God in it and so divideth one sentence into so many several fractions and out of
they could not know nor to this day can know how you do beguile them O that I and all Gods people who know the truth had heads full of water that our tears might run down day and night for the slain of our own flesh and blood and yet poor hearts their bodies liveth in the world and their hearts liveth in the Creature and their God liveth in their head and they worship him according to your blinde precepts and they love to have it so and yet is their poor spirits under the chains of sin death devil and hell and yet you nor they can be made beleeve that this is so And this is the effects and fruits of your wise preaching by way of Use and Doctrine which you have learned at the Holy Universitie you so much boast of But I tell you plainlie that since your wise preaching had its beginning the truth of God hath been hid by it and so the souls of men have been deprived of the sweet enjoyments thereof O wo be to you for your work yea wo and sorrow shall be your portion in a far greater measure then any of the sons of men yea you shall one day curse the time that your fathers put you to the Holy Universitie to make you Preachers nay you shall wish that they had put you to learn the trade of Tinklers when they put you to learn the trade of Preaching though at present you glory in your trade and think you are the Minister of the Gospel I know your pride is so great that when you see these lines you will be ready to burn them and make a scoff of me for writing them but that is no new thing for I know your spirits well enough neither do I care for your displeasure for I know in whom I have believed and who caused me to write these lines and him I desire to obey It s possible some of you may Petition to Authority to get me punished for my plainness with you as some of your Brethren have done in these daies against some poor people unto whom God hath more clearly manifested both his Justice and Mercy to their souls without your Ministry then ever he did to any soul under your Ministry And this maketh you all stark mad that God should do any thing in any soul but by you and so you both in Preaching and Petitions go about both to scandalize and persecute the truth of God and those souls in whom the truth is But this shall return upon you with shame and your own preaching and acting against the truth shall be your overthrow But friends I would not have you in the least to mistake me in what I write in general to you for no truth is so general but there may be some particular exception admitted in it so in this that I have written to you for though I express you all in general yet my charitie causeth me to admit of some particular exception of some amongst you in some respect for far be it from me to condemn the truth in any man or in any order if I can but perceive the least appearance thereof in any soul But that which I judge and condemn amongst you all is the illegal and unjust calling and coming into the Ministrie and your pride and covetousness in the Ministrie and the ignorance of the truth of God in the Ministrie and the great unknowing of God in the people as he ought to be known the which hath been the evil fruits and effects of your Ministrie I confess that many of you have wit and schollarship enough to maintain Argument with Papists and any other Formalists that differ in judgement with you and that many of you be able enough to take a sentence of Scripture and divide it into so many parts as the sence of speech will carry and so out of every part to raise out Doctrines and Uses Applications and Conclusions c. and so may beget a form of truth in some of your hearers and when this is done yet the power of truth is hid from you in your wise speaking and from them in their wise hearing For the power of the truth is one thing and the form of truth is another thing and the form of truth I know you hold out and may hold out by your wit and schollarship taught you in your Universities And this I know one man may teach another and as he is taught so may he speak yea and by the work of the brain may adde much to what hath been taught and yet for all this the heart is far enough from the enjoyment or partaking of the power of truth And where the power of truth is wanting in any of you though you have the form of truth yet are you none of those whom God calleth into the Ministrie but you shall one day be judged and condemned as theeves who came not in at the door but by some other way Though you put this off your selves and apply it to others whom the Lord hath raised of his own accord to speak what they know of God and have in some measure received the truth and can bear witness to the truth and by these your falshood becometh to be somewhat discovered And therefore great is your malice and envy against them but yet they shall increase and you shall decrease for the Lord will turn your skirts about your head and your nakedness and shame shall be discovered to all men I know that many amongst you who are envious fools and haters of the truth do jear and scoff at experienced men and speak evil of them behinde their back yet will fawn upon them to their face because they know these are too hard for them in matter of speaking of the truth as it is in Jesus and like beaten Cocks will hide their heads under the others wings and will assent to what they say because they cannot gain-say it but when their backs is turned then they will scandalize and speak evil of these persons and wrest their words to that which was never intended And when a pack of these fools is met together in their pots then do they strengthen the hands one of another and make their malicious scandals compleat and then goeth about to make the simple people beleeve that such and such men is perillous and erroneous persons and perswadeth them to take heed of them least they be seduced by them And thus do some of you seek to undermine the truth and the reason is because the truth will be their undoing But other amongst you I know is more witty and will not be so much against experienced men but perceiving that God owneth them they will not altogether speak against these as do the other but rather make use of their theevish art and steal some experiences from the mouth of others and can lay them up in their memories and make as much use of them as their own and speak of
them before others insomuch that some may judge them to have received something of God but yet this is but the proper work of wit which hath power to metamorphise man into any shape which it conceiveth to be most in fashion and wherein most safety seems to be But others amongst you I know that their pride and malice is so great that they will beat down truth both with word and sword and their zeal is so great for the advancing of the glory of God that they will both preach pray and fight against the truth and by all means seek to devour and destroy all persons in whom the truth appears But it is no marvel for truth always found many enemies amongst men but especially among Priests in all ages and it will be so as long as the order of Priests is in date Yet I confess though your coming into the Ministry be absolutely against the minde and command of God as was the first order of Kings in Israel and that God hath winked at you above thirteen hundred years and suffered you to come into the Ministry by the ordinance of man yet as God owned some of the Kings in Israel so I make no doubt but that God hath owned some amongst you but yet I beleeve Solomons account may be their number and those amongst you whom God hath owned or to this day do own they are made to see and confess the emptiness of their wits and schollarship in the understanding of the minde and will of God and findeth their art learned in the Universities to be one of the greatest enemies against the truth of God the which they have to deal withal and they can speak by experience that Universitie learning is but a meer cheat and a foolish thing to make a right Minister of the word of truth and so is made to renounce all the curiositie of art and schollarship And as they have received the truth from the Fountain of truth so are they made to speak and these souls cannot envy any man in whom the truth is but rejoyceth to see them and hear them speak and accounteth them as the Ministers of God though they were never put to the Holy Universitie for the same spirit proceeding from the same Fountain maketh no difference and these men accounteth it their joy to be in the societie of people who be experienced and they seek no Lordship over the people nor are they so hungry hearted after Tithes and great Benefice but can rather condescend to work with their own hands for their Bread But I beleeve you have not many of these amongst you for the curse hath covered the faces of the most of you in your generation under which you are close sealed from the right knowledge of truth and can no more beleeve your deceit then the Apostle Paul before his Conversion But seldom doth God execute justice upon any people before he give them warning of their sin and after that a time to repent But who is it that dare bring such a Message from the Lord as shall declare the iniquitie of the Priests and give them warning to repent and forsake their sin and falshood and foretel them of their destruction if they repent not Who I say dare be so bold as proclaim such a thing seeing the Authority of Nations stands for them and accounteth them men worthy of honor and sit men for the promulgating of the Gospel and most of the people esteem them little less then gods yea and themselves account themselves the onely men fit to be forewarners and instructers of all others May not such a one as bringeth such a sad Message to them expect to be envied and evil spoken of yea and persecuted to death I know the man that shall be sent with this Message cannot escape no more shall I for when first the Lord put this into my heart the which my Pen hath put down in these lines I was very unwilling to yeeld obedience thereunto because my Reason set before mine eyes the great hazard I should run if I should meddle in any such thing but the Lord would not suffer me to be quiet until I undertook this Message and better had I abide your fury and the displeasure of all men then to be disobedient to the voice of the Lord And as the Lord liveth in me my malicious part hath not caused me to write these lines though you may so judge of me for I protest in the presence of God I unfainedly wish all your good and should very much rejoyce to know of your repentance and should no less be heartily sorry for your destruction if I should live to see it For that which I have received of God teacheth me to love all men and wish well to all men and I am glad at the welfare of all men and cannot but be sorry at the suffering of any though he be my greatest enemy and would lend him my help if I could do him any good if he came into distress either of body or minde Therefore my spirit being free I hope to bear all that any of you shall either inflict upon my name or person and though you shall hate me yet I cannot chuse but love you as you are my fellow Creatures and of the same flesh and blood with me And my advice to you is that you slight not these lines but search your own hearts and if the light of God go along with you you shall finde that I have not wronged you at all for what I here declare unto you shall be found true either to convince you or to be a witness against you But my Friends I would have you to know that I have not said the tenth part of what I have committed to me to speak concerning you for I have been as much sparing as possible I could be in what I had to declare to you and if this my first Message be slighted by you and return upon my self it is very possible it will draw out a fivefold heavier message with it but I will not be too tedious at present If I may pray for you I wish that God would open your eyes and make sensible your hearts that you might be acquainted with the great Mystery of sin and selfness in you and out of the true knowledge and right sence thereof that you may be made fit to discover the mysterie of sin and selfness in all other And that you may be rightly made partakers of the mystery of the Divine Nature that from the enjoyment thereof you may be made able to know and comprehend with all Saints what is the height and depth c. And to know the fellowship of the love of God which passeth knowledge that so you may be able to hold out to others the mysterie therein contained and then shall you be acquainted with the Will and Minde of God and what you know that shall you speak and then you should see that
is no Astrology for that you will not believe though never so true But this that I tell you shall undoubtedly come to pass and sooner perhaps then you look for it I will not tell you at present what I believe of you least when it cometh to pass you say I was a witch for I know you will not allow a true speaker the name of Prophet But me thinks I hear some of you object and say In what thou hast said thou hast not spoken truth for there hath many been converted by our Preaching and many godly people have we begotten and the Lord hath given a blessing to our Labors and by this we know we are the Lords Messengers to his people and the true Laborers in his Vineyard O my Friends do not think in what I have said that I have any minde to detract from you what is your due or to wrong any of you in the least For I confess Like may beget like for that is oft a truth in nature and so in you For I do not deny but many of you have a form of godliness and as you are in that form you may beget others also into the same form and so make them like your selves and yet all of you without the power of God and love of God and wisdom of God For if the love of God were shed abroad in your hearts it would turn your hearts into its own image but as yet you have not that love and therefore you have hatred in your hearts both against God and man And from hence it is That you can freely persecute and destroy all that worship not God in your way and this you have no order for nor example either from Christ or any of his followers but you and all your Converts go not a jot further then the Scribes and Pharisees but in that you believe Christ is come in the flesh and have an Historical or Notional Faith of him in your head but the world and selfness lyeth in your hearts and you are as hide-bound to the Gospel-forms as the Scribes and Pharisees were to circumcision and the formes under the Law and as they being hide-bound or heart-bound to these forms so became they to be the enemies of Christ when he appeared in the flesh And the very same are you and all your Converts fast tied in your heart to the Gospel-forms and hereby you are become the enemies of Christ appearing in the spirits of men and so are you become the persecutors of Christ in the Saints and yet in this you think you do God good service and the greatest perfection in your Converts is when they are made exceeding zealous for the honor and glory of God as they say so that whosoever worships God in any other way then theirs then are they sure of persecution by you or them if it be within the compass of your power and this you have in your generation and that faith and love and full assurance of your salvation alwaies is accompanied with pretended zeal for the honor and glory of God and from hence you count all other the enemies of God who have not the same garb that you have And all this great conversion you brag of is nothing else but a conversion from evil to far worse for you have turned some of your Hearers from some outward grosse offences and have brought them into a conformity to duty as you call it and by the refraining the outward grossnesse and closing to and with the outward duties your Conscience beginneth to cease biting so long as you walk obsequiously therein and from hence the foule Feind transformes himselfe into the Angel of Light and secretly wraps himselfe in your actings and by his power when once gotten rightly joyned to Selfe Righteousnesse then hath he power to worke Wonders and can worke like God and give consolation to the Soule and bring it into raptures and ravishments and can bring the Promises to remembrance which is suitable to confirme his workings and from such working he can make the Soule beleeve its regeneration and its calling and election to be made sure and that with a witnesse too in which assurance the Soule will oft rejoyce and shall have many false flashes of Love which the Soule can no way know but it is the feeling of the love of God and if you have brought any Soule thus far as to this full assurance and to be partakers of such feeling you thinke you have brought them farre on in grace and thus farre I know you may bring a Soule by your Ministery and yet this Soule is but two-fold the Childe of Satan more then it was before I will make this plaine unto you for when the Soule before was in the grosse actings then was that person in a more hopefull way for God to bring it to himselfe by his owne way then it is now for then when God would have brought these persons from their sinne in his bringing them either by himselfe or by those whom he would use for that worke then I say there was hope these Soules might have been led in a way whereby they should have escaped the snare of Satan But being that these soules are in the snare they are more in captivity to him then they were before and the reason is because then God had some power in the Consciences of them and oft times condemned them for their outward grossnesse but now they being brought out of these outward sinnes into the obedience of outward formes their Conscience loseth that priviledge and now instead thereof the Feind hath power to feed the Soule as is aforesaid the which he had no power to doe before and in this condition the Soule is well pleased to be and can stand for it selfe stoutly that it is sealed to God and made sure of Salvation and so is become exceeding fool-hardy rejoycing in its fooles paradise and being fed by false consolation and herein that person is once more the childe of Satan then before And secondly whereas before these soules were converted by you they would not persecute or bring any to death for not walking in their waies but now your Converts must seeke the honour of God and so in zeale for his glory they must become persecutors and destroyers of their fellow Creatures because they will not honour God in their way and thus are they become Murderers and yet they doe not know it but the same spirit that ruleth in them must they of necessity bee obedient to and it is proved before that that spirit in them that ruleth is Satan and he it is that setteth them on work For as our Saviour saith He was a murtherer from the beginning and his works will you do Joh. 8.44 And herein are your Converts twofold the children of Satan more then they were before It was not the Publicans and sinners that put Christ to death no no it was the religious zealots under the Law
seat viz. to read the Law to the people and to offer the gifts and sacrifices and had the worke of ministring in the Temple they were all of the Tribe of Levi and were they good men or bad men that were of that Line they were to have that office by succession and none other as you may see Numb 8.14 And so long as the Law of Ordinances was in force Christ would have them observed because they all were shadowes of and pointed at himselfe and the reading of the Law could not be heard but by the Scribes who were of the Tribe of Levi and as Christ was in the flesh the Law was not ended neither the succession of the Ministers and as the ceremoniall Law did hold out Christ mystically so Christ bare witnesse to the truth of the Law ceremonially and what was an Ordinance of God and that Ordinance being in force that would Christ have observed and in this case he bad the Lepers goe and shew themselves to the Priests and offer to them what the Law required for their being clensed Luke 17.14 and in this case he caused Peter to pay tribute to Caesar and he came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it Mat. 5.7 and as yet he had not fulfilled the ceremoniall for that was fulfilled by his death but the Ordinance of Circumcision he had fulfilled in being circumcised himselfe and the Law of the Commandement he had fulfilled in that he had not sinned and all those things contained in the Ordinances he would have all the people to observe to the utmost untill the time that all should be fulfilled by his Death and Resurrection and the Priests of the Law was still to be heard in reading and giving out admonitions according to its requiring as Moses oft times did unto the people in his dayes But now the Ministers of the Gospel hath not the same calling into the Ministery as we may see by Christ himselfe for he chused not any of the Tribe of Levi to be promulgaters of the Gospel neither any great learned men but a few weake silly unlettered men and from that time forward those who were to be Ministers of the Gospel had not their calling either by succession or by greatnesse of Schollership but those was to be the Ministers who was called of God and who had received the gift of the Holy Ghost and who had partaken of the Divine nature by which they had fellowship with the Father and the Sonne and had the Mysteries of God made knowne to them and manifested in them And what they had heard and seene that they declared to others 1 Jo. 1.1 2. and these have learned the voyce of Christ and these can speake with the voyce of Christ and none other knoweth his voyce and whosoever cometh to the Ministery otherwise they are but Theeves and there is no ingagement upon any to heare them but rather to refraine from them For as for the Scribes it is evident in Scripture they had their calling into the Priesthood by Gods owne appointment and so by his appointment they were to have it by succession whether they were upright men or not as is aforesaid but for your Priests they cannot plead succession neither can they shew any calling they have at all but what was ordained by men and so they are no more but Ministers made and sent out by men and therefore as they are but the Ministers of men you have no command to heare them And as they want the calling of and by God the which the Scribes and Pharisees had that saying of Christs doth nothing belong to you either by command or example whereby you are at all ingaged to heare those your unsent Priests But if any of them can prove it that God commanded to make Universities and that those whom hee would chuse to speake in his name and declare his will and minde unto others should be put so many yeares to that University and then to be confirmed by a Bishop or a Presbytery and then should they be fit men for his worke I say if any of them can prove this though they be never so wicked I would have you to heare them if they speake any thing that were but like truth but this I know they cannot prove and therefore as they have no calling of God you ought not to heare them for in hearing them you countenance them and uphold them contrary to the minde and will of God and for your rebelling against God in this very thing God bringeth the curses of these your Priests upon your selves viz. the erring from the truth of God and hereby you are in danger to fall into the ditch with them and this is like to be all that you shall receive of God for this your pretended zeale and Ignorant performing of this your holy duty of hearing Gods Ministers as you call them I could have run thorow all your holy duties and performances which you observe upon which you have stated your religion and could have proved them of like nature as these I have already touched but I let them passe at present and wish you to judge the rest by those that have been spoken of and I make no doubt but you shall finde them all but Priests precepts and you may assure your selves if the fountaine be corrupt all the streames will prove uncleane And this my Message received from the Lord I here declare and deliver unto you and whether you will heare it or not it is nothing to me since I have done what I ought to doe and in case they have had the persecuting hand but you for want of that case that any amongst you doe beleeve what here is said and so desireth further knowledge of the way of God I know you shall not want what you desire but if any amongst you shall slight or neglect what here is presented to you I know the same will be as a witnesse against you and that you shall have nothing to plead against God for matter of ignorance seeing you had a warning from him of your folly and blindnesse A word to those who are called Independents I Know if any of you who are of the Church-fellowship of the Independant order shall happen to see these former lines presented to the order of the Presbyterians you will conclude that I have not spoken amisse in what I have declared to them both in speaking to their Priests and to the People for I know many of you have the same both in your thoughts and oft times in your words and knowing how they are blinded in some of their formes that hath caused you to differ and dissent from them in some things and so in those things you differ from them you judge them in feriour to you and so ariseth so many jarres betwixt them and you about your formes and yet if you knew but the truth as it is in Jesus and from the knowledge of the truth
height of his Kingdome will be but I could wish those poore blinded fooles amongst you to turne their eyes inward and looke for the reigning of Christ in them and then I beleeve they shall finde something that will hold them doing that they shall looke no more for Christ without them for the reason why they are so carried out in their fancy is because they found life in the liberty of their forme and so was carried out from the medling with the evill that is in their owne hearts and therefore not knowing the Mysterie of selfnesse in them the Devill hath power to worke in their fancy and make them looke for such things to be fulfilled outwardly as shall in their time and order be fulfilled inwardly and all this happeneth because of the forme of godlinesse without the power of God and as yet they have not received the truth as it is in Jesus neither doe they love the truth nor can love it because they doe not know it and for this cause God sends such very strong delusions 2 Thess 2.8 9. But to let these passe with their fantastick conceits I will speake a word in generall to you as I finde you stated in a form to which you keep as close in your order as doe the Presbyterians yea and as hide-bound to your forme as is the Papists and though your forme be somewhat more regulated then the Presbyterians yet doe you not dissent from their very forme in most things you observe but you shake hands with them with the one of your hands and the other hand you reach out to those of the Anabaptists order and so from the Anabaptists to you and from you to the Presbyterians and so from the Presbyterians to the Prelatians and so from the Prelatians to the Popes the collaterall line is kept whole and you are all tied together with one chaine consisting of so many linkes and all of you stand in one center with your feet and your backs one towards another but as you dance the round you keep the compasse and not step out of it and you all dance after one Pipe and can agree to heare its Musick for that melody pleaseth you all and this Musicioner is the Devill and his Pipe is the World with its various notes of profit pleasure and praises and when this Pipe is sounded you all dance after it as though you were all gone mad and though you all agree in this harmonious dance yet are you all opposite one to another in your manners and breeding and bringing up in the courteous conges you make in the saluting of him you call your God and because of this difference you cannot owne one another though you otherwise center all in one Yet you who are of the order of Independency I must confesse have something amongst you in your formes which I honour and approve of you for it as you are Formalists and that is because you have not as yet tied or constrained any to observe the same way of worship with you but as yet leaveth every one to his owne freedome in way of worship in case hee or they be not open blasphemers so farre all is well And further you are not altogether so hide-bound to the unsent Priests as the Presbyterians be though I know you cannot as yet clearly see what they are and therefore you cannot altogether forsake them and therefore are so far in bondage to them I know likewise you have some amongst you called Ministers who is of somewhat more moderate spirited men then those of the Presbyterian order and that is somewhat more inlightned in the knowledge of the truth according to Christ in the flesh but yet very few I finde amongst them who rightly know the truth as it is in Christ according to the Divine nature yet I must confesse some of them have got a darke notion of the truth in the Divine nature and yet all endeth but in a better regulated forme for as for the proper operation of the truth as it is in Christ I have not as yet seen any great effects either amongst you or your Ministers for the naturall operation of the truth turneth the heart out of centering in formes though never so well regulated neither will the power of the truth suffer the heart to be carried out to the world or any created thing whatsoever but all the feares cares loves and desires of any thing below God is subdued in that soule where the truth hath taken possession in the heart and little comfort or content can that soule have in any thing created or acted where the truth as it is in Jesus is rightly knowne and untill the truth in Jesus viz. in the Divine nature be received and from the receiving thereof the knowledge thereof is attained the heart of men is in bondage either to the creatures viz. the world with the things contained in it or else the works and acting of the creature viz. formes of Religion of some fashion or other and all things created or acted tendeth to bondage and men may be in captivity to either of these or to both and yet know it not but thinke themselves free and the reason is because they never found bondage in their captivity but rather freedome and indeed while man liveth in a forme he knoweth not the bondage of that forme but findeth freedome in the forme yea more freedome then before he tooke the forme upon him for before he tooke the forme upon him his Conscience had power to condemne but now in the forme blinde Conscience is satisfied and so the heart hath more liberty to center in the created things and yet can please conscience with acted things and thus the worship of God is roundly carried on in formes and the world and the worship thereof goes on as roundly in the heart and no bondage at all felt in any of these things no more then the Jewes who boasted of being Abrahams seed and never were in bondage Jo. 8. but the reason why bondage is not felt in things acted and things created is because the truth of God was never truly known amongst you but I confesse you have a zeale but not according to knowledge and you have a knowledge but not according to the truth for that knowledge you have is but according to Christ in the flesh and that is but either relative or artificiall out of which ariseth an Historicall faith and this pointeth at and closeth with Christ as he was in the corporall or humane nature and this you may have and indeed none other can you have while you live in formes and this is not a knowledge in the heart or a faith in the heart but this is altogether in the head and the power of this saith will not close with Christ nor can close with Christ in the Divine nature for that faith in the head according to Christ in the flesh is alwayes an enemy to Christ as he
other I am not the man But shall I tell you Friends if you fall to reason as Christs Disciples did I wish there were no more of you the men I mean of then one of every twelve but I rather fear that the men I mean of be in number twelve for one and I will put all men out of the number but onely those who profess Religion for those are the men I cheifly aim at in this my ensuing Discourse for I see them mishapen and deformed in their Forms and fashion of Religion and so are become Monsters in the same Forms and so are like to degenerated Plants who bring out fruit fit for no use at all but onely to beguile the fight of the Passengers but when they come to be tasted they dazzle the head with madness and fill the stomach full of rhume that it cannot digest the heavenly food but in what is said do not think that I am the enemy of Religion no I am not but approve of it so far as God is in it and as far as thy self is out of it But when I finde thou hast chosen thy Religion and yet left God out of it and hast thy self in thy Religion there I let flie at thee this my Arrow what ever thou art or whatsoever thy Religion Form or Profession be But this I am sure of that I may hit thy head oft enough before I hurt thee for thou hast armor of proof upon it which thou hast forged out of such Scriptures as thou thoughtst most meet for thy use beside thou hast hatched and brought out some acting in thy chosen Form and these hast thou covered thy self withal so thou maist think thy self sure enough yet though thou be thus well harnished all about yet I know where thou art naked and empty and that is within thee even thy heart and that would I aim at for though thou be never so well armed on thy outside yet happily there may be an Arrow drawn at a venture which may peirce between the coupling of the same but all my fear is that if a shot chance to pierce thorow that there is something in thee that will not let it pierce thy heart But I will speak no more in parables but show my meaning openly to thee viz. Thou art about a work in thy Religion which thou shalt never bring to pass with all the wit or knowledge reading praying acting in any performance without thee which all of them are but things within the compass of thine own power to act or do as thou art a reasonable Creature But wouldst thou know what this work is thou art about in this thy Religion I will tell thee what it is but I question thou wilt not believe me when thou hearest it though it be truth It is that thou art about to make God and the World dwell together in thy heart or to say God and thy self to love and live together within thee and thou hast so ordered the business that thou canst serve them both but thou art deceived in the matter for Christ himself said thou couldst not do it and I know thou knowest that Christ said so But yet thou knowest not that thou art of that company that is contained within the compass of Christs words but thou puttest it off thy self and judgest some other to be guilty herein for amongst you all who are different and one against another in your formality every one of you judgeth and condemneth them who be not of the same minde and judgement with you in your chosen tenet And who so worship not God in your own way you judge him to be inferior to you for every one of you judge your own opinion chief and according to what you have chosen so you worship God and by and through the same you can judge and condemn all others Are these things of God or man be judge your selves do you think that God can be divided or his worship parted into peeces or can Christ and his way be severed no in no case But the thing is not strange though some in our days do marvel to see so many several and different judgements in and about Religion for those in the Primitive time was carried about in and by such foolish Chimeraes which did not a little trouble the Apostle Paul as you may see 1 Cor. 1.13 1.34 But the Apostle knew from whence this sprang and tells them plainly they were carnal and herein he judged rightly for it is nothing but carnality and earthly-mindedness that causeth differences amongst those who profess Religion and yet all pretend the true worship of God in the same O fools and unwise when will you learn to be wise and know what is the worship of God you all have heard what Christ said to the woman of Samaria John 4. and can rehearse the same but to this day you have been ignorant of the mystery in these words And from hence it is that you have parted the way of God into so many several kindes of formal worships and are so set in Argument one against another and hereby your speech and language is become changed whereby you cannot understand one another neither can you help one another but much hinder one another and the reason is because you are all of you in ignorance in the work you be a doing viz. No other thing but building Babels Tower whereby you think to save your selves from the flood of justice the which shall undoubtedly run ove rall flesh Nah. 1.8 By this your worship every one of you think in your hearts to climb into Heaven and to get a name one above another and who can make you believe That all your seemly buildings is nothing else but that Babel which one day shall fall and come thundering down about your ears But though you will not believe me at present yet hereafter I am sure you shall know the same to be true when you either come to be delivered from the danger you are in or else when the danger hath destroyed you but if you chance to be delivered from the danger as some have been then shall you have the promise fulfilled in you viz. I will return to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent Zeph. 3.9 But I make no doubt but every one of you in your own chosen Form will quickly conceit that this promise is fulfilled on you and among you because every one of the same self-chosen Form agree in the same and all bear witness with one voice That the same is the onely truth you hold out and in the same Form you have found God and in the same you will own God and in the same you call upon his Name I know you will all in your several Forms conclude the same fulfilled O friends stay a little and let it be known if your conclusions be true yea or
our power is terrible as an Army with Banners against all who will not worship God in our way For our way of worship is the onely way of worship in all the world and all other are but erring Sects We helped both with our Prayers Blood and Purses to overthrow the whore of Rome and the King and his wicked rabble but now far worse is risen up in their place and by those we be more perplexed then ever for they have taken away our power by which we upheld the Faith and so are become into a very ill condition for we are no more but a mock amongst the people and we stand but as cyphers nay which is worst of all many of our own Faith declineth from us and adhereth to these new-come Sects And thus the pure Church becometh rent in peeces and all is because we want our power to compel and to execute justice upon the opposers but seeing it is so we will wait with patience for this is but the tryal of the Church for we know that hereafter our God will deliver us for although these things be faln upon us yet have we not departed from the way of our God nor dealt unfaithfully in his Covenant nay we appeal to our God for witness who knoweth our hearts that we keep close to our Religious worshipping of him for neither do we allow of any to be our Pastors but such as have come in by the right door men chosen of God made fit by the godly Universities confirmed by the approbation and laying on of the hands of our holy Presbytery and such we receive according to their worth and these and none other can speak the Language of Christ to us and with them we joyn in hearing them both Preach and Pray and in the holy Sacraments in which we have our Faith confirmed to our souls finding them very much comforted thereby so that we are made able to walk in holiness of life and perform all holy duties to our God and he in his loving kindness answers us again in giving us his holy Spirit to inspire us and by that Spirit we are made sure of our Salvation and know that we are elected from eternity and by that Spirit we call God Father and Christ our Brother and Mediator and in this we rejoyce continually walking in the ways of our God in holy life and Christian conversation making our calling and election sure by well-doing Hearing this voice I mused a little and thought in my self there is an appearance of some godliness here I will hold my hand and not shoot at such a holy object as this before I very well understand the truth of the matter for said I it is not for me to shoot out this Arrow but against them that God aimeth it for and those be such as are his enemies therefore I will consider a little and see what the minde of the Lord is before I let out this Arrow But not long had I considered hereupon till there was brought before my sight the object that had thus spoken and it seemed in appearance no less then what was expressed by the voice and me-thought there was much of God in it For it had a godly garb upon it a fair covering it was to look upon wrought with divers works and variety of colours all of them seeming to be dyed in grain and well-grounded So drawing somewhat nearer to behold this comly Garment the nearer I came to it the worse it seemed and in the skirts of it I espied much blood And I likewise saw that all the various work was but a gloss set on by the cunning of some witty Painter who had been very cunning in that art But while I was looking there was a voice said Look what thou seest under and within that garb and so the garb was somewhat drawn aside and under it I saw a monstrous Creature which is called Self and this Monster had as many heads and horns as the Beast which John saw in the Revelation And this Monster was closed fast to the heart and kept it under its power and captivity I saw also other Beasts with divers heads and horns and I saw several Epithites engraven upon these heads as namely Cruelty Blood-shedding Persecution Pride Love of the World Love of praise Love of honor Envy Anger Impatience Murmuration Hatred toward God and his people Hard-heartedness Carnal-mindedness Ignorance of God Self-conceitedness Good thinking c. And out of and from amongst these I saw a chain come from the Monster called Self and it reached out to the fair seeming Garment and kept the garment fast about these other Beasts so that they could not be discovered and this chain consisted of five links viz. False Faith false Love and false Hope and false fear of God and false-feeling of inward Joy and the name of that chain was called Hypocrisie And I saw one of the Beasts before said and he was like a Leopard and his name was Self-wisdom and I saw another of these Beasts and he was like a Dragon and his name was Self-power And I saw another of these Beasts and he was somewhat seemlier then the rest having two horns like a Lamb and his name was called Self-righteousness And these three I saw in Unity consulting together and I heard their consultation and it was against the most high God and against his own people And I saw the work they wrought and all their work was to make Robes and Garbs to hide themselves under them and so I saw how they had wrought this Garment aforesaid and the stuff they used in making it for it was made of ten several mixtures viz. Sanctifying the Sabbath hearing of their Minister Praying two times each day refraining from gross acting keeping from the company of the wicked assembling together to repetitions receiving the thing they call a Sacrament otherwise called Bread and Wine Lords Supper or the some small charity to those they call godly turning up their outward eyes towards the Element in their devotion reproving of other who worship not God in these things And all these are mixt together and made up very handsomly by and with a work-tool viz. Seeming zeal for the glory of God And I saw who helped to put this Garment on and he had a look as though he had been sore frighted and seemed as one who was not a very wise one and his name was called Conscience And I saw a Girdle that kept that Garment close to them that wore it and that was called Fear of Hell And on this Garment I saw a badge or mark as though it had been the Livery of some great man and his arms engraven therein and in that badge there was this Epithite engraven viz. The Saints sign and this was called Baptism And I saw an hollow Pipe that was fastned to this Garment and that went inward and the end that went inward and reached to the mouth of the frighted
partly shewed before and as shall be made more manifest afterward and so taking from others that which is not yours herein are you not theeves be judge your own selves And likewise you keep the people from entering into the Kingdom of Heaven for you neither will enter your selves and those that would enter you will not suffer Luke 11.52 For while you binde up the people under your forms and are not able to bring them out and beyond these forms you keep the people in thick darkness and so shut the gates of the Kingdom against them and they cannot enter in for you And in this you rob God of the souls of the people so that he loseth his honor and praise in them And thus are you become robbers both the people of the Kingdom of Heaven and God of the glory and honor of his people And thirdly you are cheaters for you make the people believe it is the Word of God you Preach unto them when it is but the froth of your own brain and the fruit of your studies and an historical relation of the Scriptures and speakings of other men And herein you deceive the people for the Word of God is his Son Jesus Christ John 1.1 2. and him you have not known and therefore the Word is hid from you And likewise you shape out a Faith to the people by your own fancy and you frame them a love of God according to your own fashion and you teach them the fear of God by your own precepts and make them believe that all is right you deliver to them and herein you mightily cheat the people But I know your blindness is so great and your ears so dull of hearing and your hearts so gross you will neither see nor hear nor understand the truth though one tell it you for like the deaf Adder you stop your ears so that you will not hear the voice of the charmer charm he never so wisely Psal 51.5 For I know you think your selves the onely called Men and sent Ministers of God and all that cometh to declare the Way and Word of God and cometh not in by your door these will you count theeves and robbers and that they take upon them that which doth not belong to them but let such as these come in at what door they will I pray you hearken to me and I will tell you in at what door you have entred and to this day do enter But I will not reckon your pedigree or predecessory too far for fear I draw your line to reach to the Devil himself who is the onely or chief opposer of the truth as it is in Jesus for thou wouldst think this too harsh a censure upon you though I could prove the same to be true and yet because you would question that I could not prove the truth of what I have intimated I will give you a general touch of the truth of the same but wil not meddle too far in particulars herein for fear I shame you too much and far be it from me to seek your shame further then to let you see your folly if so be you might be made to see it and forsake it For I profess in the presence of God I love you so far as I see ought of God in you and pity you where I see you carried from him by your own blindness and do heartily wish your welfare and do not count me your enemy because I tell you the truth Gal. 4.16 I know full well from whence your selves derive or pretend to have your ground for what you do and what you speak and for your institutions I know you wil say from the Primitive order and example It is true you have some grounds from thence for your choosing of Elders if you were the men fit for such a work but as you are not the men fit for that work those that are made Elders by you are but such as your selves all of you blindly taking that upon you which doth not belong to you and so you onely have stoln that Form but yet the power is wanting in you and no marvel For if the Fountain be corrupt the streams cannot be pure Likewise you gather from thence your warrant for laying on of hands upon those you think meet to be Ministers as you call them It is true there was such a thing in those days but to whom did it belong not to them who would have had it either by stealth or purchase for none had this committed to them but that received it of God by the gift of the Holy Ghost and those that had that gift had power to communicate the same to those upon whom they lay their hand but this you have not neither can you give it to others on whom you lay your hand for you have not your calling from him that calls them and yet as in other things you in your fool-hardinesse assume this thing to your selves and as you want the power the forme is but weake and not worth a straw nay the very forme of these doe not belong to you for you have but stolne it for looke into the Primitive time and see the last institutions of the Apostle Paul and you shall see he left these institutions in the power and hands of the order of Bishops Timothy and Titus being ordained such and to them was both these and other orders committed and in those dayes the head of Presbytery was a Bishop and he was first in matter of Ordination but you have broken off from the Bishops and have taken that to your selves that which was commited to them But let me shew you in a few words the originall from whence your calling into the Ministry cometh the Apostle saith When the world by wisdome knew not God it pleased God by the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that beleeve 1 Cor. 1.21 and this preaching in those dayes was the holding out the wisdome and power and righteousnesse sanctification and redemption in his Sonne Jesus Christ and those who were to be the Preachers or promulgaters of these were none but those who had received the same thing which they held out to others and could beare witnesse to the truth of what they did deliver and this seemed to be nothing to the wise of the world for they savoured nothing in it nor heard any thing in it to please their curious eares for it wanted method and eloquency and curiosity of Art and therefore Paul himselfe was called a babler Act. 17.18 but to those who was called it was the power of God and wisdome of God 1 Cor. 1.1.24 and so long as the Primitive Church remained in purity those who were the Ministers and declarers of the Word of God had the same word abiding in them working and opperating in them by which they were made able to demonstrate unto others what they themselves was made partakers of And as ancient Records beare witnesse the Romans
upon the heart and thus your prayers is turned into sinne and this you have by asking and receiving counsell of your blinde Priest and hereby you make a cover for your selves that you may adde sin to sin this you may plainly see in Isa 30.1 but those who knew or doe know the true ground of Prayer were never tied to set times but to occasions and the occasions being so many made our Saviour give out this caveat so oft Watch and pray Mar. 13.33 and the Apostle who knew the ground of prayer and the many occasions to pray made him bid the Thessalonians pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5.17 and those who know the evill of themselves shall not need to have one to teach them when to pray or how to pray neither can they be tyed to set times for they shall finde that sin in themselves that cannot bee limited to times and therefore they cannot limit themselves to pray against it at times for to those both sin and prayer is unlimitable and this made the Apostle utter his desire in the well-wishing of those whom hee taught in the truth and right knowledge of God and themselves and willed them to pray every where 1 Tim. 2.8 Secondly for the forme you use in your prayer it is but your owne human invention which causeth you to straine your braine drawing out from thence so many words and multiplication of speech and to fill up your houre is oft put to use the same words over and over and so contrary to the command of our Saviour you use vaine repetitions Mat. 6.7 And herein you differ not from the Heathens for they think to be heard for their much speaking and this your beat-braine Duty is but the sacrifice of fooles and yet you know not that you doe evill but this your doing pleaseth your selfe and pacifieth your blinde Conscience and from hence you draw conclusions that God is pleased also making him such a one as your selves Psa 50.21 but those who know the right ground of prayer they are not tyed to times neither are they tyed to a forme in prayer for the true ground of prayer turneeth set times into occasions and it turneth selfe formes and repetitions into short and feeling expressions yea oft times such expressions as you could not heare if you were besides the Persons who uttereth these expressions and those are the cryes that ring and eccho in the eares of the Lord of Hosts and these are the prayers that prevaileth with the Lord in answering and filling the desires of such soules and these prayers and cryes are the very vigorous out-pourings of the Spirit which maketh intercession for the Saints and he who is a Spirit knoweth the minde of the Spirit Rom. 8.26 and in this manner Moses who knew the right ground of prayer called upon the Lord in his greatest distresse not so much as speaking one word that any of the people heard and yet his spirit cryed out so vehemently to the Lord that the Lord said unto him Wherefore cryest thou unto me and all that while his spirit was calling upon the Lord with his tongue he was admonishing the people to beleeve in the Lord as you may see Exod. 14.13 14 15 c. And in this manner Hannah poured out her prayer to God and prevailed with him in the thing she desired though Eli before he knew the truth accounted her a drunkard 1 Sam. 1.13 14. but the truth is that you know not the right ground of prayer and therefore you cannot depart from your set times and set formes and therefore you aske and receive not because you aske amisse Jam. 4.3 And the reason why you have not the right ground of prayer is because you know not God but as a Person and not as he is a Spirit and you know not the wisdome righteousnesse and power of God viz. his Christ but according to the flesh and therefore all your worship and holy duties as you call them is framed according to the knowledge that you have of God and Christ and this knowledge you have is no more but by relation of others as you have heard and seen in the Scriptures and the speaking thereof by your relative Priests and from hence it is that you have formed in your heads an Historicall faith and fantastick beleeving for as yet you have not been in the City of God and what you have heard and seen therein you cannot speake of and no further then you have knowledge of God you can beleeve God and no further then you can beleeve God can you call upon him and what God is in his Spirituall being you have not yet beleeved then how can you call on him in whom you have not beleeved Rom. 10.12 and why is it that you have not rightly beleeved even because you have not rightly heard of God and why is it that you have not rightly heard of God even because you have not had him rightly preached to you by your Priests and the reason why they could not rightly declare and preach God as he is a Spirit and Christ as he was and is in the Divine nature is because they were never sent Rom. 10.14 15. But I know that you may object against me and say that you you have some examples in Scripture both for your set times and set forms of prayer for you will say that David praised at even morning and at noon c. and that our Saviour himself prayed at sundry times and the Apostles themselves used prayer in this manner very oft with others c. It is true I do not deny vocal prayer and times for vocal prayer in case the right ground of prayer be in the person or persons praying for I would have you to understand what I have formerly said for I do not deny but confess occasional praying but that which I deny is the set-times and set-forms of prayer which is but good thinkings rules and blinde Priests precepts without any command or example in Scripture but vocal prayer occasionally the persons rightly grounded this is all that you or any can gather out of any example in Scripture And in this wise David oftentimes both prayed and praised and occasionally Christ in the flesh both prayed and praised and occasionally did the Apostles and the believing people in the primitive time both prayer and praise And according to this same rule the Apostle bad those that were afflicted pray and those that were merry he would have them to praise in singing of Psalms Jam. 5.13 And so I would have all men while they be in the body and the body of sin in them to use vocal prayer occasionally and that their expressions may arise from the very sence of the occasion and such prayers or expressions of desires accompanied with the right ground God will hear and answer the desires of such and will deliver them from fear and trouble and then shall such have cause to praise and glorifie
him Psal 50.15 But in drawing from example of occasions wrong conclusions and so making set-times suiting to others occasions herein you erre greatly as also to draw conclusion from the example of others expressions who spake according to the sence of the occasion For your formal repetitions this also is but foolishness and fantastick conceit without any ground at all and long may you call upon your God even like the Priest of Baal before he grant what you would have onely this I know you may have granted of God even as you have framed him a person in your fancy and comprehended him in a place so he answereth you again by way of your fancy by suffering the Angel of Light oftimes beguile you in making you believe you have received a great deal of comfort and refreshing in your soules from God when it is no more but the deceiveable spirit working in the imagination and fancy I would have inlarged more upon this principle in your Religion but that I would be at some other thing and what is said of this may give you some sight and glimpse of light that you thereby may darkly see where about you are in this your holy duty of prayer for in case you come to see your selfe in this particular you shall know assuredly that you differ not from the Papists themselves for this your holy duty of prayer as you call it was first instituted according to times and formes amongst them and you from them have borrowed that fashion of prayer and you and they are both one in the substance though you differ in some circumstances in your formes yet both of you worship one and the same God in your hearts But no more of this at present But to proceed I speake a word of another principall ground of your Religion viz. your blinde zeale in being so carried out to heare the Ordinances of God as you call them viz. your blinde Priests who have the lying spirit of errour in them by which they have preached to you and having bewitched you with their Charmes they have made you beleeve lyes instead of truth and from hence it is that you are altogether out of the way of the truth both inwardly and outwardly and yet you have no more knowledge thereof nor no more sence thereof then Witches whom the Devill have cheated with his fantastick delusions so that they finding or indeed conceiting they finde such comfort and content in these delusions so that they cannot be sensible of the danger they be in even so are you cheated by your false Priests and have no knowledge at all of the dangerfull deceit you are in but instead of finding out their deceit you are in love with them for their deceiving but no marvell for they have offered chanting powder to you and you have received the same of them and have eaten it in your morsels and so by the vertue or rather poysonable nature thereof you are made to goe and run starke mad after them and in this mad zeale you have lived and doe live in and in so doing you thinke you doe Gods service and seeke to honour him by attending of his Ordinance O poore blinde cheated soules I pitty you for your great ignorance herein for I was in your condition formerly and I had as great zeale in that way as any of you have or can have and I had the same thought of duty that you have yea and I doted in my madnesse upon these your false Priests and did very much adore them I am sure as much as you can doe and I owned them as the Ordinances Oracles and Ministers of God but when the loving kindnesse of God appeared to me and that he was pleased to make the way of his truth knowne to me then did I see my great folly and madnesse and then was manifested to me the great deceit of the Priests and more and more as God was pleased to owne me and teach me so more and more they were discovered to me and out of my love and pitty toward you as my owne flesh and blood I give you warning of them for they are none of the Ministers of God neither ever sent hee them but they have been brought into their places by other meanes as I have somewhat shewed you before therefore as all the rest of your duties and performances taught you by them is but by their owne wisdomes invention so is this also for this duty of hearing them is that which most of all exalteth them for thereby they have both their praise pride and profit upholden and that causeth them to beat so sore upon that very point and layeth load upon your poore blinded Conscience and by help of the lying spirit that is in them they have wrested all the Scriptures to and for their owne purpose in this particular and so have blinded you of the right sence of many places that painted them out in their right colours and have made use of them and applied them for the upholding of themselves and for the opposing and putting downe of all who had more appearance of God in them then themselves and beside when or where they had or have power they took to them the help of the Sword of Justice to uphold themselves and destroy others who had God more clearly manifested in them then themselves and thus have they become the Man of Sin who exalteth himselfe above God or any that are called by the name of God as you shall see plainly opened afterward but in the interim beware of them and thinke not that you performe any acceptable service to God in going to heare them for by this very act of yours you become transgressours against God and so he giveth you up to be deceived and the way of truth is hid from you But you may object and say In case they be not sent Ministers of God yet you may heare them for Christ bad the people heare the Scribes and Pharisees which sate in Moses Chaire and yet they were such as were against Christ and taught the people to observe the Law and yet themselves observed not what they taught to others It is true Christ bad the people observe and doe whatsoever the Scribes and Pharisees taught them but yet he commanded not the people to heare them but only as you may inferre from the other words but in case he had in plaine words commanded them to heare them that maketh not for your hearing of unsent Ministers in our dayes as I shall plainly prove the same unto you For in these last dayes both the Law of Commandement and the Law of Ceremonies and the observation of Circumcision was all in force untill the death of Christ in the flesh but when he spake these words he was in the flesh and so the observation of the ceremoniall Law and Circumcision was tollerable and to be observed of the people and those Scribes and Pharisees who then sate in Moses