The PROPHETS Malachy and Isaiah PROPHECYING TO The Saints and Professors of this Generation Of The Great Things the Lord will doe in this their Day and Time Shewing amongst other things The Nature and Quality of the Apostacy The Judgement of the Lord upon the Leaders of the Apostacy How the Lord will deale with and carry himself towards others guilty of the Apostacy The certainty of deliverance at hand for the true Seed By a wel-wisher to the Kingdome of our Lord Jesus To which is prefixed two very useful Epistles by Christopher Feak and John Pendarves Ministers of the Gospel Thus saith the Lord God Howle yee woe worth the day for the day is neer even the day of the Lord is neer a cloudy day Ezek. 30.2 3. The day of the Lord is darknesse and not light as if a man did flee from a Lyon and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a Serpent bit him even very darke and no brightnesse in it Amos 5.18 19 20. I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now John 16.12 LONDON Printed for Livewell Chapman at the Crown in Popes-head Alley 1656. TO THE READERS Whether Such as follow the Lamb or such as wonder after the Beast Love and Pity for the Lords sake OUR dear Lord in the dayes of his flesh spake many words privately among his Disciples to this effect viz. that they should be hated of the world that they should be hated of all men for his Names sake yea and in that last solemn Addresse to his father related John the seventeenth wherein he hath left upon record a pattern of his intercession on the Behalfe of his Disciples who did then or should afterward beleeve on him through their word he doth expresly mention this matter surely his heart was full of it and much affected with it I have given them thy word sayeth hee there to his father and THE WORLD HATH HATED THEM because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world And againe in a certaine place hee testifieth saying If the WORLD HATETH YOV yee know that IT HATED ME before it HATED YOV If yee were of the world the world would love its owne but because yee are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore THE WORLD HATETH YOU Now to beare up their hearts under this Burthen of the Hatred of the world he puts them in mind of that lesson which hee had formerly taught them Mat. 10.24 John 13.16 saying Remember the word that I sayed to you the servant is not greater then the Lord c. If they have persecuted mee they will presecute you also if they have kept my saying they will keepe yours also The spirit and life of the incouragement lyeth in this that the Son of God was their Brother and companion in Tribulation and in suffering the hatred of the world they should drinke out of the same cup with him in all the afflictions which they were to indure from the world Now if any Man that observes the considerablenesse of these and many other passages of this Nature should desire to know the particular reason why the Lord Jesus with his Disciples was allwayes thus hated persecuted and Abased by the world Did Hee and they give any just Cause of hatred and ill-will against them I answere no surely there were never a more innocent and harmelesse sort of people in the world then they But the true reason of this inveterate hatred is expressed by himselfe John the 7 and 7. in a Conference betwixt himselfe and his Bretheren which did not beleeve in him The world sayeth Hee cannot hate you but me it hateth because I testifie of it or concerning it that the workes thereof are evil Observe the matter seriously and you will well perceive that the world hath workes of its own the world is full of its owne proper workes doings and bufinesse which it is alltogether conversant about Things which it must mind and manage with all care and Industry then secondly consider these workes are such as are exceedingly beloved and delighted in by the world and the world cannot indure with any patience that any sort of men should account them evill workes but then thirdly if any should presume not only to Account but also to Call them evill workes and so testifie against them as evill workes and odious in the sight of God for such a Testimony though given by the Son of God himselfe who for this purpose came into the world that hee might beare witnes to the truth would the world hate him and persecute him even unto death if not hindred by the overruling power of God himselfe And therefore if the true Disciples of Christ himselfe who having his Spirit his Truth his Cause his Glory and all his precious Concernments dwelling and working in them mightily are constrained by the power of his love to second and confirme This his great Testimony against the world and the wicked workes thereof should incurr the same hatred indignation and wrath from the world which was measured out unto him they must by no meanes think it a strange thing but rather rejoyce exceedingly in their being thus made conformable to the fathers first borne among many Brethren And blessed be the Name of the Lord that there are any among us who are counted worthy to suffer shame and violent Dealing for his Name and for their Testimony concerning the world that the workes or Deeds thereof are evill But will it not bee well worthy your time and leisure to inquire into these two or three particulars first what doth the Lord Jesus understand in the Scriptures before mentioned by the word world Secondly what are those evill workes which our Lord testified against in the dayes of his flesh and Thirdly what is the nature of the Testimony of Christ and his Disciples that the world should be so much incensed with hatred and indignation against them for it Hearken oh yee Children of men and consider with all your might and with all speed for the time of Consideration is allmost spent and passed away To the First I shall return this Account undoubtedly by the word world in the Scripture mentioned a Certaine part of mankinde namely the degenerate part the worst part contra-distinguished from the Best namely the Church is here to be understood for the Church and the world are Contrary one unto the other evermore This degenerate part of the world or of mankind I distinguish thus some of them are such as having departed from the light and Law of Nature did afterward by degrees degenerate into Brutishnes and profannes as namely the nations of the earth which neither worship God nor love their Neighbour according to the written rule but live and walke after their own and their Rulers lusts and inventions in all things being full as of all ungodlinesse so
But to hasten to the second Question What were those EVILL WORKS which our Lord did testifie against or for which he did bear witness against the world and for doing whereof he was hated of the world I answer Without Controversie THOSE EVILL WORKS may be reduced to two or three generall Heads Either such as were wrought by them in the way of an ECCLESIASTICALL BODY or such as were brought forth in the Manner and Method of a CIVILL STATE or else such as were done by the confusion and mixture of ALL together as the Holy Spirit in that notable Prayer of Peter intimates where all sorts of Interests Civill Ecclesiasticall Military are declared to Combine together against our Lord. Acts 4.27 Of a truth against thy holy Servant Jesus whom thou hast anointed both HEROD and PONTIVS PILATE with the GENTILES and the PEOPLE of Israel were gathered together Here is a Combination in the Church in the Court in the CAMP against the Saviour of the world And upon examination of the works and workings of all these parties we shall find cause to say they were to be testified against as Evill But more particularly to reckon up some of them as we find them occasionally recorded by the foure Evangelists and as we goe along to compare them with those evill works which are now carried on in these parts of the earth as done by the High Priest by Herod by Pontius Pilate by the Gentlemen of the long Robe of both professions c. First let us begin with their Counsells against Christ those works of darknesse they are evill works within doores Mat. 12.14 The Pharisees went out and held a Counsel privately how they might destroy him Here were consultations held against the life of Christ So Mat. 27.1 All the chief Priests and Elders of the people tooke counsel against Jesus to put him to death We shall have an exact account of all their wicked murtherous Consultations against the Person the Doctrine the Honour of the Lord Jesus in that day when he shall Judge the secrets of all men according to his Gospel But in the mean time we know that these Deeds of Darknesse were some of those evill workes which our Lord did testifie against And in like manner at this day we know in that light of truth which will not faile us that there are many close cunning consultations to destroy that Cause of Christ which not long since was in shew highly honoured and contended for by him who is known by the name of his Highness the Lord Protector c. but who gave him that Name I leave to him to Answer when he shall be called to a strict account for all the evil counsel given against the Lord and his followers because of their righteous reproofs of the Army and their Generall for the Hypocrisie Apostacy Oppression and Persecutions whereof they are guilty in the sight of the Sun Another kind of evill works was their watching of the Lord Jesus and sending forth Spies which should feign themselves just men that they might take hold of his words that so they might deliver him to the power and Authority of the Governour Luke 20.20 And the Scribes and Pharisees Luke 11.53 urged him vehemently and provoked him to speak of many Things laying wait for him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him Certainly every man who loves the Lord Jesus will easily grant these were very wicked workes But are not such practises frequently used by the Spies which are Imployed from the Court and Council at White Hall I am sure before our Imprisonment Many who came to catch our words feigned themselves to be Just men to be good men whereby they were capeable to intangle us in our talke The same Spirit which wrought effectually in those children of disobedience doth work in these as effectually and we doubt not but we shall prove these Spies to be guilty of the same evill workes with those Spies which watched Christ and their Masters to be of the same conspiracy with the Pharisees and Herodians namely at that Day when his Highnesse shall stand before the Judgement seat of Jesus Christ without either his Clergy or his Lawyers to plead his Cause We shall then understand what Instructions they were which he or his Secretaries gave his Catch poles when he imployed them and what conference he had with them when they read our Sermon Notes in his hearing and all those works of darknesse and secrecy shall be brought to light and Our Lord Himselfe shall second our Testimony That their Deeds were evill Again Other evill workes of the world and the men of the world which the Lord Jesus did testifie against was Their devouring widdowes houses while for a pretence they made long prayers Mat. 23.14 Surely this was a double evill worke and therefore He tells them they shall receive greater Damnation Not only widdowes Houses have been devoured by the new Rulers but whole Families in pressing and forcing or else inticing men to the ends of the earth for Gold and Silver thousands having perished in the Enterprize but while these Families were devoured by Sea and Land what frequent fastings and long prayers were made at White-Hall The Lord beholds this Hypocrisie and it will one day appear how abominable this project was in the sight of God as it doth in part already not withstanding all their long prayers to colour it over as a Designe against Antichrist and his Kingdome Besides these evill works before Mentioned the Lord declares against them because of their extortion and excesse as it is in Matthew because of their ravening and wickednesse as it is in Luke yea he speaks of their Binding of heavy Burthens and grievous to be borne and laying them on mens shoulders but they will not move them with one of their fingers For my part I am verily perswaded that the same evill workes are Done to the Innocent people by this present Sword power and their cryes enter into the ears of the Lord of Hoasts though they pity them not who Doe thus oppresse them Many more might be added which in the Judgement of all the true Disciples of Christ will be accounted evill workes but I must not inlarge a Preface beyond its proportion this therefore shall sufface for the second Point what kind of evill workes they were which Christ testified against and how like unto them the evill workes of this present Generation of Rulers will be found to be when they are examined by the Righteous Judge of all the world Now as for the Nature of the Testimony given by Christ concerning the evill works of that world or worldly Church which hated both him his doctrine and his followers which is the third generall Head to be spoken to it 's plain that it is no lesse then a Divine Testimony As saith the Apostle If we receive the WITNES of men THE WITNES OF GOD is greater Now
This Witnesse or Testimony whereof we are speaking from John 7.7 is not the witnesse of a man a mortall man but the witnesse of God the witnesse of one who is God and man and so it is most Authentick And how often Doth our Lord in his Ministry and Testimony inculcate this upon his hearers That he spake nothing of himself but as the Father gave him Commandement John 12.49 50. And again John 8.38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father So that when the Lord Jesus testified it was the highest Testimony which could have been given to the truth His Testimony was an unquestionable Testimony a righteous Testimony a witnesse which will carry the cause against the whole world for Let God be true but every man a lyar as it is written that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings The sayings of Christ from the father concerning this present evill world and the wicked works thereof will be made good at the last day Let no powers on earth think or hope to enervate his Testimony in the least by any pretences excuses or distinctions whatsoever Now as Christ Himselfe was in the world so ought those who are Christs Ministers and Witnesses to be in the world likewise Those whom he sendeth were born and anointed to this end viz. to bear witnesse to the truth in his sted and on his behalf and let the Princes of the world and the people of the world assure themselves The Lord never did nor ever will leave himselfe without witnesse Some of his Servants shall be stirred up by his Spirit to plead the Cause of their Lord against his adversaries altho they know before hand that through the hatred of the world they shall be exposed to a thousand dangers distresses deaths for the truths sake The Dragon the beast the scarlet Whore the false Prophet the Kings of the earth although by a complication of interests they are desperately ingaged and inraged against the Lamb and his followers against the Lord and his witnesses neverthelesse the wrath of God hath been and now is revealed from heaven to their very faces against all their ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse by those witnesses which he hath raised up and furnished with Heroick spirits to contend with the whole earth and that wrath so revealed by his Servants the Prophets shall be executed likewise for The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy which the true Church is never destitute of altogether So that I am perswaded and I believe many others that Matters are carried at this day betwixt the Servants and Spirit of Christ and the Servants and Spirit of Antichrist as they were carried in those dayes betwixt the Spirit person of Christ and the Spirit and persons of the Priests and powers of the earth It is not to be expected that his Highnesses Court Chaplaines who are fed at his Table should lift up their heel against their Good Lord and Master in testifying openly that his Counsells are evill that his Instrument is an ugly Idol and an Image of Jealousie that his Government is evill that his workes in imprisoning the Servants of Christ without Just Cause are evil that his Extortion and Rapine in Imposing and gathering in all his Taxes by an Arbitrary power contrary to the Law of God and the Land is evill that his devouring whole families in sending thousands to the ends of the earth and multitudes against their wills upon a base and beggerly Designe that stinkes in the nostrills of God and good men is evill and abominable And which of his City and Country Clergymen fed and Cloathed by his Tyrannicall execution of the Popes Cannon Law will declare against him for maintaining the Relicts and Remainders of Popery and for his setting up New-Carnall spirituall Courts of Prelaticall Tryers or Comissioners to reigne over the Parish Ministers in the Byshops stead Which of those Inslaved Preachers Lecturers and Augmentation-Men who come cap in hand to their Inferiors or equalls for their Approbation and a box full of Orthodox Orders to preach in such or such a steeple House and to receive the ancient profits and perquisites of the parish for their paines dare to turn head upon their Ecclesiasticall Lords and joyn with Christ and his spirit to testify against these New invented Babylonish Abominations Alas poor wretches they have no heart no spirit for the Interest of Christ they are ashamed of the testimony of our Lord and of us his prisoners who by the most powerfull Illapses and influences of his spirit are inabled and Constrayned to bid Defyance to the scarlet coloured Beast and to all his 7 heads of Blasphemy and to all his ten homs of persecution to all the Kings of the earth which commit fornication with the mother of Harlots and with all her danghters But because these Men thus lamentably yoaked by their new Lords Spirituall and Temporall dare not particularly and couragiously in the power of the Spirit bear their Testimony for Christ against the world or world like Church that their deeds are evill therefore the Lord will raise up others to supply this defect And be it known to all the Kings and Princes which oppresse and persecute the Children of the free woman that the Lord will furnish himself with a sufficient Number of faithfull Servants who shall in his strength maintain that Conflict and Combate which is needful till the great of the Battel of the Almighty God As Christ told the Chief Priests and Scribes who were displeased that the Children cryed Hosanna to the Son of David If these should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out so I say in words of truth and sobernesse seeing the Chief Preachers Pastors and Teachers are dumb and connive at the present Apostacy Hypocrisie Oppression Tyrannicall Government and going back to AEgypt the Lord is as it were compelled to furnish himself from among the private Christians and the weakest and meanest of the Brethren to bear a Testimony against this wicked Generation of Backsliders and if they likewise should hold their peace altogether the stones of the streetes and the very bruite Creatures would immediatly cry out for the Lord will not altogether and utterly leave himselfe without witnes This Insuing Treatise was not Composed by any of the University-scarlet Doctors nor by any Batchelour of Divinity or Master of Arts and sciences I am perswaded their Acadenicall Vnction will teach them to practice complyance and to sing Placebo But surely this is some Honest Sool who observing the Common Clergy to be as mute as Fishes when they should have cryed aloud and have lifted up their voyces as a Trumpet to shew the Apostatized Christians their transgressions and the Hypocrites their sins hath so far layed their Abominations to heart that he cannot for bear to speak a word for God against such an adulterous Generation and to encourage that little Remnant which speak often one to another and think upon Jehovah's
to finish let those who would follow Christ in the Regeneration or their Generation work sit down first and with serious spirits count the cost Take that word of Christ for your help Luke 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not father and mother and wife and children brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple The Law and Testimony of the Lord is bound up and sealed with such Disciples-indeed who chuse rather to loose their ALL in this world than to doe any thing contrary to the mind of God contained therein As for others the Lord counts them unworthy and if they be enlightned they cannot but judge themselves unworthy of so great a trust But why doe I detain the Reader thus long from that discourse which may afford more profit and delight The work is before thee goe on to it in the fear of the Lord onely this I shall say further viz. That I doubt not but men who will reject a good work as the manner of some is for some small and it may be meerly supposed Errour may find whereat to be stumbled in reading this Book and so this as many other worthy works be rendred uselesse and an offence to them whilest honest hearts who having the love of truth cannot easily be prejudic'd against it Psal 119.165 are like to reap precious benefit hereby And here let it be noted also That God is not a little jealous for the glory of his great Name in the work he hath begun Though he will use man in his work yet so as that his Imperfection shall appear that we may cease from man and from glorying in men our selves or others and that we may give all the glory to him whose due it is Amen Blessing and glory and wisedome and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be given unto our God for ever Having thus far enlarged as being engaged to bear my Testimony in love to those truths contained in the ensuing worke I commend it to the Lord for his blessing adding this onely that I am Thine if thou rejoycest not in Iniquity but in the Truth JOHN PENDARVES The 10 day of the 6 Month. 1656. Errata PAge 2. line 14. for vissitudes read vicissitudes p. 9. l. 3. r. are not l. 36. r. heart-feuds p. 11. l. 8. r. they give him the honor p. 13. l. 40. r. as at p. 15. l. 36. r. is in Zion p. 16. l. 31. dele abide the day p. 17. l. 4. r. he tells us p. 64. l. 12. r. secondly p. 65. l. 8. dele of p. 77. l. 34. r. swiftnes Many other literall Mistakes have escaped the Press but these above written are some of the chief of which the Reader is desired to take notice The Prophets MALACHY and ISAIAH PROPHECYING to the Saints and Professors of this GENERATION Of the great things the Lord will do and bring to pass in this their day and time MAL. 3.16 17 18. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkned and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name And they shall be mine saith the Lord of hosts in that day when I make up my jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not THE State of the Nation and Common-wealth of Israel their Worship and the dispensation of their God towards them were Tipes of the better condition he would bring his Children into of those clearer discoveries the Lord would make of himself and his Glory and after what manner he would carry himself towards his Chosen in the Gospel-day And it 's as true that the backslidings and apostacies of that Tipical Common-wealth and people with their corrections bondages and captivities were Tipes also of the state and condition of the Church of God under that Gospel-administration yea their very Enemies were no less than Tippical pointing out to us those adversaries the Serpent would raise up against the seed of the Woman the true Church and people of God in that divident of time called the last dayes Their servitude and sore bondage in Egypt was a general Tipe of the malitious practises of the seed of the Serpent against the Womans seed all the Serpents day long til the appointed time comes wherein the Lord wil judge them and deliver his people with a mighty hand with signes and with wonders after the manner of Egypt But in a more particular way After many vissitudes and changes fals and risings backslidings and reformations wrought in this Common-wealth which also are not without their Tipical significancies when those two admirable excellent Tipes David and Solomon had run their race this people of one Nation became two which tipically is very significant to us For as those 10 Tribes who made the fraction presently turned aside from their God and through their backslidings and apostacies after many warnings from Heaven brought a destroying enemy upon them that their place and name was taken quite away they were a Tipe of those ten parts if I may so express it of the professing Gospel-Church who through their backslidings and apostacies a 2 Thes 2.3 falling away made way for the man of Sin the Babylonish power to exalt it self over them to their ruine And as the Lord for his servant Davids sake and for Jerusalems sake promised to preserve one Tribe that David might have b 1 King 11.36 a light before the Lord in Jerusalem notwithstanding their backslidings and apostacies yet upon the pure account of his Covenant with David the Lord preserves this one Tribe according to his promise til Shiloh came this Tribe was a Tipe of that smal part of the professing Gospel-Church which the Lord will preserve for David his Sons sake and for Jerusalem his true Churches sake that the seed of the Woman may not be quite extinct nor our Lord Jesus the Son of God left without his Remnant in the world notwithstanding all the deviations backslidings and apostacies of Kings Rulers and people yet there is a cluster in the midst of it that hath such a blessing in it that it shal be preserved and continue til he comes the second time whose right it is to Reign But for the iniquities backslidings and Apostacies of this one Tribe the Lord delivers them for a season into the hand of the King of Babilon and after a certain term of time by a Cyrus he opens away for their coming out of Babilon and return to their own Land to Worship the Lord God of their Fathers at Jerusalem in the true Church now they apostatising after this super-abundant grace and favour stopping their ears against the Lords Messengers he withdraws God leaves them to themselves their Prophets cease
When I have brought you to cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils by letting you see through the glass of experience that he is not at all to be accounted of when you can cease vvholly from man that you care for and look at no man any otherwise than in me and trust to and rely upon me alone 6 and lastly THEN when you know the way to exalt me alone to give all the honour and the glory of the vvonders I bring to pass in the world to me vvithout any competitor though of the best of men for I wil be exalted alone in that day THEN shal ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not and the day shal come wherein you shall be delivered out of the hands of your enemies and you shal tread them as ashes under your feet and burn them up leaving them neither root nor branch and in your going forth in the performance of this vvork ye shal grow up as Calves of the stall be ful fed with the love and fulness of your Lord and Saviour HAving opened the words and supposing it in sufficiently evident that the interpretation given is according to truth let us with a truly religious sericusness observe the lessons the Holy Ghost would teach us from them 1 That the time of the Lords arising to work DELIVERANCE for his people is a dark day yea a black midnight of apostacy then wil the Lord come to his Zion as a Refiner to purifie it vvhen the professing vvorld are running back again even to Babilon then and there shal deliverance be vvrought for the true seed Mic 4.10 Thou shalt go even to Babilon there shalt thou be delivered there the Lord shal redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies this is the state and condition of Sion immediatly before the time vvhen the Lord wil make her horns iron and her hoofes brass wherein she shal thresh and beat in peices many people consecrating their gain unto the Lord. In the e Mat. 29 midnight of the Virgins sleep shal the cry be heard the Bridegroom the King the Lord of hosts is coming when professing Zion comes into a Laodicean Church-state Rev. 3.20 then the coming of our Lord is at hand he is f at the door The apostacy here is so universal and so gross notwithstanding all their curious coverings to hide it from the eyes of men yet the Lord sees it that the Magistracy the Rulers are Rulers of g Isaiah 1.10 Sodom h Mal. 3.15 proud workers of Wickedness the Princes are i Isaiah 1.23 rebellious and companions of Theeves every one loveth gifts and followeth after reward they judge not the Fatherless neither doth the cause of the Widdow come unto them the Ministry the Priests k Mark 2.8 depart out of the way of the Lord corrupt the Covevenant of Levi to the causing many to stumble at the law the Worship and commands of God become l Verse 9 contemptible and base before all the people because of their straying from the wayes of God by an irreligious partiality in the law or accepting of Faces as the margent of some Bibles hath it making the Law by their uncouth forced and private interpretations to seem to countenance the designe of those whose designs are not suitable to the design of God but are against the Lord and guilty of so much hypocritical unrighteousness to the provoking the eyes of his glory that he wil not forgive them seeking their own interest not the interest and honour of him whom they profess to be their Lord and master Jesus Christ and the multitude of this professing people grow up prophanely wicked snuffing m Mal. 1 13 at the Ordinances of the Lord as at a wearisom burden behold what a weariness is it the true Worship of God true Religion becomes a weariuess to these outside professors who n Isai 1.11 13 14. fil the Lord with the multitude of their sacrifices and weary him with their new Moons and their appointed Feasts their Sabboths and calling of Assemblies with their Fasts they o Mal. 1.14 polute the Altar of the Lord the Worship of God with their blinde and sick and torn and lame and corrupt performances their cursed deceit yea they are Idolaters in the sight of God p Isai 2.9 the mean man boweth down and the great man humbleth himself to their Idols that they are become to God as q Mal. 3.5 Sorcerers an adulterous Generation in this sad day of apostacy wil the Lord come to his Sion as a refiner and purifier of silver and as Fullers sope now wil the day of the Lord of hosts come upon professing Zion and lay all low before him teaching them by a smart and dreadful dispensation the way to exalt the Lord alone in this day wil the Lord come as a swift Witness against and avenge himself on his adversaries in Zion those vvho are profest friends members of professing Zion but in deed and in truth are his real enemies enemies to the righteous and holy designs of God and deliver his remnant and pick out his Jewels from amongst the professing rubbish of defiled Zton 2 That notwithstanding the gross wickedness of this day yet Sathan transforms himself into an Angel of light clothing his Children and followers in his best livery they have notable coverings to hide it whereby they deceive the multitude of the professing world and themselves to boot so that they dare not only assert their innocency in putting the Prophet to prove his charge against them but when the Prophet preaches to them the long-sufferance and tenderness of the heart of God towards them the grace and love of God in that promise r Mal. 3.7 Return unto me and I wil return unto you saith the Lord of hosts they scorning to acknowledge their guilt throw it back in his face with a wherein shal we return impudently asserting their righteousness to be such as they know not nor none can tel them wherein they should return and do better 3 That the leaders of this apostacy that cause the people to err notwithstanding their curious outside coverings of religious performances and good aims and ends for the good of the Church people and glory of God wil be the subject of the sore displeasure and wrath of the Lord of hosts the Lord wil be a s Verse 5. swift Witness against them and come neer to them to Judgement t Heb. 6.4 5 6 If those who were once inlightned and have tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come fall away it is impossible to renew them again to repentance at the hand of this hypocritical oppressing and persecuting Generation wil God require the blood of his Prophets and Witnesses that hath been shed u Isai 1 24. Ah saith the Lord I will ease me of
this particular think upon what hath been already said in the beginning of this discourse 3. THAT IT HATH SPECIAL AND PECULIAR RELATION TO THE PROFESSING-GOSPEL-CHURCH IN ENGLAND WITH ITS TERRITORIES AND DOMINIONS will plainly appear if we consider First That the Lord hath done these things for ENGLAND and for none other that answer and are equivolent to what he did for that one Tribe of old He hath delivered them from under the Antichristian tyranical power of Babilon given them Liberty Power Authority and Opportunity to BUILD THE TEMPLE to returne to their first Love to their God and Father and their Brethren to the purity and glory of the day of their espousals as it was IN THE DAYES OF OLD AS IN ANTIENT YEARES in their Offerings to the Lord in the Worship and Ordinances of the Lord Jesus And the CITTY JERUSALEM to do and carry on the Lords worke to the praise and glory of his holy name in this their day and time And Secondly ENGLAND hath followed her Tipe step by step in all her Deviations and Apostacies Building CEILED HOUSES getting large Possessions the curious Mansions and Honours of this world for themselves and letting the HOUSE OF GODLY WAST neglecting the present worke of God Apostatising from that blessed worke of his they once engaged in and falling to work of their own insuring to themselves CEILED HOUSES their large and honorable acquisitions of the Mammon of this world Instead of exalting the Lord alone rendering him those honours due unto him for so many matchlesse expressions of an infinite love they exalt themselves and seek their own honour to get a great name of renowne in the world Yea she is gone back even to Babilon again to this the new inventions of the times bear witnesse and were it not that the faithful God hath engaged his Word his Promise him self all his glorious Attributes z Mich. 4 10. that at this time Syon being in this condition he will now deliver his true seed from the hand of their enemies they would be surrounded again and brought under the Iron yoke by a Babilonish power And Thirdly she comes not behinde her Tipe neither in devout and religious hypocrisies All her doings though never so unworthy must be cloaked over with the service of God carrying on the worke of the Lord and the glory of God and the honour of God and the good of the Lords people and a multitude of Sacrifices must be offered and somtimes they will walke mournfully before the Lord But because they smite with the fist of wickednesse hidden under these coverings these their Sacrifices are iniquity in the sight of the Lord he cannot away with them his soule hateth them they are a trouble to him he is really a weary to bear them and he will be a swift witnesse against them These things are all written in very faire characters in ENGLANDS forehead at this day and look round the world and see if you can read them in any other forehead I cannot think they will be found any where but here And if so and at such a time of the day as this about the ending time of Babilons forty two monthes which here I shall take for granted and refer you for the proof of it to those elaborate discourses already extant upon that subject it is to me an infallible argument that these prophesies with the interpretation given of them fall directly upon these miserable Islands And to shut up this part of the Answer that VERY MUCH the Lord speaks in his Word concerning THE ISLANDS as an introduction to the comming forth of his great worke in the world is no small confirmation of the truth of the assertion Obj It may be further Objected that it doth not appear that England is delivered from under Babilons power as you affirm for is not England at present in a far worse state and condition as is the censure of the most prudent wise considerate Judgements than it was in at least under three or four of the last of her antichristian Kings whether we look upon her in her civil or Religious state Ans I Answer It is true that the course of England at present steers wil undoubtedly lead her into the midst of Babilon both Civil and Religious it wil hurry her into a civil bondage and Religious slavery irrecoverable this wil be the inevitable effect of her wayes if an Almighty providence prevent not but yet this makes nothing against the position that once she had Babilons yoke broken from off her neck and was delivered from under the Tyrannical power thereof did enjoy that never to be too much valued liberty those blessed opporrunities to become everlastingly happy by following her Lord whithersoever he would lead her that she wil never enjoy again until the Lord hath made bare the arm of a creating power to redeem her from the hand of her enemies even those her unnatural Children who have suckt the milk of her breasts whom she hath tenderly nourisht and brought up that now inhumanly would pul her very Vitals out of the midst of her body and leave her dead carkase a continual Feast for the Birds of Prey to feed upon And although our condition be thus sad and calamitous at present we are running a pace back again into Egypt and Babilon yet I conceive we are not yet entred the Lists of Babilons borders though we are gone back even to Babilon become very Babilonish yet into Babilon I trust the Lord wil not suffer us to enter but according to his promise wil visit and deliver his people for his own names sake Qu But if any honest heart should ask how may I get clear of the danger I am in of possessing the sorrows of this day of the Lord Ans I Answer Learn that great and good lesson of self denial taking up your Cross and following your Lord get to be of the number of those that fear the Lord that speak often one to another bearing their testimony for the name of God and the inter st of their Lord against the evils and wickednesses of the Times then shal you possess the gratious promises they are under of the sparing love of your Father which belongs to none of those though never so good and righteous in the esteem of the professing world who are guilty of and defiled with the evils of the Times saith the Lord to Isaiah Say unto the righteous that it shal be wel with him for they shal eat the fruit of their doings But woe unto the wicked it shal be ill with him for the reward of his hands shal be given him and the Lord wil spare those that think upon his name and speak often one to another about the concernments of his glory and interest as a man spareth his own Son that serveth him vvhile their brethren are burning in the Refiners fire and smarting under the Fullers sope In the last place somewhat I would