whilst ye seemingly live thus doth many of you consume yourselves substance and precious time And do ye think to live Dives his live and not dye his death Can ye think to sow to the flesh all manner of corruption all the dayes of your lives and not reap the same in the day of the Lord And do ye think as the tree falls it will not lye and as death leaves Judgement will not find and from Hell there is no Redemption Oh friends I can truly say my bowels ernes for ye who are called Nobles and are great in the earth above any sort of people that are without Also I know and feel that the witness of God lyeth near in very many of ye although the lofty and surly nature is not willing to bow nor sink down and become one with the witness which is meek and â—owly and calls upon ye in secret for purity in your inner parts Oh! let the consideration of Eternal Life constrain and even necessitate ye to turn in the eye of your mind to within and consider what ye shall do to be saved for verily the eye of the Lord is pure and runs to and fro thorow the whole earth and all that 's earthly and cannot behold your present iniquities Wherefore in the fear of the Lord cease to do evil and learn to do well and let the time past be sufficient least the Lord forthwith dash ye in pieces and sweep ye from the face of the earth and your memories utterly rot Therefore seek the Lord with all your hearts whilst he may be found for this is the day of your visitation but your day passeth away and the night swiftly cometh wherein no man can work yet a little while and the Light is with ye I say commune with your own hearts and be still and in the cool of the day when your lusts boilâ— not sink down willingly joyn and adhere to the measure of God in your consciences which is given to man to profit withall Oh take it for a leader for it is the true Light which doth enlighten every man that cometh into the World that all men through Him might believe the same is a swift witnesse for the Lord against all the evil of your doings and cannot nor ever did consent to sin the same is truth leads into all truth was before the man of sin the house of Ham the stock of Nimrod the cunning hunter Ishmael the scoffer Lord Esau of the Mount bloody Cain or the Dukes of Edom were and is before all invention or the ridiculous Tythes about which many of you fight kill boast and rend many a bloody oath and when ye have all done it may be prove your ancester an ancient murtherer come into England with William of Normandy killed an English man and took his possession and as your selves sprang from blood rage and cruelty so in the same many of ye continue but beware that your latter end be not worse then your beginning great quantities of earth ye have and the Lords hand is in no wayes shortened towards ye But verily very many of ye spend it wholly upon your lusts and that 's not the end for which it was given but ye are to honour God with your substance and whatsoever he hath given ye he that defiles his body defiles the Temple of the Lord and him will God destroy Therefore whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do learn to do all to the praise and glory of God and do not Lord it over Gods heritage in the General nor in your own particulars for Christ is in ye except ye are reprobates and this know that no man was or ever shall be heir of two Kingdoms and God and Mammon ye cannot please and if ye truly serve the one the other with all his lusts ye must deny Mark all his lusts ye must deny and a death ye must feel upon your present lives that ye may come to know the birth which is immortal seek to know the Lord if it be but as a consuming fire to burn up and consume your lusts which separates between ye and your maker for he that envies is a murtherer ‖ For love is of God and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God If we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment because as he is so are we in this present world there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love If any man say I love God and hate his Brother he is a lvar For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loves his Brother also 1 John 4. 7 12 16 18 20. and he that lusts after a woman hath committed adultery and I say unto ye all above men and all things swear not And to see a great man a good man is a rare thing even an ornament in his Countrey a strength to the righteous a sinew to the feeble a nerve to the oppressed a help to the helpless and of all men if ye could but see and trust in the truth as it is in Jesus how transcendently happy might ye be even in this life beloved of God and good men and all evil men maÌ„de to fear ye And I do believe many of ye cannot but see the hireling and his covetousness deficiency and deceipt and in some measure see the truth and the vessel to be good but to sea in it ye dare not go for if the greatest of ye deny the hireling his ungodly gain a war he will prepare and the waves will beat the billows boil and the stormes arise But help us Lord and we cannot perish although the greedy man may toss us from one Goal and Dungeon to another and if there in faithfulness to the Lord we lay down or lives yet we live for ever and have life Eternal And that 's much better then the airy title of Duke Lords Knights c. which put them all together will not buy a morsel of bread in this very life and in the life to come the Beggar as the King and his Nobles and Tophet is not prepared in vain and it is well if some of yee who are called Noble-men and cals your selves Christians be not found in the day of the Lord more ignoble to the now despised Christians then Festus Agrippa or Claudius Lycias were to Paul who were called heathens but were truely Noble to Paul and such Nobility I own who puts no man to death nor hurts no man tell the accuser and the accused comes face to face
name of the beast or the number of his names read Rev. 13. and if the present Rulers of the earth have not drunk of the whores cup how came these Priests by this Law I say is not the Popish Queen out-done and her three months imprisonment made six so that these have a Law at their command and I am sure a terrible Law hath it been to us-ward Such a Law the Jews had and by our Law said they he ought to die for he is a blasphemer and what was his blasphemy Why say they he sayes he is the Son of God So as false yet true they put the holy One to death and the English Priests Original was set over the Originals head by Priest-ridden Pilate Oh my dear friends perish not with them nor for and with their gain-saying generation but like wise men keep your eyes in your head and let that woman which hath so fowlly transgressed be silent and let not transgression plead for and uphold transgression and transgressors But ask your husband at home for the wo-man is not permitted to speak in the Church nor about Church matters but the the Daughters of the Lord as well as his Sons shall and at this day do prophesie and God is one in the Male as in the female and the Womb that is barren is accursed as well in the Male as in the Female but the Woman is to be silent in them both But the seed and birth which is immortal which sins not doth and may speak if the Lord open the mouth in the Female-man as-well as in the Male-man and if the Lord open the lips let the whole creation shew forth his prayses but let Eve for ever be silent And I know from the Lord God the barren womb is cursed and such who cannot in some measure witness the marriage are undone but the true Virgin that hath not many lovers is a holy state and she which is begotten of God as the Lord moves may utter words and Minister to the seed in others that all may be edified the deaf made to hear the blind to see the sick healed and the saving health made known the dead raised the Lame walk and the dumb made to sing for joy and in this Ministry and Gospel Phaebe and Prisâ—illa may labour with Paul or any other the holy Women at this day a seal of whose Apostle-ship I am and if you keep your eyes in your head and behold the Original in ye and ask that Husband at home ye will seal to and witnesse with me that God is truth and is one in the Male and in the Female for it is the fools eye that is abroad but the wise mans eye is in his head and the head of every man is Christ Jesus and he gives to all men and women a measure of himself to profit withall and all his gifts are good and perfect and leads to no other thing but unto perfection but no Bastard nor the thief who steals the words from his neighbour and boasts in the lines of other men shall never inherit though he be as goodly to look at as Ishmael and as Orthodâ—x as the high Priest yet he is the son of the bond-wo-man within from whence death immagination and brain-study speaks a devination of its own there the merchants of spiritual Babylon trade wch is called confusion but all this while the royal seed is in bondage and the voice of the King is not heard within without which the children of the Kingdom cannot live and the voice of a stranger the sheep will not hear and the thief or spiritual vagabond although it be Cain or Lord Esau himself with the Son of the free and first-born must not co-habit for the life of the one is the death of the other and that must become a servant which hath caused the seed to bow they who know the Original know and feel what I say and the simple hearted that are among ye may understand me right well but for those who are withered under the name of professors and are onely old in profession and iniquity who rise up early to contrive for self in whom the earth hath choaked the seed by them I do not expect to be rightly understood or justly construed for their life at the present is not in that wch discerneth and judgeth all things and in the Lords work they have been very unfaithful I shall not say much but it is very much if oveâ— the Lord trust some of them again but rather suffer a stranger to take and do that which was once in their posession and will it not be just if he who formed them doe shew them no favour but smite them as they have suffered others to be smitten and will it not be equal if the Lord reveal himself most eminently against them â—uite racing down their magnificency and for ever lay their honour in the dust And if any who are in authority be yet indeed really affected with the wayes and false worship of the hireling and offended with me for this my Testimony for the Lord and against the false hireling We who are called Quakers shall in the fear of the Lord be willing to meet them or a chosen number of them face to face before the chief Rulers Parliament or Councel and there approve our selves in our practise for religion by the words of the Scriptures and the example of the holy men of God and if we refute not the common hireling and whatsoever he is possibly able to say for himself or against us proving what he saies by Scriptures let the reasonable magistrates be judge I say if we do it not let us be used more bloodily and cruelly then we yet are if possible and we shall in that matter freely submit unto and be convicted by the Scripture which some of them are so impudent to say we deny and is their own rule though that which gave them forth is our rule and is not contrary to the Scripture so far as they are not polluted by false meanings put upon them which in their purity in themselves do not own But however there is sufficient to silence the brawling hireling for warrant from them he hath none for his preaching for hire or a set maintenance by a Law I say again let us discourse our Religion with the false hired man before ye and if then it be found that we hold any thing for Religion which is contrary to sound Doctrine or in the least derogatory to Scripture and if our practice faith hope and order be not according to the command of the Lord Jesus the example of the Prophets the Apostles the holy men of God and Ministers of Christ then countenance or discountenance as ye shal see cause And till then in the fear of the Lord God I warn you all from him that sits upon the throne to the meanest officer of peace or war Souldier or Subject whatsoever speak not evil of
those which were not the Priests of England may yet go to Carthage or the Pope the Priests Original to know the truth but I believe that neither councel of Carthage Pope of Rome or assembly of Priests in England with the help of their two Universities which are their two eyes picked out of the Whores head can interpret Scripture aright but for the most part are and have been doers of wrong and that knowes not the Scriptures nor that which gave them forth Therefore Countrey-men consider these men wise men believe them not for as sure as the Lord lives they are a lye Princes be not deceived by them least ye perish in the gainsaying with them Men of War once again draw out your spiritual weapons and defend your selves and rid your hands of that Popish Jewish and Anti-christian power which in this the Lords day could not stand but by your consents Some of ye had bread in your own houses and have ye spent all your former estates and quite lost your possession and will ye spend-thrifts go to buy of a Bankrupt Priest the fag-ends of Popery such as preach in Mass-houses and compass the whole earth for their gain from their quarters Oh! believe them not their best deeds are Forgery their assureances are naught their words are cancelled the Law giver hath viewed their filthy statutes the mighty-Councellor hath broke their bonds asunder their best seals is but a waffer and what they sell is stollen from their Neighbour and their gatherings are crumbling and molders like the very dust which is their meat anâ— there they are and for that they murther Friends I know you see the thief Oh! Consent not with him if ye do ye perish I say there was that among ye and in ye once that was for God utterly against the Popish brawling Hireling verily that which is for him in this the day of the Lambs persecution is absolutely against the true and living God who covered your heads in the day of battel When I am sure it was not unknown to many of ye that the Tithe-mongers were as one man your implacable enemies My dear Friends whom the Lord witnesseth I love and my soul truly travelleth for Consider what ye were ten years since and what yeare now feel in your selves and speak with the witness of God in your Consciences for that 's it which I speak to and let us be upon a search in the cool of the day laying aside rage fury and preferment and see who they are and what they are that ye are growing to and who grows to ye and who grows from ye The people of God ye have shamefully persecuted and thrust out of your Army recruiting yourselves in my knowledge in their rooms with very vitious and wicked men and doth the Hireling tell ye that this is a good way to prevent Heresies factions and rents in your Army Repent of these dealings least the Lord forthwith rent ye all to pieces and there be not one of ye left that hath a hand in these wickednesses to piâ—h against the Wall Therefore my Friends in time consider what ye are growing to and what ye are growing from thus much I may justly tell ye that vice is not punished or in the least looked after as it hath been heretofore Nor indeed is it like when as ye put honest men from among ye for no other cause but for bearing their Testimonies against vice for the breach of any manner of Law whatsover either military or civil was not so much as laid to mine and many others charges who were most shamefully entreated and thrust out from among ye And I may farther tell ye if ye proceed in these cruelties ye will in a very short time be as unfit to fight the Lords battels as those were who fell by your sword for from the Lord God I declare it unto ye all That for the present the sword of the living God is against ye both and although the Hireling may I say seemingly forâ—ifie ye and tell ye that persecution is a good way to preserve from rents Yet in dear love to ye all I declare that if ye do not speedily repent whilst the power is in your hands and once again become little in your own eyes and repair the cruel breaches that ye have made and suffered to be made upon the innocent Verily ye shall be rent and with the Hireling fall and perish like your own dung How can this Army look the Nation in the face and put men out from among them for their inoffensive conscience the very thing which drew all men to ye and have ye like Machevillians served your own turns and have ye nothing else to do but to revenge your selves upon your selves and make a prey upon your brethren but such doings the Lord hates and it cannot possibly long stand for oppression is one of the woâ—st foundations that ever was laid and if ye had been faithful the wicked Priest had never been suffered to have murthered any for his belly or have destroyed any man for not paying Jewish or Popish Tithes and the blood of one innocent man is able to subvert a Government and overthrow a Nation but that evil should fall upon one of ye is far from my heart although your cruel and unjust dealings to meward and many of us hath given cause enough for us to have cursed ye in the bitternesse of our spirits Yet the Lord who knows the secrets of all mens hearts bears me witnesse I do not onely freely forgive ye but have a dear and unexpressibly love to every soul among ye and as for O. P. the Lord witneseth for me with what integrity and simplicity of soul I loved him above any man upon the face of the whole earth whilest he served the Lord and stood in his councel and to this minute I have done him no ill Now therefore be wise O ye Kings and be instructed ye Judges of the earth seek ye the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling kiss the Son least he be angry ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him let not the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thought although the Kings of the earth may set themselves and the Rulers take councel together against the Lord and against his annointed saying let us break their bonds assunder and cast away their cords from us but he that siteth in Heaven shall laugh and the Lord shall have them in derision then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure And friends the truth is now declared as it was of old by the stammering tongue and it is the illiterate that have the gift of tongues and though his visage be marred and his shape uncomely to the vultrous eye yet the deaf hear him the dumb sing and the lame leap for joy and that
Souldiers came unto Christ and askt him Master what shall we do Be content with your wages and do violence to no man accuse no man falsly But for the whole rabble of Duke Marquesse Lord Knight Gentleman by patents I find no room place or example or allowance for in Scripture but that onely declares of as I do believe one Lord one God over all blessed for ever amen who made all kindreds tongues and Nations of one blood and all these earthly Lords and who exercise unjust dominion are come up since and in the Apostacy for in the beginning it was not so and those who are redeâ—med from the earth and risen with Christ and onely seeks the things above Fathoms and comprehends all these things and are come to the beginning are in that which was before false Prophets Anti-chriâ—â— Babylon Pope or Whores cup was of which the Kings of the earth have drank and been made drunk in which drunken fiâ— and when all the Nations reeled under the persecution of the beast and false Prophet and the Saints and Martyres blood was swallowed down as other cups of pleasure and the woman was fleâ— into the Wildernesse and the man-child was caught up to God I say in that black dark night of Apostacy when none was able to make war with the beast when the Kings of the earth fought for the earth was created and by the beasts power at this day is created Lords Knights c. and having lost the Cross of Christ the power of God within a painted cross is borne in your ensign without and that is the sign of your Christianity and so into sects and opinions and the Irreligious have and do kill one another about Religion precedency names titles and the earth and all this is earthly Devilish and sensual THE END Here followeth a relation of some signs examples and judgements for the accursed Generation who desire a sign for many to my face have temptingly said shew us a sign but they are miracles to those that believe and let such reach hither their hands and with me feel and see the wounds that the Lord of life hath received in his members by this unnatural and unparaleld Generation to whom and upon whom these examples are and have been shewen as it is written the wicked shall not live out half their dayes but let the despisers behold and wonder and perish for the work is wrought in their dayes although they cannot believe EXAMPLES ESSEX John Clerk Priest for 20. l. Tythes by him demanded of Robert Nicol of Coln-Engain by warrant from Dioâ—ysius Wakering and William Harlackenden Justices so called took and drove away from him Cattel worth 50 l. and his greedy mind not therewith satisfied sought after his body to but those his persecutors aforesaid being at London at that time he threatened to go to London to get a Warrant from them to put him in prison but the Lord prevented him for he came home and died in few dayes after SUFFOLK Robert Newton Goaler of Edmund-bury and his wife who had been very cruel to George Fox in the 55 weeks imprisonment he suffered under him by beating him very often and taking from him his bed cloaths and a coat and after his release detained him twenty eight weeks more for as he pretended a years sufficient lodging both the goaler and his wife not long after was cut off by death SUSSEX Priest Cussinâ— who caused Thomas Leycock to be imprisoned a whole year in Horsham Goal for speaking a few words to the people in love to their souls after he the said priest had done soon after this persecution he was cut off by death John Chatfield Priest of Horsham who caused Thomas Leycock and Bryan Wilkinson to be imprisoned and caused Thomas Patchins Cattel to be drove away soon after fell into a dropsie and remained in a miserable condition half a year and then died Priest Cuffly of Arundel who was a chief instrument in Thomas Leycocks persecution and did strive with the Magistrates of Arundel to have had Joseph Fuse who had faithfully served the Parliament in the wars 11 years sent over Sea as a bond-slave suddenly after this he died The Priest of Green who caused Alice West to be sent to prison for speaking some few words in the Steeple-house suddenly after died Edward Haughton Priest of Nuthurst who was the first in this county that caused friends to be robbed for Tythes was soon after cut off by death Priest Channel called a Doctor one of the chiefest high Priests so counted in this Nation a great opposer of truth was striken with madnesse and is out of his natural senses A Tythe-monger in the Parish of Beding who wickedly and malitiously trod out the corn of Minion Brocket making havock of the same within a week after was cut off by death John Gurden a Justice so called an eminent persecutor of the innocent people of God in this county whose name hath spread to New England among his brethren of the inquisition there hath been smitten by the Lord in a great weaknesse of body and dimnesse of eye-sight and hath appeared as one likely to pine away under the hand of the Lord which is evidently turned against him since he became such a cruel persecutor Roger Gratick a Magistrate and Priest Snelling consenters to much of the persecution of this county both slain with a thunder bolt in one day NORFOLK John Benton being one of Priest Claphams witnesses of Wramplingham whom he procured to swear against Benjamin Lynes in a matter concerning Tythes who was so evidently forsworn and his partner with him that the Justices themselves would not accept of their testimony and soon after which time the said John Benton got into the Steeple-house of Wramplingham and there hanged himself in a Bel-rope Edw. Humt keeper of the prison of Norwich who after Geo-Whitâ—head was discharged at the Sessions brought his action against him for 4 d. a night and although he had layn on the floor most part of the time yet was by him unjustly detained but the Goaler was soon after cut off by death HARTFORD-SHIRE Geo-Fage an unmerciful Bayliff who for 5 s. Tithe took away goods worth 4 l. from Richard North and entered into his house none being within but two poor children ransacked the poor mans house and took the very covering from off the bed of the children and exposed them to sufferings in the midst of winter for which the Lord God visited him and cut him off suddenly before he had made sale of the goods GLOUCESTER-SHIRE The first three friends that were committed in the County of Gloucester the two Justice of peace which did commit them the one called by the name of Justice Webly the other called by the name of justice Raymond these three friends did all live in or about Thornbury and were called to the Bar that Assiâ—e next holden for the County of Gloucester one of these Justices which did commit
them being come into the Town that morning when the Assize did begin was struck with the hand of God so that he was speechless for many dayes and faint to lye in the Town before they could get him to his own house and since is dead never coming to Assizes or Sessions more and the other Justice which committed them was suddenly after put out of Commission and since is dead And likewise at the first coming of Friends into the County of Gloucester there was a man called by the name of a Captain that did send to a Justice of the Peace wishing him to take a course with these people called Quakers and with some bitterness said else he would take a course with them himself but within a few dayes after near his own dwelling at an Ale-house he fell out with a Rag-man and killed him insomuch that the said Captain was tried for his life the next Assiâ—e following There were three young Women that were friends coming from a meeting and in the way as they came there were people setting of Beanes and amongst them there was a man and a great Boy which Boy laid himself down over the foot-path and laying hold on one of the young women did abuse her in such an unseemly manner as with modesty cannot be expressed untill the other two did pull her from him and afterwards did set dogs on them and both the man and the boy did follow them with clods and stones for a great way and within a short time after the same man and boy being together so fell out that the boy was wounded by the man and within 24 hours after died and the man was tried at the Bar for his life this last Assiâ—e held for the County of Gloucester Richard Hobbs who had sworn in behalf of Priest Davis of Frampton for Tithes against John Tyler to the value of 16 or 20 s. for which the said Tyler was ordered to pay â—0 l. 1â— s. besides 3 l. 10 s. charges The aforesaid Rich. Hobbs being thatching a Rick of Wheat was questioned by the man he wrought for about his swearing and shewed what errour he had run himself into he seemed to be troubled for it and said if he had known so much before as he did since he would not have done it in a little space after the man was gone the said Rich. Hobbâ— saw on his hand and on the Rick of Wheat the appearance of fire being troubled thereat left off his work and went to his Master and told him of it who would have perswaded him it was not so but he affirmed it to be so and not many dayes after the said Rich Hobbs he being Clerk of a Parish and as he was Ringing a Bel was taken up with the Bel-rope and tossed up and down that the scull of his head was broken and his body sore bruised that he lay for dead in the place but being recovered again he was carried to his house where he lay senceless 2 or 3 dayes and so died HEREFORD-SHIRE Henry Davis of little Ducburch a Persecutor of many friends who meeting James Merrick of Ross and because the said James did not speak to him turned his Gun after him and threatned to shoot him and in a short time after the said Henry Davis fell off from his horse and broke his neck WORCESTER-SHIRE EVISHAM George Kemp Mayor of â—visham being the first and also an eminent Persecutor of the Innocent people of God in Evisham shortly after the heat of his persecution was out off by death Rich. Martin another of the persecuting Justices was shortly after sued at the Law by his onely Son and thereby being forced to leave his habitation soon after died Edwaâ—d Younâ— Mayor of Evisham aforesaid who exceeded all his Brethren in persecution not long after he was out of his Maiorality he also was cut off by death Samuel Gardner one of the persecuting Justices of Evisham aforesaid not long after his persecuting the people of God he fell distracted so that he was kept tied in his bed Thomas Ordway one of their Council a great professor of the Scriptures a friend to truth lent him a book which was in answer to a Catechism set forth by 42 Priests and after he had looked over it he wrote on the backside of the book It is pitty but all such books were burned and them that made them and set his name to it but very suddenly after was he cut off by death HUNTINGTON-SHIRE Thomas Lawrence Priest who had sued 4 of the Parish of Coln in the Exchequer and one of the 3 friends meeting him on the way asked him what he sued him for the Priest very wrathfully and churlishly answered him I will speak with you another time but within 10 dayes he was cut off and his body laid in the earth LINCOLN-SHIRE Francis Ball of Sibsey who sued and cast into Prison Edmund Woolsey for Tithes and the said Francis had told several people that he was perswaded that if Edmund Woolsey did believe in his Conscience that he the said Francis Ball had right unto the Tithes he would have paid it him and yet for all that he the said Francis Ball kept him in Prison But the Just indignation of the Lord is since fallen upon the Family of the said Francis Ball for his Wife presently after died and two more of that Family the Daughter and her Child and the people hereabout concluded it to be a just Judgment from the Lord. DERBY-SHIRE One Brittlin of Thorncloft a Steward of a hundred Court who had Judged Thomas Boyer to pay about 4 times what the principal of the Tithe came too soon after the Lord did cut him off by death SHROP-SHIRE Edw. Dod who wrote a false accusation against Friends and is a great Proselite of Sam. Smith Priest of Cresit who caused many Friends to suffer fell off from a Bridge and broke his leg and the Priest came to visit him and said one step further and into Hell and he said his people were a damned Crew and he had preached 7 years to them and not one brought to the knowledge of God HAMP-SHIRE Justice Cobb who had been a great Persecutor of Friends in Winchester Goal and would not suffer Stephen Beviâ— Prisoner to work in the Prison on his own Calling and he being Judge at another Sessions would noâ— do any thing towards the releasement of the Servants of God in Prison though their unjust imprisoment was laid before him but gave order to restrain other Friends from coming to them several papers being sent to him for Justice the last of which was that being six men and one women in Prison that the women or any one of them might have the liberty to go forth and provide necessaries for the rest to bring them in work and carry out work and bring in food and such things as were necessary which reasonable and righteous thing was by him denied and within a
calls it the Word of God and he must not be contradicted upon pain of six months imprisonment although half his discourse consists of what Ovid Plato Aristole and Diogenes c. did which they call Heathens and yet what he saith in that place must pass for sound doctrine and they call it the Word of God for when he steps into his stall and hath spoken some words which he calls prayer he bids them hearken to the Word of God and there like a Lawyer or a Trumpeter he sells them his The false Prophet steals the word from his Neighbour and boasts in other mens lines own breath and the words of the forementioned heathenish Authors with many more that he hath thieved together stollen from his neighbour which with his title of Master is an infallible mark of the false prophet Yet your divelish law is such that none must speak to him in the time of his false worship his going to or coming from the Mass-house and at â—is own house he will not be seen so that as far as in you lies 〈◊〉 â—â—use the people to perish for want of knowledge but that wâ—â—â—h limits the Holy One must be cut off for he speaks where he will and when he will and by whom he will although it be by the Carpenters Son or Peter a fisher-man who hath no Letters and was no Orthodox man upon your account yet it shall break all your bonds asunder and shatter all your contrivances to dust Why will ye believe a swearing Priest that desperately and wickedly breaks the absolute command of Christ and teacheth others so to do Christ says Swear not at all mark not at all What not a Judicial oath before a Magistrate being called thereunto by the Authority of the Nation Nay Swear not at all neither by Heaven nor by Earth nor by any other Oath Judicial or whatsoever thus said the great Prophet the Everlasting Priest the Son of God the Saviour of the World and it very shortly comes to passe that he that will not hear him shall be cut off from amongst the people and no swearer or liar can possible enter the Kingdom and he that will swear will lie and the liar is for the lake and shall have his portion without with dogs witches and sorcerers Paul who was a Minister of Christ he exhorted the people saying so walk as ye have me or us for an example I leave it to all that have any sobernesse and have not made a bargane with Hell and Death if it be in the least safe for us to walke as we have the hireling for our example that will swear and teach others to swear and say its lawful and strike with his fist and knock men down and imprisons men to death for their bellies as many of the Goals in England can witnesse proud covetous heady and high-minded undeniable they are and are these men to be learnt of surely nay with my very life I deny them to be of God or Christ who saies Learn of me for I am meek and lowly and He nor none of his Ministers did ever imprison any stock whip or murder any but their own backs they willingly gave to the smiter and their cheeks to have the hair pluckt off and were accounted as the off-scouring of the earth their names cast out as evil doers and were shamefully intreated persecuted and killed as false yet true and were called pestilent fellows subverters of the Law and turners of the World up-side down ring-leaders of Sects c. So suffers the servants of the living God at this day and as they have done unto me so will they do unto ye saith Christ The servant is not greater then his Lord and he that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution And all this was done to them of old as is to us at this day even by the same Generation of high-priests high in profession and spoke as big swelling words and made as much ado about their New Moons Sabbath-dayes Tithes Temple Circumcision Bull Goat Ram and heifer all which were but a shadow of good things to come as the Priests of England do about their Masse-house Gleab-land Tithe-sheaf Lamb Calfe Wooll Goose Pig Mortuary Peter-pence Bread Wine and Baby-baptism but as they did these do now hate the Light but it was and is because their deeds were and these are evil and did as these do now deney to hear the prophet in all things and it came to passe that they were cut off and these inevitably shall be And my dear friends if ye share with their iniquities ye shall partake with their plagues search your selves and consider with that of God in your consciences for there truth will speak And see if many amongst ye are not run and running headlong into the unbelieving state seeking honour one of another ones a Knight and another is a Lord and another angry because he is not a Lord but amongst ye all the heritage of the Lord God is neglected Which amongst ye that most of all quarrels for these bubbles that hath not said it would never be a good World so long as there was a Lord in England and likewise swore against a house of Lords and yet love and retain the name the nature and the same thing Oh! deny your selves of these nothings and take up the crosse which will crosse nothing but your lusts and see if it be possible for ye to be re-discipled once again for verily at the present ye are not so much as in the way to please God Was there any of this stuff amongst ye some years since remember your selves have ye paid your â—ows and kept your integrity the lying lips and the deceitful tongue the Lord hates and think ye the Lord will not visit for these things ☞ Yea His dread and terrour will fall amongst ye shortly if not suddainly and although ye may hate to be reformed and laugh me to scorn or persecute me to death yet it s the truth of the living God to every individual amongst ye there was once a praying spirit amongst ye that would have said Lord honour us with successe and victory and we will honour thee with doing of justice and relieving the oppressed and liberberty of conscience was promised with hands lifted up with tears in your eyes erected to heaven-ward with many a true sigh and groan which could not be uttered and if ye did not promise to the Lord before the battel at Dunbar that that grand Idol and oppression of Tythes should be taken off if the Lord delivered ye that day then say I am a lyar The Lord hath performed but ye have failed and instead of giving all power all glory and all honour to God ye honour one another with blaspemous titles the hireling being your example who write to one another at this day by the name of reverend Brother reverend Sir and reverend Master which is blasphemy for reverend is the
name of him and onely him that made heaven and earth may it please youâ— worship may it please your Lordship may it please your honour c. Now if all honour mind the word all which will not admit of the word some to be joyned with it in that place doth belong to God alone as I am sure it doth there is not the least of Room for your fond appellations which ye give and receive one of another How can ye believe that receives honour one of another Oh! Let Moab come down before she be compelled to serve and the Lord stain all your honours in one day for I am sure some of ye he will overtake with speed and their memories shall rot but the name of the just shall live for ever therefore let every soul of ye be subject to the higher powers which is higher and above the transgressor and see if yet there be any remorse in ye towards your poor brethren who as I said before are languishing in nasty holes and several dead most of them dead and alive being such who have freely offered up their lives with ye in the actual service for the Common-wealth in the heat of It is the same man that was called Round head that is called Quaker therefore let all that are in authority be ashamed to see us thus dealt with the day and I am sure we have not forfeited our right in the least or purchased your indignation by either plots or rebellion against ye although ye have sufficiently provoked us by suffering far more to be laid upon us then as we are men could be borne and me thinks our peaceable patient and innocent carriage cannot but smite ye to the very heart I am sure it hath reached Heaven and if ye were not in the deepest slumber even the sleep of death ye would not lame your selves to uphold the interest of a company of gormandizing Priests who creep into the Mass-house and there speak a devination of their own brain or make a plot in the week days and there discover it and bid others keep holy upon that day upon which they keep market and tell the people if they do not pay their Tythes they rob God and it may be threateneth those that are behind to sue them or send them to prison forth-with so that upon that day which he exhorts others to keep holy he doth all manner of work that tends to his quarterly gain Can that be the Ministry of Christ that murthers men for their bellies Nay it is impossible for the Ministers of Christ laboured with their own hands and took by violence from no man neither were they so much as burthensome to any much lesse stocked caused to be whipped imprisoned or smote with their hands but with them laboured and knocked down no man nor imprisoned any man to death for their bellyes but in this some of these at this day do glory And yet if any be moved of the Lord to tell any one of these cruel men that their glory is their shame or their belly is their God it s much if some Priest-ridden Justice or another do not send him to the Goal for it I shall also shew ye the rope of sand wherein many of these Priests have been wrapt Henry the 8. was a Papist the same Henry the 8 was a Protestant and called himself Defender of the Faith Edward the 6 a Protestant Queen Mary a Papist Queen Elizabeth a Protestant again King James was both for and against Bishops King Charles he was called a Church-Papist yet loved Bishops and Book of Common Prayer so well that an open war was declared against him which hath cost an innumerable quantity of blood and treasure he and his Bishops extirpated swore vowed and declared against and others have taken possession yet I shall seal it with my blood That there is 1200 Priests in England that are as bad as those 12 Bishops were so that at the best we are but where we were after all this fighting killing and being killed pulling down and setting up and all men may plainly see that have not done away reason and sold themselves to the spirit of prejudce that the best of their religion is but till further order and the change of a King or the change of a Queen or the alteration of a goverment puts them out of order and to seek for their religion tell they have received further order from man or at least till they have studied what religion the King or Chief Ruler adheres to and there they will seemingly imitate There they were and there they are tell further order and the best of their Religion will reach no further but tell further order See what the Ploughman in his complaint saith of these wicked men in the Reign of K. Edward the third here followeth somewhat subtracted forth of his complaint the thing being too large to insert verbatim AH Lord though that the Plowman may not have so much silver for their prayers as other men for See the plowmans complaint in K. Ed. thirds time Foxes Acts and Monuments Vol. 1. p. 524. they know not so well to prize their prayers as these other chapmen But Lord our hope is our prayers be never the worse though they be not so well sold as other mens prayers They turn thy words into songs and tales and so men do now they sing thy words merrily and that singing they call thy service but Lord I trow the best singers thou hearest not most but he that fulfilleth thy words he thou heareth full well though he weep more then sing and I trow that weeping for breaking of thy commandements be more pleasing to thee then singing of thy words and forsaking of travel which God commands and give their selves to idleness that is the mother of all naughtinesse Lord Mary thy blessed Mother and Joseph touched often times thy body and yet wrought with their hands and lived in as much cleannesse of soul as our Priests do now But Lord men make now great stonen houses full of glassen windows and calleth them thine houses and Churches but thou saist those that did worship in such had been worthy of death Lord in thy Gospel thou sayest that true worshipers of God worship him not in the Hill beside Samaria nor in Jerusalem neither but true worshippers of God worship him in spirit and in truth And Lord God what a worship is this to build thee a Church of dead stones and rob thy quick Churches of their bodily livelyhood to cloath stocks and stone with See pulpit cloaths and many guilded coats painted windows with pictures of many a monstrous beast silver and gold and other good colours and I see thine own images go in cold and in heat in cloathing all to broken without shoon hosen and hungred and athirst feeding themselves and not thy flock hiding Thee that art our light and those that were fed they slew and