Groanings of the Oppressed hath entered into his Ears And the Lord God is arisen in his mighty Power to plead the Cause of the afflicted and will call all to an Account who are guilty both for their Sins against him and also for their Oppressing of his innocent People and will render a Recompence of Reward into every ones bosom according to their doings Therefore a WARNING is in my heart to you all whose day of Mercy is not yet ended Forsake your evil Courses break off from your Sins by true Repentance and fear before the dreadful God of Heaven and Earth before whose Bar of divine Justice you must all stand and receive a Sentence from him the true and equal Judge And cease from oppressing and persecuting the People of the Lord who seek nothing more than the Honour and Glory of his great Name And set up Judgment and Justice in the Earth and incourage Truth and Righteousness and take the Rod of the Wicked from off the back of the Righteous which hath lain heavy upon them long And punish Wickedness and Debauchery Swearing and Cursing Drunkenness and Whoredom all which abound to the grief and sorrow of many You may hear it every day in your Ears and behold it with your Eyes not only many in Authority who should have been better examples but also the very Boys and Children in the Streets their Mouths are full of Cursing and Damning which is dreadful to think off it s grown so common and so much incouraged by the bad examples of many of those that should have been a terror to evil doers Therefore punish these Wickednesses which run down like a flood and indeavour to stop the Current of Iniquity which at this day encreases in a dreadful manner And be good Examples your selves in Holiness of Life and Conversation Or else God will pour out Shame and everlasting Contempt upon you and will plead with you in his firce Wrath and in his sore Displeasure and his Indignation will break forth like devouring fire and ye shall be who are guilty of those Evils like Hay and Stubble before him who will consume you both Root and Branch of you Repent not and that speedily And Oh that you would fear before the living God and dread his holy Name and seek the Lord while he may be found Call upon him while he is near Lest that day come upon you wherein you may seek him and he will not be found of you because you have rejected his Reproofs and would have none of his Counsel Therefore if a day yet remain to you mind the Honour of God and the good of your own Souls and the propagating of Truth and Holiness more than your own Interest Friendship or Favour of men or your Pride Pomp and vain Glory which God will stain and blast by the breath of his mouth and will blow it away with the Whirlwind of his Wrath like the Chaff of the Summer threshing floor forever But that you may have a habitation in the Kingdom of eternal Glory which God hath prepared as a dwelling place for the Righteous is the desire of my Soul Who am a Lover of Truth and Righteousness W. B. An Expostulation with the CLERGY And a WARNING to those among them whose Day of Mercy is not over c. ANd now all you Priests who have taken upon you to be the Leaders and Guiders of the People and also to take the Care and Oversight of them and to instruct them and to be their Shepherds and to feed them as you pretend with Spiritual Food The Controversie of the great God of Heaven and Earth is with you and the day wherein he will plead with you in his sore Displeasure makes haste upon you because you have neither fed the People with the Food you pretended nor taken such care of their Souls as to have led and guided them in the way of Truth and Righteousness as you ought to have done For have you not made the People to err by your Lyes and by your Lightness For according to what ye have taken upon you ye should have been good Examples to all in Holiness in Purity of Life and Conversation You have been Examples to the People I grant but in what Hath it not been with many of you in Pride Lightness Prophaneness Covetousness Oppression and Debauchery as Drunkenness Cursing Swearing and Whoredoms with many great and Crying Sins Do not these Abominations abound amongst many of you upheld and encouraged by your bad Examples of the Clergy of England and the Dominions thereunto belonging I shall leave to all sober People that observe your Lives and Conversations to judge And so instead of leading People in the Way of the Lord which is a pure Way sorever and into Righteousness and Holiness without which none can see the Lord have you not been Instrumental in the hand of the Enemy of all Righteousness to lead them into the Liberty and Looseness of the World and into Darkness and Ignorance of the Lord and of his holy Spirit and Grace which was the Teacher and Leader of the Saints of Old by your Ungodly and Unrighteous Lives Do not your Practices bespeak you to be blind Guides leading the Blind though its willful Blindness and so have fallen together into the Ditch of Uncleanness which the abounding of Wickedness that at this day increases among many of you and your Hearers also do plainly shew and are ready to fall into the Pit of eternal Misery and Lake of Perdition if you Repent not which will be your Portion at the Hand of the Just God who will render a Recompence of Reward unto all according to their doings And are you not with many of your Hearers in the steps of those the Prophet of the Lord cryed out against saying A wonderful and a hurrible thing is committed in the Land the Prophets thereof prophecy falsly and the Priests bear Rule by their Means and my People love to have it so And what will you do in the end thereof Jer. 5. 30 31. Again another Prophet cryeth out in these Words Thus saith the Lord God Wo unto the false Prophets that follow their own Spirit and have seen nothing Oh Israel thy Prophets are like the Foxes in the Desart c. They have seen Vanity and Lying Divination saying The Lord saith and the Lord hath not sent them and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the Word Have you not seen a vain Vision And have you not spoken a Lying Divination Whereas you say The Lord saith it Albeit I have not spoken Therefore thus saith the Lord God Because you have spoken Vanity and seen Lyes therefore behold I am against you saith the Lord God and my Hand shall be upon the Prophets that see Vanity and divine Lyes They shall not be in the Assembly of my People neither shall they be written in the Writing of the House of Israel neither shall they enter into
disobedient to Parents Vnthankful Vnholy without natural Affection Truce-breakers false Accusers Incontient Fierce Despisers of those that are good Treacherous Heady High-minded lovers of Pleasure more than lovers of God c. 2 Tim. 3. 2 3 4. And in these Evils above-mentioned you are satisfying your own Hearts Lusts living in all manner of Voluptuousness Pride vain Glory and forgetfulness of God and so are guilty of those Sins which Israel of Old were guilty of who sate down in forgetfulness of God to Eat and to Drink and rose up to Play Exod. 32. 6. And this is the State of too many of you the Inhabitants of England both Priests and People for which the Wrath of Almighty God is kindled against you and his sore Displeasure is nigh to break forth upon you in which he will trample you under his Feet and appoint you your portion in the Lake of Perdition forever if you Repent not and that speedily Oh England England How many Warnings have thy Inhabitants had And how long hath the Lord strove with you both by his Servants and also by the many signal Tokens that have appeared of his displeasure amongst you Yet none of those things have prevailed upon you to turn from the Evil of your wayes but you have hardened your Hearts and stiffened your Necks in your Wickedness and Rebellion against God though he has long waited to be gracious to you for which God will bring everlasting Misery and Sorrow upon you if ye continue in these Evils which have abounded and yet abound among you For although the Apostle saith expresly Know you not that the Vnrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Drunkards nor Revilers c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. And notwithstanding these Testimonies which are certainly true and will be fulfilled upon all the Ungodly How many are living in these very Evils as Whoredoms Drunkenness Revilings with many other crying Sins which are expresly forbidden yet you continue in them as if all those Judgments and Torments threatned in the Scriptures of Truth against the Wicked were but meer Fictions And so you go on in your Wickedness and Ungodliness as if there were neither Punishment nor Torment to the Wicked and as if there were neither God nor Devil Heaven nor Hell But let all such know that the dreadful God of Heaven and Earth that rained Fire and Brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah of Old that punished the Wicked in every Age who hath promised and will perform it though the Wicked joyn Hand in Hand they shall not go unpunished but he will render the Recompence and Reward of your own doings into your Bosoms and if you do not turn to him while he strives with you ye shall feel the weight of his avenging Hand and Iron Rod with which he will dash the Rebellious Nations to pieces like a Potters Vessel And now my Soul desires that you may turn from your Evil Courses and no longer continue in your Exaltedness of mind and heart and in your Wickedness and Ungodliness lest you be brought down and turned into Hell with all Nations that forget God Psal 9. 17. to be tormented with the Devil and his Angels forever and evermore For the Lord hath often waited to be gracious unto you and hath born with you though you have greatly provoked him yet his Patience has lasted long and he hath held forth a Hand of love to many who have taken no notice of it But now his Patience is almost worn out and his long suffering well nigh come to an End yea I am afraid it s come to an end already to many of you the Inhabitants of England and his Indignation is kindled and burns hot against you who have refused to hearken to him who hath called you time after time and is nigh to break forth like a devouring Fire and before him the Wicked shall be as Hay and as Stubble whom God will consume and will leave them neither Root nor Branch For behold the Cry of your Iniquities hath reached unto Heaven and your Sins have come up before the Lord and into remembrance with our God and the Day wherein he will ease him of his Adversaries and avenge him of his Enemies maketh haste wherein he will pour out his Wrath Indignation and Judgment upon you the Inhabitants of England that continue in your Gain-saying and Rebellion against God without any mixture of Mercy Oh! you my native Country Men and People of England in general for whom a travail is upon my Spirit at present and hath been many a time that you might be prevailed upon whose Day of Mercy is not yet ended and over whom the shadow of Death and the Night is not yet wholly spread to consider your latter end before it be too late and to turn from your Sins and Transgressions your Haughtiness Pride and vain Glory and your abusing your selves with those things which God hath extended as Mercies unto you viz. your wasting abusing and spending the good Creatures of God to satisfie your Lusts which hath highly displeased the Lord and provoked him to Anger And that you may all come to learn that blessed Lesson which the holy men of Old learned who were taught by the Grace and Spirit of God a measure whereof is given to every man to profit withal 1 Cor. 12. 7. which was That denying Vngodliness and worldly Lusts they might live Soberly Righteously and Godlily in the present evil World Tit. 2. 11 12. Which all that ever come to inherit Rest and Peace with God and to have a habitation in his holy Kingdom of everlasting Joy must be found living in and to cry to God in a sence of your Miserable state and Deplorable Condition while the Ear of his tender Mercy is open to hear you lest such a Day come upon and overtake you as was threatned to a People of Old wherein you may Cry and the Lord will not hear you because you have not hearkened to him when he called you may Call and he will not Answer but will laugh at your Calamity and mock when your Fear cometh But that this Day may never overtake you to whom the Visitation of God is yet continued is the hearty Desire and Prayer of my Soul to God for you Therefore turn to God with all your Hearts while his Arms of tender Mercy are open to receive you and triffle not away your precious time that yet remains lest by so doing you bring the sentence of an eternal Exclusion upon your selves from God and the joy of his Kingdom forever and ever And Oh that a true Desire were begotten in all your Hearts and Minds to come to that blessed Fountain of God's free Love which he hath opened for all who are willing to come to it the Virtue whereof purgeth the Souls of all that wash in it from Sin and Uncleanness and so sprinkles the
Conscience from death and dead works to serve the living God in newness and purity of a Holy Life And now Oh that you all may be willing to take that good Counsel which was given by the Lord to a People of Old when he said by the Mouth of his Prophet Wash you make you clean put away from before me the Evil of your doings cease to do Evil and learn to do Well seek Judgment relieve the Oppressed judge the Fatherless plead for the Widdow Come now let us reason together saith the Lord though your Sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow though they be red as Crimson they shall be as Wool If you be willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the Land c. Isa 1. 16 17 18 19. These are the precious Promises of God to all who are willing to forsake the Evil of their doings and to turn to him with all their Hearts who desires not the death or destruction of any but rather that they may Repent and live And again the good Counsel and Advice of the holy Apostle ought to be minded and observed by you all which is on this wise Cleanse your Hands ye Sinners purifie your Hearts ye Double-minded be Afflicted and Mourn and Weep Let your Laughter be turned into Mourning and your Joy into Heaviness Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up James 4. 8 9 10. And unless you thus humble your selves under the mighty Hand of God and turn to the Lord and forsake your sinful Wayes and evil Courses and wait to know a being washed in the Blood of Jesus Christ which cleanseth from all Sin that is the Fountain of God's free and great Love opened unto all Mankind you can never come to have a place in the Rest which God hath prepared nor in that Kingdom of eternal Glory which remains sure to the Righteous forever Now the Lord knows who searches the Hearts and tryeth the Reigns of all from whose all-seeing Eye nothing can be hid that I labour for and seek nothing more than your turning to the Lord with broken tender and penitent Hearts that you may find Mercy with God to your immortal Souls and that while you have dayes here in this world you may so live in his Fear Wisdom and Counsel as that when-ever your latter end cometh and Death looks you in the Face and summons you before the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth you may lay down your Heads and go to your Graves in Peace with God and in a full assurance of a Habitation in that Eternal Joy where no Sorrow nor Sighing shall ever come These are the Desires and earnest Breathings of him whose Soul hath often been wounded and his Spirit grieved in the hearing and beholding the Wickedness and Abominations which have abounded and yet do abound amongst many unto this very day and also hath mourned and been bowed before the Lord in the sight and sence of that dreadful Day which will certainly overtake and come upon all those who continue in their Wickedness and Rebellion against God W. B. A VVarning to the Rulers and Magistrates c. ANd now all ye Rulers Magistrates and Men in Authority in ENGLAND and the Dominions thereunto belonging the Lord God of Heaven and Earth in whom Power and Authority remains forever To pull down and set up whomsoever he pleaseth is highly displeased with many of you not exempting the Wicked and Oppressive Rulers through the whole World because you have not feared before his eternal Power and Majesty by whom the Life Breath and Beeing of all Mankind and every living Creature is continued who can take it away and bring the highest and loftiest of Mortal Men to the Dust from whence they come at his Pleasure Neither have you waited to receive Wisdom and Counsel from him the great Counsellour to act and to discharge your selves as you ought to have done in so great Affairs and weighty Concerns as you have undertaken which if you had done ye would have encouraged Virtue and Righteousness in all and punished Vice and Wickedness where-ever it appeared and have been a Terror to Evil-doers and a Praise to them that were found doing Well and so would have eased the Oppressed by breaking the Bonds of Oppression and executed Justice and Equity in the Earth and thereby Truth and Holiness Purity and Righteousness would have been exalted among you and this would have brought Peace and lasting Satisfaction into your own Hearts and Joy and Tranquillity to the Nation in general But have not many of you done and acted to the contrary For instead of punishing Debauchery and Wickedness viz. Swearing Cursing Drunkenness Whoredoms Looseness and Prophanness in others which you ought to have done and to have been good Examples of Purity and Holiness in your Lives and Conversations to all are not many of you your selves living and taking delight and pleasure in the above-mentioned Evils and gross Abominations for which God the righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth who will not be byassed with Rewards will punish with everlasting Pain and eternal Flames if there be a continuing in them And many of you by your bad Lives and Conversations others having taken you for Examples have you not encouraged them in their Wickedness Is not that the cause which maketh Ungodliness abound as it doth among many at this day to the grief and sorrow of many who have truly desired to see the Current of Iniquity stopt And whether have you set up Judgment and Justice as you ought to have done Or executed it upon the Transgressors or eased the Oppressed or broken the Bonds of Oppression and have been a Terror to the Evil-doers and Encouragers of them that do Well But have not many of you punished and oppressed the Innocent and have executed your Cruelty upon them and have let the Transgressors and the Wicked go free And So are not Such found in the Steps of those against whom the Prophet of the Lord cryed out of old Saying Your Hands are defiled with Blood your Fingers with Iniquity your Lips have spoken Lyes your Tongues muttred Perverseness none calleth for Justice nor any pleadeth for Truth They trust in Vanity and speak Lyes They conceive Mischief and bring forth Iniquity Their works are works of Iniquity The act of Violence is in their hands Their feet run to Evil They make haste to shed Innocent Blood Wasting and Destruction are in their Paths The way of Peace they know not and there is no Judgment in their goings They have made them Crooked Paths whosoever goeth therein shall not know Peace and Judgment is turned away backward and Justice standeth a far off for Truth is fallen in the streets and Equity cannot enter yea Truth falleth and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a Prey And the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no Judgment Isa 59. 3 4 6
7 8 14 15. And have not many or most of these Wickednesses been acted amongst many of you the Rulers Magistrates of ENGLAND and the Dominions thereunto belonging And have not many devised Mischief and Oppression against an Innocent People that have done no wrong nor harm to any of you nor to the Nation in general but have sought the good and everlasting Wellfare of the Sons and Daughters of Men every where And have not cruel Laws been made against them And have they not been with many other Laws which were never made or intended against us executed upon us with Cruelty and Severity though the breach of no just Law can be charged upon us to the Ruin Spoiling and exposing many Families to Poverty which were capable of relieving and assisting others And are not these Cruelties and Unrighteous Practices upheld and continued So that at this very day many undergo great Hardships Abuses and cruel Usages for no other Cause that can justly be laid to their Charge than for keeping their Consciences clear in the sight of God for Worshipping him according to his holy Requirings and for reproving sin in the Gate and crying to People To leave off their Wickedness Pride Drunkenness Whoredoms Cursing and Swearing with many other gross Abominations which abound too much among many both Rulers Priests and People for which God Almighty is angry with this Nation and will bring his dreadful Judgments on all those that continue therein And the Cry that hath run through many in this day to Rulers Priests and People hath been To break off from the above-mentioned Evils by true Repentance and by Amendment of their Lives and Conversations while the day of Mercy lasteth to them and to fear the living God that they might serve him in Truth and Righteousness And this is that which we have sought or desired even to see this Change wrought in all in our Labours and Travails for which we have this Reward of Oppression Cruelty Spoiling of Goods and Imprisonments with many other great Inhumane and Unchristian-like Abuses which our innocent Sufferings for many years and unto this very day which at this time is very great may plainly shew Though alwayes without any Just cause given on our parts for none can justly charge us with Plotting and Contriving Rebellion or Insurrections against the KING or the GOVERNMENT or Peace of the Nation But we have always sought the good and everlasting Happiness of all yea of our Enemies themselves though many times Shamefully abused by them both in Body and Goods and the good and wellfare of the Rulers and Magistrates of England though many of you have imprisoned many of us time after time some in Nasty Holes till Death and others to the Ruining of their Familes as to outward things because they could not wrong nor offer violence to their own Consciences And when Authority hath been given to Wicked Ungodly Prophane and Unreasonable men to make Spoil of their â—oods who were sure to have one part of the Spoil themselves they have not only made Havock and great Spoil thereof but have taken liberty if they had not Power given them grosly to abuse their Bodies also by hailing and beating them c. And all these Vnrighteous Vnjust Dealings and Proceedings have been patiently born only a cry hath been in our hearts to the Lord That he would open their Vnderstandings and let them see what they were doing that so they might repent and â—ind mercy with God without seeking Revenge as knowing Vengeance is the Lords and he will repay committing our Cause to God who will plead the Cause of the innocent And that this has been our Practice it is not unknown to many of you So I desire you Magistrates who have been most concerned in persecuting of us may consider those Cruelties and Oppressions which have been inflicted upon us and how there hath been no just Cause on our parts for it For what PLOTS have we contrived What Disturbance have we made to the Government Have we not always been an innocent suffering People Look back at our Lives and Conversations ever since we were a People in scorn called Quakers and at our Carriage and Behaviour towards all men And also take a view of your dealings with us and what hath been inflicted upon us and you may see whether we have justly deserved it by any Evil that we have done I am sure if some look back with an impartial Eye they will have cause to be ashamed of their Dealings and Proceedings against us who have made us as objects on whom they have executed their Cruelty and Oppression And also take a view of your doings and see whether many of you are not found too much in the steps of those of old whom the Prophet of the Lord cryed out against saying Hear I pray you O Heads of Jacob and ye Princes of the House of Israel Is it not for you to know Judgment who hate the good and love the evil who pluck off their skins from off them and their flesh from off their Bones Who also eat the flesh of my People and flay their skins from off them and they broak their Bones and chop them in pieces as flesh for the Caldron Micah 3. 1 2 3. And the Judgment threatned which was just upon them for their Wickedness Cruelty and Oppression which was inflicted on his People by them without any bowels of mercy was on this wise Then shall they Cry unto the Lord but he will not hear them he will even hide his face from them at that time as they behaved themselves ill in their doings vers 4. Again the Prophet saith But truly I am full of Power by the Spirit of the Lord and of Judgment and of Might to declare unto Jacob his Transgressions and to Israel his sins Hear this I pray you ye Heads of the house of Jacob and ye Princes of the House of Israel that abhor Judgment and pervert all Equity that build up Zion with Blood and Jerusalem with Iniquity The Heads thereof judge for Reward and the Priests teach for Hire c yet will they lean upon the Lord and say as many are saying now is not the Lord amongst us No Evil can come upon us Therefore shall Zion for your sakes be plowed as a Field and Jerusalem shall become heaps and the mountain of the house as the high places of the Forrest vers 8 9 10 11 12. And as the Lord was angry with that Generation for those Evils that abounded amongst them even so is he angry with this Nation because Iniquity and Transgression abounds and love to Righteousness Equity and Justice and to them that live therein waxeth cold in many who make a Profession of God and Godliness But behold the Lord hath looked down from Heaven and hath beheld the Iniquities of many to be of a Scarlet and Crimson dye and hath also beheld the great Oppression of his People and the