Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	call_v	father_n	king_n	4,264	5	3.6705	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66765	Paralellogrammation an epistle to the three nations of England, Scotland, and Ireland, whereby their sins being parallel'd with those of Judah and Israel, they are forewarned, and exhorted to a timely repentance, lest they incur the like condempation : to render it the more effectual, some considerable notions are therein expressed touching ceremonies, and things indifferent, the Lords supper, the civil government, the taking of oaths, the mark of the beast, the library of conscience, the great Sabbath, and the two witnesses, with other particulars of concernment interwoven / written by Geo. Wither.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1662 (1662)	Wing W3176; ESTC R11575	78,735	140

Adultery and all other meer carnal sins put together yea more heinous than those the Jews committed by their Idolatries killing the Prophets and crucifying Christ in the flesh for the last was but a sin against his Humanity and their Idolatries but the ascribing some part of that honour to Creatures which was due to GOD onely whereas the limiting of GOD's Universal Grace in Christ with the concommitant Doctrines and the Consequences thence raised and the imputing to GOD an eternal Reprobation of the greatest part of Mankind before they had done good or evil and for those sins also which they blasphemously say he necessitated them to commit to shew his Justice and manifest his hatred to sin is a dispoiling GOD of his Divine Nature of his Goodness and an ascribing unto him that which belongs only to the Devil Oh the Patience of GOD What can be so abominable They do not only make Reprobation older than the father of it the Devil but make GOD also the Author of his wickedness in necessitating him to be a Devil and consequently Author of all the wickedness committed by all the Devils in Hell and all the wicked men upon Earth which appears to me so horrible an Impiety that I wonder not to see the World so full of Plagues and Sins and Sins Sinners become such Plagues to each other as they are nor can I believe there will ever be less Plagues where that Blasphemy is professed and indulged as Orthodox Doctrine until it be repented of nor shall I marvel if my words be misunderstood and my good meanings mis-interpreted if GOD's Word be so mistaken and his Love so ill rewarded I know the bitterness and uncharitableness of their spirit who shall be obstinate in this Judgment yet am neither afraid nor ashamed for any respects to declare my Conscience herein or in whatsoever else I think may concern GOD's Glory and the Peace of my Country If I think any to be in an Errour I will peaceably do the best I can to reclaim them but attempt nothing to destroy them for that is an Antichristian Principle and I abhor it Oh let us be more heedful to avoid it and more conscientious in acknowledging our Destruction to be only and originally of the Devil and of our selves I confess that GOD who would have all men to be saved hath provided means of salvation for all without excluding any who first excludes not himself by his personal sins and impenitency and that our manifold sins may be forgotten I desire we may henceforward believe both his preventing and assisting Grace shall be vouchsafed to all those who shall ask for it in Faith or have not wilfully rejected it being offered In like manner for I now come to the second branch of my Memorandum if we desire an external Peace may be setled and continued so among us that we may serve the LORD in Holiness and Righteousness let us be conscientiously careful that we intrench not injuriously upon the Civil Government whereto GOD hath subjected us how oppressive soever it shall be or seemeth to be unto any of us in particular during the time wherein GOD gives it a Soveraignty over us For all Power was and is of him by his Grace or Permission not only that which was Patriarchal in Adam and Noah with that which was established for a time in Moses Joshua and the Judges of Israel and that which is called Ecclesiastical in the visible Church of Christ but all those tyrannizing Powers Governments and Governors also which have been in the world ever since the Creation until now were gracious or permissive effects of that longing after the knowledge of Good and Evil which corrupted our first Parents whose Posterity were permitted to elect such Governments and Governors as they best liked till some of them lost that Priviledge by their own folly as the Jews and others have done Thus it was in all times and Nations after the natural and Paternal Government ceased by the death of Adam and Noah except that which was Supernaturally Constituted over the Jews in the dayes of Moses That and the Paternal Government being conferred the one by Grace and the other by Nature were Branches of the Fifth Monarchy as many now call the Kingdom of Christ which indeed is the Alpha and Omega the first and the last ever one and the same in regard that Providential Government which is and was in GOD the Father by right of Creation and exercised imperfectly by Adam Noah Moses and his Successors was translated to GOD the Son who is the only and true Catholick King though Antichrist hath given that Title to one of his Vassals yea though this Government hath seemed a long time suspended and been intruded upon by the Usurpation of Tyrants in most parts of the world ever since the dayes of Nimrod he will at last assume his Kingdom and the Government thereof in his own Person when the time appointed is come In the mean space his Father and He himself have permitted others to make Kings and to be Kings and Governors according as they could effect it by their own Policy and Power This was one product of eating the forbidden Tree and of man's desired knowledge of Good and Evil especially his experience in what is evil hath been much advanced in all Nations and Generations by the Exorbitances of such Governors and by the Popular Idolizing and base flattering their Kings and Governors into a foolish conceit they were more than Men and by deifying them as the Romans and others did until they became worse than Beasts and little better than Devils to the rest of Mankind in which sordid Flattery the Priests in all times were most instrumental Therefore GOD permitted for a punishment of their wickedness and folly and to perfect their desired knowledge of Good and Evil as aforesaid the Kingdoms of the Earth as it is said Dan. 4. 17. to be governed by the basest of men which will never be otherwise until the People shall reform themselves by a true Self-denial and until that is fulfilled which hath been prefaged in these Verses A King shall willingly un-self un-King And thereby grow far greater than before The Clergy to contempt themselves will bring And thereby Piety shall thrive the more When a King or the Civil Governor or Governors by whatsoever Title they Reign shall quite lay aside all those tyrannous Prerogatives which were usurped by the Emperours and Kings of the Nations who knew not GOD and when they shall Govern according to the divine Law which he hath declared in his Evangelical Word and had once written in the hearts of men then shall a Righteous Government be established and when the Clergies Prevarications shall bring upon them a general Contempt such an endeavour will be in season When this comes to pass which is contingent and may be or not be Righteousness will begin to flourish or else never until Christ assumes his Universal

spiritual Rights and Freedoms one by one That unnecessary cost which many thousands are or may be enforced unto by their Visitations Inquisitions Articles vexatious Prosecutions in several Courts their numerous exacting Officers and by Bribes to supercede or take off the Process Censures and Mulcts cannot be sum'd up besides the charge of all these and those other burdensome Impositions laid upon the People since Antichrist got power Among the rest that one of Imposing the observation of Holy Dayes as they call them above the seventh part of time set apart by ancient Christians in place of the Jewish Sabbath amounts yearly to an incredible sum and by my calculation to a greater burden than the Excise and all other Taxes For it deprives the People of above the 12th part of those dayes wherein GOD by the old Law allowed them to do what they had to do in their temporal Affairs And if we could cast up into one sum what the labour of every man woman beast teem of horses and oxen probably ariseth unto in those many dayes which are superstitiously dedicated to Saints and Angels together with the sinful or vain expences which they occasion by drunkenness gaming and other vanities and mischiefs during those dayes it would appear such an annual charge beside hindrances in Trading and losses at Harvest and Seed-times that being added to all the other Impositions Services and Payments lawfully and unlawfully laid upon the Nation it would in my judgement seem greater than ever was charged upon any People who were not absolute Slaves nevertheless that superstitious observation was not to be murmured at if it tended ought to the Glory of GOD or but to the benefit of any part of Mankind except those who are enemies to the Kingdom of Christ That such Oppressions might be prevented and redressed when begun GOD left not them who should be Kings and Governors over his People at large as the Kings of the Nations were but gave them beside many other exemplary Paterns of Righteousness the Law of a Just Monarchy in Deut. 17. 15. before the coming of Christ and many Evangelical Precepts since whereby they and their Substitutes under them ought to be regulated And in all times divine Providence hath raised up some as well in the Campe like Eldad and Medad as in the Tabernacle to be Remembrancers of what ought to be done They have also those Ministers of the Gospel who instead of those Priests whose lips were heretofore to preserve knowledge by whom they may and ought to be assistant with their Counsel which would not be in vain if consulted But hereupon ariseth a Question lately put to my Conscience which may perhaps be of concernment at this time if I could give a satisfactory answer thereunto for which cause I will endeavour it so far forth as my Judgment extends The Question is Whether they who being called to a Spiritual Function to minister in things relating to the Kingdom of Christ and the divine Service of GOD may intermedle in the administrations touching the Kingdoms of Men or in civil and common matters seeing it seems to be an undertaking to serve two Masters which may occasion the neglect of the one or of the other I Answer it may or it may not be so according to the mind and sincerity of the Undertaker The State of Venice rarely admit any of the Clergie to be of Counsel in their Civil Affairs because they are jealous of the Popes Interest among them yet I remember they had one by whose wisdom and faithfulness they were more advantaged than by any one Counsellour that ever they had But this was a rare Bird Rara Avis terris nigroque similima Cigno Many such are not bred at a time in one Nest The Woods yield few white Ravens and as few white Dawes are bred in Churches yet I have seen both If he that is called to the Ministry of the Gospel shall ambitiously desire wordly honours or profits which he formerly enjoyed not or shall not willingly for-go what he formerly possessed when he is called to follow Christ and finds it is or may be his hindrance therein he cannot as I believe with a good Conscience either keep that which he had or accept of other temporary Dignities or Profits But if he be born to any temporal honour or estate or shall have them bestowed on him by his Prince who may have need of his Service in the administration of Justice or of other Civil Affairs without his own desire or seeking and conscientiously believes he may thereby the better serve his Master Christ Jesus he ought in my understanding to keep what he had and accept of what is tendred rather than reject it provided he be watchful that honors corrupt not his manners nor his Riches choke the seeds of Grace and that when he serves his Prince or Country in a temporal capacity he leans not to them and forsakes his best Master making use of his additional power to the disadvantage of Christs Kingdom provided also that when he serves his Prince or Country in a temporal capacity he so remembers his spiritual Engagement that he humble himself into a parity with his fellow Commissioners ordained by Christ as meekly as if he had no temporary additions or priviledges more than they so totally laying them aside in the execution of his spiritual Function that he may not over-awe them in their Votes or so much as seem to think them any appurtenances thereto Where this Moderation is with sincerity preserved both GOD and the King may be the better served then Peoples Christian and Civil Liberties be the more secured and both Parties be as mutually helpful as one hand in washing the other This I conceive is as lawful and as agreeable to the will of GOD and a good Conscience with the provisoes afore-mentioned for preservance of the Civil politick Body and of peace in the Church as it was for Jehojeda the High Priest to intermedle together with his Priestly Office in the administration of the Civil Government for preservation of the King and Kingdom of Judah or as it was for Paul and other Disciples who officiated in preaching the Gospel to exercise their Mechanick Trades for the subsistance of their bodies which was less considerable than the well-being of the Saints in their bodily concernments As there be no worse Counsellours than Priests if they be corrupt and wicked so there be none better if they be prudent and sincere and therefore I grudge them not a double honour who are approved such But when the most ambitious and the most covetous self-seekers of a Formal Ministry shall be only or chiefly consulted withal who endeavour the establishing of their own Ecclesiastical Constitutions or Popish Canons shall be joyned to a Civil Government by their own procurement or by other indirect means with persons who for the most part wholly intend also the settlement of their Politick ends there can be nothing

Needy the Fatherless and the Widow For being wilfully ignorant of their duties for obstinatly walking on in darkness and for destroying even the foundations of Righteous Government Many other great sins was that Nation guilty of from the day of their deliverance out of Egypt until their settlement in the Promised Land and likewise from that time still growing worse except otherwhile when they were under the Rod till they committed the great sin of crucifying the Messias for which they were scattered throughout the world to be preserved for a universal Memorial both of GOD's Justice and Mercy to his People in all places and Generations until their Restoration and the fulness of the Gentiles according to David's prophetical Imprecation Scatter them but destroy them not lest my People forget it Signal were their Murmurings frequent Idolatries and Rebellions in the dayes of Moses Joshua and the Judges Likewise notwithstanding GOD's daily miraculous Presence among them in a Cloud and a fiery Pillar feeding protecting and providing for them forty years together in an extraordinary manner amidst their Enemies and in desolate places they were sottishly distrustful of him and desired to return back again to that Bondage from which he had delivered them by a strong Arm. And as if they had a natural propensity to slavery and were necessitated to be slaves one way or another when GOD had performed his Promise by setling them a free People in a good Land They being weary of the Government by Him established which was to have been a Preparatory unto his Government to whom alone all the Kingdoms of the world belong craved to be ruled after the mode of such Heathen Kings as he had destroyed for their sakes Great were their failings and transgressions also when they had Kings according to their own desire And such Kings as they were desirous of occasioned their extirpation out of that good Country which GOD had bestowed on them In the dayes of David Solomon Asa Hezekiah Josiah Jehosaphat the best of their Princes they were guilty of great Provocations and of much greater during the Reigns of their worst Kings especially of wilful and foolish Jeroboam who made Israel to sin by his State-policy and obstinateness therein when notwithstanding GOD's extraordinary advancement of him from the rank of common men to a Kingdom yea to be a King over his own People of whom he had rent ten parts in twelve from the Posterity of his beloved David with a conditional Promise to establish his seed for ever on the same Throne did neglect the performance of that Condition And we are thereby taught seriously to consider how difficultly they will be reclaimed who seek to accomplish their ends by State-policy rather than by conforming to divine Counsels and Commands For GOD proved him as he hath tryed others in the like manner in these dayes by no less than three Miracles in one day manifesting two of them upon his own person yet they took no effect If with the fore-expressed Prevarications I should consider all the sins of these Nations comparatively illustrating the Parallel as I could to set forth what resemblance our sins in this Generation only wherein I live have unto their transgressions and how liable we are made unto the same Judgments which were inflicted on them even to be cast out of our Country and be made Vagabonds throughout the world as they long since were some of us have lately already been it would either provoke us to a speedy amendment or stupifie us with amazement For since I first knew the world men of all degrees professions and relations Princes and Subjects Peers and Commons Husbands and Wives Priests and Lay-men Parents and Children Tutors and Scholars Masters and Servants high and low rich and poor are in my Judgment much more depraved than formerly they were And many among us have so little regarded what GGD hath done for us or against us so often resisted the Holy Ghost and so hardned our hearts that all Premonitions being rendred fruitless it may be feared that some of us will be found as guilty of the Blood of Jesus Christ and of his Prophets as the Jews were And as by long continuing in their sins and by proceeding from one sin to another they at length by the just Judgment of GOD who deservedly makes them quite blind who will not see when they may hardned into such an impenitency and blindness that when their promised King and Messias came to make them a glorious and a happy Nation they despightfully rejected slandered persecuted and crucified him So I fear some of us may so parallel them that at Christ's second coming which now draws near they will be liable to severer Judgments than have befallen to the Jews which I heartily beseech GOD to prevent But it is your Application not mine alone which must make this proposed Parallel effectual and therefore I entreat you to take it into serious consideration whilst ye may before the day of your Probation hath an end because you have had them for an example as also the same fore-warnings which they had with an Addition of many other timely Precautions Do it speedily lest that evil spirit which GOD sent between the Shechemites and their King Abimelech and which hath already possessed many do by those Animosities which are still fomented between the late differing Parties render these Nations uncapable of being reconciled to GOD and to each other for ever Particularly I beseech you who are in Authority to consider what an illegal depriving peaceable men of their Liberties may at last occasion To consider also whether it be according to the Priviledges due to the Humane Nature and by the Antient Claims and Charters of these Nations so often confirmed that upon every slight suggestion perhaps of an enemy or an envious neighbour For the Case will be altered if there be a probable jealousie that the Common Peace is hazarded whereof GOD will judge and avenge if it be feigned or satisfaction not made to innocent Sufferers whether I say sober men should be debarred of their Freedom by close Imprisonment many months and years without lawful Tryals or knowing their Crimes or Accusers yea shut up without means of subsistance save what they have by charity not only their Access denied who of meer compassion are conscientiously inclined to relieve but their Wives Children Servants and all others to them relating restrained from speaking with them concerning those Affairs on whose prosecution and management their and other mens Estates Credits necessary Livelihoods and all their outward Comforts may depend Not so much favoured as with permission to write a Petition for their Relief or left Necessaries to sustain the healths and lives of their own persons or families much less to pay those large Fees which are then exacted and the Charges which the prosecution of Petitions to a hearing will require where the success also is uncertain Consider if such Grievances be among

and of the Land of Israel They shall eat their bread with carefulness and drink their water with astonishment that their Land may be desolate of all that is therein because of the violence of them who dwell in it Let this be well considered and whether our Quakers may not be a sign of the like Judgement upon our chief City and all these three Nations yea and to all those Nations whither they have been dispersed if they speedily repent not for their Actings and Sufferings are not in vain I have observed one occasion of hardning the hearts of many in this Generation which was not ripened until these latter Ages of the world and though little notice be taken thereof it makes many defer their Repentance and hardens the greatest number into a resolute perseverance in their wicked courses by a mis-apprehending of GOD's Wayes a mis-belief of his Word ignorant of his Justice and a false Conclusion drawn from an antient and true Prophecy by reason of the long continuance and prevalency of Sin Oppression and Tyranny in those courses and Postures wherein they have been acted Men have walked so far after the Counsels of the Ungodly and stood so long in the way of Sinners that they are now seated in the Chair of the Scornful and make a mock at Reproofs and Instructions according to this Prophecy of the Apostle Peter In the latter dayes there shall be said he Scoffers walking after their own Lusts and saying Where is the Promise of his coming for since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation 2 Pet. 3. 4. Into these latter dayes we are fallen and by not heeding not believing or by not rightly understanding the ground of this Prophecy touching the revealed things of GOD the Scorners of good Counsel have now fulfilled that Prophecy to their own disadvantage For to put the fear of GOD's Judgments out of their own and other mens hearts they scoffingly and prophanely conclude from the long continuance and prevalency as aforesaid that Sin and Oppression have had in the world from the Creation until this day that so it will be until the end of time and deride those who expect the coming of Christ the King of Righteousness Tush say they thus it ever was and thus it will be for ever GOD either heeds it not or regards it not and the Caveats Counsels Threatnings Promises and Premonitions of those who pretend to be Ministers and Messengers from GOD are but politick Devices of their own brain forged out of Envy and Malice to disturb us in our Pleasures diminish our Profit and weaken our Power for after above sixteen hundred years preaching of their Imaginary Kingdom to come we see as little or less likelihood thereof than was at the birth of that King whom they expect To this effect are their Scoffs and thereby they encourage each other in their Wickedness and Oppressions But they and all whom they shall delude will find themselves to have been much deceived Therefore in hope it may awaken some out of their dreams before it be too late I will declare unto you a Mystery by few yet heeded which GOD hath revealed unto me in this my Confinement to strengthen my Faith when it was exercised and tried by that and such like Atheistical Arguments and Objections of carnal men who presume on the perpetuity of their Kingdom and I will illustrate as plainly as I can that which I have apprehended by looking back as far as the Creation All things that GOD created were exceeding good even Mankind which is now depraved was made good and innocent though of a constitution possibly mutable That possible mutability GOD proved by an easie Law given in Paradise without compulsatively necessitating or byassing our first Parents to the right-hand or to the left but evenly ballancing them with a Free-will yea and without debarring them until their Delinquency from the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden or from any other means whereby they might have been preserved and confirmed in their Integrity so far forth as was pertinent to a Creature left free and under no restraint In this happy estate they continued until the Devil who had corrupted himself without a Tempter being moved thereto through envy seduced our said first Parents through subtilty For he perceiving them to rest satisfied with the knowledge of Good only without desiring cognizance of Evil first by lying prepossessed them with an injurious misbelief of GOD and then with a false and vain opinion that they should become like GOD by knowing both Good and Evil if they did eat of the Tree by Him forbidden That Suggestion being entertained begat in them a desire of an unprofitable knowledge and that Desire being conceived corrupted into an actual disobedience of GOD's Command whereupon they quickly found themselves to be guilty naked and miserable Their former free liberty of access to the Tree of Life was obstructed as also the influence of many Graces formerly vouchsafed and they were turned out of Eden into the World to get their living by the sweat of their brows in painful tilling the accursed Earth liable both to a corporeal and spiritual death And since it was their own choice and desire to know both Good and Evil GOD determined they should experimentally know them and that Priviledge be derived to all the Posterity of Adam to satisfie their curiosity and make them really and throughly sensible thereby of their neglecting his Goodness of the Devil's malice whom they believed and of their own unfaithfulness ingratitude and folly untill the time were accomplished wherein the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's head Divine Justice did so decree also that after their exclusion out of Eden for disobedience there should be Enmity between the Seed of the Woman and of the Serpent for ever and a certain space of time allowed wherein both righteous and wicked men should have an actual as well as a contemplative experience of Good and Evil by permitting Men Good and evil Angels to make tryal what their own power wisdom folly righteousness or wickedness could produce whilst GOD stood as it were indifferently looking on as a Superintendent to prevent as occasions would be offered what might else by their misactings be destructive to the whole humane Nature to the residue of his Creatures or to his Eternal Decrees Ignorance of this Mystery and not being acquainted with the concurrant Justice and Mercy of GOD revealed in his Word inclines depraved Men to think and say all things continue as they were since the Creation and that so they shall continue for ever which evidently appears to my understanding to be otherwise determined and how that long toleration of Wickedness from which they extract their false Conclusion shall ripen it unto the destruction of it self But because this Mystery hath been long vailed and is yet beclouded I will express the same as it

Kingdom But that King or Supream Power who shall conform to the fore-going Prediction shall be tho Protarrhon and have the honour of the first true Vice-regency under Jesus Christ within his own Dominions There shall the Throne of Evangelical Righteousness first begin to be established or at least there shall be the first evident preparation for that Monarchy It must then be acknowledged Kings and their Subjects being Relatives that all the mischieves which have befallen to Mankind in all Nations have proceeded equally from themselves yet as I said before by GOD's permissive Providence for a just punishment of their sins by each other and the People must submit patiently to the yoke until he vouchsafeth to take it off For as it hath given Wickedness Wicked-men and Devils opportunities to manifest their Natures toward the perfecting of an experimental knowledge in Evil to their shame So it hath occasioned also the manifestation of the Justice Mercy and Goodness of GOD to his Glory in making good what he had promised to his Elect by his Providential changing of Governments and Governors setting up pulling down inlarging or restraining as may best conduce to the punishment of Sin to the encouragement of Vertue to the exercising of the Patience Faith Humility Constancy Love and other Graces of the Saints as also to the improving in them an experimental knowledge of that which is Good together with a detestation of all that is Evil that they might at last overcome Evil with Goodness which gives an answer to all those Queries which have often been proposed by the Children of GOD when they have observed the Prosperity of the wicked whilst they are afflicted These things considered it will be a Transgression against the Providence of GOD if any private Persons or Parties howsoever oppressed thereby shall endeavour by Preaching Writing or Speaking seditiously much more by attempting it in an Hostile manner the innovating changing or disturbing the Government or Governors whereunto they are subjected and they are Rebels against GOD's Ordinance there being no other ordinary means left to the People who are by them oppressed but humbly Petitioning declaring their Grievances and pleading for their due Priviledges by legal Proceedings and by Appealing to GOD for redress of their Sufferings who doth heed all Oppressions and will provide Deliverers as he did for the Israelites in Egypt when there was no likelihood of a Deliverance For when Princes infatuated by their own pride and corruption or by the giddiness of their young Counsellors over-voting wiser men as appears in Rehoboam shall so add to the provocations of their Forefathers by their personal impieties against GOD or by so oppressing the People as Rehoboam did he will either rend from them the hearts of the greatest part of them as he did from that foolish King or by some other way and a Remedy will soon after follow without any irregular endeavors by the private Heads or Hands of any one of his Saints which would but exasperate their oppressors give them those advantages which they watch for to colour the utter destroying of those whom they oppress with an appearance of executing Justice upon them and it would defer also that Deliverance which is Providentially designed Therefore not presuming as their Counsellor but as their Humble Remembrancer I do hereby desire that the King and his Counsellors as also the People might be hereby put seasonably in mind to consult with the Laws of GOD of Nature of their own Nation and with their own Consciences what they will dictate unto them concerning their Duties to GOD and to each other in such Cases And that they may use their rational Faculties to that purpose I offer to their serious disquisition these following Queries 1. Whether that which was not ordained for its own sake but for the sake of that which was precedent and more worthy ought to be preferred before that for whose sake only it was ordained 2. Whether there can be Treason committed by one of any two Parties against the other between whom there is not a Mutual Trust and Reciprocal Obligation 3. Whether if that Allegiance and Mutual Trust which is between two Parties be by one of them evidently infringed the other be not thereby absolutely freed from that Allegiance 4. Whether it be in the just Power of any humane Authority to make that Treason which is not Treason by the Law of Nature and Trust or any thing to be that which really it is not 5. Whether a whole Nation or the greatest part thereof can be guilty of Treason against their Supream Magistrate failing of his Trust in that for which he was ordained in the judgment of the greatest number of those who intrusted him and whether they who are Confederates with him in the breach of that Trust and in oppressing the People ought to be reckoned as a part of that People 6. Whether a considerable part of those People who are peaceable in their lives and conversations and seek nothing but an enjoyment of those Freedoms and Rights which belong unto them by the Laws of GOD Nature and the Nation may not without just blame Petition to be freed from those Oppressions which are imposed by humane Laws and when they who are violently invaded in their Possessions or in the exercise of their Consciences toward GOD according to his Fundamental Laws may not warrantably stand upon their guard though they may not take up Offensive Arms as well as a private person may Se defendendo endeavour to preserve his life and his Hereditory Possessions from an injurious Assailant in which case as I conceive he is Indempnified by the Law of our Nation 7. Whether all Oaths Engagements and Covenants whatsoever taken entred into and made by compulsion contrary to the Laws of GOD and Nature be not void ipso facto and to be repented of rather than kept when the Conscience is rightly informed These Queries being rightly resolved both Kings and their Subjects may be truly informed how they ought to regulate their Judgements and Actings in relation to each other for the preservation of their honour peace and safety but private Persons who shall undertake to Resolve them will perhaps be thought more bold than wise and they will rarely be Resolved impartially either by any Supream Magistrate who is not a true Lover of Justice or by any of the Commonalty who prefers Licentiousness before a true Christian or manly Freedom muchless by any of them whose irregular Courses are destructive to their Kings their Country and to their own well-being Therefore instead of giving my private sense upon the said Queriès I leave that to those whom it more concerns and advise all those who think themselves oppressed by those who act under and for the Supream Power and are doubtful how to behave themselves in such wise that they may neither transgress the Ordinances of GOD nor give occasion of offence to their Governors to put on the pure

Plaisters and like the old Egyptians their true types encrease the works of Bondage and Slavery to the suppressing of GOD's People within their Jurisdictions because they perceive them endeavouring to separate from them But the time is near wherein the true Israelites and their Oppressors will receive the Rewards respectively prepared and due unto them by GOD's Judgments promenced against the one and his gracious Promises to the other though his Enemies struggle yet against him like Pharoah and his Armies in the Red Sea when their Chariot-wheels were taken off and while the waves on either side stood heaped up ready to swallow them The Grand City being divided into three parts will ere long fall with every subordinate Power Kingdom City and Society thereto belonging and wo to all them who have not separated from her by repentance Her abominations are come into remembrance before GOD Her sins are almost full ripe and she is become an habitation of Devils and a receptacle for every unclean bird all Nations have drunk the Cup of her Fornications and are besotted and bewitched with her Sorceries and Inchantments The Merchants of the Earth are enriched by the abundance of her carnal Delicacies and by her Traffick in spiritual and temporal Merchandizes for they have traded together not only for Gold Silver Pretious Stones Pearls fine Linnen Silks Purple Scarlet Vessels of Brass Iron Wood and Marble Spices Odours Oyntments Oyl Wine Wheat Beasts and Chariots but also for the Bodies and Souls of men according to what was prophesied pretending to settle upon their Chapmen Possessions in Heaven that they might cheat them and their Heirs of their Inheritances upon Earth Their Formal Devotions being of the same nature and value with such as were in use among the old Heathen Idolaters and for the most part borrowed from their Idol Temples will not avail them in the day of their Visitation but be cast out as unholy things fit for nothing but to be trampled under foot and destroyed with all those Trumperies which the Founders of the Mystery of Iniquity have raked together out of Judaism and Gentilism to trim up a will-Worship They who dote on them shall perish with them and GOD's People whom they now oppress and reproach shall be delivered from their scorns and oppressions If they with whom GOD hath intrusted the Civil Power shall joyn with her in oppressing his People he himself will deliver them from all their oppressive Actings and Constitutions who by a corrupt exercise of their Authority are more or less at enmity with his Kingdom and persecutors of his Saints as turbulent and seditious Persons for professing their Consciences and not complying with them in their Abominations and vain Inventions repugnant to the dictates of his Word and Spirit who is their Soveraign Paramount Yea so many of the Civil Governors and Magistrates as in their publick or personal actings adhere finally to Antichristianism in the essentials thereof shall be therewith destroyed But they who Conform to the Kingdom and Government of Christ shall be thereunto admitted and therewith honoured Be wise therefore O ye Kings and learn what ye are to do you that are Judges of the People Let not the Kings and Rulers of the Earth bind themselves together in their Counsels against the LORD and his Anointed nor the murmuring People imagine vain things For GOD who sits in Heaven derides their attempts and maugre all their opposition will set his King upon the holy Hill of Sion Psal 2. Amen These things considered our future Repentance and Reformation will not alone consist in forsaking our Transgressions against the moral Law and the impudent prophaness whereof we are guilty by meer carnal sins but in timely disserting also every spiritual wickedness by coming out of Babylon and desisting from complying with her and especially by razing out the Mark of the Beast if we have in any mode received it which is not to be performed by a local departure or separation but by a relinquishment of their Superstitions and Idolatries and by avoiding the mark of the Beast both in the hand and forehead which I conceive not to be any thing forcibly imposed upon men against their wills as Oaths Stigmatizings or Conformity with them in things indifferent But I judge that Mark to be a voluntary approving the Power of the Beast and an adhering to him or his Image by justifying their tyrannies professing their Idolatries and by openly or secretly persecuting the followers of the LAMB For these Qualifications knit together with an c will make such a perfect Character whereby to distinguish them from the Disciples of Christ that they shall be priviledged to buy and sell or to enjoy any place of Power Honour or Profit within his usurped Jurisdiction which he exerciseth at several times and under various Notions For I conceive that the first and second Beast mentioned in the Revelation as also the Image of the Beast The Skarlet Whore with her Cup of Fornications The Red Dragon The False Prophet the seven Heads the ten Horns the smoke which ascended out of the Bottomless Pit and the Locusts proceeding out of that smoak do all together make up but one Mystical Body of Iniquity as it was by degrees produced active and manifested in several times according to the true nature thereof in every particular part The first Beast being the fourth and last humane tyranny described by Daniel in the last of the four Beasts whereof he had a Vision in the Raign of Belshazer is that Monster out of which all the Appurtenances of the said Mystery successively branched The second Beast is that mixture of temporal and spiritual Oppressions and Wickednesses which sprouted up from the first by Sa●anical Delusions and fleshly Impostures It is called the Image of the Beast because of the manifold resemblances which it retains of heathenish Romes Cruelties Pride and Superstitions and their forming of it into that Image was partly as I judge to colour and countenance their Novelties and wicked Impostures with an appearance of venerable Antiquity and with a successive Authority which is one of their chief boasts and it was partly to share also among themselves the Dignities and Profits which were formerly enjoyed by the Flamines Arch-Flamines and other Priests among the Gentiles who had large Priviledges and Possessions It is expressed by a Red Dragon in respect of the bloody Persecutions thereby raised in the Primitive Church It is called a Whore arrayed in Scarlet with a golden cup of Fornications in her hand to signifie the carnal Pompe and Pleasures whereby it should infatuate and bewitch the great men of the World It is likened to a False Prophet to intimate the counterfeit Sanctity and Gravity whereby it should delude foolish Kings and Nations The Smoke ascending out of the bottomless Pit implies the Jugglings and Sophistications whereby they should becloud the Truth and darken mens understandings with fictitious Glosses and false Interpretations The

Locusts presignified that innumerable company of Locust-like unprofitable Cardinals Abbots Prelates Monks Fryars Jesuites and such-like devouring Animals as were afterward bred and brought forth in that smoke and now swarm into every part of the World to the devouring not only of the Fruits of the Earth but to the destroying of the Fruits of Grace likewise in the bud and blossome The seven Heads signified their usurping old Romes claim of Supremacy over all Kings and Nations in the Earth when her seven Hills wore the Imperial Crown The ten Horns may betoken that addition of temporal Power which it would acquire by subjecting and enslaving Kings Kingdoms and Republicks to the throne of Antichrist and by joyning the temporal Sword to the imaginary Keyes of St. Peter until the gross Impostures of that man of Sin or mystical Whore should be by them discovered as they will be ere long provoking the Kings of the Earth rather out of self respects then in any regard of Christs Kingdom to begin to hate the Strumpet and prey upon her flesh I am suspitious that I may be suddenly deprived of the Means and Liberty which I yet have to express my mind in publick Therefore being unwilling to leave unmentioned any Notion coming at this time to my Remembrance whereby Repentance may be hastened Concord increased and things prevented which may be destructive to common Peace And in regard teeming Transgressions are or may be at this time occasioned by the Imposing and Refusing of Oaths to the multiplying of troubles and Imprisonments not only upon persons who are thought unpeaceably affected but to the oppressing and total ruining also of many innocent Families whose Masters are conscientiously afraid of all Oaths I am resolved notwithstanding it may be to my personal disadvantage to declare my Judgment concerning that and some other Particlars which I conceive may conduce to the dis-insnaring of many whose misunderstandings have exposed themselves and others to great hazards My personal refusing or taking of such Oaths as I hear are tendred cannot bring either outward detriment or profit unto me because I have neither Estate or Liberty which will be thereby lost or saved nor so much as hope of any future Preferment in the World therefore without self-ends I do voluntarily declare for the sake of others only not judging the Consciences of any who are of another opinion that I think if the Supream Power or Person be doubtful upon probable grounds of any Subjects Loyalty they or he may for their own or the Publick security and safety require it by an Oath so far forth as the Laws of GOD Nature and the Nation do oblige or permit For Allegiance and Fealty are due from all Subjects to the Power and Persons whom GOD hath set over them so long as he continues a visible possessionary Power able to Protect them out of an Usurpers hands yea so long as he is present with them to encourage them in their Loyalty by his Righteous actings or Sufferings therefore I know no reason why an Engagement by Oath should be denied to him or them who have bound themselves by the like Obligation to be their Leige Lords and to Govern them according to the Laws of GOD and their Country Upon this consideration I never refused the Oath of Allegiance to any possessionary Power or Person claiming or exercising a Soveraign Authority without opposition and I conceive I deserved as little blame in so doing as is usually imputed to the Inhabitants of a besieged City submitting to their Conquerors when they are over-powred by an Enemy and disserted by their Officer in Chief for who is bound to resist when the LORD of Hosts appears against them Of the Oath of Supremacy I made as little scruple For as I understand it and as King James expounded the same it intends no more than the other except only an exclusion of all Forreign Powers if as I think it is it be the same Oath which was heretofore tendred to me when I was a Commissioner of the Peace That Oath as I remember enjoyned an acknowledgement of the King's Power over all Persons within his own Dominions as head Governor subordinate to Christ only in all Causes whatsoever whether Ecclesiastical or Civil and not as many fancy that he hath a Power over the Causes or a Co-headship with Christ for these were ridiculous Claims and Acknowledgements in regard no Natural or Politick-head can suit with the Spiritual and Mystical Body of Christ Jesus nor the Power of any Earthly King make a Righteous Cause to be unjust or an unjust Cause to be righteous though it be too often made so to appear by an abused Authority of which abuse there is at this present great likelihood and jealousie touching a Cause now depending and relating to Persons in this Jayl wherein I am a Prisoner and I am suspitious that somewhat is endeavouring which may redound to the dishonour of GOD and the King All Oaths given or taken contrary to Law being void ipso facto as soon as they are taken ought to be repented of by those who took them either ignorantly or through fear and make them to be the greater offenders who Impose them though that doth not totally excuse the Takers of such Oaths upon compulsion Indeed so little regard is made of Oaths in these dayes in many Cases especially by Witnesses and Jurors in Courts of Judicature that it was never more truly averred of any Land than now of this that it mourneth because of Oaths For every man's Estate Life and Credit is in hazard by Suborners and false Witnesses insomuch that it were well with us if the severity of Tennes and Tenedia Bipermis were here revived to terrifie Forswearers and false-Witnesses lest impudent perjur'd Persons swear honest men out of all they have An Oath though it be abused is the usual and lawful medium both by divine and humane Authority to evidence Truths in Controversie between man and man and relating to the Common Peace and in my Judgment not unlawful in private Differences when in Charity and Reason it is needful to ascertain matters of Consequence the doubting whereof may be hurtful to him who is incredulous of what is affirmed or else of what may be injurious to another person For though our Saviour said that whatsoever in our Communication to which his words are to be restrained is more than YEA and NAY cometh of evil yet a further Asseveration may not be absolutely evil being necessitated either by an evil Custom in him who Swears when there is no need of an Oath or else by an evil causless distrust in the Hearers and therefore in serious Matters as it appears by Christ's own practice in such cases more is sometimes requisite than a bare Asseveration The word Verily double which is equivalent with Infaith and Introth in our language was often added by him in his Affirmations to confirm them and the former may without just blame