the hearts of the People but the Seed of Corruption brings forth fruit in them and your Vineyards are like barren and untilled ground that is unplowed and undigged and unplanted with Trees of Righteousness Oh ye have been unprofitable Vineyard-dressers and ye have laboured for your selves and not for the Lord as is manifest and ye have been idle and lazy and the God of Heaven is weary of you and the time is at hand he will pluck you up by the roots and visit you with great destruction and your name shall be a Reproach amongst men for ye have not sought the Lords honour but your own and ye have been changable in your wayes for your own advantages ye have preached for filthy Lucre and through Covetousness made merchandize of People and ye have traded with the Scriptures and made a Trade of Preaching the Gospel and ye have made Traffick of the Souls of men and these things have you done and the Lord hath kept silence and he hath forborn to smite you and therefore have you been hardened the more in your Transgressions as though the Lord took no notice and you have filled your hands with dishonest gain in your unrighteous wayes and your sins are increased every day against the God of Heaven you repent not when you are warned but reject reproof and go on without fear ye are a company of proud men heady and high-minded men ambitious and self-seeking persons even such as the Prophets Christ and the Apostles marked forth for Deceivers and your fruits and works do prove it ye have been covered with the Sheeps cloathing in your unrighteous natures and your Iniquities are almost full and the Lord will bring unresistable destruction upon you in a day when you cry Peace peace then sudden destruction will come Wo unto you because of your Iniquities the Earth is weary of you which ye have corrupted through your false wayes and the Kingdoms groan under your Oppressions and the Earth will spue you out and the People whom you have deceived shall rise up in Judgment against you the dreadful Day of the Lord is at hand upon you ye Apostates from the Life and Faith of Christ Jesus for of that race you are even of them Apostates that went out in the Apostles dayes that went in Balaam's way and Cain's way for ye are of the spirit that kills and persecutes people about Worship and Sacrifices and Religion as Cain did and ye go for Gifts and Rewards even as Balaam did These things are so the Witness of God in your Consciences shall answer and all People shall acknowledge the truth hereof in the day when God pleads with all the wicked All People Return and Repent of your Iniquities the dreadful Day of the Lord is at hand ye Sinners and Transgressors ye hypocritical Professors and prophane Persons the Day of Vengeance is at hand Whither will you fly and where will you leave your glory where will you seek a defence or where can you be hid the Mountains will not cover you nor the Rocks will not fall upon you the wrath of the Lamb you cannot escape even the long-suffering of God will be turned into a flame of anger and patience will be turned into sharp rebuke the wrath of the Lamb will utterly smite you and the Cup of Gods Indignation you must drink all the Earth must tast of it and the Wicked shall drink the dreggs Wherefore all ye Inhabitants of the Earth forsake your Transgressions that the Lord may not cut you off for ever but let God arise to destroy your Iniquities and to save your Souls let him take vengeance upon your Inventions that he may forgive you Oh! why will you dye why will you perish the Lord would have you to return that he might save you And this is the day of your Visitation the door of Mercy is yet open for a little season and the Lord yet calls unto you for a moment but the time is at hand that he who is filthy shall be filthy still and that determination shall be passed Come ye Blessed and Go ye Cursed the doleful sentence shall be pronounced to all workers of Iniquity Into everlasting Burning must they depart prepared for the Devil and his Angels and shall not see the Countenance of the Lord to refresh their souls but in the presence of the Lord and of the Lamb shall the Wicked be tormented Wherefore hear and tremble all ye Transgressors that live and act contrary to your knowledge and against the Witness of God in your own Consciences and this is your great sin for which the wrath of God cometh not because you have acted in Ignorance and without knowledge but because you have acted against the Light in your Consciences and sinned against your knowledge and done the things which you knew were evil before you did them and because hereof you are not to be excused but the burden of your own sins and the guilt of them will fall heavy upon you in the Day of the Lord For this is the Condemnation of the World that Light is come into it but you have loved Darknesse rather than Light and followed evil deeds and loved them and this contrary to the Light that is come into the world and which hath enlightned your own Consciences Certain Propositions of Faith laid down which every one must believe or else they cannot be saved I. NOw none can be saved from the Wrath of the Lord but they who are saved from their Sins for Sin brings the Wrath of God upon the Consciences of men and Anguish upon Soul and Body and who are not saved from Sin cannot be saved from Wrath for Wrath pursues the Guilty and he that doth evil sin lies at his door and continual anguish upon his spirit because of sin and the load and burden of the body of death oppresseth his soul and anger from God kindleth in his breast because he hath sinned and he knows he is guâ—â—â—y of Transgression and the Lord wounds him in his Conscience and no man in that state can speak peace unto him nor can any save him from the Wrath of God because he is not saved from his Sin nor from the guilt of it but his grief and burden is because he hath sinned against the Light in his own Conscience And therefore whosoever will be saved from Wrath must be saved from Sin and Christ must purifie his heart and the Blood of the Lamb must sanctifie him and his Conscience must be cleansed from the guilt of Transgression and Christ must live in him and he must live the life of Faith which gives victory over all Sin or else he cannot be saved with the Salvation of God eternally II. Again Whosoever will be saved with the Salvation of God must own the Light of Christ Jesus in his own Conscience and he must believe in this Light and walk in it even the Light in his Conscience that convinces him and
and all flesh must be silent from speaking of the things of Gods Kingdom which they have not seen handled tasted and felt by the working of the Spirit of God in their Consciences and this is to witness the Scriptures fulfilled when you have experience of the same conditions and of the same operations and manifestations which the Servants of the Lord passed through and had experience of and so that you may speak what you have heard and seen and handled and tasted of the Word of Life All that will be saved must come to this and witness it IX Again Whosoever will be saved must believe in Jesus Christ and receive him and they must take up his daily cross and follow him and must know him to mortifie and crucifie them to the world and he must work the same things in you by his Spirit spiritually as he wrought without you in his Person or else you have no part in him nor salvation by him For it is not enough unto eternal life only to believe that there was such a one as a Christ and that he did and spoke such and such things at a distance without you for many may make a belief and a profession of this and yet perish but Him that was of whom you read without you must you receive and witness within you and you must know Him as he was before Abraham was and before the world was and He himself by his Spirit in you must give you the knowledge of Himself what He was before the beginning what he is now and what he shall for ever be X. Again Every one that will be saved must come up out of the Apostacy into which all Christendom hath been fallen and must come into the same Spirit Life and Power as the Apostles were in from which Life spirit and Power all Christendom have been Apostates and they have held the words and practices of the Apostles without the same Life and Power and made Sects Churches and Ministers but out of the same Life and Spirit as the holy men of God were in and all that will be saved must be restored and recovered into the same Spirit and Life in their Churches Ministry and Ordinances as the Apostles of Christ Jesus were in and this is Restoration when People come again into the same Life and Spirit of God which the Apostate Christians have all wanted and been in the Form of Ministry Churches Religion and Godliness without the Power And unto this is the Lord God restoring People his Day is dawned and his everlasting Light is risen and his Name will be known in the Earth And none can be saved with the salvation of God but who believe receive and understand these things A general Objection answered Object 1. And whereas there is a great cry by some people of late That there must be no more Private Meetings but all People must come to Church as they say and that there must be no more Conventicles c. Answ. As for Conventicles I understand you mean Meetings out of Publick Steeple-houses and that there must be no private Meetings for Preaching and Prayer but all People must be forced to come to Publick Places of Worship Now I say if the Authority that is now set up and hath the Power doth exercise it self in this way then the God of Heaven will be provoked against it to overthrow it and confound it if it proceed contrary to the End of just Rule and Authority ordained of God which is for the punishment of them that do evil in things between man and man but not to impose upon mens Consciences in things relating to the Worship and Service of God But the Lord God is wholly Judge in such matters and not any man and if any men should erre in their minds concerning Faith and Doctrine and the Worship of God that belongs to the Lord to punish and not to any Earthly Authority And what must not the People of God come together to worship the Lord in Spirit and Truth Must not People conveen together in this Age as the People of God did in Ages past Did not Christ many times preach in the Desert and sometimes in a ship by the Sea-side and sometimes on a Mountain as you may read in the Scriptures And did not he often preach unto the Pharisees and sometimes to his Disciples out of the publick Synagogues And might not the Iews have called those Meetings Conventicles because they were not in their Publick Synagogues And also did not the Apostles and Saints after the Resurrection of Christ when they returned from Ierusalem meet together privately for they went into an Upper Room and waited upon the Lord and continued with one accord in Prayer and Supplication And again at another time they were about an hundred and twenty in number that were in one place to wait upon the Lord and Peter preached unto them and were these Meetings Conventicles because they were not in a publick Synagogue but in an Upper Chamber and in a private place And thus the Saints of old met together as ye may read Act. 1. and worshipped God in Spirit and in Truth and preached and prayed and must not the People of God now meet together to pray and wait upon the Lord but they must be reproached with the name of Conventiclers and threatned and punished for so doing Oh how blind is this Generation and how contrary to the true Christian Spirit in their practices And did not Philip preach Jesus unto the Eunuch in a Chariot as they went on the way and this was not in a publick Synagogue as in Act. 8. And did not Peter preach to Cornelius with many others in Cornelius his house and this was a Meeting and not in a Synagogue Acts. 10. And did not the Apostles and Saints meet together in an Upper Chamber where Paul preached until midnight amongst the Saints Act. 20. and was this a Conventicle and an unlawfull Meeting Might not the Iews have said this was an Unlawful Assembly being in a Chamber and not in a Publick Synagogue And again Did not Paul preach in his own Hired House for two whole years together and received all that came in unto him Act. 28. And here were Private Meetings out of Publick Synagogues But did the Iews threaten them and inflict sufferings upon them because they met in private houses and would not come to their Synagogues and Publick Worship or did they reproach them with the name of Sectaries and Conventiclers when they met together to wait upon the Lord sometime in praying and sometime in preaching And thus you may see by many Examples that the Saints and true Christian Churches in the dayes of old met together sometime on Mountains and sometime in Deserts and sometime in Upper Chambers and sometime in their own hired houses and not in the publick Synagogues but they were gathered from the Temple and first Priesthood and from the Worship which God had
cease and there appears to be at this day as great if not far more Dissatisfactions in the minds of some People than hath been heretofore and it appears to be as far from Settlement and true Peace in an happy Union in Government as for many years though it hath been expected by many that we should have Peace and Settlement in Government yet behold it cannot be for there are Discontents and Murmurings in the minds of men and Unsettlement in their spirits and the Foundation of a happy Government is not yet discovered unto many nor do the people walk in the way of Peace but Iniquity is abounding Oppression and Cruelty yet lives Hard-heartedness and Envy Pride and Ambition are not yet cut down neither in all the Governours nor in the Governed and this is not the way of Peace and true Settlement but it is the way of Troubles and Distractions and the very Foundation of greater Distractions and Wars rather than of Settlement and happy Government These things are so and therefore true Peace and Settlement in good Agreement who can expect because the ground of Distractions and Unsettlement is continued and increased rather than abated and removed amongst many and the true Foundation of Peace and Settlement in happy Government is not yet raised up amongst men but because Injustice and Oppression are continued therefore will God be provoked to bring Distractions Wars and Tribulations upon the Kingdoms of all the World and God will confound and dash in pieces Powers Authorities Rulers Nations and Peoples and He will break one Potsherd against another and overthrow one Mountain against another and the hands of cruel men will God suffer to devour one another and ambitious and malicious hearts shall be suffered to finish one anothers end because of their own wickedness and therefore be not deceived Blessedness in the Kingdoms of this World can never be except Iniquity and Transgression be departed from except Oppression and Hard-heartedness dye and except the Foundation of War and Strife be removed and the Foundation of Peace and happy Government be raised up amongst men Again True Peace and Settlement in good Government can never be except the Lord alone be owned as Judge and Law-giver and his righteous Laws to be executed in the Earth that Justice and true Judgment may flow down and all the contrary may be stopped and limitted by the just Laws of God and all unjust and unequal Laws made and established in the Ignorance of men which have not been justly according to the Law of God nor depended thereupon such Laws must also be made void judged and cast out and the Law of God must enter This must be accomplished if ever true Settlement in a happy Peace be amongst us the Laws must be changed the unjust and unequal cast out and just and equal Laws brought in for because hereof while unjust and unequal Laws have been executed in Judgment therefore have we wanted Settlement and Peace in a happy Government and the contrary hath been and will continue till all unjust unequal and oppressive Love be discontinued Again If ever true Peace and Settlement in a happy Government be amongst men Governours Rulers and Executors of the Law must be Iust persons and Righteous men Men that fear God and hate Covetousness and that depart from every evil way and all ambitious self-seeking and unjust men must be cast out even all they that have sought themselves and not the Lord in their places of Trust such as have perverted Justice and true Judgment for their own corrupted ends and such as have been cruel and hard-hearted Oppressors all such as these must be cast out and the Law must not be committed to such to execute neither must such sit in Judgement over the People for because hereof and while such men have ruled and governed and executed the Laws no true Settlement in a Just Government but the contrary hath been even Distractions and Tribulations and while such men do continue to rule and judge and execute the Laws in any part of the world we shall never have a happy Government nor Settlement in it in this world nor till Just men that have the Spirit of God and sound Judgment that are humble and meek patient and merciful and such as fear the Lord and walk in his wayes be called to rule and judge and execute the Laws and the Laws must be just and holy and the Executors of them equal and upright men Till these things be accomplished a happy Settlement in this Worlds Kingdoms can never be but God will dash one Mountain against another and throw one Hill upon another and he will give no Peace among the Kings of the Earth but stain the Glory of all the Worlds Governments till Truth and Righteousness come to reign and till Just Laws be executed by Just men and till Mercy and Justice Truth and Equity flow forth abundantly Therefore all Nations you have been deceived while you have turned up and down from one way and manner and kind of Government to another and from one sort of Governours to others sometimes you have been for a Parliament sometime for a Protector and sometime for neither from each of these to others you have changed thinking to have Peace and Settlement in a happy Government but it could not be for there are continual Distractions until this day in the minds of men and they are yet unsetled in their spirits and there are Heart-burnings and Envyings and seeking of Revenge and while these things are nothing but Distractions and Tribulations not Peace but Troubles even till these things be removed And till we have just and equal Laws according to the Law of God established over us and Just and Holy and Righteous men to execute them in Judgement upon us and till we have Truth and Righteousness sit on the Throne until this be no true Settlement in a happy Government but Distractions and Contentions and woful Tribulations in the Kingdoms of the World and amongst men and this is certain and according unto the Will of the Lord and in the justness of his Judgements these things come to passe for it is Injustice and Oppressions and want of Mercy and Truth which is the Foundation of Contentions and Distractions and it is Justice and Equity Truth and Righteousness that is the only Foundation of Peace and Settlement and a happy Government for a perpetual continuance To all False Christiaâ—â— THere are many false wayes in the world and many false kinds of Religions and people are in much disagreement about their Church Worship and Ministry Papists are opposing the Protestents and the Protestants the Papists and there is a great contention in the World But the Papists are in a wrong way and so are the Protestants too and their Religions are both false in many things for whilst they profess Christ and Christianity and make a shew of Righteousness in outward appearance yet many of them live in sinful wayes and bring forth the fruits of Iniquity against the living God and Pride Cheating and Double-dealing Covetousness and Envy Drunkenness and Whoredom and all Wickedness is abounding and brought forth both by the Apostate Christians though they cry up the Name of Christ and the Profession of Godliness yet are they wicked in the sight of God and they are not changed in heart and mind nor do they know the New Birth and all such are out of the right way in the way of Errour if they have the Form of Godliness but want the Power though they may have Masse or say Common-prayer once a week or oftner yet all this is but Abomination and Deceit whilst they practise Iniquity Hatred Back biting Lying Drunkenness and the like they that act these things the Plagues of God will be their portion and Misery their end and their Profession in Religion will not save them The Day of the Lord is at hand ye Hypocrites ye false Christians ye that profess God with your lips and your hearts are far away Therefore repent ye and tremble before the Lord lest he smite you with Vengeance and forsake your false Religions both your Masse and your Forms of Prayer and be not Idolaters in professing love in your mouthes and honour with your lips whilst your hearts are departed from the living God and now come to learn the true Religion Depart from all Iniquity and do not lye nor swear nor be drunk nor steal nor murder nor envy but love the Lord with all your hearts and your Neighbour as your selves And this is the true Religion in which man may be saved and live in Soberness Meekness and Honesty and speak every man Truth to his Neighbour and live in love one with another and be kind and gentle and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit of God Cease to do evil and learn to do well and depart from all Iniquity and follow after Righteousness This is true Religion and in it you may be saved this is the right way all that walk in it shall have Peace and Blessing from God and all that walk contrary Damnation is their portion Therefore you Papists and Protestants so called turn from your Hypocrisie and learn this way and cease from your false worships that are after the Forms and Traditions of men and not after the Spirit of God and learn to worship God in the Spirit that you may be saved You have a Light from Christ in your consciences which lets you see what sins ye are guilty of and it reproves you for your sin If you belieâ—e in the Light and walk in it that is the right way then you will deny what is evil and follow what is good in your Coversations but if you follow what is evil and act contrary to the Light in your Consciences and repent nor Vengeance in flames of fire will be your portion This is the day of your Visitation the Army of the Lamb is gone forth and the Sword of the Spirit is drawn amongst them that will wound your Consciences and God will smite you with the words of his mouth ye Rocks and Hils and Bryars and Thorns and fruitless Trees the God of Heaven will hew you to pieces and pluck you up and oast you into the fire to be consumed Repons for the Day of the Lord is at hand THE END