Doctrines and in her worships and ordinances in her orders discipline and government from what the true Church of Christ was in the Apostles dayes before the Apostacy 2. That the constitution of your Church and the chief part of your worship and ordinances and the way and maner of your discipline and Government are of man and set up and standeth by the will of man and are not after God nor according to him but are after the traditions of man learned and practised therein which is Idolatry and are not in the commandements of Christ nor in the example of his Apostles nor according to the Scriptures but without the spirit of God being set up since the dayes of the Apostles and since the Apostacy came in which hath over-shadowed the whole world 3 That there hath been over the world for generations and many ages since the dayes of the Apostles and true Churches a generall declination and falling away from the true faith and doctrines and from the worship and ordinances and from the discipline and Government that was amongst the Apostles and practised in the true Churches of Christ in their dayes and your Church is in that declination and falling away 4. That Antâ—christ the Beast and the whore and false prophets have reigned over the world for generations the Antichrist that hath opposed Christ and been exalted in the Temple of God and been worshipped as God The Beast that hath killed the Saints and warred against them and had power over Kindreds and tongues and the world hath wondred after him The Whore whom the Beast hath carried she hath sat upon peoples multitudes and Nations and drunk the blood of the Saints and of the Martyrs and she hath corrupted the earth and caused all to drink her cup of fornications And the false Prophets have overspred the Nations and deceived them and you and your Church are of the peoples the multitudes and the kindred that the Beast hath received power over and the Whore hath sat upon and the false Prophets deceived 5 That the true Church of Christ the Lambs wife the eleâ—â—ed spouse and the beloved City who brought forth him that was to rule the â—ations hath been fled into the Wildernes been fled into the place of mourning dissolation for a thousand two hundred 60 dayes the Gentiles feet have troden down the holy City the Lambs wife and had power over her for forty and two moneths and though she hath not been prevailed against nor overcome so as to be extinguished from having a being yet her being hath been the Wilderness in mourning and disolation and she hath not appeared in the glory and excellency which once she had but hath lost her garments and her attire and her heir and husband separated from her and caught up to God and to his Throne and in this time of the disolation and treading down of the holy City the Lambs wife and the reigning of the Beast and the Whore hath your Church been extant in her glory and power which hath been of the false woman and not of the eleâ—t spouse that is married to the Lamb 6. That forcing and compelling of persons by any outward Law and Authority to be of such or such a Religion and to conforme to such a way of worship is the worship of the Beast and of the Whore and not the worship of God and to kill and persecute persons for the exercise of conscience and because they will not be of such a Religion and cannot conform to such worship is of the Divill and the Dragon and not of God nor according to him and that your Church herein is not successor of the Apostles and the true Church of Christ but is of the Beast and the Whore which Iohn saw was to come in his time and which we see are come in our dayes and have ruled for generations and I affirme that persons so made conformable by force and violent Laws to such a Religion and worship are but two fold more the Children of the Divill and are not at all converted to God thereby but becomes Idolaters whom God will Judge 7. That none upon earth are true members of the true Church of Christ having a portion in the inheritance of eternal life but such who are gathered out of the world by the preaching of the Gospel and are changed and renewed by the power of the Lord God in the heart and are led by his spirit within them into all truth and are joyned unto Christ the head and gathered into the eternall unity of the infinite body by the same spirit and anointing dwelling in them and of such onely doth the true Church of Christ consist now in this present time as it did in the Apostles dayes but of such members doth not your Church consist in this present age neither is it in the order and Government of the spirit of truth but in the forme without the Power therein was its beginning and is its standing at this day 8. That the time is at hand and the day of the Lord draws near and the fulness of time is approaching wherein great Babylon shal be thrown down and fall to the ground and the Lord will be avenged on her and will render Judgments unto her and the Beast and whore and false prophets unâ—o whom the Kingdoms of the world hath been subject shall be taken and cast alive into the lake and the devil and Satan shall deceive the Nations no more but the Kingdoms of this World shall be changed and become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ whose Kingdom shall be revealed in power and great glory in the hearts of his chosen and the Church of Rome and all the false sects and Churches upon the earth will the Lord God overthrow and his true Church shall be gathered out of the Wilderness and the beauty of new Ierusalem of the holy Church the Lambs wife shall be as glorious as before she fled thither and before she was troden down of the Gentiles and the Lord God Almighty shall be known and his â—abernacle shall be with men These things I assert to you in the Name of the Lord and the truth thereof is certaine and should be ready to argue and dispute these things with any sober person amongst you upon equall tearmes and to prove the infalibility hereof by the spirit of the Lord and according to the Scriptures wherefore consider of them in patience and meekness and believe in the light of Christ which is in your consciences which Christ hath lightened every man that commeth into the world withall that you may come to the knowledge of the truth and out of all false wayes and if any of you will returne an answer hereunto in behalfe of your whole body and can be able to clear your selves in writing from what is charged upon you it shall be gladly received by me and a reply in meekness returned to you for
the further manifestation of truth that truth and righteousness may clearely appear and be imbraced and all deceit and false wayes of Antichrist may be confounded and denied and who are in the truth shall be confirmed and who are in the error may have warning now in the day of the worlds visitation The Lord is coming to Judgment who will Judge the Secrets of all hearts and the whole world in equity Dunkirk 20. of 3. moneth 1659. English account By a friend unto righteousness and a lover of all souls Edward Burrough This was sent to the chief Rector of the Iesuites Colledge in Dunkirk in Latine FRiend thy wisdom and thy knowledge is earthly and sensuall and thereby canst thou not know the things of the Kingdom of God thou canst neither learn them thy self nor teach them to others for thou art but a blind leader of the blind and thus saith the Lord God unto thee the fruitles tree is standing in thee that brings forth no fruit unto God the head of the Serpent is not broken in thee that deceives the soul nor the body of sin put off that burdens the just and the Sword shall cut thee to pieces even the sword of the Lord it shall slay thee and friend the time is at hand that the Lord will make thee know that thou art and hast been in thy life time a dishonour to him and that thou hast not serv'd him but thy self and the Divil and thy heart is not right in his sight but is corrupt and deceitfull for thou art tryed and measured and thou art found wanting in all things and God will Judge thee and the witness in thy conscience shall answer his Judgments and all thy Idolatrous practises and profession of Religion and Church and Ministry thy many Prayers and thy works of Righteousness all this shall not hide thee from thee wrath of the Lamb though now thou art hardened and utterly insensible yet the stone shall fall upon thee that will grind thee to Powder and thou shalt not escape but the burden of thine own iniquities shall weigh thee down into perdition except thou speedily Repent Therefore fear and tremble before the Lord God and remember thou art warned by one that seeks the peace of souls but makes War by the sword of the spirit against the kingdom of the Divil and Antichrist in whom soever it stands And friend answer me this one Querie What is that Whore that hath sat upon multitudes and peoples and what is that Golden Cup in her hand and what are the Abominations and Fornications of which her Cup is full which she hath caused the Kings and people to drink and with which she hath deceived the world Answer me this and subscribe thy name E. B. And now this I have to say concerning the Church of Rome to them to all the world as having been in a measure an eye and eare witnesse of their idolatrous and false waies practices and doctrines never having in all my daies till this time and at this opportunity of going to Dunkirk not having any knowledge outwardly what their waies and practices were not having any knowledge I say by my sighâ— and particular hearing concerning them without me otherwise then what the spirit of the Lord within me did make manifest Though from a child the spirit of the Lord in me hath abhorred popery and all that which savours of iâ— But now having been an eye and eare witnesse in a little measure of their practices and doctrines this I have to say to them and all men blindnesse and ignorance covers them as with a mantle and they are wrapped up in the body of darknesse and grosse darknesse they do dwel in and all their waies and worships are but the works of darknesse which they are led on in by the false feigned spirit of imitation from one generation to another being exercised therein And the sense of the spirit of life they have not but have wholy lost it and they know nothing at all of the leading of it nor of its teaching This they hisse at as a thing of nought when it is spoken of to them They have even sold themselves into the land of ignorance and blindnesse and they hate to be reformed they are setled upon a false foundation even the traditions of men which the Lord will break down and their whole building will fall And when I consider how thousands and ten thousands lies in the captivity of blindnesse and darknesse under them my heart is rent for them upon the consideration how they are led in darknesse and blindnesse and how they rest in a false confidence which will destroy their Souls and the blood of many rests upon the heads of them that leadeth them for they that lead them cause them to erre and the blood of souls will be required at their hands And as for the poor and the common sort of them there is a pity in me for them because they are led by the blind and are out of the way but as for the Priests and Jesuites and Clergy men they are to be cut off with the edge of the sword of the Lord God and the woe is unto them and no pitty because they cause the people to erre and keeps the people in ignorance and blindnesse under their false and unrighteous waies and worships And this I know the word of the Lord is gone forth against the whole body of the Romish-Church from the head to the tail of them will God plead with them the time is at hand and his eye shall noâ— pitty neither shall his hand spare to punish them The decree of the Lord is Sealed and he will take vengeance upon their unrighteous lawes which binds the consciences of people and limits the spirit of the holy one their unrighteous Ecclesiastical Lawes I meane under which is defended all manner of Idolatry and they compel people to be Idolaters by a Law and whereby they drink the blood of the Saints and of the Martyrs but the Lord will take vengeance upon them and disannul their covenants and decrees and his spirit shall not be limited but shall rend them to pieces even their Laws and cruelties and Inquisions by which they are defended and their Religion upheld in the world and whereby they kill the jâ—st and murders the innocent that are better then they for the fulnesse of time is come and all these shall be tumbled down for their unjust Lawes and Inquisiâ—ions are the main strength and pillars of their Church whereby their Church and worishp doth stand and if they had not these cruel Lawes and Inquisitions to defend themselves by in their Religion they would be soon prevailed against for they have nothing of the spirit and authority of God to stand in nor to fight with against such as do oppose them but their weapons are carnâ—l and devilish and by murders oppressions and tyrannies they do defend themselves and when these
also was his hand turned with the losse of his presence because the sincerity the faithful principle was almost choaked the good eaten out from amongst you by the false spirit of self-seeking and vain glory which was entered into the hearts of many but this is to the army in general and to say no more of it to you only that you might search your own hearts and may be purged and may again return to the old spirit of righteousness which will reach after the liberty of the people and the freedom of the Nations and that all oppression and tyranny and unjust powers may be broken down to the dust before you and be subdued by you as your prey and that there be no more a looking back by you for rest and ease in the flesh in great houses of residence till you have visited Rome and inquired after and sought out the innocent blood that is buried therein and avenge the blood of the guiltless through all the Dominions of the Pope the blood of the just it cryes through Italy and Spain and the time is come that the Lord will search it and seek it out and repay it and it would be your honor to be made use of by the Lord in any degree in order to this matter whether the Lord will revenge the grievous blood-guiltiness that lies upon them by himself without an instrument or whether by you or others as an instrument whether this way or another that God will do it this I determine not but this I do know the time is not long that he will one way or another avenge and revenge the blood of the just upon the murderous head and this I also believe that the Lord will do it or make way hereunto even by you the men of our English Nation if you be faithful to him and do what he requires of you for what are these few poor Islands that you have run through and laid many mountains low and wounded the remainder of the Romish Idolatry that was standing in the beginning of your Wars and the remaining part thereof which stood between the dayes of Queen Mary and the last years of Charles hath received a mortal blow both by you and partly as preparers of the way but what are these little Islands of England Scotland Ireland they are but little in comparison of the great part of Christendom in which Idolatry tyranie and grievous oppressions do abound which the hand of the Lord is against and which he will take vengeance upon Oh did you but see and perfectly know the cruelties the oppressions the idolatries the murders and all whatsoever that is evil both in civil and Ecclesiastical State that is brought forth and rules in full power in all the Popes Dominions I do say were you but fully acquainted with all these things and also of the purpose of the Lord which is speedily to visit them with his rod it would awaken you and stir you up and it would set your spirits on fire of a great zeal with desires of no greater honour then to be instruments in any degree towards the executing of so good a work even towards the relieving of the oppressed and breaking the bands of crueltie that the Nations may come to rest and may no more be captivated with the chains of Antichrist I do say it would be your greatest honour to be instruments in such a work and do you know what the Lords purpose is concerning you onely this I do know the Lord hath a love to the men of our Nation and there is a spirit in them most fitting for such a work even the zeal of the Lord hath appeared and is beginning to appear against Babylon and against Rome the seat of the Whore and the kingdom of Antichrist shall be thrown down and the righteous people shall go free and Nations shall worship the Lord but there is many mountains in the way wherefore hew down the tops strike at the branches make way that the Axe may be laid to the root of the tree that your sword and the sword of the Lord may neither leave root nor branch of Idolatrie oppressions and tyranie which the Nations are held in slaverie under and oppressed withall to the grieving of the righteous soul and vexing of the spirit of the Lord Oh how great is their Idolatries you see a little part thereof amongst you oh what false fained deceitful and hypocritical services do they practice their imagâ—s their pictures and their praying before them which is Idolatrie their Candles burning and their Organs and instruments of musick and fained singings all this is Idolatrie and superstition and a vexation to the Lord and that law which imposeth them upon people contrarie to a good conscience and that Law which condemns others as Heretiâ—ks that will not worship thus and that power that kills and destroyes those that acts against those worships Laws and powers ought ye to make war against and to claim a disannulling of all such Lawes and Authorities by which this Idolatrie is imposed upon peoples consciences and established in the Nations and by which many are destroyed and condemned who cannot bow to their Idolatries such Lawes are not to stand before you for these be the bryars and thorns which covers the great mountains whom the Whore sitteth upon which the Lord will judge did you but know all their unrighteous Lawes murders and all cruelties which is abounding among them and they have a dispensation to commit unrighteousness those Lawes ought to be judged and destroyed and your sword is to be lifted up against them It is the Lords work I know to make men truely Religious but yet the Lord may work by you to break down the bryars and thorns and rocks and hills which hath set themselves against the Lord and which keeps people under the chains of Idolatry so that they commit Idolatry and are compelled to it and defended in it even by a Law but the Lord will confound all this either by means or without means for such is their oppression in their Ecclesiâ—stical state and their unjust Laws whereby their Church is established and defended that it causeth the very earth to mourn and the spirit of the righteous to faint and their hearts to fail because of oppression to murder steal and rob and to commit adultery these are accounted little sins amongst them they are even tolerated and pardoned by the Pope for a little money and if they slay a man and wilfully murder him â—hey can run to their Altar there they can have a dispensation of a wicked pardon and here is a law that tolerates murder and the greatest sins whereby it is hard for any that fears God for to be amongst them and blood blood lies upon their whole dominions and the guilty goes free and uncondemned and the innocent suffers unjustly for if any diminish from about their Mass-houses to the value of a peny that
is death by their law while murder is tolerated and here is nought but tyranie and oppression abounding even great mountains which must be thrown down and for which the sword of the Lord must come upon them and God will make their riches and their falsely consecrated vessels and treasures even a spoil and a prey unto you if you be faithful unto the Lord wherefore all you officers fear the Lord God and be not ambitious nor vain-glorious nor seek not your selves to gain unto your selves Kingdoms to exalt your own horn for if you go in this way and if this be your end then your end shall be frustrated you shall not prosper for the Lord will lay you aside with shame unto you but let it be your work your aime to require and demand the disanulling of their Inquisions and cruel Lawes both in their Church and civil State and that Christ alone may exercise the peoples consciences neither be ye as Lords nor Tyrants over your poor Souldiers but be ye loving and meek towards them I say unto you Officers and to all you that bear Rule in the Army be loving and kind and gentle unto all under your authority be not as tyrants nor oppressors over your poor Souldiers but be examples of all goodness unto them and give them no evil examples in your lives and conversations but lead them in the fear of the Lord and know a measure of his wisdom in you whereby you may walk before them and they may possesse their freedoms in their conditions and may not be as slaves â—o you but as servants to the Lord in their places and herein shall you be blessed as you fulfill that which the Lord requires And likewise unto all the Souldiers I say that ye may be sober and moderate and faithful to the Lord and not go in the excess and superfluity of this creation but may be all kept low in your hearts and tender towards God and obey them that have power over you in all things which are just and be not deboist nor given to vanity But all of you both officers and soldiers live in that which keeps your consciences void of offence and that you may be clear and free in your own spirits from the abominations of the Nations and then you will be a terror to the evil in all people wheresoever you come and being clear and free in the sight of the Lord having no sin lying upon your consciences then shall you face your enemies with courage and not fear death but shall be ready to lay down your lives for a testimony of Jesus in a good cause and upon good engagements and if the Lord be your fear then no man can make you afraid but you will be in that which overcometh the unrighteous power within you and without you also and here is the true honour and in this it doth consist in victory over all that which is contrary to God and here is the true way to happynesse and prosperity in this life and in the life to come by seeking his glory and not your own and all of you come to the light of Christ that Christ hath lighted you with all and that will teach you all things what you ought to do and what you ought not to do for that light of Christ within you ought to be the guide of all the children of men in every state place and condition and upon this you are to wait for counsel to receive it from the Lord by that of him made manifest within you and as for all your outward teachers that hath used their tongues amongst you and said the Lord saith it when God hath not spoken to them nor sent them and that preach for hire and sums of mony and these are them that cannot profit the people nor ever bring you to the knowledge of God nor give you counsel from the Lord and if you seek to uphold them and defend them against the power of the Lord and his word which is gone forth against them then shall you not prosper but fall with them and if you do enterprize any work in that spirit that doth oppose the spirit of Christ Jesus in his people you can never have good success but the Lord will confound you before your enemies And so now that you may all come into the new covenant to be taught of the Lord and to be far from all oppression this is the thing that you are all to wait for and to know the power of the Lord and to go on in that against unrighteous men and unrighteous lawes which are set up in the Nations that they may be destroyed and brought under and yet though such a victory would be honourable unto you yet there is a victory more honourable to wit the victory over sin and death and the Devil in your selves and that you are to mind and there is a kingdome which is not of this world which cannot be obtained by an outward sword and this kingdom are you to wait for that you may know it and feel it in your own particulars and this is the doctrine of the Gospel of peace unto you and the glad tidings held forth unto all of you come into the power of the Lord and minde it that you may be lead of it and then may you be fit instruments for the Lord to work by and take heed how you oppose those whom the Lord hath sent and is sending abroad in the nations to proclame the mighty day of the Lord they are no enemies to you nor to any mans person and therefore be tender over them for they go about the Lords work of this I warne you all in the presence of the Lord And so you dwelling in the power of the Lord there is nothing shall destroy you nor confound you but you shall have victory over all your enemies within you and without you and the Lord will make you a dread and a fear to the Nations and so this is a warning unto you all both officers and soldiers that you may minde what the work of the Lord God is in the nations your worke hath been and may be honourable in its day and season but he hath a work more hoâ—ourable to work after you that is to destroy the kingdome of the Devil and the ground of wars and your victorie hath been of the Lord but there is a more honourable victory to be waited for even the victory over sin and so we are the friends of the creation that doth preach this victory and this kingdom and peace which is endlesse and everlasting and which many are come into yet we reject not the state and work and victory and honour of a soldier but hath a respect thereunto in their season and as for the many and divers sorts of worship which is come up since the dayes of the Apostles and are of the whore and not of the true Church they are
all to be thrown down and the worship that is in Spirit and truth to be set up by the Lord and he is gathering people into that worship but if you be out of the fear of God in the rudenesse and wickednesse of the world and seeks your selves and not the freedom of the nations onely then the Lord will lay you aside as a broken potsherd and raise up unto himselfe a people that shall fulfill his work and do it for he hath much work to do in the nations to accomplish in a few years time for he is gathering his elect seed and changing the kingdomes of the world and making them become the kingdomes of Christ and so be low in your own eyes and do not seek your selves but seek one anothers good and seek the glory of the Lord and the freedome of the oppressed and in that you will be blessed and prosper till you have set up your standard at the gates of Rome I am a lover of all your souls and a sufferer in patience under the cruelties of men E. B. ANd some small discourse we had with our English Priests that supplies the place of Chaplains to the Army and in particular one of them which had spoken something behind our backs against us and we did proffer to have some discourse with him but he refused it only to evade the matter at that present he bid us state some of our principles in writing and he would answer them in dispute in some publike place being he was not willing to engage to dispute otherwise we were free to write this following Paper but we had no answer in agreement to dispute with us but shifted the thing from himself by telling us the Governor was not willing but tâ— is was not the same Priest before mentioned that we had discourse with at our first coming into the Town Friend For the manifestation of truth and that the perfect difference between thee and us may be known and who are in the truth and who in the error and that truth from error may be clearly discerned therefore according to thy own proposals and expressed desires thereof before many we do here assert some particulars of that truth which we have received from God and do hold forth and maintain in the world in opposition to thee or any other that shall gainsay them viz. 1. That Christ hath lightened all men with a light sufficient in it self to bring them to salvation if they follow it 2. That God hath given Christ to be the Saviour of all men 3. That none are justified by Christ and his righteousnesse without them but as they have received Christ and his righteousness and witness them revealed in themselves 4. That the Saints of God may be perfectly freed from sin in this life so as no more to commit it 5. That the national Ministers and Churches not only of Papists but of the Protestants also as they now stand are not the true ministers and Churches of Christ 6. That the scriptures are a true declaration given forth from the spirit of God by holie men of God moved by it to write them and are profitable but are not the foundation nor the most perfect Rule of faith and life to the Saints These things we are freelie willing and desirous to discourse upon with thy selfe and anie others that shall join with thee in the presence of sober and wise men who may judge between us in anie publick place that may be procured by thee according to thy engagements in this particular provided it may be in the spirit of meeknesse and moderation and that all fair and sober dealing may be among us and the fear of God and to this we expect thy speedie answer concerning time and place E. Burrough S. Fisher The propositions were writ as short as could be for to stop all advantages against us that might be taken by our adversarie in case he had met us and agreed to dispute but upon enlargement in discourse we might have laid open the truth of everie one of these particulars at large to the satisfaction of sober minds that might have been doubtfull hereof and shewed by the Scriptures the truth of all of them THE END