ye gone and there are amongst the Heathen worshipping the Works of your own Hands and falling down to that which your Fingers have framed and you delight in a thing of naught and the Lord the Light that made you you are become Strangers unto and is accounted by you as a weak natural thing that cannot help And his Day Power and Kingdom is put far away from you and instead thereof the Seat of Violence is drawn near to you and in the Seat of the Scorners and Mocker of the Last Times have you placed your selves saying Where is the Promise of his Coming when as him Christ Jesus the Light in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen is rejected by you even by your Builders Thomas Taylor To the Bear-ward UNTO thee O Man who art called the Bear-ward do these words come Fear and tremble before the Lord God who is against all such wicked and ungodly Men as thy self is who contrary to the Law of God and the Nation goest up and down the Country keeping this great Evil of Bear-baiting on foot to the Corrupting of the Country for thy own filthy Lucre and abominable Covetousness which is the Root of all Evil And the Lord's Hand hath been long stretched out against all such Lewd Men but you go on in your Wickedness and repent not and therefore nothing can you expect as a Reward of your evil Work but everlasting Wo and Misery And to all you Foolish and Heathenish-minded People who are the Upholders and Spectators of these Brutish Customs of Bear-baiting yea and can spend your precious Time Strength and Money in the thing the Lord is against you also and his Soul is greatly grieved and burthened with you and will assuredly visit with his Wrath these and all your lewd and wicked Practices So if there be in any of you any Heart left for the Good repent lest you Perish in your Sins with such as hates to be reformed Rests the Lord's Servant who cannot but Sorrow to see you thus from time to time go on in your Sins without Remorse Thomas Taylor To the Dancers on the Ropes WO to the Dancers upon the Ropes and Tempters of God with their wicked Inventions and Wo to the Man that maintains and upholds such for filthy Lucre to draw the Peoples Minds from God O Repent Repent the Day of the Lord is at hand a Day of bitter Howling and Lamentation to all such Workers of Iniquity will it be Did ever any Child of God or any that had any Fear of God in them go up and down the Country with vain Fellows at their heels disfiguring themselves and playing Tricks upon Stages and Ropes like the Heathen that knew not God and all meerly to draw the Minds of the Multitude after them for filthy Lucre. O Cursed Covetousness What hast thou done in all the Earth the Root of all Evil well may it be called and Idolatry which whosoever follows do separate their Souls from the Glory of God and all the Good that is in his Kingdom And then O ye deceitful and vain People What will it profit you to gain the whole World and lose your Souls Rests God's Servant and a Witness in his Power against all vain and wicked Inventions of Faln Man Thomas Taylor A Warning to all People WEEP not for the Dead but Weep for the Living even for those that remain in the Body upon the Earth because of the Miseries Plagues and Judgments that are come and coming upon all the Wicked Sinful and Unholy People in all Lands for the Lord hath a Controversie with all Nations and great will be the Desolations because of Iniquity and Violence that is grown up to so great a height that it hath even as it were filled the whole Earth and the Lord seeth all your Doings O People and your secretest Workings when in your Minds ye Plot against the Lamb's Life which would redeem out of all the many Snares of the Devil whereby the Ungodly are kept fast at his Will But the Men of Nineveh shall rise up in Judgment against the Impenitent in the whole Earth for they repented at the Preaching of Jonah but behold a greater than all is come into the World even Jesus Christ the Righteous and they believe him not neither repent of their evil and violent Doings but harden their Hearts against his Holy Spirit 's Reproof to their own Destruction Thomas Taylor For the People of England to Weep WEEP thou England Howl Howl ye People for the Dreadful Day of the Lord God is at hand it is at the Door as an armed Man coming swiftly upon you to break down and tread under feet thy Pomp Glory Pride and Strength Thou hast exceeded in thy Sins and art grown monstrous in thine Iniquities so the Lord will be exceeding Terrible unto thee Thou hast suffered the Wicked in thee to have liberty and to take their Fill of Sin when the Voice of the Righteous cannot be endured in thee but he that departs from Iniquity and would perswade others so to do also is even made a Prey of by ungodly and unreasonable Men their Bodies imprisoned and banished and Estates spoiled and many sorts of Injuries done them for thy Name and Truths sake O Lord God And therefore will the Lord God arise to take Vengeance for these things yea his Soul will certainly be avenged on such a Nation as this saith his Spirit in his Servant Thomas Taylor And moreover because you have said in your Hearts We have compassed them about with an Act and now none shall worship God but as we please Therefore will the Lord the mighty God compass you about with his Terrors and you shall find no place to hide your selves in from his Wrath because of the Pride of your Heart and Evil of your Doings O all ye People of the Land who are guilty in these things saith the Lord God To the Comers and Goers by the Prison-Window of both Sorts ALL simple-hearted People who have any thing of the true Fear of God moving upon your Hearts and whose Desires are in any measure purely after God and Goodness and are not altogether hardned against the Lord and Good of your Souls Consider and ponder a little and unbethink you well as in the Presence of God what hath been from time to time declared to you and all People out of the Prison-Window Hath not the Witness of God in his Servant declared amongst you the Dreadful Day of the Lord God which will assuredly come upon all the Wicked and such as are covered and not with the Spirit of the Lord whether Priests or People And hath not the same Voice in great Love and Tenderness freely proclaimed Peace and Good Will to the Penitent and the most acceptable Day of the Lord to the Broken-hearted and such as Mourn under the Sense of Sin and Burthen of Unrighteousness without respect of Persons And are not these things to be
which it is gone forth and by calling in all such Acts and Decrees as are gone forth either before or since its Writing whereby the pure Seed of God in these Islands either have been or may be imbondaged and the good Spirit of God limited For it is not fit that the Lord God of Glory should be stinted or limited in his Way For he is a free Spirit and will not be tyed or bound up to any outward Form whatsoever but will have his People Worship him in Spirit and Truth and to be acted forth in the World in such a form â—s he himself by his Holy Spirit pleaseth to order them unto And this is was and ever must be the order of the true Church in God built up of lively Stones Elect and Precious of Abraham's Seed 〈…〉 for ever By a Servant of Jesus Christ and a Well-wisher to th◠〈…〉 and all People upon Earth earnestly desiring the Welfare of all God's Creation that it may be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption and my Weapons are not Carnal but Spiritual For if my Enemy Hunger I am taught to feed him if he Thirst to give him Drink if he seek to do me any Evil to overcome his Evil with Goodness as the Lord hath dealt with me and not to avenge my self because it belongs to the Lord God for ever who is worthy of all pure Obedience for evermore Thomas Taylor This last part dated in the Fourth Month 1662. Against Lotteries IS it not sad O all People to see such wicked and deceitful Inventions as these Lotteries still on Foot and passing too and fro in the Land uncontrouled after all the late Manifestations of God's Anger against the Nation and People thereof O! when will People lay God's Judgments to Heart and cease to Cousen and Deceive one another Is there any so blind that they see not these filthy things called Lotteries to be one of those Abominations that have come out of the bottomless Pit to deceive the People withal and so to defile the Nations to the pulling down God's heavy Judments upon you O all People who are either the Inventers or Upholders of them so cease cease from all such sinful and ungodly Things whose Foundation is Covetousness the very Root of all Evil and mind the fear of the Lord God lest the day of his Patience pass away from you and you be shut up in that woful Darkness and Hell of Misery for all your Sins where is nothing but weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth for evermore Rests a Witness for God in his Power against the Sin of all People without respect of Persons and blessed are all who take warning betime for the Lord is arisen out of his Holy Place to ease him of all his Adversities Thomas Taylor To Stafford O Stafford Stafford thy Judgment lingreth not thy Condemnation slumbreth not thine Iniquity aboundeth and thy Transgressions are multiplied daily as the Sand of the Sea yea thou makes haste to fill up the measure of thine Iniquities that the Indignation when it cometh and behold it cometh swiftly and the Wrath of the Almighty whom thou hast grieved may be seen justly to come upon thee in the sight of all O the mighty Patience and Long sufferance of God hath been great towards thee in sparing thee hitherto 〈◊〉 but thou hast not at all answered the Goodness of God towards thee thou art a Stage for all manner of Sin and Sinners to act their Part in thee and thou a Partaker with the Ungodly in all their Ways and so must thou assuredly partake with them of their Plagues as sure as ever thou hast been of one Mind and Heart with them in their Sin O the haâ—d-heartedness of thine Inhabitants that could never Repent nor lay things to Heart for your good unto this Day nor say within your selves What have we done though the Lord hath made me a Warner and a Reprover unto you all this Fifteen Years both by Words and Writing in Love Truth and Faithfulness that your Souls might live and not dye shewing unto you the Evil of your Doings that you might Repent and turn from them but you would not hear nor amend your Lives to this Day but have increased your Sins as the Old World whom God destroyed with Water and Sodom whom the Lord consumed with Fire and like Jerusalem whom God gave into the hands of a cruel Enemy for all their mighty Sins over whom the Prophet Jeremiah lamented because they would not hear and over whom Christ wept because they would not believe And so my Soul hath long and yet shall weep in Secret for your Pride if you will not now at length before it be too late humble your selves and repent of all your unholy Ways and Worships whereby God's Soul is burden'd for you are most manifestly of those that say Lord Lord in a dead form of words out do not at all what he by his Spirit requires of you but the contrary and so you taking his Holy Name so manifoldly in vain he will not hold you guiltless in his Judgment Day so wo wo will unavoidable be your Portion from the Lord God and everlasting Banishment from his Holy Presence of Life except as is said ye speedily Repent in the deepest Humility and Godly Fear as saith his Spirit in his Servant Thomas Taylor To the Mayor of Stafford AND now to the Mayor of Stafford who so busieth and troubleâ—h himself without cause about the Harmless and Peaceable Meetings of the People of God in their own Houses if he would get true Praise with God and good Men and Comfort to his own Soul let him look into the Streets and open places of the Town and use his Authority to the restraining and hindering of that great Wickedness and abominable Debauchery and Heathenish Practices that are committed there at such times as these called Christmas i. e. in the face of the Sun And let him now stand up for God who is grieved and burthened with such things if he would find Mercy to his Soul for an Account to God must all give of their Stewardship For what bad Customs shall one find amongst the Heathens which at such times as these are not practiced by the People of England who in words profess Christ But alas what will such a Profession do where the Life and Power of Godliliness is wanting Rests God's Servant and all your Souls Friend Thomas Taylor For them that Rule in Stafford O Unrighteous People What will ye do in the Day of the Lord when the Just and Holy God who lives for Ever doth call you 20 Account for all your doings Do you judge it an Evil and punishable by the Law for one of us though never so truly moved of God to come amongst you when you are at your Worship to speak a few words in a peaceable manner for your good and yet can see no Evil in your selves to come in great Companies amongst us
the Lord must be cast out and have their Portion with the Hypocrites where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth for Ever And now that Christ Jesus the True Light is arising the Children of the Night Who love Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are evil are inventing all manner of false Covers and false Arguments to hide their Nakedness and Shame withal but the Judgment of this Light they cannot avoid for it is to give to every Man according to his Deeds And now therefore all ye Teachers of the People awake and arise to Judgment and bring your Deeds to the Light and you Principal of the Flock come forth for the words of the Lord by Jeremy his Prophet Chap. 25. Ver. 34 35 36. are now to have their perfect Accomplishment upon you And these are the words Howl ye Shepherds and cry and wallow your selves in the Ashes ye Principal of the Flock for the Days of your slaughter and your Dispersions are accomplished and ye shall fall like a pleasant Vessel and the Shepherds shall have no way to flee nor the Principal of the Flock to escape A voice of the Cry of the Shepherds and an Howling of the Principal of the Flock shall be heard for the Lord hath spoiled their Pasture Now he that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit of the Lord hath here commanded to be left in writing And see and consider all you that are under the Wo of these words even all you who are called of Men Masters with your Elders and Officers and Repent for where will you hide your selves And where will ye leave your Glory For the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is arisen and it is God and not Man Spirit and not Flesh that is pleading with ye and the Powers of the Earth and the Wisdom of the Beast will not shelter you nor secure you from the Wrath of him that sits upon the Throne and of the Lamb. For now though you be changed as to the outward form somewhat from the way of your Forefathers yet in the same Nature and Steps as to the substance of Things are ye found for were they justly cast out for feeding themselves and not the Flock Ezek. 34. And is it not so with you And did not their House become desolate because they stuck to the Shadows and denied yea Crucified the Lord of Life the Substance in his Appearance Luke 13.34 35. And is it not so with you And was not the Spirit of the Lord grieved then to see that filthy and horrible thing committed in the Land to wit to see the Prophets prophesie falsly and to see the Priests bear rule by their means and to see the People love to have it so Jer. 5.30 31. And is it not so found now with you And was it not the Spirit of the Lord that moved to Cry against such then as stood for Watchmen over the People and yet were Blind and Ignorant yea as Dumb Dogs and greedy which could never have enough such Shepherds as could not understand who all of them looked to their own way every one for his Gain from his Quarter Isa 56.10.11 And is it not with you so now And were not the People a prey to the Enemy of the Soul when things were thus with them then as it is now And was it not for the Covetousness and Cruelty of the Teachers of the People that the Lord brought his Judgments upon them so that they had no Answer of God Micah 3.5 6 7. As it is now And what was it that made the Priests contemptible and base in the Eyes of the People but their horrible Breach of God's Covenant Mal. 2.8 9. As it is now And therefore ye Proud Men called Ministers and Teachers of the People in the High Places in England and elsewhere who have made a Covenant with Hell and Death as those of Old did in Jerusalem earthly hearken and give ear for the Lord hath a Controversie with you as he had with your Fathers who were in Covenant with the Powers of Darkness to keep the People in Blindness and Ignorance from the true Light and Life then as is your continued Custom now for saith Hosea in his Day by the Spirit of the Lord As a Troop of Robbers wait for a Man so the Company of Priests Murther in the way by consent for they commit lewdness Hos 6.9 And is it not so with you now See and try and let that of God in all Consciences give Judgment and both your selves and all your Congregations see and consider and fear the Lord and be not Mockers lest your Bands be made strong Is it not so with you now as it was with them of Old which the Lord sent Isaiah his Prophet to declare against Chap. 29. to whom these words were sent Ver. 9 c. Stay your selves and wonder c. Here the words to the 15th Verse were written at large and after them see and consider is not this your Condition And are you not worshipping in the oldness of the Letter and the earthly Spirit and not in the newness of the Spirit of Christ and the Heavenly Wisdom which is pure peaceable and full of the Fruits of Righteousness without Partiality without Hypocrisie And therefore will the Fire of the Lord be hard to endure by you for now the Sinners in Sion are afraid and fearfulness surprizeth the Hypocrites because of the Everlasting Burnings see Isa 33.14 And take warning while time is for this is the Day of the Lord's Visitation and witnessed by his Spirit in his Servant Thomas Taylor To William Thornton called Justice at Hipswell in York-shire Divulged for the Information of other moderate Enquirers after the Lord. FRIEND I have received thy Lines in answer to those I sent thee and thou dost rightly conceive of the ground of my writing them to thee for it was indeed out of pure Love to that which lieth in the Death in thee thy Soul unto which I spoke though in the Death to hearken to the Light of God that shines in thy dark Heart for the Gospel is Preached to the Imprisoned Souls who are dead in Sins and Trespasses that the dead may hear the voice of the Son of God even of Jesus Christ who is the Gospel it self the true Light and Life of Men who shines in Darkness though the Darkness do not comprehend it and so live And if thou hast an Ear within open thou may'st hear what here is spoken and so there will be no contradiction in directing thee to a pure Principle to attend to the pure Light of God within freely given to guide to himself but thou wilt if thou be'st once indeed turned to the Teachings of that Light of God in thee which shows thee thy Sin and Death daily and calls to Repentance and Faith see clearly that the Contradiction lies in the disobedient Nature within in thy self as in all others without Exception of what
other Unholy Doctrines he saith as is before mentioned from Page 195. That there is no Man alive that worshâ—ppeth God without some sin and adds Do you ever pray your selves in secret or in your Families without sin And a better State than this he doth not believe that any shall here come unto and for being free from the Corruption of the Times what hast thou to do O R. B to talk of this who art one with the Corrupt pleading for Conformity even with the Persecutors of Godliness it self Yea seeking to make such as good and excuseable before the Lord in their Persecutions of the Godly as the Godly themselves are who in Obedience to God do separate from them What! Is Praying to God with sin in your Hearts the highest Degree of your Godliness Oh Hypocrites Yea it is And is your Conforming to the Worship-Actions of the Persecutors who take God's Name in vain when ever they mention it in that State no Corruption And not only so but your Oneness with the Times in many of their Corrupt Customs of daily Conversation as every Eye sees no Corruptions But above all Corruption is gone forth over all the Land even from the Teachers such as this R. B. is who in words can tell others of forsaking it for what greater Corruption than for the Priests to love to be called of Men Masters and to Preach for Hire and Divine for Money and to cry Peace Peace to the Wicked especially such as put into their Mouths But if any put not into their Mouths then they prepare War against them as both in Oliver's time and since they have done to the impoverishing and spoiling them that fear God of their Goods and imprisoning several to Death upon the same account What would Christ Mat. 23. and the Prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah and Micah and the rest have cried so vehemently against such things if they had not been grievous Corruptions of the Times See Jer. 5.30 31. Isa 56. Micah 3.5 c. And so when the Priests are Proud and Covetous and Cruel what can their Followers be but like them It is not the Priests telling People they must desire after Holiness and forsake the Corruptions of the Times that will do any good so long as the Teachers themselves live in Unholiness and Corruptions and smite with the Fist of Wickedness for doth not that in the Conscience say to such Thou that teachest another why doest not thou teach thy self But they have run and God hath not sent them therefore they are such Briars and Thistles and cannot profit the People at all Jer. 23. And they say to every one that walks after the Imaginations of their evil Hearts ye shall have Peace But for these things the Lord hath and yet will severely judge them Head and Tail Root and Branch in his great Day And now to that which he saith to his Disciples Be not odd and singular from ordinary Christians in lawful things if it be to go in a meaner Garb than others or not to put off the Hat or to go bare-foot or in a distinguishing Habit this gratifieth Pride Answ To this I may say Wo be to them that call Evil Good and Good Evil that account keeping on the Hat in simplicity of Heart to God as we do our other Garments without Contempt to any I say that account and call this Evil and yet account putting off the Hat in Honour to Proud Flesh Good the Apostle James saith He that hath respect to Persons committeth Sin and is convinced of the Law as a Transgressor Jam. 2.9 But R.B. in this his pleading for the Hat saith it is lawful but to keep Christ's Commands in having respect to Christ and not to the Persons of Men oddness and singularity though this Man and his Fellows condemn us for this yet Christ justifies us and so we have Peace with God And for going in a meaner Garb than others whosoever he intends by this we know that he and all such Proud Masterly Teachers are far enough from this for they are quite out in the other Extream for if you will find Pride and Prodigality who more Notorious in the Land than the Priests and their Families who live in Pride Idleness Fulness of Bread and the poor People see it though they are forced to labour and drudge for them as the Israelites in Egypt And so they spend their Money for that which is not Bread and their Labours for that which satisfies not their Souls as the Prophet of Old complain'd and that which is most sad they must do it by force for if the People do see them to be totally void of Grace in their Lives yet according to R. B's Doctrine they must not take them for no Ministers however they must be at cost with them to maintain them in their Pride and Idleness or else look for a Prison or spoiling of their Goods or the like but the Lord hath shaken his Hand at such dishonest Gain But as for a distinguishing Habit which this R. B. Charges upon the Friars how is it that he could not see himself and his Brethren in their distinguishing Habits of Black Gowns Black Cloths Tippets Hoods Surplices and the like Oh! these Unjust Men who are all Eye abroad and none at home but this was ever the Nature of such as were out of Christ's Doctrine Also whereas this R. B. by these words That all may see and say this is a singular Person in Religion doth endeavour to make People believe that our not putting off our Hats which we do meerly in Obedience to God who commands us not to honour proud Flesh is done for a selfish End and in our own Wills to get a Name is such a piece of Haughtiness and Foolishness in him that nothing but meer Envy could have taught him such a piece of Unreasonableness for who is there that sees not the contrary Effect to come of our not putting off our Hat to what R. B. here sets down For it is so far from getting us a Name of being Religious amongst Men that they do as it were with one Mouth cry out against us unmannerly Fellows and the like for it And truly but that the pure Fear of God strengthens us it were impossible for us to bear the Reproaches Finings and Beatings and daily Cross that attends this very same thing so that to cross proud Flesh in this one thing exposes the poor Creature to great Trials in these degenerate Days even amongst them that profess Christ who made himself of no Reputation in this World from whom one might expect better usage for so harmless a thing But as Christ and his Apostles and Disciples found no better usage amongst the professing Jews of those Days for doing the Will of God So we are even made content to undergo all things for the Truth 's sake from our own Country-men and Professors in these Days even from all who profess the Letter and want
in them for by your own Confession you are miserable Offenders all the Days of your Life and have no Health in you and so cannot endure to hear of Perfection or perfect Soundness on this side the Grave Eph. 9.11 12 13. Yea though you read in Scripture That Christ's Ministry perfects to God Epâ— 4. Yet there is not so much Faith amongst you as a Grain of Mustard seed to believe any such thing for if any come to be healed by Christ and so made perfectly found to God and witness forth the same they are not for your Company even you who have no Health in you but are miserable Offenders Oh you that cry out against Separatists and Separation Jude 18.19 what a woful Separation have you made you are of them who have separated your selves from the Lord in Unbelief and are sensual not living in God's Spirit but in the broad Way of the World Oh when will you be weaned from the Breasts of Mystery Babylon and learn to suck at Truth 's Breasts Zach. 13.1 Rev. 22.1 c. and draw Water out of God's Well which in the Light and Life of Jesus Christ is opened to the true Hungerers and Thirsters after Righteousness this day But you have transgressed the Everlasting Covenant and offered Violence to the righteous Law of the Lord Jesus and miserably wrested and perverted the Holy Scriptures 2 Pet. 3.16 which witness of him and his glorious Appearance in these latter days and this you do that you may establish your own Traditions that you may keep your selves up in the Earth in the Glory of this World and esteem of Fallen Man John 5.44 who knows not Christ nor his Kingdom and therefore hath the Lord already discovered your Skirts and will yet daily more and more 2 Thess 2.8 by the bright shining forth of his Light make you so manifest naked and bare that every Eye shall see the Shame of your Nakedness Isa 66.24 And to the Nations of them that are Saved who walked in the Light of the Heavenly Jerusalem shall you be an abhorring for ever and the Redeemed of the Lord shall daily flock to Zion out of your Frozen Land to offer their Spiritual Sacrifices to God upon his Holy Altar and shall see the Smeak of your defiled Sacrifices go downward as Cain 's did Gen. 4.5 which God had no Respect to And the Smoak of your Torment shall go up for ever and ever Rev. 14.11 for strong is the Lord that judges you because you have given his Lambs Gall and Vinegar to drink Rev. 16.19 and have pushed them with Side and Shoulder and therefore a bitter Cup will God give you to drink Oh how hath the Lord borne with you How hath his Voice uttered it self amongst you in your Streets in your Assemblies saying in your Ears O Repent repent Give Glory to God by giving over to deceive your own and the poor Peoples Souls which are precious to God O ye that have exalted your selves into the Place of Teachers and are untaught your selves into the Place of Bishops and Overseers of others and have not looked into your own Hearts and Souls to see what grows there Mich. 3.6 7. O the deep Sleeps and Slumbers that you are seen to be in this day even all you who have ran and God never sent you and therefore you have not nor never can possibly in that State profit the People at all Oh all you that love to be call'd of Men Master and Doctor and Lord Bishops and Arch Deacons and such-like worldly Titles which Christ Mat. 23.10 11. the meek Lamb and lowly in Heart did always forbid and his Spirit is against for ever and ever and saith It shall not be so amongst his but he that is greatest must be least and Servant of all not in feigned Words and deceitful Shews Mat. 20.25 26. Mat. 15.13 but in Deed and in Truth Glory to the Lord who is arisen to root up the false Ministry and to bring in his own as in the Beginning That the Earth may be covered with the Knowledge of God Isa 11.9 Hab. 2.14 and Jesus Christ our Lord as the Waters cover the Sea Amen and Amen O ye Priests and Parish-Teachers When will ye consider of the Entrance of your selves into your Offices and the People into your Church You have laid another Foundation than Christ hath laid Christ said to his Messengers and Ministers John 20.21 22. Heb. 7.16 As my Heavenly Father hath sent me so I send you But Christ was not made a Minister by the Law of a Carnal Commandment but by the Power of an endless Life And so you that are Ministers of the Letter and made Ministers thereof by the Law of a Carnal Commandment and your Fittedness for the Work is gathered not from the Holy Spirit 's Ability 1 Cor. 1.20 21. Rev. 3.18 19 20. but from some Worldly Endowments as Natural Languages Arts and Parts which can only fit a Man for a Heathenish Oratory but could never help in this great and Heavenly Matter of Christ's Kingdom and your Bishops being made by the Humane Powers could never say That by the laying on of their Hands you received either the Holy Ghost or any Gift of it And so you being of the World and impowered by the World how can you claim Audience or Obedience from Christ's Members who know not to follow your Voice which is the Strangers Voice and so you Men of the World are heard 1 John 4.5 upheld and obeyed by the World who are ignorant of Christ's Voice from the Strangers Mat. 15.14 and so being such blind Guides whether can you lead the People but into the Ditch And there you are Isa 55.2 who are always doing what you ought not to do and so have no Health in you and so dangerous to joyn to and are miserable Offenders Isa 56.10 Isa 1.4 5 6. for taking the poor Peoples Money for that which is not Bread and causing them to spend their Labours for your Traditions and empty Sound of Words which are never able to satisfie their Souls John 10.1 And you are very miserable Offenders also in not only coming in by a wrong Door your selves but also in perswading the poor deceived Multitude that you enter them into the Pale of the Church by your Baptizing or Sprinkling of them when Infants for which there is no Scripture Nay more as your common Custom is and as is said before that you regenerate them by it for God never regenerated any by a Means which he never ordained as this Usage of yours is manifest to be So all your Entrances being impure and your Foundations Unspiritual and Unscriptural what Building must needs be builded thereupon the wise in Heart do easily see So you and your Work being Mystery Babylon Mat. 7.26 Rev. 17.15 and 14.11 the Lord God of Heaven is engaged
of the Faithful who naturally only proceed from such as do but in general only profess the Christian Religion though their Lives even in your Judgment are judged to be no better some if not many of them to be I say no better than Heathens is such a piece of Darkness and Wretchedness that the Earth groans under it and the Spirit of the Lord is burdened with your Doings as a Cart under Sheaves And whereas thou brings that Scripture Mat. 18.10 to prove that by little Children he intends the Natural Infants is so gross that it shews thou wilt not see for those little ones whose Angels Christ said did always behold the Face of his Father are plainly said to be such as believed in him Ver. 6. and humbled themselves like a little Child and so he still brought little Children as Figures and Examples to Men that they might come to the Birth of God in them which Heirs his Kingdom according to what is said before Rom. 9.8 and John 3. That which is Born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is Born of the Spirit is Spirit Also as to that which thou brings against our Objection from Mat. 28.18 concerning Infant Baptism it is nothing but thy groundless Argument drawn from a falfe Supposition of our understanding of the place as though we understood the reason wherefore Teaching is to go before Baptizing because of the meer standing of the words in the Sentence and so troubles thy self to prove by other Scripture That Precedency of Action is not always deducible from the Precedency of Words For thou maist know that we do not say that Teaching goes before Baptism meerly because it is placed so in words though in that place that is true but especially because of the Nature of the Thing as is manifest amongst many other Reasons 1. By your own Confession that the Sacraments do not beget Faith but only confirm and that Faith cometh by hearing the Word Preached 2. From the Practice of those that Baptized with Water in the first Times as is to be seen in Scripture where none were Baptized with Water but upon Teaching first going to the Understanding of such whatsoever you imagine to the contrary from the Goaler's or Stephana's Families 3. From the Judgment of those that Compiled that Catechism which saith What is required of Persons to be Baptized The Answer is Faith and Repentance And so because they in their dark Minds and Self-will would needs have Children into that Ceremony right or wrong they devised that strange and unheard of and unreasonable Custom of Sureties or Godfathers and Godmothers to Promise that for the Children which the Lord never required of them and indeed is most unreasonable to think possible for can any Promise for another that they shall do such things as forsake the Devil and all his Works c. especially for Infants whose Minds and Hearts are wholly hid from such Presumptuous Promisers But what if the Lord should require the Performance of this Promise in the Day of Judgment on behalf of such Infants that when they come to Years are found following the Devil and all his Works Would'st thou be content to suffer the Punishment of such Disobedient Ones for their Sin Were it not just thou should'st seeing thou wast the Surety or Undertaker for them and they have failed Must it not therefore fall on thee except thou Repent And so if thou be Damned do not say that we Damn thee for it 's thy self that art the Cause and God and his Servants are clear of all your Blood And do not trifle and say as one of you said See these Men can bring a Proof out of our Catechism and therefore it is so and so and drew this wretched word forth from it The Spider draws Poyson out of the same Flower the Bee draws Honey The Heathens might have said so to Paul who brought their own Authors against them And did his bringing some true words out of their heaps of false prove all to be good and he a Spider for so doing any more than our present Work make us Spiders or allow of all that 's written in that Catechism Nay nay the Lord is Judge between us and he sees who are in Heart true Lovers of him and his Truth and who are not and will give every one according to their Works and that is our Joy Glory to his Name for Ever and so at this time rests the Lord's Servant Thomas Taylor This Writ upon Occasion of a Visitation so called UNto you who are called Divines In Love are sent these following Lines And so if you are Wise you 'll not Disdain A few plain Verses from a Heart that 's plain They 'll serve as Monitors unto that part In you which is grown dull with weight of Art And evil Customs in these lazy Times Wherein the Truth 's Extirpate Prose and Rhimes Wherein Ambition Pride and Cruelty Is like a Fiery Flame advanc'd so High That if with Moistning showers it go not out It will consume the Tree both Branch and Root Wo to the Shepherds that lead the Flock amiss And follow Cursed Covetousness what 's this Save gross Idolatry to give to th' Earth Your Hearts which is the due of him that gives you Breath And Wo to People when even for a Word A Man's Offender made then comes the Sword Then comes the Plagues of God upon that Land To cut off Sinners who against him stand And Wo to People when their Bishop's Blind That neither sees nor knows their Sores to Bind Who feeds himself with Thoughts of Worldly Glory And knows not that his Life 's an empty Story And knows not that the Holy One Beholds How such the Sheep impound in dirty Folds How they the Fleece and not the Flock do seek Howl howl ye Shepherds Roar Lament and Weep The Day of your Dispersions is at Hand You shall no more the Lambs Tear Kill and Rend But Heaven and Earth shall Joy the Day to see Wherein the Sheep from Bondage shall go free Weep Weep and Wall all strong and stout of Heart Who with Proud Babel's Whore have taken part Upon a Bed of Sorrow you must lye Because the Cursing thing you come so nigh What Madness is in Men in these bad Days That will not heed what Christ and Scripture says That will not once believe that God will come And give upon your Deeds a Righteous Doom What are your Ears and Eyes so clos'd that ye God's Truth will neither Practice Hear nor see Hath Midnight Darkness all your Senses drown'd That of God's Truth you 'll not endure the Sound Must every vain Invention Suffered be And with a Brasen Face i' th' Land go free And only such as do Proclaim God's Day Be stopt and from your presence sent away Into some nasty Prison or such Place To spend their Days in Sorrow with Disgrace As though the Great and Holy One of Heaven Would not pour out
His limitless Nature to a creatural Form like thy self as the Wicked do who know him not And so of that Beast and mysterious Babylon thou art who this day with their many Heads and Horns and Forms of False Knowledge and Worships and Churches so called do all with one Consent push and fight against the Lamb the Light and Son of the Incomprehensible and Infinite Father and his Faithful Followers but the Lamb both hath and ever shall have the Victory and the Mouth of all Iniquity shall be stopped saith my Soul And so well had it been for thee if thou hadst continued Faithful amongst us but a Wanderer and Unfaithful in Heart hast thou been many a day and so the Whore that watched in the Evening for the unwary young Man hath caught thee in her Net and there thou art a Slave in the Bands of Darkness to the great Wounding of thy poor imprisoned Soul Thomas Taylor TO George Ward And those that had Fellowship with him GEorge Ward to thy self and those in Fellowship with thee whether Speakers or Hearers a few Words from the Movings of God in my Heart You are weighed in the Ballance and are found wanting and the Glory of the Holy Kingdom of God you are fallen short of in your Unbelief and have not a Heart as yet to walk in the strait and narrow Way that leads unto it You have not suffered your Minds and Souls to be guided by the pure Light of Jesus Christ that hath Visited you in great Love in these Days but have rather chosen to follow your own Thoughts and wrong Expositions of Scripture to your great hurt And because you have Preached and Professed that washing the outward Water is the only Gate in the Christian Fellowship you are both to loose your Credit amongst Men by owning the more Excellent and Everlasting Way though it be most plainly declared and by the Spirit demonstrated to you in these Days And so you go about to Establish that which makes nothing perfect in Opposition to the Power of God which only makes Perfect And so you resemble them of old who stuck in the Shadows of the Law in Opposition to him that was the End of the Law and came to fulfil it Christ Jesus over all God Blessed for ever And so if I could have found in you a true Desire after God's Kingdom may be I might have gotten a little Liberty to have Reasoned with you at this time of the things thereof But seeing there hath been so many Endeavours and Desires in us after your Eternal Good and ye will not come to Christ to know him in you that you may have Life for this time I thus rest in Peace with my God the Righteous Judge believing that in his own Way and Time he will Silence every Tongue that moves against his Blessed Truth the Light and those that love it and follow it in the Regeneration in this Day of his Power wherein the willing People are brought up through the Death of the Flesh to serve the Lord in the Land of the Living in new Jerusalem as our Souls do this Day ever Praised be his Name the Arm of his Holiness for it is worthy And now where is the Disputer of this World who pleads for seen things which Quicken not the Souls and will not have the Invisible God who is the Resurrection of the Life to Rule in them but are glad when they can get any thing seemingly that makes for them in their perishing Way But our Work is Praised be God to hold the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints in a pure Conscience and in the Ability that God giveth us to help to bring People to God where is the true Rest for ever And those that will not submit their Minds Hearts and Souls to the Light of the Eternal Word which is nigh in the Heart shall never be Established in Righteousness and Peace but shall weary themselves in the very Fires for Vanity and this we have Learned through many Tribulations Blessed be God for his Unspeakable Gift and so if you be Wise be Wise for your Souls and Learn with us to sit in Silence at Jesus Feet to know what he requires of you and cease your running and doing without him for you have spent too much time in Vain already seeing the Spirit of the World is unfallen in you Rests your Souls Friend and a Lover of the whole Creation of God being become a willing Sufferer for the Holy Seeds Sake And whereas you or some of you seem Offended that Widdow Cock hath left you and come amongst us and say she hath done it and yet given you no sufficient Reason and Satisfaction for her so doing I say that Reason I suppose she hath shown sufficient to some of you but to give Satisfaction to you in it that is hard seeing you Speak Evil of the Good Way of God which she hath tasted of amongst us for of a Truth the Lord and his Power and Presence is with us Blessed be his Name for ever And she stayed too long upon the barren Mountains where your Flocks Feed Thomas Taylor TO A Plundering Priest YOUNG Man all thy Prayers Preachings and Praises are Abomination to God so long as thou keepest the Just in Bondage Thou being but newly as it were come on to the Stage of the World begins thy part very badly if thou hadst been as an old over-grown Tree in Customs of Covetousness less could not be expected from thee than what some in Swaledale have sound But thou being as I hear a young Man under the Notion of a Schollar nay more of a Minister of the Gospel to fall on a Suing People at Law and putting in Prison upon account of Hire quite stains all thy Glory and blasts thy Reputation with the Odium of a Hireling and Fersecutor Thou might consider if the God of this World had not blinded thy Mind what thou daily as it were reads in the Scripture Whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you even so do unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets And if thou be not come so far as the Law and the Prophets thou art most unfit to take the Gospel into thy Mouth For without all question if thy Condition had been Michael Râ—w's thou would have accounted it hard Measure to have been so dealt withall as thou hast dealt with him A Man with a Wife and ten or eleven Children depending much upon his Labour for their Maintenance and this Man to be put into Prison and there kept from year to year for nothing at all but because for Conscience-sake to God he cannot put into thy Mouth What a Cry this hath and will have in the Ears of God it concerns thee deeply to consider for he is well known not to with-hold Right from any where it is due But though his Sufferings for time be long yet thine if thou repent not will be very
Christ which they be freely inlightned withal which shines in their very Hearts and Consciences which searches their very Hearts and Reins and makes manifest to Man his Thoughts and from which none can hide any thing but all things are naked and bare before him the Light Christ Jesus who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Jew and Gentile one and other who searcheth the most hidden things of Man and brings them forth to the Judgment of his Righteousness for though the Night may hide the Adulterer and the Thief from Man it hides them not from God there is one nigh in the Heart and Conscience that tells Man and Woman all that ever they have done and do daily do even their secret Thoughts is not this the Christ of God the true Messiah that was to come and is come and dwells amongst us and we look not for another And of his Fulness have all we received and do daily receive who believe in his Light which shines in our Hearts according to the Scriptures of Truth And this the Fulness of our Blessed God and Saviour Jesus Christ the Light is it which filleth all that come to him with all Spiritual Blessings and Heavenly Good Things and without whom all is Darkness Emptiness Death and Desolation as all the poor deceived lost Sons and Daughters of the faln Adam do sooner or later know and are made to confess But Blessed are they that consider of things in time and lay things to Heart before it be too late for there are but Twelve Hours in a Day in which Men may work saith Christ and then the Night cometh in which none can work but the Door will be shut upon all who have slighted and neglected the Day of their Visitation O England England and all Lands far and near that you had known or could yet believe the things that belong to your Everlasting Peace before they be hid from your Eyes therefore turn ye turn ye at the Reproofs of God's Wisdom and Spirit of Light and Truth which sounds through all and lets you see the Vanity and Evil of all your Works and Frailty of all your Lives how soon the Thread of your Life is cut off And then where is the great Emperors and Kings with all their Crowns And where is the great Captains and Commanders with all their Bloody Victories And where is the Wise Achitophel's and Cunning Counsellors of the Earth with all their Admirers And where is the Covetous Oppressors with all their Houses full of the Spoils of the Innocent Yea in that Day where is all the Glory and Lusts of the World with all the Lovers of it Surely in Darkness and Misery shall they lye down together and Death shall have Dominion over them even all who have not believed in the Light Christ Jesus and who have not followed him in the Regeneration that they may be saved but have spent their Days in the Pleasures and Lusts of the present evil World to Destruction Now therefore O all People hearken to the Counsel of the Lord in this your Day and learn of the Lamb the Light who calls you to Repentance from all your grievous Ways How long shall the Spirit of the Lord strive with you When will you cease learning War and Destruction and Oppression and Spoil O when will you beat your Swords into Plow-shares and your Spears into Pruning-hooks O when will you go and say one to another one Neighbour to another and one Nation to another Come let us all be humbled before the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who made us all of one Blood to dwell together upon the Face of the Earth in Truth Goodness and Love to serve one another and so as Branches of one Tree to receive Life and Vertue and Power from our God into our Souls to strengthen us unto his holy Work who came not to destroy Mens Lives but to save them whose Kingdom is not of this World and therefore is not set up or maintained with Carnal Weapons Violence and Spoil but by the Eternal Spirit of our God whose Fruit is in all Goodness and Righteousness and Truth and let not the wicked Devil the Destroyer deceive us any more by his Lies and Delusions but let us all with one Heart and Soul resist his Temptations when he perswades us to seek to be great in the Earth and be avenged on them we count our Enemies let us not hearken to him but let us overcome their Evil with Goodness and not to seek the Destruction of their Persons or Spoil of their Estates as the Heathen do that know not God but let us follow the Example of Jesus Christ God manifested in Flesh who when he was reviled reviled not again but pray'd for such as despitefully used him O come let us follow this meek Lamb in Righteousness and Truth and let us learn of him in our Hearts who is meek and lowly that we may find rest for our Souls who rebuked his Disciples who would have had Fire to come down from Heaven to destroy the Samaritans who would not at that time receive Christ for what knowest thou O Man but the Samaritans may in time come to a better Mind and then thou wilt see it was thy Will and not God's that desired their Destruction in their Sins for Christ would have all to be Saved and to come to the Knowledge of his Truth but many will not come to him that they might have Life and so their Destruction is of themselves and their Condemnation just And who are now therefore those that withstand the Doctrine of the Truth which saith Love your Enemies and seek not the Destruction of their Persons and Estates but seek them by good Doctrine and good Life to bring them out of their Sins And if they will not but rather hate thee for thy Good-will be content thou hast quitted thy own Soul and art clear of their Blood and so thou becomes a Sufferer with Jesus Christ and shalt Reign with him in due time I say who are these now on the Earth that are against the good Self-denying Doctrine of Christ and continue in the hateful destroying ways of the old Jews and Gentiles but such as will not be counselled by the Lamb of God the suffering Seed who said Learn of me for I am meek and lowly of Heart but ye are Men of corrupt Minds and account Gain and worldly Honours and Promotions more than Godliness who cry Peace Peace to themselves in their Sins And that same Spirit in them which creates that false Peace in them is the same that stirs them up to kill destroy oppress and spoil one another for selfish and worldly Ends but the Lord is arisen to Judge all these Evil things and to redeem a Seed to serve him as in the beginning of the Gospel before Antichrist the Murtherer got up amongst them that professed Christ in Words but denied him in Deeds and so had a Name
Thoughts and that such a sorry Service as you offer to him will please so great a Majesty Truly the Lord might justly give you into the hands of those he hath thus delivered you from because of your Sins and because you lay not his Goodness to Heart as a truly thankful People do So whilst you have time prize it and awake out of Sleep and come to the Light of God in you the Soul's Searcher and it will let you see the Truth and Seasonableness of my Words that you may repent of all your Sins and sinful Sacrifices and learn to offer unto God your whole Heart to be disposed of to his Will and Service that by his Power he may purge you and through his Righteous Judgments he may make you clean in Heart for his use who is over all blessed for ever And who is seeking such Holy Worshippers in this day of his Power wherein he is arisen to purge the Earth with his fiery flaming Word and to slay the wicked with the Sword of his Mouth Thomas Taylor To the Sons of Vanity YE Sons of Vanity whose Exercise and Delight is not all in God and Goodness but in Sin and Vanity to the darkning and separating of your Souls from that blessed Peace which the Saints in Light enjoy with the Lord God O the miserable Desolations that Sin in this Night of Apostacy hath made in the Earth yet Glory to God though the Egyptians sit in the grossest Darkness yet the Children of Israel who fear the Lord and work Righteousness have Light in all their Dwellings And in that Light they stand Witnesses for God continually against all vain Inventions and cruel Sports of Men of corrupt Minds whom God will Judge and severely Punish in his Judgment-Day O consider this ye Cock-Fighters Bull-Baiters and all that forget God for the Judgment hastens and who shall stand in the Gap for wilful Transgressors What did ye seem to humble your selves lately in a Publick Fast for your Sins and are you so quickly turned again to the Vomit of your old Vanities How should the Lord but smite the Land for these things From a Servant of God these Thomas Taylor Who they are that only Rejoyce in the Birth of Christ NOne can rightly Rejoyce in the Birth of Christ but the Spiritual New-Born in Christ Those that think to please Christ with Eating and Drinking and Sporting and Playing are Garnally-minded and the Carnal Mind cannot please God Rom. 8.6 7 8. so it s manifest that the Service and Kingdom of God stands not in Meats and Drinks and foolish and worldly Delights but in Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14.17 For Meats for the Belly and the Belly for Meats but God will destroy both it and them saith the Apostle But God will never destroy such as Serve and Worship him in Spirit and Truth all the days of their new and redeemed Life and so it is manifest the more Spiritual that any one is the more are they dead and separated from that foolish Mind and vain Customs that the evil World loves and lives in And on the contrary those that make most Provision for Flesh to satisfie it in the Lusts thereof let the time be what it may are the greâ—test Enemies to Christ and their own Souls So let things be well weighed and considered and it will appear to the open Eve that God is not more dishonoured in any Twelve Days of the Year than in these that People pretend most to Honour him in which to a Godly Heart cannot but be matter of great Sorrow as saith the Apostle Phil. 3.18.18 Many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are Enemies to the Cross of Christ Whose end is Destruction whose God is their Belly and whose Glory is in their Shame who mind earthly things And this is the miserable and woful Condition of too great a part of the People that in these days bear the Name of Christians over whom the Spirit Mourns Thomas Taylor A Testimony against Persecution to King Charles the Second and his Magistrates THough our Sufferings be little accounted of in the Eyes of those that Afflict us yet be assured they are seen to be great and many in the Eyes of God our Heavenly Father for whose Name and Truths sake we suffer and for this are his Judgments begun to be poured out upon the Land for though the People of the Land of all sorts be guilty of many other Crying Sins yet this one Sin of Persecuting the Righteous for their pure Conscience sake is and always hath been the most Grievous in the Eyes of Jesus Christ whose Glory is mainly concerned in it as one may see by that in Acts 9. where it is said by Jesus from Heaven Saul Saul why persecutest thou me The Jews and Saul thought they had done well so to persecute those Poor Members of Christ in those days because they would not conform to the Ceremonies of their Law and Service but Jesus saw it was done against him in them what was done against them So though many may think they do well in doing thus against us in these days because we cannot conform to your Customs contrary to that of God in our Conscience Yet know assuredly we are justified in the sight of God for what we do and he will assuredly plead our Innocent Cause as he did the Sufferers for Truth in those former Days and it will not be well with the Land so long as these Yokes of Oppression are upon us who desire nothing more than the Peace Welfare and everlasting Good of the King and all People but alas it will not be so long as the Law which should be laid upon the Wicked Drunkards Swearers Unclean Persons and Wasters of God's Creatures upon their Lusts is thus laid upon the Righteous who live Peaceably Righteously and Godly in this present evil World And so you Judges be awakened to true Judgment and Justice and know aright for what both Land and Sea mourneth at this day and let the King also and all People know the same and know that it is for all your Sins and especially for the hard Usage of us the Peaceable and Innocent People of God in Scorn called Quakers for our Pure Conscience-sake and Holy worshipping of our God in Spirit and Truth as the Lord Jesus Christ hath taught us And so till this with the rest be repented of How can the Lord accept you or be for you Yea though Noah Daniel and Job stood before God to intercede for you yet his Heart cannot be for you so long as your many Sins and this grievous Sin before mentioned do remain Yea though you should meet together every day in the Week and call it a Fast and seem in the outward to humble your Souls yet till these Burdens of Sin be removed from off your Souls and the Yokes of Oppression from off
you that doth inhabit the Earth ye will be scattered as the Wind scatters the Chaff you will be consumed as the Fire consumes the Stubble for the mighty day of the Lord is coming which shall burn as an Oven look upon an Oven when it burns and you are afraid to go into it But the Fire of the Lord is coming which will burn you up Root and Branch The Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it who will perform his Word and none of you that are Proud and Wicked can escape it Though you may live a while in Pleasure and Wantonness now you have time prize it this is the day of your Visitation Thomas Taylor To the People of England O Ye People of England whose Iniquities are broken forth like the breaking of the Sea whose Mire and Filth appear in every place O what an evil Savour is come up in every place The Land stinks before the Lord because of the Abominations that makes desolate in every place Oh the filthy May-Poles that Heathenish thing how they stand up in every place some Naked some Painted and deck'd with Flowers Garlands Ribbons and such foolish things after the Custom of the Heathen of old that knew not God And Oh with what Shoutings abominable Drinkings foolish Dancings and Noises have they been brought in and set up in the Towns and Villages Oh poor naked England as if thou hadst lost all Taste and Savour of Christian Religion And what will the Heathens and Papists say when they hear the Report of thee and thy Children Old and young even mad after their Idols and none scarce any Courage left to help in these things the hands of all even as it were fallen down in thee and few but a company of hidden Mourners lay the things to heart that are ready to overwhelm thee Oh! the Cry the Cry of thy Sins O England is grown great and thou hast been often warned by the Lord God but thou hast not repented but even hardned thy Heart and fitted thy self for Destruction And what shall the Lord now do unto thee but even open the Flood-gates of his Vengeance and cause his Wrath to come upon thee Judgment upon Judgment Misery upon Misery till thou be brought low and be made very small and in the Dust it may be thou wilt remember the Lord and cry unto him But Oh! what Lamentation shall be taken up for thee and for thy Teachers in the midst of thee O wretched England For thy Teachers have also manifested themselves to every Eye to be a company of Self-seeking Men striving one with another about the Fleece but none helping or healing the Diseases and Wounds of the poor torn scattered Flock but every one cries Give Give they all look to their own way their Gain from their Quarter and fear not me saith the Lord God the best of them is as a Briar and the most Upright among them as a Thorn-hedge And now is the Lord arising and he that hath overcome is coming in his mighty Power to dash the Pot-sheards of the Earth together and break them one against another and Babylon the Great shall fall and be a place for Dragons and be no more inhabited by any Son of Man as the Lord hath said for ever So howl ye Wildernesses and rejoyce ye Fruitful Fields for the Lord hath visited Sion and comforted his Afflicted and the Kingdom shall be the Lord's and the Haughtiness of the World shall be humbled and the Loftiness of their Looks shall be brought low that the Lord God alone may be exalted for he is worthy And this is our Holy Hope and living Confidence and faithful Witness who are counted worthy of God to bear his Reproach amongst you O People under the name of Quakers So People cease striving against the Lord and his Witness in you and devise not Evil against the Innocent but fear the Lord and in time repent lest his Fury brâ—â—k in upon you and his fiery Judgments be multiplied upon you which none can stop or quench for yet the day of your Visitation is not wholly past Thomas Taylor God's Controversie with England declared Or A Warning-Word by way of Reproof to the Inhabitants thereof even to such as Forget God and are adding one Sin unto another UPon the second Day of the fifth Month 1661. as I Travelled under the Burdens of the People the Lord God of everlasting Power Glory Wisdom and Righteousness said unto me with a strong hand write my Controversie with this Rebellious People of England who are Wise to do evil but to do good will have no Knowledge who proceed from evil to worse and Fear not me at all saith the Lord God whose Iniquities are greatly increased against me and to such a height do the Floods of their Vngodliness make haste to arise that all the Measures will be quickly full And then Woe Woe unto them saith the dreadful and holy One. For thus saith the Lord I will Overturn Overturn until you wicked and profane multitude be no more Even until you O People whose Ears are wholly shut against the good be consumed and brought to nothing For your Iniquities do burden my Righteous Soul saith God and Sodom was not more grievous to me than you are For O what studying and striving is in thy Multitude how they may exceed in their Vanities in their Riotings Drinkings Revelings and Heathenish Abominations Hath not my Soul considered saith God what you have done both the last Year and this under pretence of honouring your King What do you think by dishonouring Me to honour your King You and your King if he allow of your doings will I severely Judge saith the Lord God except ye speedily Repent and all look better to your Ways than hitherto you have done O consider this ye forgetters of God ye filthy hearted People how have ye made the Land to stink before me with your Abominations O I have seen saith God how wickedly and with a high hand as it were in despight of me you set up your May poles that accursed thing the last Year and I warned you of it and called ye to Repentance but as if I had said nothing you have doubled your wickedness in the same thing this Year also to provoke my Soul to arise up against you to your hurt And the Beâ—som on the top of some of them signifies that I will sweep the Land of evil doers And surely it shall come to pass that if ye will not yet repent of your wickedness that I will plague you with the Plagues of Egypt and I will do such things amongst you in my Judgment and fury poured forth that the Nations about that hear thereof shall stand amazed at thee O Revolted and Back-slided Nation whither at thou gone already and whither wilt thou run if thou be suffered to go on Into the Pit that thou art stept already and into the nether most Hell thou wilt fall if I let thee
alone But I will arise saith God I will execute Righteous Judgment in thee with fire and sword will I plead with thee and thy mighty Men shall fall with thee who sing thy Song and take part with thy Lewdness and strengthen thy ungodly hands in thy wicked ways and say in their hearts O this is a good day these are good Subjects this is the time we have long looked for now we reign now we may do what we will and who shall controul us who who shall hinder us from filling our selves with all manner of delights now we are settled in our way now will we Build our decayed Houses and Restore our fallen Worships now will we Repair the broken Fences of our Parks that we may have Game to the full now shall our Horses be well fed for the Race that they may fully please us now let the Cock-Pits be looked to for that cruel Sport and let our Bowling-Alleys be well Dressed for our daily Recreation now shall the Stage-players for our delight have their full Liberty and all the Sons of Vanity have due Encouragement for the Old things we Love and that which is New though never so much the Better our souls Loath We like the Old Ways of our Fathers because when they had Lord-Bishops and their Minister Services with Mattens and Evensongs with Organs and Singing-boys and such like Things then there was Peace and Plenty and when the Neighbourhood could meet together and sit about a Bone-fire or May-pole or under a Bower and drink strong Drink and tell Stories and Sing and Roar then there was Love and Agreement And when Plays and Pastimes and Wakes were duly frequented and observed then was it a Merry Time and a Joyful Land and all went well in all those Days when such Things were on foot And when those that said they scared the Lord and so could not join with us but rather Witnessed against us and Reproved us for such Things were taken a Course withal O then was it a good Day say many And as it was then so would we have it now saith your vain and wicked Hearts O ye fallen Sons and Daughters of Adam And I see you saith the Lord God with both your bands endeavouring these Things and abusing my Power if possible to set up the Devil's Kingdom with it And thus quite contrary to my Ordinance saith the Lord are you become as a Terrour to the Good and â—n Encouragement to them that do Evil and mine Eye seeth you right well and my Heart considereth you thorowly and I cannot Love you for Prophaneness and Hypocrisie is your Covering and you are as the cloaths of a Menstruous Woman in my sight Away with your vain Worships saith God my soul loaths your Sabbaths and Services thereon yea your Sacraments are a burden to me I hate your Prayers Praises Professions and Confessions for you mend not your lives and doings at all I will stir up my Jealousie and it shall kindle like flames of fire upon you and utterly consume the joy of your Hearts and for joy the bitterest of sorrows shall seize upon you and you shall become a burden to your selves except you speedily Repent and turn to the Lord God from whom you are far gone away For I have a long time held my Peace saith the Lord but now I will cry like a Travelling Woman I will destroy and devour at once I will lay waste the Mountains and the Hills because they have not answered my Power with fruits of Righteousness to me And the Multitudes of People who are as Grashoppers in thy Bowels devouring every green thing and spending my Creatures upon their Lusts not regarding my Glory at all shall be as heaps of Fuel for the fire of my Jealousie and it shall kindle upon them and none shall quench it neither shall it cease burning till I have consumed thy Dross and appeased my Wrath in the Consumption of thy Wicked Ones saith the Lord God For Tophet is prepared of old for the Purposes of my Heart according to the Scriptures saith the Holy One through his Servant Thomas Taylor A Faithful Warning to Outside Professors and Loose Pretenders to Christianity of all sorts COme all ye Professors of Scripture upon the Face of the whole Earth under what form soever what have ye learned hitherto of all ye profess Have ye learned to Fear God and keep his Commandments Have ye learned thus to Love God And do you love your Neighbour as your selves Do ye not profess to love God above all things and your Neighbour as your selves Is this done What will a profession of words commend you to God where the Obedience is a wanting O thou that art called Christendom how art thou fallen How art thou become the Plant of a degenerate Vine How are thy Grapes become as those of Sodom who shall bring healing to thee who hast rejected the Balm of Gilead that the Father brought to thee O thou foolish Child how hast thou trifled out thy precious Time about Toys and Trifles and hast not regarded the Voice of thy Maker who hath waited all day long to gather thee and to do thee good but thou wouldst not Thou hast chosen the worse part in that thou hast forsaken the Lord the Fountain of Living Waters and hast hewed and chosen to thy self a Cistern that will hold no Water Thou art gone into the ways of the Old World upon whom the Flood came And which of those Sins for which Sodom burned are a wanting in thee O! the pure River of Life that would quench thy Thirst how is it slighted and neglected by thee and therefore art thou utterly unsatisfied in whatsoever thou dost or attempts to do Thou art never able to satiate thy Soul with husks Thou must come into the Father's House before thou hast Bread enough But thou say'st in thy Heart Thou art a Queen yea That thou art Rich and indued with Goods and hast need of nothing When as alas in the true Light thou art seen to be Miserable Poor Wretched Blind and Naked A long Course hast thou run but the promised end thou hast not reached Thou hast been like a bewildred Sheep running from Mountain to Hill to find a resting place where no rest is Thou camest indeed a little out of Egypt But O! how soon didst thou turn back again thither from whence thou came and loved the Flesh-Pots of Egypt yea the Onions and Garlick better than God's Manna in the Wilderness Thou should'st have followed the Lord perfectly unto the Land of Rest in Patience and silence of Spirit under his voice and teachings But thou grew weary of waiting upon thy God and saw Images of things on Earth and Images of things in Heaven and bowed thy Heart to them and didst not keep thy Heart to the power that broke thro' the Darkness for thee Nor didst thou keep thy Eye to the Light of Life that freely shined out of Darkness for to
Vnclean shall not enter God's Kingdom and without Holiness none can see God Here ye may see your Way to be to the Chambers of Hell and Death and not to Christ And all ye Swearers Vain and Obscene Talkers and Foolish Jesters whose Tongues run through the World And as you know no Limit to your Lusts so you know no Bridle to your Tongue Your Religion is vain Jam. 1.26 Bring your Deeds to the Light there you may read your Condemnation For there is that in your Conscience tells you according to Scripture that for every idle vain unclean or prophane Word â—hat Men shall speak they must give Account thereof to the Pure and Just God in the Day of Judgment How then ye Guilâ—y and be humbled for your Sins lest that Day come suddenly upon you as a Thief in the Night and sweep you all away as it did the Old Woâ—ld who regarded not the Day of their Visitation but went on in their Sins until there was no Remedy Awake awake ye Dead and Careless-hearted who put the Day of the Lord afar off and cry Peace when there is no Peace For what Peace to the Wicked There is no Peace to the Wicked saith the true God but Peace only upon Zion and to such as turn from Iniquity in Jacob. So let not one take the Name of Christ in their Mouth any more until they depart from Iniquity For such as go on in the Custom and daily Practice of Sin and yet think to cover themselves with and Outward Profession of Christ do but deceive themselves and increase their Condemnation adding Sin to Sin This is God's Truth which he that hath an Ear let him hear and he that hath any Desire in him to return to God let him consider of and give Glory to God by Repenting of that which doth any way dishonour God Also this know for truth That your Invented Licentious Gaming for Vain Delights and Pleasures is not of God but an Invention of that Wicked One who is called the Devil and Satan Invented to please the Vain and Empty Minds of his Children and Servants which are out of the Law and Truth of God But the Children and Servants of God are full of Goodness and are exercised in the Law and Truth of God Day and Night and so deny the Devil and his Works So let no Man deceive any of you neither be deceived in your selves for the Judge is at the Door And the True Light is arisen which makes manifest every Work and the Reward of it for Ever And all ye Stage-Players Puppet-Players and the Authors and Inventors of such things with all that love such Heathenish Things yea and give your Money for them that thereby ye may feed the Covetous Lusts in the Players that thirst after Money and the Vain Lust of your own defiled Eyes and Ears which are after Pleasures more than the Lord God that made you Know this That your Works are all weighed in an equal Ballance and by the Light of Christ you are all seen to be out of the Doctrine of Christ in the Heathenish Nature upholding and practising those things which Christ came to destroy Yea and by the Light of Christ in your own Consciences when you are a little sober and still in your Minds you know you should not do such things Here you also have learn'd your Condemnation and cannot in this State stand before the Lord because of your Sins And all ye that can please your selves with beholding one Creature hurt and torment another yea sometimes even to Death as at Bull baitings Bear baitings Cook fightings and the like O! what Minds have ye and how contrary are ye herein to the Tender Nature of Christ and all Christians truly so call'd who could never Rejoice in any such things by reason of their tender pitiful and merciful Nature O ye Children of Cruelty when will your Hearts break your stony Hearts melt into Tears before the Lord for all your mighty Sins And when will you bring your Deeds to the Light that ye may see the Ugliness of your Sins and repent of them lest the Judgments written fall upon you for them as it did upon all such from the beginning of the World and there be no escape O England England How hast thou defiled thy self by thine Iniquities How is the Flood-gate of Sin broken open in thee to the polluting of thy Land O how art thou wholly over-spread with Briars and Thorns and Weeds so that the Lord must arise to purge thee by Fire seeing thou hast refused to wash in that pure Water of Life that sprung up in thee So if thou hast an Ear hear before it be too late and the Door be shut Thomas Taylor YE Feasters ye Gamesters ye Drunkards and Gluttons ye False Christians whose God is your Belly and whose Care is how you may satisfie your Ungodly Lusts you are Enemies to the Cross of Christ Yea you Crucifie Christ afresh to your selves and put him to open Shame by your Lewd Living The Hand of the Lord is against you ye Prophane Esau's who have sold and are selling your Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage When will ye Awake when will ye Arise from off your sinful Bed where you cry Peace to your selves in your Sins When will ye lay to Heart the Apostle's Doctrine ye Common Sinners who proudly boast of your Common Prayers and yet depart not from your Iniquities Is not the Sacrifice of the Wicked an Abomination to God And will God regard your Prayers whilst you so love and regard your Iniquities and walk so contrary to the Doctrine of Christ Doth not the Apostle say Make no provision for the Flesh to satisfie it in the Lusts thereof and ye in a direct Opposition and Hatred to this Doctrine make all provision for the Flesh to fulfil and satisfie it every way in the Lust thereof And so your Table is as the Table of Devils and not of Saints and ye cannot both partake of the Table of Devils and the Table of Christ the Apostle being Witness So howl ye Sinners and Vngodly People and be humbled for all your Lewdnesses and repent of all your Whoredoms whereby ye have gone a Whoring from the Life of Christ and his Saints And let your Feastings be turned into Fastings and your Laughters and Merriments be turn'd into Lamentations and bitter Mournings for the Misery that is to come upon you from the Presence of the Lord in the Day of his Fierce Wrath which is nigh to come and be revealed upon you in Flames of Fire for all your mighty Sins O ye that are so contrary to Christ be humbled before the Lord for all your Hypocrisies who say You are come out of Popery and yet continue in some of their Idolatrous Customs as this Prophane keeping of the time which ye in Imitation call Christmas among other Superstitions whereby ye shew your selves to be too near of Kin to that Whorish Woman
Almighty both in their own Consciences and the Mouth of God's Servants and Holy Witness of Truth in the Scriptures which notwithstanding all these their Abominations many of them profess to be their Rule But know O Man whoever thou art or whatsoever Profession thou art of that that 's thy God and Ruler and Father and Teacher and Way whose Commands thou lovest and whose Works thou dost and whose Will in the inward of thy Mind thou clofest with As Christ said to those Lyars false Accusers and Murderers in his Day John 8.44 c. Ye are of your Father the Devil for his Works ye will do he was a Lyar and Murderer from the beginning So thou that goest from the Light of God in thee which shews thee thy Sin and the evil Lustings and Desires of thy Flesh and Mind thou goest from God and from his Fear and from the Way of Peace And so thou going from this and joyning to evil Motions of Sin in thy Flesh and corrupted Mind thou joynest to the Devil and so bringest forth Sin which is the Devil's Work and the Wages of every such Work is Death And so in the very moment of time in which thou dost the evil Work whatsoever it be contrary to God's Light in thee thou dyest the Death and so remainest dead from the Life of God and his blessed Righteousness until the Day of true Repentance and Amendment of Life And then what will it profit thee to have gained the World or Victory over thy Neighbour or Satisfaction to thy Lusts to the Loss of thy Soul's Life Therefore Arise Arise Awake Awake O all Nations and People Come forth to the Judgment of this great Day of God Almighty For now is the effect of every Vision to be known and felt in the Earth and the High Towers of the City of Confusion the Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots shall fall to the Ground and the Mountain of the House of the Lord shall be exalted over all yea the Lord alone and his Righteousness and Truth and Peaceable Kingdom on the Top of all shall stand and no Weapon formed against him and his People shall ever prosper any more And how is it O all Nations Kings and People that ye are not yet willing after so long a time knocking at the Gates of your Cities and Doors of your Hearts that ye will not open to the King of Glory Christ Jesus the Light that lighteth every one that cometh into the World that he may come in and be Judge Lawgiver and King in the midst of you that the Desire of all Nations may come and be Head in all For what is it that the Soul that God hath made in all Nations doth desire but to see it self unburthened of that grievous Corruption which hath defiled it and to be delivered from that Body of Sin and Death which hath and doth so imbondage it from the beginning until the Day of Christ's Power be known within to work the Work of God and to destroy the Work of the Devil and to save the Soul from its Sin and to present it spotless to God which is the true Salvation indeed Now this is my Witness for God amongst the Servants and Redeemed of the Lord this Day whom the World in Scorn calls Quakers who am a Sufferer with them for the Kingdom of God's sake That there is none can thus know the Day of Christ's Power to Salvation but as they believe and receive that Light of God and Christ which they be freely enlightened withal which shines in their very Hearts and Consciences which searcheth their very Hearts and Reins and maketh manifest to Man his Thoughts and from which none can hide any thing but all things are naked and bare before him the Light Christ Jesus who lighteth every Man that cometh into the World Jew and Gentile one and other who searcheth the most hidden things of Man and brings them forth to the Judgment of his Righteousness For though the Night may hide the Adulterer and the Thief from Man it hides them not from God there is one nigh in the Heart and Conscience that tells Man and Woman all that ever they have done and do daily do even their secret Thorghts Is not this the Christ of God the true Messiah that was to come and is come and dwells amongst us And we look not for another and of his Fulness have all we received and do daily receive who believe in his Light which shines in our Hearts according to the Scriptures of Truth And this the Fulness of our Blessed God and Saviour Jesus Christ the Light is it which filleth all that come to him with all Spiritual Blessings and Heavenly good Things and without whom all is Darkness Emptiness Death and Desolation as all the poor deceived lost Sons and Daughters of the faln Adam do sooner or later know and are made to confess But blessed are they that consider of things in time and lay things to Heart before it be too late For there are but Twelve Hours in a Day in which Men may work saith Chriff and then the Night cometh in which no Man can work But the Door will be shut upon all who have slighted and neglected the Day of their Visitation Oh England England and all Lands far and near that you had known or could yet believe the things that belong to your Everlasting Peace before they be hid from your Eyes Therefore turn ye turn ye at the Reproofs of God's Wisdom and Spirit of Light and Truth which sounds through all and lets you see the Vanity and Evil of all your Works and Frailty of all your Lives how soon the Thread of your Life is out off and then where are the great Emperors and Kings with all their Crowns And where are the great Captains and Commanders with all their Bloody Victories And where are the Wise Achitophel's and Cunning Counsellors of the Earth with all their Admirers And where are the Covetous Oppressors with all their Houses full of the Spoils of the Innocent Yea in that Day where is all the Glory and Lusts of the World with all the Lovers of it Surely in Darkness and Misery shall they lye down together and Death shall have Dominion over them even all who have not believed in the Light Christ Jesus and who have not followed him in the Regeneration that they might be saved but have spent their Days in the Pleasures and Lusts of the present Evil World to Destruction Now therefore O all People Hearken to the Counsel of the Lord in this your Day and learn of the Lamb the Light who calls you to Repentance from all your grievous Ways How long shall the Spirit of the Lord strive with you When will you cease learning War and Destruction and Oppression and Spoil O when will you beat your Swords into Plow-shares and your Spears into Pruning-hooks O when will you go and say one to another
say They will not pay us they will not put into our Mouths they will buy none of our Merchandize any more Alas alas our great City But for all their Crying God will not hear nor help them for they have left off to do good and God hath shaken his Hand at their dishonest Gain and the Son of God in his Ever-blessed Light is arisen and is at Work to lead out of Darkness the Souls of the Simple that they may know him alone to be their Priest Minister and Teacher and may not be a Prey any longer to the Wolf in the Sheep's Clothing the Wolf who is inwardly gone from God and ravenned into the dark Wilderness and hath stollen the Saints and Christ's Words and makes a Trade on them to deceive withal for filthy Lâ—cre Wo unto them they have gone in the Way of Cain and after the Error of Balaam for worldly Ends 2 Pet. 2. throughout Rev. 12.7 5 10. and shall pâ—rish iâ— the gainsaying of the Truth as Core did And the Lamb shall have the Victory and the Lord is at Work leading his Flock by the Streams of Living Waters Glory to his Name for ever And what shall I only complain of the Unrighteousness and declare of the Downfall of the Kingdom of false Teachers and Hirelings amongst the Turks or of the Proud Imperious Prelates of the dark Seed of Rome Or shall I not rather come nearer home to wit to the Place of my outward Nativity the Land of Old England who pretend to be neither of the Spirit of Turks nor Papists but People of the Reformed Religion called Protestants as who should say Protesters against Romish Usurpations and Antichristian Innovations But alas to the Shame of thy Nakedness O England England there is found in thee a Conspiracy a Company of lewd and treacherous Men Jer. 13. who stand over thee as Teachers covered with black both inwardly and outwardly who wear a black Garment now as the false Prophets of old wore a rough Garment to deceive who cry Give give and can never have enough for they are as Graves and if one put not into their Mouths they bite with their Teech and prepare War against them Micah 3. Suing People at Law for Wages for whom they do Work most unreasonable of all Men and contrary to all other People Reaping where they never Sowed neither Spiritual nor Temporal Seed they claim the Tenth of such Men's Labours and Increase as they themselves excommunicate out of their Synagogues and in their false Judgment judge to Hell What! doth not the Destruction of their Souls seem enough but you must destroy their Estates and Families and sometimes their Body and Life also by long and unheard-of Imprisonments and Plunderings Shall not the Nations of the World who profess not as you the Priests and Prelates of England do rise up in Judgment against you For which of the Priests in Turkey or Rome are more eager for their Bellies than you are What Means do you leave unessayed against those who for Conscience sake cannot put into your Mouths Will any whose Eyes are open believe you to be Ministers of the Gospel who rather than lose a little of the Earth will expose both your selves and your Gospel to all the Blame and Shame that may be The very Name of Tythes shews you to be Jewish and of Easter-Reckonings and such like to be Popish and now where is your Reformation You may well confess there is no Health in you who have so palpably done and do what you ought not to have done Isa 14.5 and left undone what you ought to have done as in your Custom you confess Health nay nay how should you have any Spiritual Health in you who live in such manifest Oppâ—siâ—ion to the Spirit of Christ Jesus the Heavenly Physician Christ Jesus saith to his Disciples Freely you have received freely give but you are all for Money and great Farthly Revenues that you may live in Pride Idleness and Fulness of Bread Christ saith Seek ye first the Kingdom of God but your Care is how to get great Livings and Fat Benefices and as for the Heavenly Kingdom Mat. 13. which Christ compared to a Grain of Mustard-seed you neither know it nor are willing to learn you will neither enter into it your selves Mat. 23. nor suffer others but by your Traditions you shut it up against Men. Christ saith to his Swear not at all but you teach for Doctrine that Christians may Swear Mat. 5.34 37. James 5.12 and you do Swear not only before the Magistrates but even some of you in your ordinary Communication yea and which is most Abominable in your very Church-Service compelling the Men called Church-wardens to Swear and that oftentimes with an Unwillingness of Heart and Condemnation of Conscience to perform your Church-Offices which lays a kind of Impossibility upon them Oh sad may it not be said The Land mourns because of Oaths What have you no Shame nor Care of your Credit that can do such things in the open Sun â—os 4.2 3. and not blush Will you never open your Eyes a little to see your Works What do you mean to do Or where will you hide your selves in the Day of God's Judgments when he calls you to an Account and pleads with you in Flames of Fire for all your mighty Sins Do you indeed believe 2 Thess 1.8 as in words you say That you regenerate the little Infants by sprinkling a little Water on its Face and speaking a â—ew words of your own devising over it which it knows nothing of Go you indeed I say believe That by this kind of Baptism they are made the Children of God the Members of Christ and Inheritors of the Kingdom of God Or do you not rather do these Things to get Money by Oh Cursed Covetousness Mat. 13.15 the Root of all Evil Oh how it hath drowned your Souls in Perdition how it hath blinded your Hearts that you can see nothing of the Kingdom of God You bring in a Company of poor deluded Souls who follow you blind Guides to promise for the little Infant That it shall forsake the Devil and all his Works then what shall these bold Promisers suffer if the Child do not so Will they or you their Teachers for them be content to suffer the Pains of Hell the Reward of such as break Covenant with God And when will you see that this Custom of undertaking for the little Infants greatly derogates from the Honour of Christ who is the only Undertaker for Man towards God But what if a Child through Grace be so strengthned when it grows up as to see your Wretchedness and so to forsake and bear Testimony against all the Works of the Evil One that are done amongst you Will you not call him Heretick and put him out of your Synagogues Yea yea for you can have no Fellowship with any that have Health
Christ his Honour grutch And do not rather such rebuke and say If you 'll not Hear we 'll quickly turn away And shake your Dust from off us we 'll be free From you and yours that all may truly see We are not such as would our selves advance Nor Mens Estates of any sort inhance But seek to set up Christ to be the Head Of all things in all Worlds with Fear and Dread And thus it was with Good and Godly Men In the beginning of the Gospel when The Spirit of the Lord did teach them what to say And Men did walk i' th' Sun-shine of the Day Before I say that Pope and Turk arose Who to Christ's Kingdom are Professed Foes And would themselves set up o're th' Sons of Men To Rule as Gods that neither Tongue nor Pen Might Publish ought but what their Heads devise Whose Wisdom out of the dark Pit doth rise And which for Ages hath spread over all To bring the Souls of many into thrall But now the Lord of Great and Endless Power Is making bare the skirts of that great Whore And giving double of his Furious Cup To such as of her Wine still dare to Sup It 's her strong Poysoned Wine that makes Men mad In Persecuting of the Just O sad That ever any who do Christ Profess In Words should seek his Members to Distress So then if you be Wise you 'll search and see How from that Monst'rous Haâ—lot you are free For if in Hand or Head her Mark you bear The Lord amongst his Enemies will you tear If you your Ways Reform not which are ill He will not spare he will your Glory spill He 'll Fight against you with his Fiery Word Which Kills and Slays as doth a two edg'd Sword Live in Deceit and turn which way you will His Sword will reach you and your Cup will fill With Woes and Sorrows and sad Acclamations The just Reward o' th' Wicked in each Nation Yea tho' the Name of Christians you may bear Yet it 's his Nature must the Lawrel wear For Christ your Persons doth not now Regard But as your Works are he will you Reward If you 'll not give a Reason of your Faith But Trample under Foot what any saith Concerning things that are amiss amongst you And to the Powers cry out they hate and wrong ye And thus with Fig-leaves seek from Men to hide Your Crying Sins of Avarice and Pride And Persecution and instead of mending Still Harbour Evil Thoughts which tend to Rending Then know for certain in a Moment God Will Visit you with his Almighty Rod And you who have not Visited in Love His suffering Servants will his Enemies prove And when his Peoples Sufferings are Compleat Then they shall Feed when you shall pine for Meat So be it And if the Writers Name in Writing you would see A Lover of God a Lover of Man is he This is my Natures Name which shall Remain When Sinful Men are Dead and all Disdain And God the Worker of my Souls Salvation Shall Rule and Reign as Head in every Nation And though the Devil fret yet Truth shall stand Over all and be the King in every Land for evermore Amen And to you called Church-wardens and Sideâ—men how weak is your Hearts and how slavish are your Minds through unbelief become that you cannot withstand and avoid such a manifest Temptation and Danger as to come under and Swear to the Bishops Articles for which of you either do or can or intend to Perform according to what you seem therein to engage your selves unto And that which is sad to consider the more ready you are to Engage and the more observant in the Performance the more Miserable oftentimes are you for thereby you must not only accuse the Drunkard and Swearer your own Mothers Sons but even the People of God also for their pure Consciences sake and so you had need all and every one of you Repent lest the Lord Swear in his Wrath against you that you shall never enter into his Rest as he did against those that had grieved him Forty Years in the Wilderness Thomas Taylor Certain Queries Propounded to the People called Anabaptists especially to such as believe and hold forth that Water-baptism is an Ordinance and Command of Christ Jesus the Door of Entrance into the True Church and so of such Absolute Necessity as that there can be no True Gospel-Church-Fellowship without it 1. WHAT do you believe concerning the Baptism of John the Son of Zacharias the Priest who was sent to Baptize in Water Was he in and under a pure Evangelical Office and Ministration and his Baptism in Water a Gospel Ordinance to continue to the end of the World If yea prove it by plain Scripture 2. What do you believe concerning the Witness or Prophesie of John Recorded John 3.30 I must decrease but he to wit Christ who was to Baptize with the Holy Ghost John 1.33 must increase Did he speak this of his own Person and of the Person of Christ or of the Office and Administrations which they respectively were sent to Execute and Administer If of the Persons then tell us how and wherein the Person of John decreased and how and wherein the Person of Christ increased and whether that saying Recorded Mat. 11. He that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John was spoken of or in relation to John's Person also and not concerning his Office or Ministration 3. Is that Baptism which you Administer and so earnestly press People unto John's or Christ's seeing John himself did expresly distinguish betwixt his Baptizing in Water and the Baptism which Christ was to Baptize in John 1.26 And Christ also and his Apostles did distinguish betwixt John's Baptism and the Baptism of the Holy Ghost Acts. 1.5 Luke 20.4 Acts 13 24 and Chap. 18.25 26. Chap. 19.3 4. into which Christ Baptized Mark 1.8 And are these distinct diverse or several Baptisms Or do you believe that they are but one Baptism and so no distinction to be put betwixt them If yea then tell us upon what Ground and Certainty you would have us believe you seeing therein you agree not in Doctrine with John nor with Christ and his Apostles 4. Is that Baptism which you Administer a Figure of the Spiritual Washing away of Sins by the Blood of Christ and of Plunging into his Name Spirit and Life Or is the outward Water in which you Baptize and your Act of Baptizing that is Plunging or Dipping in it really Sanctified to the doing of it and so consequently doth that Work and so no Sign Type nor Figure Tell us plainly what you your selves believe concerning it 5. Do you believe that those mentioned Acts 19. on whom Paul laid his Hands and the Holy Ghost came upon them who were Baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus and had before that been Baptized in or unto John's Baptism who Baptized in Water were they then again