the heart is not upright before the LORD but their bones are full of Rottenness And would not this very Generation make a mock of Christ if Christ should come to ask of them What was your Father Adam Did my Father say that he was a Gentleman when he was made in his uprightness â—or your Mother Eve a Gentlewoman as the proud deceitful flesh among you are titled Gentlemen and Gentlewomen What was Abel Seth and Enoch Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob Moses Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel Job Micha Zechary and the rest of the Prophets were they such Gentlemen as you Or if Christ should say was I reckoned such a Gentleman as you who was by such transgressors as you are numbred among transgressors Was Peter Paul Matthew Mark Luke or John Gentlemen such as you are If Christ should ask you these things would not you laugh at him and mock at him as the Jews laughed and mocked him upon the Crosse And now I ask you which of you is better than they were And further Where did any of the Apostles or Disciples or Brethren say one to another You are my Lord Sir I am your slave Sir with pulling off of Hats one to another and making great bowings one to another Where do you find that that was the manner of their salutation and greeting one another which you hold in deceit one towards another Yet these Gentlemen of your nature besides that Name in their cursed nature will say We are Christians and Christ is our Lord and Saviour Mat. 7.21 22. But I will tell you what Christ will say to such yea unto many such as will say Lord Lord In thy Name we have done many miracles in thy Name we have cast out Devils your Gentlemen are far from that of casting out Devils and if the Lord Christ will say to them Depart you cursed workers of Iniquity I know you not think you will he say lesse to your Gentlemen Again you that call Christ Lord hear you what the Lord Christ said unto such as you are Luke 6.46 Why call ye me LORD and do not the things which I say Now this Christ said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy mind and with all thy soul and thy neighbour as thy self Paul witnessed to it Rom. 8.4 John 14.15 John 2.4 That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And again saith Christ He that loveth me keepeth my Commandments Unto which John bears Testimony saying Whosoever saith he knows God and keeps not his Commandments is a lyar So you are here brought to proof and tryal whether GOD is your LORD or the Prince of the power of darknesse he that was a Lyar from the beginning your principal Head and Ruler let that of GOD the Light in all your Consciences Answer Psa 50.16 17. How dare you take my Name in your mouthes saith GOD whilst you hate to be reformed This is to you also that take God's Name in vain when your hearts are vain and exercised in vanity and telling vain stories and speaking about vain things GOD will not hold you guiltless that take his Name in vain and the Name of Jesus in vain Exod. 20.7 yet you would have the Name of Christians because you confesse Christ to have been slain at Jerusalem but that will not serve you though also you call him Lord whilst you keep not the Commandments of the Lord. For I enquire among you all concerning the Lord of Life whether you know him to be daily crucified in your streets which spiritually are called Sodom and Egypt Revel 11.8 Here Christ is but called Lord with that Iniquity which for the love of the unrighteous Mammon call men Masters and Lords and saith I am your Servant Sir I am your Slave Sir whilst that is but a flattering Lye And here they flatter others with Lyes and flatter themselves with Lyes and in Lyes and are so vain in their Imaginations that they would flatter GOD with Lyes But GOD will make you all to know that he will not be mocked Gal. 6.7 Wherefore I say unto you that in vain hopes you expect Salvation whose pleasure is to persevere in Iniquity who are bound in the Womb of Witch-crafts in the loathsomness of all manner of unrighteousness If Noah Daniel and Job were among you Ezek. 14.14 their righteousness should but save themselves and but onely Jesus the Righteousness of GOD intercede for them or if Paul Peter and Mary were among this Generation of loathsome sinners their righteousness should but only save themselves and Jesus the only Intercessor and Mediator but only Intercede for them So wherein you hope to die the death of the Just and so to receive the Inheritance of the Just and live not the life of the Just I tell you nay The Inheritance of the Just will not be yours who live not the Life of the Just Your hope in the end Remember in vengeance when you are under wrath that I told you before mark the end their hope is the hope of the Hypocrite and their trust is as a Spider's-web Job 8.13 14. Luke 16.20 21 22 23 24 25. Isa 3.18 to 24. you that are called Gentlemen and Gentlewomen who live in your lusts and pleasures Read you your Figure as in a Glass the Scripture concerning the Rich man and Lazarus Read the Torment of Dives and mark his portion and consider your latter end Judah and Jerusalem had a day of warning whose Inhabitants were adorned with all manner of bravery and tinkling Ornaments with chains and bracelets and ornaments of the leggs and ear-rings and rings and changable suits of apparrel wimples and crisping-pins and glasses and fine linen and hoods and vails but the LORD GOD changed the glory of their Liberty and brought them down into Captivity Let their Sufferings be your Example and remember when Suffering comes upon you that you were warned to Repent And now you that would know the true adorning let me tell you what Peter witnesseth to be the true adorning he saith Let it not be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparrel but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price Now what will you all say for your selves who in your life are enemies to the Life walking contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostle Peter Deceive not your Souls if you would chuse to dye the death of the Just to have the Inheritance of the Just You must all choose first to come to the Light in all your Consciences which reproves you for all your sins and wickedness and following the Light which comes from Christ and none other Guide it will lead you to the Life
of the Just where none other Guide can lead you unto Christ the true Light of the World who is the Shepherd and Leader of his little Flock unto pleasant Pastures who are despised and hated of the wicked sinful World even as our Lord and Shepherd was before us But now is the LORD GOD coming to judge for his own whose we are and not our own The Ground of Idolatry in the Heart NOw I would shew you the Ground in which an Idol is made and in which Idolatry is brought forth Exod. 32.1 4. Whilst Moses was in the Mount and out of the Camp the Children of Israel consulted together and with Aaron the Priest and made a Calf and Worshipped it Ezek. 40.14 As for the Heathen in these dayes they have the Images of things visibly before them and do bow their heads unto them but as for the house of Israel they have set up their Idols in their hearts Now come you and examine all your hearts and let that of God in you answer me Paul the Apostle said Col. 3.5 Covetousness is Idolatry In that heart which is covetous the Image of Caesar the Image of the Prince of the Nation his Superscription Mark and Stamp in the Gold Silver and Brasse that 's the god which he serves that is the Idol in his heart the love of the Mammon is planted in his heart Now that heart Christ saith cannot serve GOD because the unrighteous Mammon is master in the heart Matth. 6.24 master of the mind master of the affection and master of the secret thoughts and there is no spirit to serve GOD for the mind is in the Mammon and it cannot serve GOD. Again Such as are proud having great Possessions in the Earth and go vain-gloriously in gay Apparrel which seek for the honour which comes from man and which love to be called Master and Lord and to be said unto I am your servant Sir and I am your slave Sir such are Unbelievers saith Christ Joh. 5.44 which seek honour one from another they have not Faith for they are not faithful in their life in obedience to Christ's Words who saith Be not you called of men Masters for one is your Lord Matth. 23.8 10. which is in Heaven Now their glory in the flesh is the Idol set up in their hearts here GOD is dishonoured by that cursed Image in the heart and Idol of vain-glory in the heart for the Scriptures say All Glory belongs to GOD. So when the heart lusteth after any Glory and sets up Glory in his mind that is a strange god and that strange god hath the glory and not the True GOD that is one of the gods of the Earth which will not save but shall be destroyed with the worshipper of the false god Again Some are Drunkards others Gluttons Whoremongers Whores and Thieves I would have all these also to know the Image and Idol which is set up in their hearts and the faln god which they worship with their affections and all their hearts which the true Eternal GOD will destroy Phil. 5.19 Lust and pleasure is their god as the Apostle saith Whose belly is their god who mind earthly things But whilst their hearts and affections take pleasure in the things of the flesh and so worship the Idol and false god in their hearts with the love of their hearts which part that is to say the whole heart the True GOD requires they are but fatting themselves to be fit for destruction which shall surely overtake them with the sore displeasure of the True GOD. Again Others love to see the Pictures of their Friends and Kinred and Children and the Pictures of the Patriarchs and Apostles and Christ and Mary and the Pictures of Wild-Beasts of the Field and the Tame Beasts of the Field and the Fowls of the Air and the Fish of the Sea and the Creeping-things of the Earth and so that eye which takes pleasure in the sight of these Pictures le ts in the love of them into the heart and so unto many mine eye hath seen in the Counsel of GOD these things have been a double Image and a double Idol as the Image and Idol of the Heathen and the Image and Idol of Israel an Image and an Idol without which they have bowed unto and kissed upon a piece of Board or against a Wall and upon a piece of Paper or cut out of an intire body of Wood GOD's Vengeance and Plagues and Indignation will smite the hearts of all such Idol-worshippers which worship Images and Pictures without and let in the love of these things into their hearts then it becomes the god of the heart also here GOD is not known among such to be all in all for where an Image or an Idol a false god within or without stands the True GOD is nothing at all to them or in them until He shall be known to them all in Vengeance and Fury against them all Now I would shew you further that those things may be made an Idol and an Image in the heart which GOD once commanded To which end Jeremiah spake unto the House of Judah saying Jer. 7.4 Trust you not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are these when he was sent to cry against the Temple which GOD once commanded to be built that His Name might be sanctified therein Then the Temple was all glorious within as I am speaking after the manner of men without as it was also glorious within in the Substance whilst the Jews were kept to within where the Substance was known but when an Eye was open in them to let in the glory of the Temple without then they were turned from the glory of the Temple in the Substance and so GOD forsook their Temple 2 Cor. 6 16 19. Now saith Paul Your Body is the Temple of the living GOD and he that now shall set up Love and not the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World which is CHRIST the Love which cometh from GOD GOD is Love 1 John 4.16 1 Joh. 1.5 and GOD is Light So he that sets up another Love than the Light and hath in his heart another Love than the Light he sets up a false god and worships an Image and is an Idolater in the substance though his love be to make long Prayers or to read the Scriptures or to hear Sermons or to sing Psalms or to give Alms and all his Goods to the Poor and his Body to be burnt being out of the Light which reproveth all sin in the Conscience and reproveth all false love in the Conscience Matth. 6.5 the love of that which would be seen of men or have praise of men that which leads to be spoken well of men for his words or for his works or for his Religion that is the false love in the hearts of the Heathen
person where that of God in the conscience rules which respects no man's person 1 Kin. 3 24. here the Sword divides aright It gives a whole living Child to the true mother and the harlot set to be stoned without the Camp this makes the heart of the Righteous glad and so the whole Land becomes as God's Israel in which the showers of blessing and mercy flow for ever whose dwellers plagues come not to touch And this is the offering which God requires among you true Iudgement and Iustice to be executed upon the head of the transgressor without mercy But mercy to the Poor the Widdow the Fatherlesse and Oppressed and not to pervert the way of the stranger to turn him out of his way and all to be done and executed by the measuring line of true Judgement that of God in your consciences to order all your Lawes Acts and Ordinances that when God comes Innocent blood may not be found in your Land for which God is coming to visit and where the measure is scant and the ballances falsified God will find out the Iniquity and overturn it and make all as a plain before him and plant such in the Nations for his service as shall not bear the Sword in vain Concerning the Law saith Paul 1 Tim. 1.9 10 The Law is not made for a Righteous man but for the lawlesse and disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners for unholy and prophane for murderers and man-flayers for whoremongers for them that defile themselves with mankind for Stealers for Lyars and for Perjured persons Where the measure of the Lord Rules there the Law is fulfilled but where the Will rules concerning the Law or concerning the Customes or concerning Professions and Religions then the Heart is blind and cannot Judge then the unrighteous rules and it judgeth the just and by this the Just alwaies suffered the Prophets were killed and Christ crucified and the Apostles stoned and put to Death read Ps 94.20 21. Sinners and ungodly for whom the Law was made judged them for whom the Law was not made in their perverse Wills by a Law and this was alwaies the blindnesse and Ignorance of the World who did not judge according to that of God in the conscience for which cause the Jewes and Greeks are under a curse to this day whose sin is not repented of Therefore a warning to the whole World how they being sinners and in their sins Judge and condemn the Innocent and such in whose mouth is no guile nor in their heart Iniquity for the mighty day of God is at hand and the Lord is coming to enter into Iudgement for his own Therefore let all your Lawes be according to that of God in the conscience that you wrong not the Innocent nor hale Innocent blood upon your heads for such a Nation God will establish for ever and give their enemies as a prey to their net And this is your Visitation from the Lord whether you will hear or forbear I. P. Postscript GO ye and learn what that meaneth I will have MERCY and not SACRIFICE Mat. 9.13 saith Christ Learn to offer unto the Lord of his own that which is acceptable in his sight offer Truth and offer Righteousness the fruits of an upright heart God requireth substance and not shadows Psa 50.9 10 11 12. substance without all shadows I will take no Bullock out of thy house saith the Lord nor He-Goats out of thy folds for every beast of the Forrest is mine and the cattel upon a thousand Hills I know all the Fowls of the Mountains and the Wild-beasts of the Field are mine all the Bees of the Woods and the Waters of the Fountains are the Lord's who sanctifieth Israel If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the World is mine and the fulness thereof The Lord hath no pleasure with thousands of Rams or with the offering of ten thousand Rivers of Oyl for he hath shewed thee O Man what is good Mic. 6 7 8 9 12 13. and what the Lord doth require of thee But to DO JUSTLY and to LOVE MERCY and to WALK HUMBLY with thy GOD The Lord's voice crieth unto the City The rich men thereof are full of Violence and the Inhabitants thereof have spoken Lyes and their Tongue is deceitful in their Mouth Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee Hose 5.4 in making thee desolate because of thy sins They frame not their doings to turn unto God for the spirit of Whoredomes is in the midst of them And they have not known the Lord Hos 4.2 3 4 6 9. for with Swearing and Lying and Killing and Stealing and committing Adultery they break out and Blood toucheth Blood Therefore shall the Land mourn and the Inhabitants shall fall in the day and the Prophet also shall fall with thee in the night and I will destroy thy Mother My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge For it is come to passe that there is like People like Priest wherefore I will punish them for their wayes and reward them for their doings The Lord God is working a Work of glory and praise unto his own Name and utter confusion to the whole Earth Confusion of their Words Confusion of their Works Confusion of their Wayes and will shew the Confusion of their Doings and confound the Imaginations of their Hearts and will make the Earth to know Rev. 21 23. ch 22.5 that in his holy Temple in the City of the Living God there needeth not the Light of a Candle nor the Light of the Moon nor the Light of the Sun for the Lamb is the Light thereof And if the Lord had need of any of those Lights who created them he would not say unto vain man that he needed them For he sheweth thee O man that thou shouldst walk by the Light which shineth in thy Conscience which sheweth and convinceth thee of thy sins and transgressions he requireth not the Songs of the cruel nor the Prayers of sinners Io. 9.31 Psa 34.18 Ps 51.17 but in a broken heart the soul of the Lord taketh pleasure Wherefore strip you make you naked and bare put away the Lyes and Oathes and Curses of your Lips and the Iniquity and Lusts of your Hearts Come now and cloath you with Righteousness and adorn your Breasts with the Chain of the Glory of Truth and be bound to the Lord therein Then in stead of Vengeance the dew of Mercy in stead of the overflowing wrath showers of Compassion in stead of a cup of trembling the wine of everlasting consolation Else behold the Indignation of the Lord as a Flood from his holy Mountain shall sweep the Channels and the stream of the fury of the Lord shall accomplish his end upon all the possessors of corruption And this is the Word of the Lord God to all the Inhabitants of Sodom Written by his Servant in obedience to his Commandment who is made a man of sorrows because of your sins Oh! that you all heard the voice of my cry over your City then would you cloath with sack-cloath and joyn in mourning and repent and know that your warning is from the Lord God which hath measured thy streets whose channels flow with blood and uncleanness I am a Lover of all your Souls JOHN PERROTT THE END