Riches and he shall vomit them up again God shall cast them out of his Belly That which he laboured for shall he Restore that is they laboured for it in a wrong illegal way as we use to say Prank more labour than Thank who required it at their Hands according to his Substance shall the Restitution be and he shall not rejoice therein It may be you will say You had a Law on your side Why So the old Gang of Scribes and Pharisees could boast of a Law they had on their side by which they did literally and wickedly Crucifie our Lord and Saviour We have a Law and by our Law this Man ought to die And here is a Law of the very same Complection of yours if not Prophetically spoken of the same in Isa 10.1 2. With a Wo pronounced against the Legislators thereof Wo unto them that Decree Vnrighteous Decrees and that write Grievousness which they have Prescribed To turn aside the needy from Judgment and to take away the Right from the poor of my People that Widows may be their Prey and that they may Rob the Fatherless Here you see a Law made against God's People And those that make such Laws as these are are Persons that have no Communion or Fellowship with God Psal 94.20 23. Shall the Throne of Iniquity have Fellowship with thee which frameth Mischief by a Law Pray mark What will be the End of such And he shall bring upon them their own Iniquity and shall cut them off in their own Wickedness Yea the Lord our God shall cut them off Psal 7.15 16. He made a Pit and digged it and is fallen into the Ditch which he made His Mischief shall return upon his own Head and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own Pate That is God does bring it down upon them which is a fulfilling the Words of our Saviour who hath said That the same Measure ye make shall be made unto you again O Sirs I beseech ye to take shame to your selves before the Lord for all your Abominations that you may not be put to shame by the Lord Eye the just Hand of God in all these Great Providences Humble your selves in Dust and Ashes Acknowledge and Confess all your Sins and break off from Sin by Righteousness and cry mightily to God for pardoning Mercy in the Blood and Merits of Jesus Christ But it may be or I hope at least-wise that some of ye will say I am guilty of all these Abominations and of Multitudes more I have been a sierce Persecuter a Blasphemer and an Injurious Person I have been a Whoremonger a Drunkard and a Lier and I have often Crucified the Son of God and made his Wounds bleed afresh and put him to an open Shame by Eating and Drinking unworthily at the Lord's Table and I have had a hand in Imprisoning and Impoverishing the Saints and Servants of God by which means some of them have perished in stinking nasty Goals and is there any Hopes of pardoning Mercy for such a horrible Sinner as I am Yes I tell thee in the Name of God who is a God that delighteth in Mercy if thou dost ask this Question in good earnest I tell thee from God's own Word that there is hopes of Mercy for thee Dear Soul if thou do from the bottom of thy Heart confess and forsake thy Sins and turn to God and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ Kiss the Son least he be angry with ye and ye perish from the Way when his Wrath is kindled but a little And Pray for your Encouragement Read and Consider well of the 1st of Isa 16 17 18 19 20. And Isa 55.6 7 8.9 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near Let the Wicked forsake his way and the Vnrighteout Man his Thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have Mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon For my Thoughts are not your Thoughts neither are your Ways my Ways saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my Ways higher than your Ways and my Thoughts than your Thoughts With Reverence be it spoken What can the Lord say more unto you for your Encouragement to cast your selves upon his pardoning Mercy and Free Grace For there is more Vertue and Merit in the least drop of Christ's Blood to pardon and save you then there is Malignity in all your Sins to damn and destroy you if you will but believe in Christ and come unto him and resign up the Government and Conduct of your Souls unto him for he calls the weary and heavy-laden Sinners unto him and promises to give them Rest Matth. 11.28 29 30. Nothing but Unbelief and Despair can with-hold God's Merciful Hard from Extending Pardoning Grace unto you It is not the Greatness nor the Hainousness nor the Multitudes of your Sins that can hinder Pardoning Mercy from you if your own Unbelief do not And I will not speak without Book but I will give you several Instances of as Vile Persons as ever you have been if not Viler that have been Pardoned and Saved that are left upon Record in the holy Scripture as Monuments of Gods Infinite Mercy and Free Grace But let me give you this Precaution that you do not presume upon Gods Mercy to go on any longer and further into Sin You must not continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid that ever you should make such an evil use of it to turn the Grace of God into Lasciviousness but it is that you may not despair and pine away in your own Iniquity nor go any further on this Black Score And the first Person that I shall Instance in shall be Manasseh who was a Cruel Bloody Idolater as you may read 2 Kings 21. and yet notwithstanding all that Manasseh Repented and was Pardoned and Saved 2 Chron. 33.12 13. And when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers and prayed unto him and he was intreated of him and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdom then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God. He never knew God until he was Converted no nor no other Sinner does neither let him have what Notional Knowledge he will in his Head if he have not Sanctifying Saving Grace in his Heart It is said That Manasseb made the Streets of Jerusalem to run with Blood as Water and caused his own Children to pass through the Fire and was guilty of Witchcraft and Idolatry and other Hainous Sins his Sins reached as high as Heaven yet Gods Mercy being higher than the Heavens that overlooked all his Sins and God cast them behind his Back and blotted them out of his Book and drowned all his Spiritual Aegyptians in the Red-Sea of Christ's Blood and did pardon and save him What dost thou
to go out of their own Native Countrey also I say they had a far better Plea against him to all outward Appearance than any sort of Men can have now against me for I advise ye to go OVT of Captivity from all these Penal Laws and Tests which is as bad Captivity as that of Babilon and to go into Christian Liberty into a firm Magna Charta Tenthly My Tenth Reason for this my Proceeding is Because God hath given me a Wise and Six Children and I would not willingly leave them with these Yokes about their Necks and Shackles about their Legs that we are all in Bondage too if I can help it for by the Laws that are now in being they are Obliged to Receive the Sacrament of the Lords Supper at Sixteen Years of Age whether they have true Grace or no Grace Maturity of Years is made the ground of Communion with Christ by this Law and not True Sanctifying Saving Grace in the Heart according to the word of God. So that these Poor Souls according to this Law are Tacitly and Consequentially bound to Eat and Drink their own Damnation and to Crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open Shame betimes even in their Youth So that instead of Examining themselves to see whether they have true Grace to qualifie them for this Holy Ordinance They must Examine themselves to see how old they are whether they be Sixteen Years Old but these are such Iron Yokes and Intolerable Burdens that we nor our Children are able to bear And therefore if my poor Mire will contribute any Service to his Gracious Majesty to destroy them I shall offer it willingly when he has been pleased under God to offer it upon such generous frank terms and to have it secured unto us upon such lasting Foundations I believe if the Families of the Nation were divided into a Hundred Parts at least there would not be the Hundredth Family that had as many or more Children then I have which I value more then the Riches and Honour of the World for the former makes themselves wings and fly away and the latter will be laid in the dust And the Apostle Paul saith He that provideth not for his Family is worse than an Infidel And I think no better Provision can be made for our Children than to leave them this Christian Liberty well secured unto them planted in Peace and Tranquillity which his Majesty the Father of the whole Family namely the whole Nation under God is endeavouring to settle upon all his Children which are his Subjects Eleventhly and lastly My reason for this my proceeding is this viz. Because I came of a very Ancient Family for Adam was my great Grandfather and Job and I had one Mother and his Sisters are mine Job 17.13 14. The Grave is mine house I have said to Corruption Thou art my Father to the Worm Thou art my Mother and my Sister And is not this an Ancient Family think ye to value my self upon And therefore why should any body carp so much at the Meanness of this Author And I pray who is of an Ancienter Family than this is Who is Why the Persecuter is as ancient if not ancienter for fallen Angels was before fallen Man Pray what Family is he of Why our Saviour tells us John 8. That they are of their Father the Devil and the Lusts of their Father they will do And this makes his persecuting Children so full of Lyes as they are at this time Their Father stirs them up and instigates them unto it because he seeth his Kingdom of Darkness going to be destroyed and himself to be chained God will sweep away the Refuge of Lyes Isai 28.15 17. Because ye have said We have made a Covenant with Death and with Hell are we at Agreement When the overflowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come unto us for we have made Lyes our Refuge and under falshood have we hid our selves Judgment also will I lay to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet and the hail shall sweep away the Refuge if Lyes and the Waters shall overflow the hiding-place and your Covenant with Death shall be disanulled and your Agreement with Hell shall not stand when the overflowing Scourge shall pass through then you shall be trodden down by it Now when the Penal Laws and Tests shall be utterly destroyed and the Refuge of Lyes all swept away then as the Persecuter will be left without an opportunity to persecute so will all sorts of Persons be left without any occasion in the least to Plot For what does make any Man Plot but the want of something which is his Right which he hath no hopes of coming at any other way or by using any other means Withdraw but the Fuel of Persecution and Oppression and the Fire of Plotting and Rebellion will go out Why when every Man hath his Rights and Priviledges Spiritual and Temporal there will be no room left for Plotting and if any one Party should attempt to infringe any other single Party of their Liberty such must make themselves the common Enemy of all the rest of the Nation And what can any one single Party do against all the rest of the Nation that will then be united as one Man and will value their Christian Liberty above their Lives Such presumption would pull an old House about their Ears the Law of Nature would then be made use of if they had no other Relief to have recourse unto But there is more in all these Fears and Jealousies of the Persecuters than that of Popery as they pretend but I would advise them to be quiet and to be willing to come into this Christian Liberty and take their share in it peaceably and do not give any just Provocation For the Wrath of a King is as the Roaring of a Lyon and where the Word of a King is there is Power And cease to cast dirt upon the new Regulation for it is of God and it will stand maugre all the Powers of Hell that shall oppose it And the old way and path of Government that hath its Ground and Foundation and is Built upon Mens Souls and Consciences is of the Devil and must all pass away and fall O that we might all be Wise and Unite and Love as Brethren and English-Men what though we be not all of one Opinion The World never was so happy yet But let us all be of one Mind and of one Heart as to this viz. To love and like this Christian Liberty and contribute our Assistance thereunto which is our Duty to His Majesty in the Confirmation thereof And I do not doubt but that when once the Nation hath tasted this New Wine of Peace and Tranquility which the Establishment of this Liberty will bring along with it but a little while they will not desire to drink of the Old they will never thirst more to be in the Old Captive State and Condition again of Penal Laws and Tests and it will soon be a means to make us the most Potent Nation in Christendom Therefore let us all joyn Heart and Hand with His Gracious Majesty in this good work of setting up the New Heavens and the New Earth wherein shall dwell Righteousness and not to consult with Flesh and Blood. But let us trust in the Lord and be of good Courage let no man's Heart fail him but let us all fix our Hands to the Plow and not look back for he that does makes himself unfit and unworthy of so great a Mercy as Christian Liberty O dear Hearts Shut the Doors round about ye secure your Christian Liberty as firm as you can make Brasen Walls unto it I am not against that but my great aim with respect to you is to cure you of your slavish Fears and Jealousies But you will say Why do you mix and complicate Religious and Civil Things together Why my Answer is Because it is a mix'd Complicated Disease it is a Distemper that is made up of Religious and Civil Compounds And therefore the Remedy must be a mix'd Complicated Remedy it must be proper and suitable to the Disease for the Disease is an old intermix'd Disease and therefore the Dose must be suitable thereunto Thus I have done with you my Dear Countrey-men all and I shall conclude like a Poor Scholar with a piece of the Liturgy viz. From the Tyranny and Oppression of all inhumane Penal Laws and Vngodly Tests Libera nos Domine And let every honest English-Man say Amen to it Reader THere are some literal faults Escaped the Press which thou art desired to correct but the most material is in Page 21. line 9. where for Nineteen Articles read Nineteenth Article FINIS ADVERTISEMENT THere is lately Published by the same Author A Book Entituled A New TEST in lieu of the Old One By way of Supposition Or A Satisfactory Answer to that Great and Common Question viz. If the Penal Laws and Tests should be abolished how shall the Protestant Religion and Interest be secured The Second Edition with Considerable Additions and an Answer to several Objections Printed and Sold by George Larkin at the Two Swans without Bishopsgate Price 6d
A NEW Naked Truth OR THE SANDY FOUNDATION OF THE Sacramental Test SHAKEN BY A WARNING-PIECE Discharged from HEAVEN against all sorts of PERSECUTORS WHEREIN You may behold Christ Crucified Mystically and Sacramentally upon the Cross of the Sacramental Penal Test with all the rest of the Penal Laws and Tests Attending thereon and Contributing thereunto By Giles Shute a Friend to Christian Liberty With Allowance London Printed for the Author and are to be sold by George Larkin at the Two Swans without Bishopsgate 1688. A New Naked Truth Or The Sandy Foundation of the Sacramental Test shaken by a Warning-Piece discharged from Heaven against all sorts of Persecutors GEntlemen of England who are of Right all free born Subjects I am sorry that I have so black an Occasion of Addressing my self unto you in this following Discourse in which I must of necessity lay Open and Expose some very horrible sinful Practices that has been among some who profess themselves to be Protestants namely to them which pretend themselves to be the Most Infallible Sort too that are amongst us or else that Practice and Principle of theirs in making all other peoples Spiritual Sheaves bow down unto theirs is very unjustifiable and also unwarrantable from the Law of God and the Law and Light of Nature Dear Friends I humbly beseech you all to read what I shall here offer unto you without prejudice and consider it without partiality and apply it without delay and I shall further more beseech you to hear the whole conclusion of the Matter and do not take it up and read a little and throw it away out of your hands in Contempt and Scorn or with Malice and Rancour of Spirit but be advised by the Wiseman who hath said That the latter end of a thing is better than the beginning And be not prejudiced against the Truth because it cometh naked unto you without the Garments of Rhetorical Expressions or in the Ornaments of Humane Learning For if you be a Lover of the Truth you will imbrace it and find Garments for it in your own hearts you will take it in there and cloth it for there is the best clothing for Truth when all is said and done that can be O my dear Friends set open the Doors and Windows of your Souls to receive this Blessed Light and do not despise your own Mercy because it cometh unto you by an Illiterate Hand for it is said in Dan. 12.3 4. And they that be wise shall shine as the Brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to Righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever But thou O Daniel shut up the words and seal the Book even to the time of the end many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased And also I precaution others that shall read this Book that they do not make so unchristian ill use of it as to take up any prejudice against any mans person who through Inadvertency are tardy of what this Discourse will find out and lay open for if you do though I write thus against their Principles and Practices yet I shall be a Witness against ye for I write in Love to their Souls and not in any prejudice to their Persons for that is no contradiction neither is it inconsistent one with the other to love a mans Person and yet at the same time to hate his Evil Principles and Practices It is a great Duty Incumbent upon every Christian so to do Matt. 5.44 But I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despightfully use you and persecute you Here you see is an Express Command from our Blessed Saviour and Redeemer to love the Persons of our Enemies but yet we are not to love their sinful Practises and Principles for we cannot do that but in the very Act we must sin against God for we are commanded to hate every abomination and every false way We are to hate what is evil in our own selves yet it would be a sin for us to hate our own Persons If I had an own Father that was a Drunkard or Whoremonger I ought not to love his Drunkenness and Whoredom yet I must not hate my Fathers Person though I hate his Practice therefore I do not write this to incense people against any mans person though I must contess this has been a Reigning Sin among the Persecuters And indeed there is a proneness in the best of men to this sin Christ's own Disciples themselves were not clear of this sin when they would have prayed for fire to come down from Heaven to destroy the very persons of those churlish Samaritans that refused to give entertainment to our Saviour Christ they were for destroying their Persons and therefore Christ rebuked them saying Ye know not what spirit ye are of I bless God I have a higher and nobler End and Design in what I shall here write than to draw out prejudice against any mans person however I may be censur'd for it I can appeal to God in sincerity and uprightness of Heart in this matter for I would not that any man should be wronged of a Hair of his Head by what I shall here Declare to the World but to awaken all to Repentance For the Lion hath roared who will not fear The Lord God hath spoken who can but prophesie Amos 3. I am not for Diminishing any Gentlemans Title of Honour or Dignity where it is properly due Fear to whom Fear is due and Honour to whom Honour is due Though I must confess my Ignorance in this Matter at the same time I cannot understand the meaning of Spiritual Lords because I can find no Scripture Authority for it at all but rather against it Matt. 20.25 26 27. But Jesus called them unto him and said Ye know that the Princes of the Gentiles exercise Dominion over them and they that are Great exercise Authority upon them but it shall not be so among you but whosoever will be Great among you let him be your Minister and whosoever will be Chief among you let him be your Servant 1 Pet. 5.2 3. Feed the Flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy Lucre but of a ready Mind neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage but being exsamples to the Flock Our Saviour Christ does singnifie unto us that this Lording Spirit did proceed from the Heathen Idolatrous Gentiles and that it was a usage among them and therefore in my Opinion it is pity that any Christian Ministers or Pastors should take it up and exercise it among them And the truth on it is It is a very dubious point with me to determine or conclude whether the true Ministers of Jesus Christ can be Spiritual Lords or whether these Spiritual Lords can be true Ministers of Jesus Christ because I cannot find that it was so
Now the Merciful God who delighteth in Mercy who is a God of Order and not of Confusion that hath ordained Civil Government never ordained such a cruel base foul way to come into it You do tacitly make God a cruel Task-Master severer than Pharaoh that would make the People to make Brick without Straw and yet abate nothing of the Tale which is to make God the Author of Evil and so charge God foolishly Surely God that made this Ordinance of Civil Government never did shut it up and inclosed it so as there is no coming at it or into it without Crucifying his own Eternal Son afresh and putting him to an open Shame and to Eat and Drink their own Damnation which is to make God the Author of one of the greatest Sins that ever was committed and so to charge God foolishly for by this Crucifying Soul-Damning-Law they inclose God's Field namely his Ordinance of Civil Government and stop up the way to it and will not allow God a way to his own Ground The Law of the Land alloweth every man a way to his ground and will you not allow God a way to his And is not this a miserable Case Condition for a People or Nation to be in that you must either have no Government at all or else it must be made up of a Company of Men that have pawned their Souls in the Hands of the Devil one or the other it must be And which is the worst of these I will leave the Reader to Consider whether to have no Government or to have it made up of such desperate Hypocrites as all they must be that cometh into the Government in the full Latitude of its Required Qualifications They must be the Enemies of God and of all good People and their own Enemies also For must they not be God's Enemies that do vertually Murder his own Son when it is said in Scripture He that hates his Brother is a Murderer And must they not be good Mens Enemies that would compel them to do the like with themselves And must they not be their own Enemies that Destroy and Murder their own Souls And all this is done in the very Act of Qualification so that you see this Objection is altogether groundless as well as very dangerous for when our Enemies shall have the sole Legislative Power lodged wholly in their own Hands what is it that they may not do If God does permit them they may make Laws to cut the rest of the Subjects Throats and yet not so Cruel as this Law is to Crucifie the Son of God that should be their Redeemer and Eat and Drink their own Damnation which is to destoy their own Souls without God's Insinite preventing Mercy before they can be duly qualifyed to come into the Government Aye or to live in the Nation if they are Adult Persons because there is a Law in being that forces all so to do it but indeed many Persons does do by our Lord and Saviour as Pharaoh's Butler did by Joseph when the King restored him again to be his Cup-bearer he soon forgot Joseph's Kindness and Joseph's Affliction too Why even so it is now with some few of the Multitude that have been Sufferers and Prisoners with Christ in the late Horrible Persecutions Now they are set at Liberty and are at Ease they forget the Blessed Jesus as the Butler forgot Joseph until he had occasion to make use of him for Christ is still in Sufferings Vertually and lieth Crucified among us and will be until these Crucifying Laws be Abolished which if they be continued will indanger the Destruction of the Nation by some Tremendous Sweeping Judgment from the immediate Hand of God and therefore it is the Duty as well as the Interest of all People good and bad of what Perswasion soever to joyn Heart and Hand with his Gracious Majesty in the Repealing of them that those Judgments may be Diverted that seems to threaten us and will Inevitably come upon us Again Ninthly Is it so that these Laws while they are in being do Crucifie Jesus Christ the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame Then this may inform us That the Nation lieth now under a worse Plague then the Plague of Pestilence for a Nation or People may have the Plague of Pestilence which the Lord keep from us which I fear will come without Unfeigned Repentance where they may not be guilty of so great a Sin as to have Christ Crucified among them and Exposed to an open shame by them His Gracious Majesty by his Healing Declaration has Cured his Poor Subjects of this Contagious Disease the Plague of Suffering As to the effects of it by these Penal Laws and Tests it is Cured as to what is in our Flesh and Clothes Levit. 13. But yet it is in the Plaistering and Stones and Timber of the House still Levit. 14.44 45. Then the Priest shall come and look and behold if the Plague be spread in the House it is a fretting Leprosie in the House it is unclean and he shall break down the House and the Stones of it and the Timber thereof and all the Morter of the House and he shall carry them forth out of the City into an unclean place So let every Man good and bad say of all these Spiritual Penal Laws and Tests that are made against Mens Principles Let this Unclean House that has this fretting Leprosie in the very Plaistering and Walls and Stones and Timber thereof all be broke down and carried out into the Body of a Bill of Abolition and Buried in the Grave of Abhorence for ever O! Sirs leave not a Horn nor Hoof of this Unclean Beast behind do not plead for this or that or t'other to be continued but if you will prevent the Judgments of God from coming unto you why then take Christ down from the Cross and be reconciled unto him and make your Peace with him for it is he that you have been Crucifying all this while that must save you if ever you are saved O! Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their Trust in him Psal 2.12 Again Tenthly Is it so that none can come into the Government unless they be qualified according to the several Unjust Laws in that case provided although they be against the great Charter of Heaven and against the Fundamental Laws of the Land and against their own 19th Article of Definition and against the Principles of the very Light and Law of Nature but that they must first Crucifie their Maker that should be their Husband and Redeemer Isa 54.5 For thy Maker is thine Husband the Lord of Hosts is his Name and thy Redeemer the holy one of Israel the God of the whole Earth shall he be called Do you see my Friends what a Friend to Mankind you do thus abuse The best
think now Dear Soul Hast thou any room left to despair of the Mercies of God A second Instance is that of Persecuting Saul whom God in Infinite Mercy Pardoned and made a Preaching and Praying Apostle Paul afterward Acts 9.3 4 5 11. 1 Tim. 1.13.14 14 15. There Paul acknowledged the free Grace of God in Pardoning of him who was before a Blasphemer and a Persecuter and an Injurious Person Acts 22.4 There he confessed himself a Bloody Persecutor yet as Vile as he was all his Sins were pardoned in the Blood of Christ A third Instance of Gods free Grace and Pardoning Mercy in the Blood of Christ was that of the Cruel sturdy Jaylor Acts 16. And a fourth Instance of Gods Pardoning of most notorious Vile Sinners that was found Guilty of that filthy notorious Bed-Roll of the Sin of Sodomy and Idolatry and Whoredom and Drunkenness and Theft is in the 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. And there was Mary Magdalen a very hainous Sinner yet she was washed in the Blood of the Lamb of God that taketh away Sin and she was made a precious Saint And there was some of them very Persons that had their Hands Imbrued in Christ's Blood we read on in the Acts of the Apostles yet they were washed in Christs Blood and pardoned in his Merits and saved by his Grace Thus you see here is encouragement enough for the Vilest of Men that have been Sacramental Mystical Crucifiers of Christ and Persecuters and Whoremongers and Drunkards and Thieves and Idolaters to come unto Christ for Pardoning-Grace and Mercy And whosoever doth so come to Christ while he is upon the Mercy-Seat He hath said that He will in no wise cast out Secondly I Exuort all you that were Test Makers and Test Givers and Test Takers in this Sacramental way and manner not to flatter your selves with the hopes of ever getting that Predominating Persecuting Power again But be contented with your share and proportion of the Government with all other free Dennisons of England that have every whit as much and just Right unto it as your selves remember Covetouseess is the Root of all Evil God will not trust you with the sole Management of the Government of the Nation any longer to be a Scourge to your honest peaceable Neighbours Nahum 1.7 8 9. The Lord is good a strong hold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him But with an overflowing flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof and Darkness shall pursue his Enemies What do ye imagine against the Lord He will make an utter end affliction shall not rise up the second time God is speaking this unto us at this time as I Humbly conceive by his Anointed Servant the Kings Majesty for he saith That he is resolved to make an utter end of all Persecuting Penal Laws and Tests whatsoever and that they shall not rise up a second time to afflict his Subjects any more And God is a pursuing his Persecuting Enemies at this time in this dark Providence and Dispensation to them by the Just Proceedings of his Gracious Majesty in calling them to an account for all the Moneys and Goods which they have taken from the Dissenters of all sorts of late years and he is giving them a Purge and a Vomit too which God hath prepared in his Word for all them that have this foul Stomach O! Sirs do not strive to be Rampant and Exalt your selves above your Neighbours and to get the Whip in your hands again for God will not trust such Unjust Stewards as you have been with so great a Betrustment But God is a calling you to an Account for your Stewardship for you may no longer be Stewards for now your Stewardship is ended as to Persecution your Account for Plundering beginneth the Robbery of the Wicked shall destroy them because they refuse to do Judgment O! Sirs do not Delude your selves for it is the Just Lord that loveth Righteousness and that hateth Robbery for Burnt-Offering that does all these things Do you not see that God is calling you to an Account for your Violence done to himself for as he that Persecutes Christ's Flock Persecutes Christ himself so also they that Rob God's People Robs God himself Mal. 3.9 Ye are Cursed with a Curse for ye have Robbed me even this whole Nation This was spoken to the Jews for he that toucheth Gods People by Violence doth touch the Apple of Gods Eye by Wickedness Zech. 2.8 And God hath sent his Servant unto you that spoiled his People to call you to an Account for it O! Friends I beseech ye to Eye the Just Hand of God in all this for until then you cannot make a right Improvement of these great Providences as you ought to do and Justifie God and Condemn your selves and do not entertain hard Thoughts of his Servant which is the Instrument in his Hand by which he doth it for it is God that does all these things it is he that putteth down one and seueth up another These great things does not come by luck or chance Affliction it self does not rise up out of the Dust for if a Sparrow that is but of half a Farthing Price cannot fall to the Ground without Gods Providence Mat. 10.29 30 Much less can such wonderful great Providences and Dispensations as we have seen and yet shall further see come without the Hand of our Heavenly Fathers putting it into the King his Servants Heart to do it among us Psal 75.6 7 8 9 10. For Promotion cometh neither from the East nor from the West nor from the South But God is the Judge he putteth down one and setteth up another for in the Hand of the Lord there is a Cup and the Wine is Red and full of Mixture and he poureth out of the same but the Dregs thereof all the Wicked of the Earth shall wring them out and Drink them But I will dealare for ever I will Sing Praises to the God of Jacob all the Horns of the Wicked also will I cut off That is All their Persecuting Power and Strength But the People of God viz. That is all them that truly feareth God and worketh Righteousness their Horn shall be Exalted O Sirs Do not you that are of a persecuting Spirit imagine that God will ever permit you to get up unto your Old Trade of Plundering and Spoiling and making Havock of the Churches again after so great a Rebuke from Heaven for those many Heaven-daring Abominations that you are and have been Guilty of do but consider well what you have been doing For you have been Plowing Iniquity and sowing Wickedness and therefore now you must Reap Shame and Contempt For the Hand of the Lord is lifted up against the Spirit of Persecution and is falling upon