testimony against your Idolatrous wayes And verily the same words which once Paul declared upon Mars hill unto your fathers Acts. 17.22 now turneth upon the heads of you their children Ye men of Athens I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious for as I passed through your City I found an Idolls Temple which was abundantly painted with pictures on every side within which was the Inscription which I John did reade TO THE UNKNOWN GOD Which with the bowings of your bodies unto those superstitions Idolatrous Images ye ignorantly worship Him declare I unto you God that made the world and all things therein seeing that he is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is he worshipped with mens hands by Temples of Pictures or the customary and traditionall bowings of your bodyes unto pictures as though he needed any thing seeing he giveth unto all life and breath and all things and hath made of his blood all Nations of men for to dwell upon all the face of the earth And hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us For as much then as we are the off-spring of God we ought not to thinke which if we were come to the life of the seed ye could not then in the least measure imagine or thinke that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone graven or pictures made or drawne by art or mans device and the times of this Ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to Repent because his mighty DREADFULL DAY is at hand which he hath appointed wherein he will Judge in righteousnesse the whole world of mankinde Carlo Dessio Gumene Stephaci called Greek Doctors of your people in the City of Athens among whom I was conversant in the power of the Spirit of the Lord and preached unto you the Everlasting Gospel in crosse to your wisdomes wherefore ye resisted my testimony and called me fool and said all young men are fooles Acts 13.41 In like manner as your fathers the Philosophers Epicurians Stoicks called Paul babler do not you shew your selves herein to be the despisers spoken of What would you have said to Timothy 1 Tim 4.12 if he had come unto you even as I came in doctrine and Example And what would you have said to Jeremiah Jere 1.6 17 18. would you have said otherwise unto him then you did unto me if he had come unto you as in his day he visited your nature in the Jewes that sought to slay him Jere 26.8 And will you say also that all the young Prophets in the dayes of old were fooles And when John did write unto young men 1 Joh 2.13 14. did he then write unto fooles Will you call such fooles who knew the Father who were strong and had overcome the wicked one And are you so ignorant as not to consider these to be the latter dayes in which God will fulfill the Prophesies of old Joel 2.28 Your old men shall dreame dreames and your young men shall see visions for God hath said that he will powre out his Spirit upon them and are ye not wicked in your words to call such fools Consider this also did not you manifest your selves to be most ignorant to seek for a signe and a miracle then from me whom you called fool Did not that as much manifest your perverse ignorance as it did your unbeliefe Wherein you also shewed your selves to be in the same nature of that generation which sought for a signe in the dayes of Christ whom the Lord answered and said unto them Math 12.38 that they were an evill and an adulterous generation yea your sin is worse then theirs was who say that you see with a better eye then they did and by so much the more it remaines Are not you the hypocrites Math 16.3 that can discerne the face of the skies but cannot discerne the signes of the times Like as Jonas was three dayes and three nights in the Whales belly and came forth a Preacher of Repentance Even so are the times at hand Math 24.32 Learne ye therefore the parable of the Figge tree when his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves know ye that the Summer is nigh for as the dayes of Noah were so shall also the coming of the Lord be In short words your faith is fathomed and your hope is comprehended your fruits gives the testimony of you one cluster of your grapes were enough to shew the nature of your Vine planted in the Mountaines of Sodome the proverb followes your age The fathers have eaten sower grapes and the Childrens teeth are set on edge yet I shall also further shew you how that as the Jewes stood in the dayes of Jeremiah so you do stand in the same nature perversenesse pride and obstinacie ruling your hearts now unto whom God sent Jeremiah to cry against saying Trust ye not in lying words speaking to your selves Jer 7.4 The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these and Paul said to your fathers the Athenians God dwelleth not in Temples made with hands Yet you contrary to the Scriptures do assemble your selves as the Jewes did to worship the works of mens hands and of your own hands in the Temples which are made with hands and so you walk contrary to the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles and touching this matter whereof ye say that ye follow the Councell of the Ancient fathers you who are called the wisest fathers in these dayes shew by the best testimony that ye are able in what manner you esteeme the Councell of your Ancient fathers and how that it is greater and ought more to be esteemed and followed then the counsell of our only father the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who gave the utterance of his counsel thorow Jeremiah Paul Jer 26.12 and others crying against the Temples and against your customes the traditions of your fore-fathers and Christ said Behold your house is left unto you desolate and Paul cryed against the Temples made with hands Where had you or your fathers ever a command from God or from Christ to build such houses and to paint them full of pictures Consider and lay it truly to heart ye men throughout the earth is not your building of these houses one and of the very same nature and the fruits of the very same Spirit in those which made the Calfe whilst Moses was with God and not in the Camp amongst them Exod 32. In the dayes of old upon a much more seeming account of assured confidence was the opposition of the Jewes of Jeremiah's testimony then yours possibly can be in these latter dayes for as much as their fathers
mouth of the deceiver and gaine-sayer but the worker of iniquitie seeketh to hide his head with a cover For the truth sake simply this is given forth by one who hath counted all things losse that he might gaine the truth Your answers will savour of the best Zeale which ye may send directed to be delivered unto Gerrard Roberts dwelling at the signe of the Flowerdeluce in Thomas Apostles in London in England for him whom men call John Perrott THough they say the Lord liveth surely they sweare falsly Jere 5.2 saith Jeremiah All Doctors Priests and Pastors that do preach and declare with their tongues Christ to be the way the truth and the life and yet walk contrary to the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world such are lyers and false swearers for Christ unto them is not the way neither in them is he the truth or the life who walk contrary to the light wherewith they are lightened Joh 8.12 Joh 1.4 I am the light of the world saith Christ which lighteth every man that cometh into the world saith John who was a witnesse of the way and of the truth and of the life who himselfe not his words was neither the way the truth nor the life for his testimony was true concerning Christ who is the way the truth Joh 14.6 and the life Paul Peter Mark Luke Mathew John and Jude they also were witnesses of the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world whose testimony was of Jesus the Christ they were not that Christ neither were their words or writings or Epistles that Christ which they by their words and writings before all men bare witnesse of who is the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world which is the way the truth and the life which is the word of God Joh 1.1 Isa 42.6 of whom and by whom the worlds were made and the Prophets prophesied of things to come to passe which are come to passe and coming to passe which testified of the light which is come into the world and lighteth every one that cometh into the world Isa 49.6 according to the word of prophesie The Scriptures do not say that they are the word but they say that by the word which was in the beginning which was with God and was God the heavens and the earth was made which was before the Scriptures was by which word the Scriptures came to be written which saith that the name of Christ Rev 19.13 who is the light of the world is called the word of God Now all that say that the words of the Prophets and Apostles is the way to life they are out of the way speaking in the darknesse of this world their testimony is false and they are Antichrist for the way is but one and Christ is that way to the father who is the light of the world which lighteth every man that cometh into the world for the Scriptures and writings of the Apostles they were not before the world was neither do they say they were written 〈◊〉 Moses was but the way and the word was unto Abel and Seth and Enoch and Noah Joh. 14.6 and Abraham Isaac and Jacob which was before the Scriptures was and the Scriptures testifies these things saying Christ is the way in witness against those which say the Scriptures is the way and the Scriptures 〈◊〉 Christ is the word in witness against those that say the Scriptures is the word and the Scriptures say that Christ is the life in witness against those that say the Scriptures is the Rule of life and truth and the Scriptures say Christ is the light in witness against those that say the Scriptures is the light and the Scriptures say Joh. 12.46 that Christ is the truth in testimony and witness against all those that say the Scriptures of truth which witnesses against all their deceits lyes which is the sure declaration of truth is the truth These things are written in the Scriptures which declare the way to be one the truth one the life one the word one all one Christ who is the one true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world A measure of which testifieth in every mans conscience against lying and swearing flattering and cheating double-dealing adultery and drunkenness pride covetousness stealing oppression and envie and murder and all sin the light hath shined in every mans conscience and this is the Law of God which was nigh unto Moses which is among the Heathen which have not the Scriptures the Scriptures is not written in their consciences but the light hath shined in all their consciences the same which judgeth the hearts which hath not the Scriptures also judgeth those who professe the Scriptures yet in their lives walk contrary to the Scriptures The light which lighteneth Jew and Gentile is the condemnation both of Jew and Gentile of as many as walk contrary to the light wherewith they are lighteneth and this is the condemnation Joh. 3.19 light is come into the world but men love darknesse rather then light because their deeds are evill Joh. 1.4 But now the light is life to all that love it follow it such as obey the light the light maketh alive the Scripture is not the Spirit which quickeneth you that can but reade the letter do you read the letter and the letter will tell you That the letter killeth but the spirit maketh alive if you believe that the letter is the life then that which you believe is the life tels you that the letter kills 2 Cor. 3.6 which is destruction of the life what profit have you 〈◊〉 by the letter Therefore to the light keep your minds waiting in it that you may be governed by the Light which cometh from Christ by it to be led unto Christ that you may come to know him to be the Captain leader of Israel unto salvation Heb. 2.10 let the light rule your hearts and the affections of your hearts and minds that you may have feeling of the rule of God the light is the measure rule of truth in all your hearts which will lead you into all truth unto life Joh. 16.13 if you love it and follow it but will stand your condemnation even unto the end unto death if you hate it and walk contrary to it Look to Abels rock to Enoch his path to Moses his way to David throne of Judgement to the Prophets hope to the Saints salvation waite to receive this as the foundation of your age 1 Cor. 3.11 12 13. for other foundation can no more lay then that is laid which is Jesus Christ the true light of the world which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world and the day shall declare every mans work whether it be gold silver or pretious stone wood hay drosse chaffe or stubble it shall all be revealed by the fire of the Lord God which is already kindled in the earth Therefore whilst you have time Repent
doctrines of your fore-fathers traditions in opposition to the power of God and Crosse of Christ Jesus Read Coloss 1 17 18 19 20 21 22 23. Query 16 Where doth the Scripture say that to take up Crosses of Gold Silver Brasse Iron Bone Wood or carved Stone made by the invention of man is to take up the Crosse of Christ who came not by man nor according to the will of man whose Crosse came with him contrary to the will of man What is the Image to the substance And whether is that any part of the nature of the substance in you or doth it not rather stand in enmity to the substance which taketh up an Image of the Crosse among you yea or nay Query 17 Whose doctrine or Commandement was the foundation of your Idol Temples declare plainly whether God commanded or Satan deceived And what rule have you in the Scriptures or example from the life of the Apostles to worship in Idols Temples altogether by the light of wax Candles or burning Lamps of Oyl and to keep your wax Candles burning night and day in your Idols Temples Query 18 Whether is it not great ignorance for a people to seek the Lord out of the habitation and sanctuary of his holinesse Wherefore seek ye to find God in Temples made with hands Seeing God dwelleth not in Temples made with hands And whether do you not understand that those Temples which are not Gods habitation are the reall Synagogues of Satan yea or nay Acts 17.24 Query 19 What rule have you in the Scripture to make a mock of Christ and the holy Apostles by carrying about Images which ye call their Pictures by day time with the light of Candles or Torches through your streets with many persons passing therewith hood-winked and disguised as Thieves and Robbers singing and rejoycing and making merry over the spoll of the innocent Query 20 What rule have you in the Scriptures or example from the life of the Apostles to light the dead Corps of men and women to the Graves or Sepulchres with Torches or Wax Candles Query 21 What precept have you in the Scriptures to call Elements and shaddows or any of those things which once were figures Sacraments and to carry Bread and Wine through your streets with a Canopie over it with Torches or Wax Candles lighted and one ringing a Bell before it like the hypocrires sounding Trumpets of their services and for all people that meets it to fall down upon their knees before it Query 22 What rule have you in the Scriptures or plain example from the life of the Apostles without adding unto or diminishing from the Scriptures or the acts of Christ or his Apostles for your sprinkling Infants with water and calling that an Ordinance of Christ or Sacrament of your Churches Query 23 What precept have you in the Scriptures or president from the life of the Apostles to pray upon Beads or to pray to Saints or to Mary and to crosse your selves with your hands in your prayers or thanksgivings or to make bowings before walls crossing your selves with your hands babling a few words before you go into your Beds Query 24 What precept or example have you in the Scriptures to make Inquisitions and Inquisitors to slay the life of Gods witnesses against your Idolatries and to make Fryaryes and Nunneryes Doctors Fryars Nuns Jesuits lay-brothers beggars Queristers Singers Ringers were ever such prophesied by Christ or his Apostles should come in the Truth or were ever such in their dayes yea or nay Query 25 Where did Christ ever teach or the Apostles practice the wearing of the garments and long robes of the several Officers of your Catholique Churches your long Gowns and Surplices and whipping Cords about your Loyns and other Girdles and Caps and other disfiguring garments Query 26 What rule have you in the Scriptures or example from the life of the Apostles for your grey Fryars crown-head shavings and for your other Officers with their great Bottles Wallets and begging Bags and others with many Boxes in disguised and hood-winked garments going through the streets and from house to house a begging Query 27 What rule have you in the Scriptures or example from the life of the Apostles for your observing set times and dayes of the week and year to eat Fish or Herbs or other fruit and no Flesh as in your Lents c. And to call such dayes Fast-dayes seeing you eat no flesh but do eat and drink your fill of other creatures and some with strong drink or Wine do make themselves drunk upon such dayes Query 28 What precept or president have you from the doctrine or life of Christ or his Apostles for some of your members to whip and scourge themselves upon some set dayes of the year and to draw blood from their bodyes and to make bruises and cuttings in their flesh and for others of your Officers to lay heavy burdens upon the backs of some your Members which they themselves will not touch with one of their fingers to make poor people go upon their knees through the streets as far as they please for the obtaining from them the Remission of their sins and are not you abominably deceitful as well in the manner as in the matter of this iniquity in laying only such shame and punishment upon the poor in the world and do not lay the same upon a transgressor in the same lust and nature who is very powerfull in the Authority and rich and wealthy in the world Query 29 What precept or president have you from the doctrine or life of Christ or his Apostles to keep and observe dayes and times and seasons which ye call Saints dayes saying that ye keep them in honour of the persons of Christ and his Apostles Are ye not rather a dishonour and stain of their life who spend such dayes in Idolatries in surfeiting and drunkenness in chambering and wantonnesse Coloss 2.17 Query 30 Whether is there any one among you that do witnesse Christ come in you which he that witnesseth not Christ so come in the flesh is Antichrist and if Christ be come in the flesh and dwelleth in you why then do ye with your flesh make Images of the flesh for your corruptible flesh to bowe unto and whilest the spirit which rules your flesh doth thus dictate and lead you doth not your minds in the flesh make a mock of Christ who is a Spirit and of God who will only be worshipped in spirit yea or nay 1 John 4.23 Rom. 8.10 John 4.23 24. In these Traditions deceitful shaddows and Idolatries professing the name of Christ enemies to the power of the Crosse and order of the doctrine and mystery of the life of Christ ye are a just occasion of stumbling to the Turk and an offence to the seed in the Jew and this the Lord God will require at the hands of your two Catholique Churches Concerning the Mystery of the Holy Faith Query 31 What
to the whole world is come it cometh it hath sounded and is sounding The mighty day of God is at hand therefore whilest you have time repent And allthough the Gentiles resist and all the Heathen every where gain-say yet the Lord will be glorified over all the world unto whom the Light is the sure message of the Most High whether they will hear or forbear AN EPISTLE TO THE GREEKS I Have heard a rumor in mine ears of a hard cry among the people Alas alas Our glory is defaced and our ancient praise and renown is utterly defamed Our wives are made the Vassals of other women and we are become slaves to a strange Nation We are no more under the Government of the Scepter which swayed our Fathers but the wills of another people works violence over us Our houses are but as habitations lent unto us and our substance and portion at pleasure may be spoyled by the hand of the Devourer Our children unto us are not as were the children of our fore-fathers in their Generations our wives and children treasure and substance is but a burden unto us when the eyes of our Lords looks over us Alas alas our misery is great and none regardeth it the sound of our cry hath reached far yet few have pondered it And the Lord said unto me Cry also among the Professors of Christian Religion even thus it is come to passe in many Regions of the earth the bondage it great and the captivity is doubled with violence and with cruelty The chains and yoaks are twice laid on and the people are under the indignation of the Lord The judgements of their adversaries lyes heavy upon their heads and their Loins are banded with the oppressions of their Rulers as with Iron and with Brasse and they cannot break the Cords to cast off their burdens and this and much more is the misery of the Greeks which their fathers iniquities first brought upon their heads in their dayes and the children of their Generations drinking of the Cup of their abominations unto this present Seed of evill doers Wherefore the hand of vengeance still toucheth their shoulders and in this manner God hath seen it equall to lay the burden upon that man which with his transgressions hath laden and pressed down the righteous soul of the Lord as a Cart is laden and pressed down with sheaves This is the end of their labours they ploughed the fields of the pleasure of their own hearts they sowed the seed of unrighteousnesse in the depth of the ground of iniquity who notwithstanding the Lord watered them with the water of adversity yet returned they not in the day of affliction wherefore of corruption they have reaped this abundance of misery YE Greeks unto whom I write for the seeds sake as a husband unto a wife not covering the diseased parts or falsly solving up the forest and most dangerous wounds not seeking to seal up your states in hidden sentences from your understandings or your conditions in parables nor to shut the door of the Kingdom against the seed of the Kingdom It hath pleased the Lord contrary to every part of the natural and desire of the carnall to lead me through some of the Countryes wherein as Sojourners you are Inhabitants among whom I did earnestly seek but could not find and then I returned to the Lord and sought with tears yet truly could not find one in a City that was worthy Ye ought to bear with me for the Truths sake nevertheless whether you will hear or forbear for the Lords sake and his seeds sake I am obliged by that which stretcheth forth love unto souls in this manner to stretch forth mine hand to draw back the Curtain that you may look to the Light which breaks through the Lattice and to remove the skirt which it folded over your nakednesse that your eye may see your filthinesse O misery misery the seed is in bondage that 's your greatest misery within the burdens of which is the ground of your misery without Consider consider and lay it to heart use diligence in the search of your hearts for the Lord God cometh quickly to try and to search every heart and to reward and give unto all according to their deeds done in the body whether they be good or whether they be evil Consider your Life which is the ground and cause of the mourning of the Land Jer. 23.10 I have passed through you and have seen the life of your people Behold abominable swearing lying cheating coveting drunkenness whoredom adultery murder Rom. 1.23.24 c. Changing the glory of the incorruptible God into Images made like unto corruptible man Wherefore God also hath given you up to uncleannesse through the lusts of your corrupt hearts Who have changed the truth of God into a lye and to worship and serve the Image of the creature more than the Creator Whos 's own Image only praiseth him who is blessed over all for ever and evermore Amen And this is truth in the presence of the Lord God of Heaven and Earth and unto the Light of Christ which shines in all your Consciences which shews you all your sins even unto that true Witnesse in your own hearts I speak I have been an eye witnesse of the bowing of the bodies of many of your people unto the works of your Fathers idolatrous hands unto which your corrupt hearts and deceitfull affections are joyned whilest not one of you in a Nation which mine eye ever beheld came to bow his heart in Righteousnesse and his life in Spirit and Truth before the Lord God who is a Spirit John 4.23 Whose day cometh and now is that the true Worshippers do worship him in Spirit and in Truth And for as much as Ye with other Idolaters do make these few following dark words the seeming ground of your standing places saying Viz. That you are the Roman Catholique Church and that you believe in Christ and do believe the Words and Doctrine of Christ the Scriptures of the Prophets and writings of the Apostles and that you hold the Precepts and do follow the instructions of the ancient Fathers c. Answ You whose Fathers made many Temples and painted Pictures therein that they might worship and bow down unto the works of their own hands Ye see the day in the midst of your calamities and time of sorrows how that many of the houses which they built are left unto you desolate And if now you the seed of the corruption of their generation were but come to the losse of your Fathers naturall Image in your carnal hearts and affections You would also as clearly discern your greatest misery which through the grosse vail of darknesse over your hearts is hid from your eyes Oh the captivity the captivity you are held in the possession of bondage and captivity under the profession of the name of Christ and Christians in the lusts of unrighteousnesse and the pleasures of
sin and iniquity and this hath brought blindness and spread ignorance as a thick cloud which covers the understanding part wherefore you are strangers unto and as a people not having knowledge of the seed of God which notwithstanding the hardships of your outward sufferings and the scourge of your bodyes yet the seed of the Kingdome lyes laden with your lightnesse and is heavily pressed down with the excessive weight of your numberlesse oaths and other abominable sins and transgressions Ye are blinded ye are blinded through the multitude of your corruptions your whole body is become a lump of misery You daily add murder unto mischief without respect or any regard to the life of the innocent and after your adulteries you retain not the thought of the succour of the life of the Virgin Daughter which ye have abused through the lusts of uncleannesse and so you add sin unto sin binding your selves under the perpetual oath and curse of cruelty in the bondage of your own misery and captivity Wo is me for you the love of my bowels to the seed is made a brook of bitterness in my belly For your sakes I am as one that hath eaten affliction and swallowed up sorrows as in the day of trouble Oh how hath the night been tedious to my watchful eyes which the strength of your miseries kept open when slumber had no power to shut them wherefore now I call and with a loud voice lifted over your Land I cry Come forth ye carelesse minds stretch forth your feet ye regardlesse hearts out of the Bed of the miserable slumber of your starved soules Awake awake to the mourning and arise and come forth to the lamentation for your losse O weep weep for the woe is your own for your own wickednesse Consider and lay it to heart should not the hour of distresse bring sorrows and mourning upon your hearts Oh wherefore then hath the Lord looked and behold your Land hath been filled with lightnesse and ye have not forgotten the vain words of the former Generation but with a foolish confidence have believed and trusted in their lyes as if the credit of the deceitfull words of their wicked inventions should stand the salvation of your miserable sinfull souls Seeing therefore unto this day ye have been grossely deluded and deceived under the profession of the name of the Roman Catholique Church I shall answer the vanity of your Faith with a few words of Truth God who in the dayes of old chose unto himself a peculiar people of the seed of Israel according to his promise unto Abraham also in the fulnesse of the dispensation of time sent his onely begotten Son a Light into the world that the world through him who is the Light might believe and have everlasting life by whom the Apostles and Saints in them dayes were gathered unto God and were made Members of the Heb. 12.23 Acts 20.28 Matth. 16.18 Church of the first born which are written in Heaven who is the Resurrection of the dead and of this Church of God and of his Son Jesus Christ of which Christ is now the Head as he was in the dayes of the Apostles who wrote of this Church who therefore was and is the Head Ephes 5.13 Coloss 1.18 That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish and that in all things he might have the preheminence And of this and none other Church did the Lord speak and the Apostles write but as for the Roman Catholique Church neither have I by any testimony heard or by any writing of the true Prophets the Declaration of Christ or in the writings of the Apostles read of any such Church should be as of the Truth or stand as in the Truth or that unto the Members thereof the Truth should be only committed Allthough this I say that the Scriptures do make mention that once there was an assembly of Saints which lived in Rome as there did also in other places and parts of the earth among whom the truth was in power received in the day of the prosperity thereof untill the time of the apostacy came in and the working of the mistery of iniquity waxed great and spread over the face of the earth even among all people who received the sound of the Declaration of the birth of a Son in the City of David Jesus the Christ whom the Prophets prophesied of should come and of this apostacy and falling away Christ himself who is the sum and substance of the Law and the Prophets spake of saying Math. 24.24 There shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signes and wonders in so much that if it were possible they should deceive the very Elect. And this iniquity began to work in the dayes of the Apostles of which John in this manner did write They went out from us but they were not of us 1 Joh. 2.18 19. by which he knew that it was the last time as they had heard that Antichrist should come and saith he 1 John 4.1 even now there are many Antichrists Wherefore he also exhorted the Brethren that they should not believe every Spirit but to try the Spirits whether they are of God because many false Prophets were then gone into the world And Paul he testifieth his knowledge saying Acts 20.29.30 31. After my departing shall grievous Wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock and also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw many Disciples after them therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with teares And this in measure came to passe whilest John was Paul also John 1.9 10. 1 Thess 2.7.8 9 he bore further witnesse that this thing must be even the falling away else this day which is now come and coming could not come and he said then in his day also That the Mystery of iniquity doth already work only he who letteth will let untill he be taken out of the way and then shall that wicked one be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightnesse of his coming even him whose coming mark his coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse in them that perish and for this cause seeing they received not the love of the Truth God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse In which state and condition of vanity and unrighteousnesse I find the Roman Catholique Churches as a people miserably spoyled Coloss 2.8 through the deceit of vain Philosophy Walking after the Traditions of men after the Rudiments of
the world in the unrighteousnesse and uncleannesse thereof in fornication and covetousnesse in drunkennesse pride malice and murder lying and swearing vain jesting and foolish talking As a people through the abominable lusts of uncleanness in your lives void of the knowledge or at least wise not considering and laying it to heart how Ephes 5.5 That no unclean person nor Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdome of Christ and of God being as it were stupified and benummed in your senses so far degenerated from the power of Truth and mystery of Godliness that ye have lost the generall forme and do retain but the least part thereof wherefore among you and upon you the words and prophesie of the Apostle is fulfilled 2 Tim. 3.13 Evill men and Seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived And yet a little while and it shall also be shewn unto you that desire to understand wherein you are fallen below the form of the profession of Godliness as in divers particulars I shall query for the opening of your understandings that by your diligent search in the Scripture with the Light you may see which will effectually make for the manifestation of the ground of your customes and practices in your idolatrous and superstitious worships And this unto you all is held forth for the tryal of your wayes seeing the Lords mighty day is at hand which will rip open and make manifest all hearts and declare and preach that which hath been hid in secret upon the house tops Many of your Fathers were the worshippers of the works of the Philosophers untill the sound of the fame of Christ came among them whose Miracles and Resurrection confounded the depth of the working of their wisdom by which the wise men came to confesse a greater than themselves which suddenly rang through the Nation and so from Nation to Nation from the report and credit of the confession of the Philosophers and learned Doctors the ignorant also in all your Nations joyned with the humane learned and so with one consent they cryed up the name to wit of Christ whereof they had received the report who sometime before that had slaughtered the Apostles who finished their testimonies in the Life and Spirit of Jesus holding forth his name in power whose name in words as the Apostacy came and grew as the deceivers and false Prophets and false Brethren and false Apostles went forth your Fathers the Philosophers and wise men came to confesse mark the time of the coming in of this which at this time ye stand in which had not an entrance by the Doctrine or Example of Peter or life and preaching of Paul but by such as was spoken of should destroy the little flock of Christ and make havock of the Heritage of God concerning whom I have shewn you Johns witness and Pauls testimony and yet furthermore do write Judes and Peters prophesies Jude 4. For there are certain men crept in unawares who were before ordained to this condemnation ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousnesse filthy dreamers that defile the flesh murmerers complainers walking after their own lusts and their mouth speaking great and swelling words having mens persons in admiration because of advantage Such as the Apostles of our Lord spake of should come Mockers who should walk after their own ungodly lusts who are sensual having not the Spirit of Truth To the Church saith Peter 2 Pet. 2.1 There shall be false Teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies and many shall follow their pernicious ways of whom the way of Truth shall be evill spoken of having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin beguiling unstable souls and hearts they have exercised with covetous practices cursed children which have forsaken the right way who are the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitations God hath reserved in the everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day Seeing therefore that the Scriptures are true as is manifest by the coming of these things to passe according to the words of the Apostles prophesies and finding you in the cursed ground and nature of uncleanness bringing forth fruits of iniquity Hereby I know even by your fruits Matth. 12.33 into what stock you are grafted mine instrument hath reached your root And again I say all men upon the face of the earth who have the least discerning may truly understand that ye are in the Apostacy working the unrighteous works of your Fathers who were the first Apostates from the true Faith in whom iniquity wrought in a mystery who when Satan had his end in destroying to the uttermost in the slaughter of all the holy Apostles in like manner as the Jews after they had slaughtered the true Prophets garnished their Tombs in honour of their persons even so also did the Deceiver set your Fathers a work to build Idols Temples and to draw out the Saints Pictures and to do hommage to the Pictures of Christ Mary and the Apostles in honour of their Persons and those things which your Fathers built ye garnished wherein ye witnesse that ye are their children and are filling up the measure of their iniquity and thus the Devil gained his dominion in you and among you by transforming himself in a nearer shape like an Angel of Light in divers other things and Ceremonies and wrought in and among your Fathers as he did in the dayes of old among the sons of men who sought out many Inventions insomuch that the righteous soul of God was grieved with them so that God repented that he had made man for straightway after the spirit of Antichrist had so greatly wrought through the earth as that Nations came under and in subjection to the wills of the Philosophers even to the confessing of the name of Christ outward Your Fathers they entered into divers consultations and what they sought out by their Inventions were set up as Laws and Ordinances and Statutes in the forms of your worships and thus came in as I have said the buildings of Idols Temples the carving of Images the painting of pictures the making of Beads and Crosses of Wood Bone Stone Gold Silver and other dead created things and the Invention of Candles and Lamps and Altars for your sacrifices and all manner of Surplesses and deceitful coverings and hood-winking garments the observations of times and seasons and weeks and dayes and divers other heresies and damnable doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4.1 2.3 Forbidding to marry and to abstain from meats which God had created to be received with thanks-giving All these and many more of your customes and Idolatrous worships are neither according to the command of God or of Christ or the president or example of the Holy Apostles through the Witnesse of the Scripture In few words the root of these things was the invention and working of iniquity in
the hearts of your Fathers through the deceitful motions of Satan and so whereas you say That you have the doctrine of the ancient Fathers I answer It is true you stand in the error of their wayes I see and savour you in the foot-steps of their ungodly lusts as the Scriptures declares and not only those in the days of old but also unto this time you have many Fathers upon earth whereby your own confession bears witnesse against you that you have not learned of Christ who is the way to the Father which all that beleeve in him have but one Father which is in Heaven Math. 23.9 Furthermore in your prayers to Mary and supplication to the Saints to mediate and make intercession for you O miserable blindness and lamentable darknesse how strongly hath Satan chained your hearts that you lye under so great a cloud of ignorance Oh what is your losse through the vented conceptions of the inventions of your Fathers how in vain have they professed the Scriptures and in their words and smooth language owned Christ and the doctrine of the Apostles and how desperately wicked and unspeakably deceitful did the Devil work in his day to bind you under the belief and credit of their unrighteousness and falshood to hide knowledge from your eyes by training you up only under the vail of their Traditions not giving you liberty to read the Scriptures under the pretence that heresies thereby might not creep into their Church as if the knowledge of the Scriptures were the ground or cause of heresies but judge ye whether their doctrine is according to the Apostles instruction 1 Tim. 2.5 There is one God and one Mediator between God and men Paul doth not say that it was the woman Mary which was espoused to Joseph or that it was an Apostle which before him was offered up in the witnesse of the holy Faith neither doth he say that he should be the Interceder when after he should have finished his testimony and be offered up also but he truly testifieth of one Interceder and Mediator the man Christ Jesus And likewise also the Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought Rom. 8.26 27. but the Spirit it selfe maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God Greater Testimony cannot be declared unto you then the putting you in remembrance of your fruits which gives the certain savour and sight of your estate notwithstanding I know Romes learning will not fall so quickly but her Fathers by Sophistry will hold out and strive to stretch forth a leafe to cover your misery in iniquity have not I already heard the Disputer put forth his treacherous deceitful critical enquiry if peradventure his arm might help to make a Fence about the Wall which the hand of the Lord is digging down hath it not been already said by some of your Fathers Viz. Quest If the Apostasie in that time came in and since the time of the sâ—aughter of the Apostles hath stood unto this day where then in all the time since them dayes was the Church which is the Body of which Christ is the Head If since there hath not been a Church how then is Christ the Head of the Church but if since there hath been a Church we then affirm that we are that Church who have kept this our Faith of the Church of which Christ is the Head Answ I answer The woman hath been preserved in the wilderness mark in her place in the wilderness which God prepared for her Rev. 12.14 15. and there she hath been nourished for A time and times and halfe a time from the face of the Serpent and from the floods which the Dragon cast out of his mouth after her Your Fortresses and fenced Cityes and strong inhabited places the buildings of your Idolatrous Temples is not that wildernesse wherein God prepared the womans place of preservation In your City Rome are the streets which spiritually are called Sodom where our Lord was and is daily crucified Idleness and fulness of bread hath encreased your sin in lust and wantonness Your Land is Aegypt where the Onions and the Garlick and the Leeks and the Milleons grow and the flesh-pots are unto which your hearts are bound with unreasonable cords of Appetite It is a mighty hand that must draw you ere you be delivered out of the Land of bondage of captivity and slavery to come to the knowledge and to be joyned in your understandings and life to the sore travels of the seed and Remnant of the Lord in the wildernesse and by how much you are short of this you are short of the knowledge of Moses and of his faithfulnesse in all Gods house Numb 12.7 and by how much you are short of the life of Moses you are short of the knowledge of Christ the Head and of the Church the body for Moses he was a follower of Christ who was raised up for the Redemption of the seed with which your Fathers made war in their days even with the Remnant which was spared in the dayes of the coming in and spreading of the Apostacy which now the Lord hath returned and is returning the captivity of and hath delivered and is delivering the woman out of the solitarinesse of her flight in a secret place in the wildernesse whose tryals and travels and refuge and restauration and redemption ye are ignorant of And your darkness through your corruption and unrighteousnesse is the cause of your vain contentions against and stumbling at the high-way of truth and peace Quest And yet if you further enquire in what estate and condition your Fathers and Predecessors stood in their day which ye their successors are entred into and do stand in these dayes Answ I answer It was and is the estate and condition of the world in the nature of the world in the abominable wickednesse of the world who cannot cease from sin 2 Pet. 2.14 in the filthy unclean lusts of the world and in the deceit of Satan and ignorance of the world under the pronunciation of the word of Johns prophesie Rev. 12.12 Woe to the Inhabiters of the earth for the Devill is come down unto you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time and this in brief is your estate and time in which you stand Wherefore I am assured in the truth that as ye remain in the ground and nature of your cursed life ye have not in the least measure or appearance any good confidence to affirm that you are the true Church of Christ but rather your arguments assertions and all manner of disputations do arise from the foundation of impudence which hath a face to bear out your deceit and falacies I know the figure of your
Kingdome you who are called Jesuits also mark this your figure the Chamelian which lives by the Aire which according to the Law is an unclean Beast which can change himself into all colours perfect white onely excepted Read your similitude and see how you who live in your lusts can without a mock of the Truth be titled with the name of the Church of Christ Jesus in which is neither spot nor wrinkle nor blemish nor any such thing as uncleannesse or unrighteousnesse 1 Cor. 6.11 Although such were some of them but they came to be washed and were cleansed and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Which Spirit of truth the light is this day the Leader of the Saints and servants of God into all truth Now therefore doe ye Read What is the Chaffe to the Wheate And what relation hath the Spirit of truth unto your life which is squared and fashioned in the frame of Error Deceite hath been the Master-builder of the fabrick of your habitation the spirit of Iniquitie working in a mystery the foundation of your walls and the strength of lyes and lying wonders the pillars of your house which by the gilded appearance of the beauty of the wisdome of the ancient and learned in Philosophy Rhetorick and Sophistry is covered with many painted tiles of vanitie under the shaddow whereof you bow to the Images and pictures which the unrighteous hearts of your fathers Invented whose Gods are before your eyes unto which the affections of your naturall sences are joyned whereby with the carnall and naturall according to the motion of the Spirit of Error and Deceit in you you are led to worship the workes of their hands as is manifest by your bowings and bendings to the Image and likenesse of the naturall which the naturall invented and the carnall made And this also came in in the Apostasie when that was forsaken which the Eternall Spirit did command And now through the custome of your forefathers and you in the dayly practice of their invented Ceremonies being setled on the leese of their abominable Idolatries are come in your generation Matth. 15.9 to teach for doctrine the traditions of men And therefore in vaine is your worship as saith the Lord But yet ye have also to speake in the commendation of your fathers seniority and wisdome who gave commandement for such resemblances by Images and pictures not as if they were the gods of your worship but the resemblances of the Lord Christ c. whom by these resemblances you teach the ignorant for to worship Answer The greatest blindnesse is in the hearts of your learned Fathers I speak out of the spheare of their Colledges in mine Answer to their plea for their sinfull Idolatries and over all your Nations doe cry out and lift up my voyce as one in mourning lamenting for the lost seed among you which they that should rather in righteousnesse handle the plow to break up the clods to uncover the seed have used the spade and shovel and have heaped up dirt and stones thereon to the miserable burden thereof Oh horrible Ignorance a people bound with the chaines of darknesse can any thing be the resemblance of the Lord or the likenesse of his Image who is the Infinite Eterternall a pure holy glorious endlesse living Spirit but that which he maketh in his likeness and formeth in his own Image by the power of his own Almighty hand And doth he who is a pure Everlasting Spirit of life make or fashion any whom he fashioneth but in the likenesse of that which all the world by wisdome by Philosophy or by arguments can never attaine to reach unto the sight or understanding thereof Can any make the resemblance of God who is Immortall which the mortall never saw Can the corruptible and mortall which never did nor never shall see incorruption and immortalitie make with their corruptible hands and changeable unrighteous Idolatrous hearts the resemblance or likenesse of the Incorruptible Spirit From the Lord God I say and declare unto you all your bowings to your Crosses and Images and Pictures praying upon Beads to Mary and Saints is abomination to the Lord God of Heaven and Earth and in these things you are but a stinke to the rest of the Heathen who with you doe stand Enemies to the Doctrine Gospel and Crosse of our Lord Jesus for as they in words doe hold the name of our Lord in contempt you with your deceitfull shaddowes doe make a mock of truth and his sufferings in loathsomenesse you are seated as an abomination in the sight of God who created you and in the eye and sight of the servants of the Lord who by the price of blood are redeemed and with pure water are washed from the polutions of the iniquitie and the blood and envie which is among you and the rest of the Nations kinreds tongues and peoples of the Earth and now are the followers of the Lambe whethersoever he goeth Abundantly do the Scripture beare testimony against your practices mark from the precepts and commandements of God Exod 20.4 unto Moses through the house of the Prophets and the life of the Saints search and then see Isa 44.3 might not you with as much confidence make a calfe and say to the ignorant this is the resemblance of God worship ye it and draw the picture of a Monster and say this is the resemblance of the wonderfull Spirit which was in Paul or Peter bowe ye before it Read Jer the 23.11 12 13 14 15 verses Oh miserable blindnesse and the greatest darknesse is the Priests ignorance who teach the people lyes and cause them to erre in their wayes With the light search and see how far you are from being under the power of the word of the Lord who contrary to the letter of the Scriptures Do worship in the forme of the traditions of your fore-fathers Christ said to his Disciples in those dayes Joh 4.23 The houre cometh and now is that the true worshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to worship him mark such as are in the Spirit Math 23.29 having one father which is in Heaven but ye being yet in your sins and in the flesh are the false worshippers who have many instructions and traditions and observations given to you according to the wills as the product of the inventions and conceptions of your many fathers and now as ye shall turne your minds to the light of the Lord Jesus which will rip open your hearts you will finde that rule to be the equall measure of your wayes which will give you a true fight that you are not in the truth as it is in Jesus who is the truth in whom and by whom and through whom the Prophets writ their prophesies and the Apostles had their utterance whose words do stand to the bearing
had a commandement concerning the Temple and they might say unto Jeremiah who was as a stripling and as it were a childe Art thou greater then Solomon whom God appointed to build us this Temple Neverthelesse and although Jeremiah was as one alone in that work yet this was his testimony he knew that he was of God Jer 26.15 Whether they would heare or forbeare and they having corrupted themselves in a commandement he was therefore sent to cry against them and if they were cryed against as being a people corrupted in a commandement how much more thinke ye ought ye to be born witnesse and testimony against who have contrary to the Word or any command abused your selves and dishonoured God in and through the workes and inventions of your degenerated fore-fathers much lesse therefore could you in your nature receive my testimony in the name and power of the Lord if ye were commanded as the Jewes were or had any example as they had so suitable with their time seeing ye sleight my testimony and do make a mock of my witnesse against your Temples pictures bowings beads crosses and crossings c. for which ye have neither precept president example or the least commandement throughout all the Scriptures of the Prophets Christs words and the Apostles writings that ever such things were or should in any age in the Truth come to passe What benefit therefore doe you purchase to your souls through the exercise of your tongues in smooth words and flatteries what advantageth it if you say that you believe in Christ whilest the words of Christ are not a Law unto you but the traditions of your Fathers stand the Law of liberty for your blind hearts to walk in the crookednesse of their subversion What is Christ Jesus unto you whilest you forsake his way life and council and in enmity thereunto are acting worshipping and walking in the way life and councils of men of corrupt and degenerated minds which you call the faith of the Roman Catholique Church what is the Catholique Church to the Church of Christ seeing they have not the word nor council of Christ And therefore much farther from the work life and faithfull order of the doctrine of Christ You may blind the simple and deceive the ignorant and destroy the souls of thousands that know not the right hand from the left Unto you Doctors I speak unto whom also my words in the Light and Life of the Lord Jesus is a Riddle and a Parable Ye know not the right hand from the left and therefore I write little things unto you do speak plain words concerning you that in all your Countreys and Colledges ye may be no longer the deceived and deceivers The deluded and deluders The destroyed and destroyers And therefore I further say That it is not a shame unto you whose long hairs declares seniority without in the Antiquity of your dayes to stoop and bow your necks for your backs to bear the chastisement of the Rod of your younger in years and know ye that it was prudence in as many of the aged whose faces wore a fair shew of grey hairs not to despise the youth of tender Timothy And remember that little David smote and slew the great Philistine and the glory was the Lords and in this also I give the praise and honour unto God who is arisen to smite the earth who also hath smitten many Islands thereof and his word reacheth unto the utmost end of the many continents wherein the Beasts of the field have an habitation and the Lord God will hunt the Foxes and destroy the Wolves and slay the Lyons of the Forrests which have scattered the sheep of the Fold and preyed upon the Heritage of God Oh earth where are they devourers hid they have made merry but they shall be vexed they have sported but they shall be tormented Ye men of learning what is your learning Ye men of strength what is your strength Bring forth your Books and let us put them in the Ballance Rome Rome Hide not thy Daughters but let the whole earth see the Daughters of thy pleasure and let us come and reason with you a little to see if thy daughters of delight and ease which have been born without pain are meet to make marriage with the Sons of God for whose birth Zion hath travelled Yea her children yea all the daughters of your mother Rome plead with your mother and say unto your mother if thou who hast born us without travel beest not an Harlot in thy prophane pleasure then let us know of a truth also whether it is not meet that we may be given unto a holy Nation that a Seed may be preserved to the praise of the name of the Leader of Israel out of Aegypt Oh Italy thou hast a remnant within thee which plague shall not touch although Pestilence as a Besom shall sweep thy Land Repent if peradventure ye may be spared Ye Doctors I have not yet left you having also publiquely to proclaim Gods controversie with you take to you the Officers of your two Churches number your Armyes arme your Hosts whet your swords yet behold in the day of battel God will wound you when you shall not smite the Lord. I have seen your strength and have passed by your trust and at that time the wind of the Lord God did shake the earth wherein I walked What is your Spear to the Arrows of the Lord Let Romes University answer my enquiry What is your weavers beam unto Davids smooth stones What are your Silogisms to truth What is your Philosophy to the Light What are all your critical Inventions and cunning contrivances to the word which cannot be changed You cal'd Jesuits what are your many colours to white You Priests what are your changeable Coats unto that one without a seam Oh Athens Thy Members are in my remembrance and ye the Pastors of the People mark your sheep yea your sheep do bear your own mark The Lord moved me on the 27. day of the 7. Month in the year accounted 1657. being the first day of the week the day of Greeks solemn worship Hear this ye Doctors of Athens and Priests thereof who minister in the Idols Temples and House of Rimmon The Lord moved me to read in the place of your solemnity and a witnesse went with me to the sealing of my testimony and at which time Behold your worshippers did bow to their pictures giving forth contempt and laughter in our faces and I said Gods hand is against you and he that fits in Heaven laughs you to scorn O horrible abomination Hear this ye Priests mark the fruits of your ministry ye Doctors Behold they declared you in the street and spread your name in the open places your Temples could not contain their lightness and wickednesse for afterwards in a mock of the Crosse of Christ Jesus even in the streets of your City the people would meet us and stand
prophesie falsly and their Priests bear rule by their means Even them which do lead them and cause them to erre Isa 3.12 and destroyeth the way of their path and the people love to have it so but what will ye do in the end thereof Mark this ye people Hosea 4.9 Behold I will punish them for their wayes and reward them their doings You that have already tasted of Gods vengeance shew ye the Cup to your brethren that if peradventure they may repent and not taste of that indignation which hath passed over your heads as a stream of fury reaching unto your present woe and misery As concerning the reading of the Scriptures by the people of severall of your Nations although it be such unto whom the Priests give licence yet are they not without the limit of the black chain of your Fathers Annotations whose imaginations drew Inferences and conclusions and have alledged constructions and meanings to hold forth their opinions and the draught of their Traditions through their abuse and perverting of the Scriptures that as they have brought themselves under that promise so they tye you with themselves under the condition thereof which John writes Rev. 22.18 For I testifie unto every man that hears the words of the Prophesie of this Book if any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this Book Under this promise and condition without controversie you are holden who are bound under the frame and fashion of your fathers constructions whose inventions have the dominion over your faith and that of God in you hid under the covert of the product of the iniquity of their life Wherefore all ye simple souls be awakened and feel that in you which with all that ever you have yet heard your breathing souls are not satisfied in secret feel the languishing desire which no mans meanings concerning the Scriptures could fill or preach life unto Feel your hunger that you may come to witnesse the blessing unto that state and condition understand also that if you or your Fathers were in the life of that by which the Scriptures were spoken forth they could not have written meanings upon them neither could your eye be turned to read them or your hearts inclined to receive them for the Prophets and all the Holy men they did mean the same thing which they spake they were far from corruptions in their declarations and spake not words but such as were punctually according to their intentions without any Equivocations and therefore if ye were but in the Life ye would understand the doctrine and so your fathers have erred in the order of their Instruction they have begun at the wrong end and therefore they cannot perfect or bring you to a good end This principal matter concerning your salvation they have neglected they never touched the feeling part of your heart whereby the vail thereof should be rent that you might see with your own eye and hear with your own eare and understand with your own heart but alwayes they bound your sences in the womb of conception of death and never brought you forth unto life and the choycest of your Members are but as dead stocks and Images and how could they lead you unto that where they themselves never entred They are not passed through the vail which is the flesh of Christ as Paul writing to the Brethren who after the manner of men knew not Christ according to the flesh saith 2 Cor. 5.16 Yea although we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more I say your Priests and Pastors they never passed through his flesh to the witnessing of the true entrance into his body as Members joyned unto the one Head which is the new and living way which Jesus by the power of his coming Heb. 10.20 hath consecrated for us who are Redeemed by the purchase of his blood which sprinkleth our consciences from every evil and dead word and work from the world and the unrighteousnesse of their way then how far short think you are ye in the life and practice if your Doctors Priests Pastors and Teachers are ignorant of the Scriptures and of the Gospel of Christ Jesus and his Cross which unto as many as have received is in the true life of the understanding of the truth that is to say the Gospel of Christ Rom. 1.16 1 Cor. 1.18 and the Crosse of the Lord Christ Jesus is the power of God unto salvation which if they were Ministers of the true Church and you Members also thereof then would you be all in one Life to wit in Christ John 14.6 who is the Life which if you were in Christ who is the Life then need you not another thing besides the Life to confirm your understandings in the reading of the Scriptures which by the Life were given forth Can your nations therefore look a little way before you that you may consider it in your hearts and ponder it soberly in your secret meditations however I know the Heathen will kick against and the high obstinate-hearted will desperately resist even such in whole sight the soules of the simple are not of any account neither the glory of the Lord their delight whose praise through criticall Arguments and Sophistry is in gaining dominion and obtaining such mastery thereby to make a boast of their vaine victory yet there is a seed which can receive my testimony which is the Remnant of the Lord which under the iniquities of your Leaders hath been held in Egypt under miserable bondage and cruell captivitie I say look a little way before you with diligence into that which I write concerning you You are not come unto the life of the first principle which leads to the understanding and knowledge of the oracles and mysteries of God and of his kingdome of salvation and so are farre short of receiving partaking and enjoying of the pure life and power of the Spirit of life in the power and the life in your hearts which in the particular unto every true member of the Church of Christ Jesus gives the infallible witnesse and testimony that they are born of the undefiled wombe and incorruptible seed of promise unto life everlasting By which also the Gospel of Christ Jesus was preached to the Spirits in prison and the Scriptures and Prophesies of old 1 Pet 3.19 were given forth and spoken 2 Pet 1.21 which came not by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost Which no minde nor heart of man or understanding of mankinde without the same Spirit can read aright No lyar swearer proud envious thiefe covetous nor Idolater ungodly or prophane person can read them except their own portions from them Mal 4.1 Psal 9.17 viz. The lake is the portion of the lyar the proud shall be as stubble in the day of the