people and deceiving the hearts of the simple Awake awake to the judgement Behold the breath of the holy Apostles life is ready to utter voices in the earth as thunders against you destruction to your dwellings desolation to your habitations I have seen a dart within your doores which will wound you and when the day of God as a Thief in the night overtakes you Remember ye were warned unto repentance that you might escape the floods which shall overwhelm your Lands unto the determination of the consummation and decree of everlasting indignation and vengeance And furthermore ye Priests who say that you officiate as Peters Successors in the degree and order of your places I have both seen you your fruits and your labours and that hath plainly declared in the substance unto me that you have not the least relation unto the life of Peter being but the dirt and dust which the upright and undefiled spirit of Peter shakes from off his feet as a witnesse against your Cityes and habitations even in this day as a witnesse against the wickednesse and Idolatries of your Generation and whilst you are professing Peter's power and authority of binding and loosing on earth your manifold deceits hath blinded your hearts whereby you are so much ignorant of the word and work of Gods power that your corrupt wisdomes exercised in studies to the end of your evill dayes shall never find out the earth wherein the just life of Peter is this day entred binding the unrighteousness of your life and spirits under him as his Foot-stool everlastingly to tread and trample upon the glory of your heads and crown of your deceits Oh ye Greek Pastors Priests and people what can you plead for your Patriarch Can you not read the deceitfulnesse of his succession through the manner of his Election Dare you say that it is according to the election of the grace of Christ Jesus in the order of the truth or power of the true Faith who contrary to the word of Life and doctrine of the true faith doth purchase unto himself that Title and Degree with the price of a sum of moneys from the Emperour of the Turks whom you your selves do say is Antichrist and Reprobate concerning the faith of Christ an enemy to the life of the Saints and spirit of Peter of whom you say that your Patriarch is his successor Oh confesse confesse your blindness and blush blush and be ashamed of your impudence and obstinacy in ignorance for behold if your foundation and root concerning the remission of your sins be rotten what farther prop or post to your selves can you hew out in your imaginations and inventions for the support of the deceived walls of your Fathers buildings And again After one hath paid the price for the purchase of his Office if another of your Nation goes with his sum of moneys and gives to the Emperour he disposses the first and gives the Degree and Title to the latter Oh horrible abomination who hath a voice and hath with-holden and not cryed in the streets and published it in the open places even the iniquity and the abomination and not cryed against the loathsomnesse thereof by such desperate mockings of God through the wickednesse of their purchases Read diligently the Scripture Acts. 8.19 20 21. But Peter said unto him thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of the Lord. Now compare the practices and see if the unrighteousnesse of Simon the Sorcerer who was in the gall of bitterness doth parralel the strength of the sealed bonds of iniquity of your Patriarchs Successors and finally touching this matter take this as the summe to your selves the original and ground of his deceivable granting and your receiving the remission of sin according to the truth of the reckoning of your own account is the Reprobate spirit of Antichrist Read also O Italy France Ireland Spain and Portugall the seat of your Father the Pope John 18.36 he sits exalted in the Kingdom of this world contrary to Christs example as King upon the highest mountain over many waters Rev. 17.15 Matth. 4.8 9. in the possession of the inheritance of the promise of Satan All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me The aboundance of his corrupt honour and vain glory with the abominable fruits of the worships of his children and the Priests actions in iniquity gives testimony of the oath of the witnesse that he stands principall in the ground of Apostacy Hester 3.8 c. Hamans decree which he got granted for the slaughter of the Jews and his Gallows of fifty cubits high which was prepared for Mordecai is the figure of your Fathers Inquisitions for the taking away the liberty Hos 5.13 14. and the destruction of the life of such as God sends to declare against your Traditional worships in Superstition and Idolatry Math. 11.29 How far is his life from Christs doctrine and example of humility who in the pride of his heart sitting on high in the seat and Throne of arrogancy maketh the comers to see his face to fall down before him upon their knees to kiss his foot The abomination and loathsomnesse of the nature of these few fruits are sufficient unto all that have the true sences of seeing and savouring that his succession is not in the Covenant of grace according to the election of God whom men in the flesh have elected and chosen unto the glory of the kingdomes of men in this present evil world And finally touching the vanity of your conceptions and the deceitfulnesse of the Popes practices this is the sum of the account of the true record concerning the absolutions and forgivenesse of sins which ye receive from his authorized sons Your Fathers the Priests Lucifer which sought a seat above the meek Prince of salvation is the root and ground of the issues of their grant and warrant of Remission Zach 9.9 Math. 21.5 Isa 14.12 13 14 15 16. whose figure and resemblance is the revelation of damnation He that hath an ear to hear let him hear and a heart to fear let him fear I have not in every particular remonstrated your Traditions and customes wherein you walk contrary to the truth but having the testimony shall in short shew you how that you are short of the substance in which the promise is yea and amen of eternall life Your hearts and minds are not singly and simply joyned to the Light of the Lord Christ Jesus which shines in all your consciences and that 's the cause of the foot-steps of your wayes and the birth of your words and works to proceed and flow forth as the fruits of the womb of darkness And in how much in all your wayes words and works you are short of the Life of the
to the Greekes Patriarke and Pope of Rome and to their Doctors Priests Pastors Universities Schooles and Colledges throughout the compasse of the Regions of the rule of their two Catholique Churches in all the earth by them or any of them to be answered for the sake of truth and of soules in how much they are willing to appeare lovers of truth or of soules and are ready to render a reason of the hope that is in them according to the Scriptures Concerning the Word of Faith Query 1 WHat is the faith of Jesus And what is that which begets any into the true faith of Jesus Whether is it mens Imaginary conceptions of Jesus and the training up of a people in the blinde traditions of men or only the word of faith which cometh from Jesus yea or nay Query 2 What is the sure word of faith which gives the true and sound witnesse of the life of Jesus only unto worme Jacob and which word is nigh unto all men upon the face of the earth and yet is that which the sinner cannot receive unto life but resists unto death Query 3 Can any person minister the Word to beget others into the faith of the word of faith who have not themselves received the word and have any received the life of the word who knowes not the word yea or nay And who amongst you is cleansed with the word that is not in the state of sinne under deaths bonds of transgression in enmity to the word Query 4 Whether can any truly know Christ to believe in Christ who never have heard the word of Christ And when and where did any of you ever heare the voyce of the Son of God And is not that the Pharisees and hypocrites state to boast and say that you believe in Christ and have the word of God and yet never heard immediately the voyce of Christ yea or nay Query 5 What is that eare in man which being open cannot heare the voyce of Christ who came to make deafe those that heare and to give hearing to the deafe And what is that eare also which ought to heare and is stopt And that eye which seeth and is to be blinded and that eye which is blinded which Christ cometh to open Shew plainly the five senses of man which are senslesse of the word of God and see if you can answer how that man in sense beyond sense hath the true sense of seeing hearing feeling savouring by smelling and tasting of the good word of God Query 6 By what was it that the word of life was ministred and preached unto the Spirits in prison and what is the Spirit which is the prisoner and what and where is the prison and when did ye ever visit the prisoner in the time of his bondage in prison Concerning the Patriarke and Popes Power Query 7 WHat is the key which openeth the prison doore and who hath that key hath either your Patriarke or Pope that key to open the prison doore and to loose on earth And what is the matter and subject to be loosed on earth And in what manner will that also be loosed in heaven which is loosed on earth Query 8 What is the key of David and who hath the keeping thereof and is there any other key which openeth Heaven or shutteth the door of death or gates of Hell besides the key of David Whether either your Patriarch or Pope whom ye call Peters Successor hath the keeping of that key seeing that the Scriptures say That the first and the last he that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth hath the key of David Rev. 3.7 Rev. 1.17 18. Query 9 What is the key of knowledge which the Lawyers took away whereby they entered not themselves and hindered others from entering even such as was entering Did the Lawyers know what that key was then And do your Patriarch or Pope Doctors Priests or Lawyers know what it is now Are you in any other knowledge or wisdome then those Lawyers were who entred not and hindred others yea or nay And wherein you may say that you differ do you shew it forth how you differ in the ground and nature Luke 11.52 Query 10 What is that Book and the Seales and Sealing of that Book which no man in Heaven nor in Earth was found worthy to open And where was Peter then whether was he in Heaven or in Earth or was he neither in Heaven nor on Earth and the Scriptures not saying that Peter was found worthy at that time how then can any of your Catholique Churches with confidence now say that those whom you call Peters Successors the Foundations and Pillars of your Churches are at this time worthy to do that or whether can your Pope or Patriarch do that in these dayes which John saw in his day no man in Heaven nor in Earth could do Rev. 5.1 2 3. Query 11 Your Members have said that Peter is the Rock and Foundation of your Catholique Churches I Query whether that was not the Peter who is the foundation of your Churches unto whom Christ the Rock and Foundation of our Church which is in God said Get thee behind me Satan and whether is the Patriarch at Constantinople or Pope at Rome his successor in his place yea or nay Math. 16.23 Query 12 Doth not the virtue of the key of knowledge open all mysteries and if ye have the key of knowledge of the things of God cannot ye thereby answer all these Queryes or any others concerning the things of God in the clear understanding of the mystery of Truth in the wisdom of God yea or my Query 13 Whosoever committeth sin is of the Devil 1 John 3.8 What then is the ground of the election of your Patriarch and Pope by sinners and impowred to forgive sins And in what standeth their power to forgive sins who are themselves wicked sinners Whether is the manner of this practice any other in the substance then Satan seating Lucifer in the Kingdom of sin falsly to salve up the wound of sin yea or nay Concerning Ordinances and divers corrupt Traditions and Idolatries Query 14 WHat is the one everlasting Ordinance of God which is the seal of the Covenant and assurance of salvation unto every living soul which hath partaked thereof which no Element could give the testimony of which is the sum and substance really come unto every true born Member of Christs Church of all Types Signes and Shadows which figured out the substance before it came Query 15 Whether are your two Catholique Churches or any of the Members thereof partakers of the one everlasting Ordinance of God which is the end of all washing carnall Bread Wine and Water-Baptismes and of all shaddows Types and Figures spoken of in the Scriptures seeing you in contrary manner to all the prophesies doctrines and examples written in the Scriptures do stand in divers invented shaddows vanities and Idolatries in the practice of the
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
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
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
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
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
for as all things and deeds which are done and wrought out of the Light are reproved by the Light even so also that which maketh manifest is light and the Light wherewith you are lightened is the measure of the gift of God which he hath given unto all men and the grace of God which hath appeared unto all men which taught the Saints to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts through which that is to say by the Light being Judged as men in the flesh they became Justified with God in the Spirit the Light will lead you unto life if you love it and obey it according to the voyce of it Isa 8.20 therefore to the Law and the Testimony take heed speaking alwayes according to this word Ye Greekes in all quarters and parts of the earth read this commandement as the quick sharp and short message of the Lord unto you even of the Righteous God whom your fathers provoked unto wrath through their Idolatrous superstitions and all manner of abomination for which cause he brought their necks under the miserable yoak of bondage to draw under the cords and chaine of the same Instrument of cruelty of the Jewes captivitie and this came to passe if peradventure in the time of trouble they might early seek and cry unto the Lord with unfained hearts but from generation to generation even to the evill dayes of this present generation he hath not found Repentance in your Land and therefore could not your Land finde nor feel the day of deliverance and breach of the bowes of your yoaks by his hand of Redemption Repent therefore lest ye be made an utter spoyle even unto the determination of time and there come no end of your misery and desolation Remember the declaration of the dayes of old and the sayings concerning the times which are already past there were a people unto whom the sure testimonies of God were given but they forsooke the mercy and through hard-heartednesse and self-conceitednesse departed from the fountaine to aske councell of their own wills in the house of Rimmon Isa 49.6 they expected the Covenant in their way wherefore when Christ the Light came contrary to their conceptions they rather resisted unto death then chose to be gathered unto life they once had the Law and the Prophets and the testimony of the Law and the Arke of the Covenant and the Temple which God gave them and yet because of their unbeliefe God spared not the Jewes which were the naturall branches according to the promise Heare this all ye Gentiles throughout the earth Rom. 11.22 If God spared not the naturall branches because of their unbeliefe why boast ye your selves against the naturall branches who are your selves fallen from the Root If God spared not the Jewes who received not the Light which testified for Christ which was and is the Light which shined in all their Consciences Shall he spare you who despise the Light and in Enmitie to Christ who is the Light walke contrary to the Light in all your Consciences Behold the goodnesse and the severitie of God on them which fell severitie but towards the Gentiles which stood goodnesse and unto as many as now continue in the good which cometh from God mercy and peace but as for such as forsake the Light which comes from Christ even they 〈◊〉 fruitfull branches shall also be cut off and with God there is no respect of persons And if the casting away of the Jewes were the reconciling of the world what shall the receiving of them be but your torment Rom 11.13 and the resurrection of the life of the seed from the dead and the redemption thereof from the bondage of the grave to the glory of God Amen Trust ye not therefore in lying words even as once the Jewes did saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these say not in your hearts the wisdome of God is the councell of our fathers such words shall not save you or if you farther say that you have Abraham to your father that shall not profit you but rather read your birth of the bond-woman that you may come to the casting out of her seed and generation of her wombe for be it knowne unto you God can out of rockes raise a remnant and out of stones a seed unto Abraham for not every one that saith Lord Math 7.22 shall enter for many shall say we have prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devills and yet it shall be said â—â—to them depart ye cursed workers of iniquitie and Virgins also loosed the Inheritance even such as were to seek oyle when the Lord came Math 25.12 and these are States beyond the conditions of all your Roman members throughout the earth the Scriptures are true in the declaration as Christ spake although you are false in your words and wayes and interpretations and if the doore of the kingdome be shut against carelesse Virgins how thinke you that wicked lyers drunkards swearers whore-mongers or harlots shall have an entrance therein therefore whilst you have time Repent This is the summe unto the pertaking of the purchase that you follow the Lambe of God Christ the Light of the world which taketh away the sin of the world He is the highest Priest Prophet and King of whom this is the signe and testimony unto Jew and Gentile He hath lightened every man that cometh into the world and this is the message unto the whole world God is light and in him is no darknesse at all Look therefore to your lives for behold this day is set before you death and darknesse life and light chuse you whether if you perish in your sins your blood be upon your own heads henceforth for ever prize your time Heb 12.17 Remembering that Esau had a time but Esau neglected his time so that when he carefully sought a place of Repentance with teares he could not finde it This is the testimony which we that do walke in the light as God is in the light do hold we know that whosoever is borne of God unto the Inheritance of the kingdome of God he sinneth not but he that is begotten of God 1 Joh. 3. 6 9. keepeth himselfe that wicked one toucheth him not and we know that we are of God and we also know that the whole world who are enemies to God lyeth in wickednesse And we know that the Sonne of God is come and hath given us an understanding whereby we know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ this is the true God and Eternall life Oh all ye Nations abstaine from Idolls The Saints by the seed of the Apostated Jewes first in contempt were called Christians and we who have received the same testimony of Jesus by the seed of the Apostated Christians in the Northern Islands are scornfully called Quakers J P SOme Queries propounded
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