Ʋpon the 22 day of the 8th Month, 1659.
THE Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Write, and again I say, Write with speed, to the Heads and Rulers of this Nation; Oh! earth, earth, earth, hear the Word of the Lord, and be awakened unto righteousness, for the hour of his Judgements are come on the earth; yea verily, the Lord God of Heaven and of earth, has sounded forth an alarum unto the Inhabitants of the whole earth, high and low; And this is the Word of the Lord to you all, you Heads and Rulers of this Nation, as it came to me from the mouth of the Lord, saying, I will confound, I will overturn all the powers of the earth, both Heads and Rulers, that are now ruling and governing in this Nation, by the force of cruelty, and by the unrighteous power are striving to rule and to govern over the Nations, and you yourselves out of the Government of Christ, and know not him that should guide you, to rule in justice nor in truth for the Lord God, but you are rising up against the unlimitted power of the Almighty God, to stop it from going through; but I say by the Spirit of the Almighty God, all your striving is in vain, he hath began his work, and he will go through, until his foes are become his foot-stool, and all that riseth up to hinder his work, will he bring to nought, he will overturn, he will overturn Gog and Magog, and all the powers of darkness, both Priests and Rulers will the Lord God suddenly throw down, for behold now is the Ax laid to the root of the evil tree, and the Son of God the light of the world is come, not to bring peace on earth but a sword, to cut down the corrupt tree in every one, you must feel the Ax laid to the root of the evil tree, within your own houses, you must feel the sword of the Lord to pass through in every one, to cut down the corrupt tree, that hath grown within, that hath brought forth the corrupt fruit that hath not pleased God; this you must all feel the work of God in Christ, to destroy the work of the Devil within you, the prince of darkness, that hath ruled in the hearts of men; but now is the Lord God arisen and arising, [Page 2]from his holy Habitation, he is come and coming, to make War against the prince of this world, that hath had the dominion in the hearts of men, and he will throw down Kings from their Thrones, and he will lay low the mighty, and he will bring down the strong from their seats, and the princes or this world will he overturn, for Michael our prince is come to make War in righteousness, and to set up his Throne again over the kingdoms of men, and over the heads of you that are ruling and governing of this Nation will the Lord God establish his Throne, that he may be known to be the Head and the Governour of his people, the one head over the many heads, will rule and reign, and have the dominion, and a thorow work will the Lord God make in you, and through you, that are now about to set up your own government, made without the Councel of God, made in your own wills, and in your own wills you think to set them up, but the Lord God by his Almighty power will break them in pieces, and throw them down, before you shall have power to set them up; yea, the Lord God hath beheld your wayes with his all-seeing eye, he doth see your intents in secret, and he will bring them forth, and reward you openly, in the view of all people, yea, the Lord God of hosts is risen and arising, and he will scatter you, and dash you one against the other, if you go on in your evil intents, the Lord God is coming to shake you like a leaf, & to break down your invented imagined Laws, made by your evil hearts, hearts full of corruption and deceit, with guile in your mouths, which proceedeth from an evil heart, in you the Son of God hath no place, the foxes have holes, and the fouls of the air have nests, but the Son of God hath not whereon to lay his head in the earth; but you that know him not to rule nor to guide in the way of righteousness, you are in darkness. and your works are wrought in darkness, and you are out of the light of the Son of God; for he that loveth the light, bringeth his deeds to the light, that they may be known that they are wrought in God, read your selves, and try you selves, whether or no your works, deeds and actions are wrought in the light, or in God who is light; But if you are yet hating the light of the Lord Jesus Christ within your own hearts, that will be your condemnation, be ye what you will in greatness or in the glory of the world, I tell you your condition is miserable, [Page 3]and you are without God, living in the world, you are yet under condemnation, and you have not passed from death unto life, but are yet children of wrath, heaping up wrath against the day of wrath; there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, and in the Spirit, which is truth in the inward parts; Are you there? are you found in the path of Justice? are you judging with true Judgement, the cause of the poor? are you setting free the oppressed? or are you laying more heavy burdens upon the righteous seed and heritage of God? If you are, the Lord God of Heaven and of earth will thunder out his Judgements hastily upon you, with woes and plagues will he recompence you, and sudden distruction will he bring on you, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, and it shall surely come to pass, and be fulfilled in and upon you, as ever you were created, if you sleight the day of your visitation, which is hastening and passing away; And behold! as the day cometh & passeth away, and cannot be recall'd again, even so the night hasteneth and will come, wherein none shall work; then wo and lamentation will come upon such as are slighting the day of their visitation, like Sodom and Gomorrah, that the Lord warned by his messengers to repent, whom they slighted and repented not, and were destroyed. Oh! let a serious consideration pass through, search your own hearts, and deal singly with your own selves, and see how it standeth between God and you; Whether or no you are acting for God, and by the power of God, or led to do his will; Let Gods witness in every one of you answer; and stifle not the pure witness of God, but let it deal plainly with you, and it will shew you what you have been working, and what you are now a working; let the light of Christ break through you, and let it arise within you, quench it not, least it condemn you for ever, for now hath the Lord God commanded light to shine out of darkness, that giveth the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, to all that do believe, follow and obey the light of the Son, it leadeth out of darkness, and out of sin and transgression, up to God again, from whence the light cometh; So all that are led by the light, are led by the Spirit of God, and they know God, and they have fellowship with God, for if we walk in the light, as he is in the [Page 4]light, then we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus cleanseth from all sin; but they that walk in darkness, have not fellowship with God, neither do they know him; and here is fallen man, without God, living in the world in a woful state, miserable, blind and naked, quit darkned in his understanding, by reason of transgression, and the further he runneth on in sin and in transgression, the more he becometh darkned in his understanding, that he cannot understand the things of God, and is wholly ignorant of his Maker; So is the whole world become darkness, and darkness hath been over the face of the whole earth, and thick darkness hath covered the hearts of all people; But now hath the light appeared, and is expelling the clouds of darkness, and through darkness hath the Son broken, and from the dead is he risen, that is the light of the world, that inlightneth every man that cometh into the world; So the grace of God that bringeth Salvation, hath appeared unto all men, but all are not guided by this grace, because they love it not, but they loving the world and the glory thereof, they have let sl [...]p the grace of God, the good gift of his own Spirit, and they have hid their talent, that the Lord gave them, deep in the earth, and they have become unprofitable servants, and such God will plead with, he will require for the improvement of it, & then the unprofitable servant w [...]ll be rewarded, according to the improvement of the Lords talent; if he hath proficed nothing by the good grace of God, that hath appeared to him, and he hath slighted it, then this will be pronounced to him, Go ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels; this is the portion of the ungodly, who hateth the grace of God, and kicks against that that hath often called them to return from the evil of their wayes, but they would not hearken unto it; therefore the condemnation of such will be Just, and that is the light of Christ within them; for whatsoever manifesteth that is light, and this is the light of the Lamb of God, and is come to take away the sins of the world, for he that believeth in me, saith Christ, shall never see death, and I wall raise him up at the last day; but he that believeth not, abideth in death, and death hath dominion over him; for except Christ be risen from the dead, all preaching [...]s in vain, and that faith that standeth not in the first Resurrection, [Page 5]is a dead faith; he that believeth hath entred into his rest, he hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his, all that believeth in Christ, knoweth the everlasting rest, and are entred into it, and such have rested from their own works, and Christ hath wrought his Will in them; So here is the Will of God done in the earth, as it is in Heaven, and here is no more their own will, but the Will of God, as he said that wrought the Will of the Father, I came not to do my own will, but the Will of him that sent me; So where Christ is known and lived in, and he living in them that are his people, they know the Will of the Father, and are doers of it; he that revealeth the Father, is the Son, and the Son is the light, and in the light, is the will of the Father revealed, no man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son revealeth him & he that hath the S [...]n hath the Father also, for now is the foundation stone coming to strike on the top of Babel, that great building, and he will confound the languages of the builders thereof, and of the upholders, that upholdeth great Babel, the Image of the beast, whereon the fa [...]e prophet sits, and is upheld by the powers of darkness, but the living power of God will break down the powers of darkness, and that and the false prophet shall fall together, and the Image ground to powder, and that that hath been build [...]d so high, thrown to the bottom, for a thorow work will the Lord God make, until he hath set up his K ngdom again over the kingdoms of men, God will glorifie his Son, and set him up again, that hath been a Lamb slam since the foundation of the world, and he is arising with healing under his wings, on them that do believe, & the power of the Lord God is bringing mighty things to pass; And this is the mighty day of the Lord, wherein he will gather a remnant from all Nations and Countreys, many shall come from the East, and from the West, and shall sit down with Abraham, and with Isaac, and with Jacob in the Kingdom of our God; And you will the Lord gather, if you will hear his voice, and harden not your hearts, and provoke not the Lord to wrath, and slight not the day of your visitation, but hear that your Souls may live, for the love of the Lord reacheth to all; And to you doth he call in this the day of his everlasting love, and of his glorious appearance, wherein he is coming to try [Page 6]you, and again will he try you that are ruling and governing in this Nation, he will carry on his work, over you and through you, the power of God will limit, and bind all the powers of darkness; the gates of hell shall not prevail against he that is now risen in the hearts of his people, the Rock of ages, the power of God, that shaketh the earth, and maketh the mountains to tremble; he will shake the earth terribly, and not the earth onely, but the heavens also, that that which is to be shaken, may be shaken, that that which cannot be shaken may remain, for now is the way of everlasting life made known in this our day, that hath not been known in many ages nor generations, now is the way of truth openly declared unto all that will come freely, Oh! stand not out, but be willing to come unto Christ that you may have life, for there is no other way that you can come to life, but Christ who is the light and life of men, and to him you must all come, and submit your Government under his Government, or else you will never prosper; I tell you plainly, by the Spirit of the Lord, and it will stand upon record, whether you will hear or no, it will witness against you, and against your unrighteous actions, for the decree of God is gone forth against you, and against your injustice, Tyranny, and oppression. Oh! you heads, and Rulers, that rule by the unrighteous power, and are striving by your own strength, to limit and binde up the power of the Almighty God of heaven and of earth; Mark the end of your work, if you go on in rebellion against God, look to receive a just recompence of reward according to your injustice, the Lord God is just and righteous, upright, and holy; and he will reward you, according to your unrighteous dealing, and as you do deal unto others, the same will the Lord God deal to you, and as you have rewarded the servants of the Lord, that have foretold you, and warned you and others, to fly from the wrath to come, which in obedience to the Lord they have done it, and also are yet sent forth with the message of the Lord God of hosts, to warn you heads, and Rulers of this Nation, that you may come to the brightness of the arising of the second Adam, that through the darkness hath his light broken, and is rending the vail of thick darkness, from the top to bottom, and he is making of a thorow work in the earth, for through Judgement you must come, and to know true Judgement [Page 7]set up within you; for until then you cannot know how to deal true Judgement to others without you, for by Judgement, must the inhabitants of the earth learn righteousness; and if you had known Judgement set up within you, you would have known how to deal with righteous Judgement unto all others without you; for until that you come to know true Judgement, the Judgement of Christ to be executed upon the transgressors within your own selves; until you feel the sword of the Lord God to passe through you, and to cut down the root and the ground of corruption that lodgeth in the evil heart, the heart unpurified; that cannot know, nor see, nor perceive the things of God; I tell you, while that standeth that is under the curse, and under wrath, and under condemnation, the unrighteous ruleth and beareth rule within you; And this causeth you to oppress others without you, but the Lord God will arise in his furious indignation, and he will overturn you and your oppression, and all the oppressors, and he will break them in pieces, and dash them one against the other, and you will he throw down from your high thrones, and you shall become as weak as the weakest of all; for the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and the strong men shall sit in desolation and sorrow, and anguish of soul shall possesse the lofty; and mourning and sorrow of heart shall smite the Rebellious, and the hard hearted that have hardened themselves against the Lord; wo, and desolation, is coming upon you that fear not God, I do see a storm of vexation coming on you, shewed unto me by the Lord God, and I am constrained by him to make it known to you, before it fall on you; and also to warn you to flie from it, for I shall clear my conscience in the sight of God, being moved by his eternal spirit to leave my own Countrey in obedience to the Lord God to deliver his message to you; you heads and Rulers of this Nation of England, you must come down from your high thrones; and again I say, you must come down and repent, and humble your selves before he Lord God, that he may have mercy on you, and this is the great love of God unto you, to warn you in your life time, before the time come when warning shall be no more, and that you go down into the grave with sorrow. Oh! harden not your hearts, but let the Word of God passe through you; let it rip open your hearts, [Page 8]that you may come to have hearts of flesh, that your stony hearts may be taken away, that you may come to have new hearts, and the Law of God written therein, and you to act thereby, and then all will be well pleasing in the sight of God, until then, the hand of the Lord will be against you, and your will never be able to bring any thing in its right order until you come to know the God of order to order you, & to govern you by his own spirit, and by his own power to guide you in the way of righteousness, and in the way of holiness which is the path of peace to all that walk therein. This is to you that are ruling and governing this Nation, for a warning and a message, as received by the Spirit of the living God, as it was given to me to be delivered to you, for you to read in the fear of God, and in meekness to receive it as the Councel of God.