BY a singular providence of God I happened to be at the Town of Cambridge at the very instant of Do­ctor Hill's departure: then at the same time the Lord moved me to write, and he actually taught me what I should write, which he the Lord preached to me. This Sermon preached to me was not my desire onely, yet the God of life put it upon me, and supported me with matter accordingly, that I could not deny but write: for the Lord preached unto me the things I should write, and now I declare unto you a new Sabbath, which I did write with much niceness and fear of spirit; yet the Lord told me that the Sabbath-Ordinances were changed by the Priests under the Law, and likewise by the Ministers of our time. And therefore of necessity I did write as he commanded me, by way of a Funeral-Sermon, or a final dissolution of the Clergellical power, whereof I declare the life and death of the Creature, and the stability and endless power of Christs Ministery, with a description of them that call themselves Ministers of God, and how they shall fall under the Worlds contempt, some degrees worse then the Bishops. The Prophets complaine; the clamation is, The Minister and Priests have robbed Gods store-house, taking to themselves those priviledges that are not their own; therefore they shall say no more, Know the Lord from the greatest to the least; and shall be free from your [Page] mouth inherently taught of God, and live by faith exemplary to Abra­ham, Noah, and Christ; which is to live in righteousness, and not to need the teachings of men: for all our teachers are failable now as well as they were under the Law; so that our redemption is clearly by Christ, Heb. 7.24. Christ he continued ever unchangeable as a Priest, whereof he is a­ble to save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them: which is a plaine proof, without dispute, that he is the Minister of God, and Priest; he will put an end to your Ministery, because you are failable, yet Christ is infailable: and therefore we cast you off in the name of the Lord, and cry ye down as no Ministers of God, but deceivers of the people. I would bave all live up to Christ by a personal power, free from all the teachings of men, and that no man shall ought to teach, whether he be a Minister or a lay-man; for one mans tongue is no lawful testimony, for one may speak of Christ as well as another, so that all may prophesy one by one, as they did in Christs time: for in the last dayes I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, for my servants and handmaids shall prophesie. Then said he unto me, Prophesie, son of man: So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great Army. Ezekiel 37. This Army Giddon of the Lord shall cause the River Eu­phrates with seven streams to dry up; and there shall be many voyces heard, and witnesses on their Feet. Then looke to it Doctor; without all dispute, your trade of preaching will fall.

BEloved, this Doctor Hill was a man of good ranke, an eminent man that I did formerly know, though now he was very justitious; I was his Country-man about sixteen or eighteen yeers past; he was a reasonable good professor called a Puritan in those dayes; but what he was now, I cannot tell; I hear you say he was Master of Trinity-Colledge. This Doctor Hill was very well known and approved of through all the University of Cam­bridge; This Doctor Hill was a man very well beloved in the Town, it rung passing-peals for him at five Churches, which I have seldome heard so many Bells of Aaron ring for one Priest. You tell me he had neither Son nor Daughter; what did he do with all his hundreds a yeer? did he build Hospi­tals for the poor? Ye tell me he was a man of little Hospitality; then I cannot speak much in his behoof.

The words that I shall treat upon are from the mouth of those four Pro­phets, Ezekiel 37. Matthew 28. Zachariah 11. and Rev. 11. These four Scriptures are the very ground-work of what we shall treat upon. We, even we the witnesses, foreshow the mystery of those Evangelical Prophets, and one Angelical amongst the rest, Christ the first, Ezekiel, Zachary, [Page] and John, by inference doth plainly type out the two Testaments of Law and Gospel, declaring of two Scriptures, one before Christ came in the flesh, the other by a Testimony of Christ and John, saying: I come not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil the Law.

Now we may finde these Prophets were part of the Witnesses that were be­fore and after Christ: so that these four Scriptures make out one testimony, which one Scripture cannot do so affirmatively, for one Scripture must prove another, and so make out truth which is undeniable.

These four Prophets, though far distant in their times, yet declared out the great things of God to come in our dayes, the one by a foolish Shephard that God will raise, spoken of by Zachary long before; the other are the two Wit­nesses that God will raise and put life into, and shall stand upon their Feet: it is not one mans feet, but feet of Witnesses; it is one Priest one Prophet alone which is Christ Jesus singular of himself, & not for man to stand as Doctor De­finator; and as one man cannot prove a truth, so two Scriptures must of necessity make out one truth which is a vindicated truth, and tolerated of God by Law and testimony.

But you high Doctors may question me in this thing, why one Scripture can­not be tolerable as well as two.

My answer is, because the Mount Sion came between the Law and Gospel, and changed the course of Sinai to Mount Sion, which is one to the Lord: for Christ standeth in power of himself to prove every Scripture, which is an allegory, or an all-power of himself, which man cannot attain unto: he is the high-Priest that first entred into rest: he hath trod the winepress alone; so that none can stand chiefe of himself, but he alone, after the order of Mel­chizedeck a Priest for ever ordained and sent of God: he is our Minister, and no other.

Doctor, I pray throw down your power; you are but as other men jointly to plead among your Low equals, and not to stand Lord Priest above others, preaching in your cause, to silence others. Therefore take to thy self the in­struments of a foolish Shepherd: Shewing that God will deliver his mind to some poor despised Shepherd, that shall declare his hand of judgement upon the Shepherds, to tell them they are but as other men, and shall acknowledge themselves as Sheep among others, and not think so high of themselves as to be called by the name of Shepherds: for Christ is all our Shepherd, and we are his Sheep, both Minister and People; neither shall you have power to ty­rannize over the consciences of the People, for all things shall be judged by the Church-Community to make out the Prophesie of the Prophet Zachary by way of allusion respondent or responsive to Christ; or under Christ, that some foolish Shepherd should declare and stand up as a Fool amongst the learned, saying, Take to thy self the instruments of a foolish Shepherd.

Now what be those instruments?

To answer, they be two, and of no less number: for one is not to be num­bered, but accompted as one instrument; it is one witness, and that is Christs place from God, and it not is tolerable for one man to preach and declare of himself in his own tongue, to silence the people; if he doth, his testimony is not true: for I will give power to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesie; meaning, that two or three may prophesie, preach, or disciply, and answer each other in order: so that I finde one alone, whether he be a Minister or a lay-man, of himself, cannot be tolerable to speak; for the plural number shall extinguish the singular, Christ excepted: for he saith, By the mouth of two or three witnesses every truth shall be established; Christ saith, his own testimony could not be true, except his Father bore witness with him. So that he always appeared to two or more; the two Maries sought him early in the morning. It sheweth to us, that these women were two faithful witnesses, in that he said, Go make known my resurrection, which was a calling of them by way of ordination, which Calling all you Doctors and Senators cannot shew. Again, when he appeared to Mary and Elizabeth, the babe sprung in her wombe for joy. Again, he appears to the two that were going to Em­maus, which caused them to say, Did not our hearts burn within us, when he talked with us? So that talking of God is the best preaching, and will cause all you Ministers to come down from your high places, I mean your Pulpits, and to plead among your low equals: for it is not the partia­lity of one mans tongue that can be found lawful; for Christ ever appeared to two, which were the least number; somtimes to three; somtimes to the twelve, that they might make out the truth: for the witnesses must prove a true testimony; two or three witnesses may make a true discovery, but one cannot. He saith, I will give power to two; that is not to one Minister, he cannot fully disciply truth: for every divine truth is proved by witnesses. That which one affirmeth in a Pulpit, another may deny; it is verily so in our common Churches. The truth should be reasoned out by faithful wit­nesses. Christ saith, Where two or three be gathered in my name, I will be in the midst of them; which is a great promise, or a calling forth of the wit­nesses to stand up and plead against the approbation of one Ministers tongue, which is unlawful, for one man to deffinate or define a truth of himself, to sesserate or deceive the people, calling himself a Minister of God.

Ye Diviners, Flatterers, and Soothsayers, that carry the power in your own tongues, and yet no faithful witnesses, which of you will lose all for the testi­mony of Christ, to vindicate thy life, to sacrifice thy liberty or thy parsonage for the truth of Christ? Alas you carry on the truth of God by flattery, and so deceive the hearers; you stand deffinating and temporing, sowing Pillows under great Mens Elbows: you will speak a little of Covetousness, but much [Page] less of blood and oppression, and little or nothing of devouring one another; for that will touch my self, or my parsonage.

O draw the Curtain there, see that God is angry with you, and telleth you by his Prophet Micah 3. that ye shall move out of your holes; and E­zekiel the Prophet saith, The people shall be taken from your mouth; and Zachary saith, I heard a howling of the Shepherds, for their glory was spoiled: and Malachy saith, Ye rob my Store-house, therfore the land is cursed with a curse.

If ye Ministers should preach against all Impropriations, as that ye dare not do, for losing your Parsonages, lose them and lose all; for then preach­ing will cease, and there will be many that will remove our Feet from the Pulpit; when every truth shall be defined by two or three witnesses, what will becom of us Pulpittians? it will be to us as the mourning of Hadadrim­mon: indeed that is the way to bring down the pride of Palestina, and Ca­pernaum exalted so high: you Pulpitsayons are set so high, as Lord speaker, who shall controul you? yet your power must come down; when your Pul­pits shall have never a leg, yet the two witnesses shall be upon their Feet, to plead for equity and justice, which ye do not; ye preach for your own ends, and cannot satisfie truth; alwaies full of repetition, but nothing of any new work that God will do in the earth. If a lay-man should speak higher things then those you declare, you would say as Festus said to Paul, that he was mad. Ye have slandered many good Christians that have been faithful wit­nesses to Christ, and learned the language from the Heavenly University, far passing Oxford and Cambridge.

Truly we have many Doctors in Oxford and Cambridge, that enjoy so much, that it is intolerable: These blind Doctors, Doctor up the Common­wealth, and deceive the people; impropriating to themselves more then Food and Rayment, which is contrary to Christs example; they be more in shew then in substance, getting to themselves high tolerations which are not of Christ; whereof you shall lie under his wrath, saying, How hard a thing is it for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom?

Yet take to thy self the instruments of a foolish Shepherd.

Doctor, I am as a fool amongst the Doctors; I cannot but tell you the truth: for God hath raised my spirit, he hath encouraged me to speak of your shame, and not to be daunted. Some Ministers now of late have made them­selves Doctors, hoping for some of these great places in Oxford and Cam­bridge, which will prove but veynal, or a veyne uncurable, that runneth it self out by many obstructions or clashings one against another, Minister against Minister: there is not that Antipathy nor that Universality, for some shall preach up their power, and some shall preach it down. This Eclipse or terrible shak­ing will hold until the power of your Priesthood fall: at the power of the [Page] eternal Priest, you must throw down your power at Christs Feet; for the Ho­ly Ghost shall be all our teacher. Ministers, your mouthes shall be stopped, Micah 3. you shall not divine, you shall no more say to the people, Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the greatest to the least; and that is by spiritual revelation, or by an inward knowing, which far passeth your learned places; your Colledges are filled with many scandalous Ruffinous Fellows and of a ranting Crew, very litteral, and not knowing the truth; transla­tors, and usurping the word of the letter to their own turnes, setting themselves higher then the teachings of God, thinking lay-men inferior to themselves; as if God could not raise up Children to Abraham out of those Stones.

To be taught of God, is the best University: for all your wit, and skill, and univesality of tongues, cannot make one godly person: for every gift and perfect giving is from above. God ministreth grace to whom he pleaseth; he is the Minister; then how canst thou be a Minister? for God ministreth to all things; then yeild up thy Priesthood to him; he is the Fountaine, and all the Streames must go to that Fountaine. You Doctors are set so high, and shall become low, more contemptible then the Bishops were: for God will set you as a mark to shoot at, or as a lost Jerusalem, for the Bittern or Owle to sit in; for you have kept all things at a distance, blinding the people, and keeping them under the letter by the hearing of Faith, without inward Faith; as if salvation were by the letter, and full freedom by the speaker. They will not let to say they have begotten souls; as if salvation were simply from their teachings. And thus they silence the people under their bands.

Ah go, go, and tell them so, that they silence the people, and cannot give them spiritual life, but keep them at a distance, as a Horse in a Mill alwaies going round, teaching them repetition and repetition; learning, and yet not come to the knowledge of truth: but Paul saith, Prove all things, yet hold fast that which is good. Then lay your heads together, and ye shall finde the Ministers of our time very faulty; They call themselves the Ministers of God, and sit in Christs place; In the name of the Lord we cast you forth, and we discarge your false power, for Christ is Adminstrator, and you are fleshly and litteral, and have no more power to preach then another man: for Christ is the Minister of God, and giveth us spiritual life to heal our infirmities, and he is our example to walk by: then lay by your covetous­ness and pride, and follow his example; set your selves to know God, and then you shall find great comfort; for it shall stir up the gift, which is the best teach­ing. Ministers cannot live themselves, and how should they give life to others? they are full of guilt and scandal, and yet they accompt themselves high Doctors or Ministers of God, when indeed ye are not so, but deceivers of the people; for there is no Minister but Christ alone: though ye stand so high in the Pulpits, you must come down at the appearing of Christ in his power, [Page] when all flesh shall bend, both things in Heaven, and things on the Earth, and things under the Earth shall all be dispowered and dis-throned, when no­thing shall stand but ordination, and that is Christ ordayned a Priest and a Minister for ever: he alone is our spiritual teacher, and you Ministers are worse then Lay-men for taking upon you that title of Ministery, and cannot live free from covetousness which is Idolatry; and you are idolatrous Priests, which deceive the simple.

Methinks I could stand an hour or two in your idolatrous places to preach as you do, but my conscience informeth me otherwise. Therefore I lay the Ax to the root of your one-legged Pulpits, to cut them down: for you Pulpit­sayons must come down, and set upon your low equals. Why should ye stand higher then Christ and his Apostles, that went from place to place discipling and teaching? But for shame, some of you Doctors could say your Autho­rity is jure Divino, which is a base degree hatched in Oxford and Cam­bridge, and maintained by a prelatical power, that one alone may be su­prem to preach of himself in his own tongue, and all the people give audi­ence to hear one infamous man speak by a primus or supream Authority, whereof none may speak but be silenced, whether it be right or wrong; while they declare forth their own Authority, which is the first degree of a lying testimony: for one tongue cannot fully make a lawful testimony. If one Lawyer plead two mens causes, he cannot but use partiality; neither can any Minister plead Gods cause and mans cause together; it must be Christ the Mediator, as a Minister between God and us. The truths of God ought to be proved by twelve, or by two or three faithful witnesses, and that is a truth vindicated and proved according to divine justice, and not by one mans tongue preaching in a Pulpit, which shall suddenly be cut down, and Mr. Pres­bitian shall stand low among his Fellow-equals, Babylon placed so high shall come down to the Dust.

High Doctor, thou countest me a foolish Shepherd, yet the Lord is with me, to shew thee thy folly; for that is truth which is proved by witnesses, and by the approbation of the Church; for your own tongue is a lye; though speak in a Pulpit, yet ye cannot silence the people; for Saint John saith he heard the sound of many voices, and his witnesses shall have power; which are they that are within the Covenant, or such as shall enter into Cove­nant to the great Jehovah.

Ye Doctors of Divinity, as ye call your selves, ye have preached long in your own tongue, to keep the World at a distance, you have not been buil­ders but destroyers of the House of God: and know ye not the offering of his Temple, but have set your selves higher then others, exalting your selves by your own tongue, as if none could talk of God but Priestbitian or Presbi­tiry, Priests, Dictators, raised from Oxford and Cambridge? but without all question, Priestinion must down.

Doctor, I acccmpt my self a fool, for I am no good Scribe, neither have I been at University to learn the stammering tongue, and for that we need not much care, unless we were to go to Jerusalem to call in the Jews, which shall be some of every Nation that shall be the elect gathered from the four Winds, when the Harvest shall appear which is now at hand, when the Sheep shall divide themselves from the Goats, meaning, the procreation of the Jews shall come forth, and stand upon their Feet, then the World shall be at an end, meaning, it can work its own end no longer; therefore it may be said it is at an end, when they can no longer tread over the two witnesses, but the Saints on earth shall judge and govern them.

Doctor, I am but a Fool, or a foolish Shepherd clothed in sackcloth 42 Months, from the year 1650. when the sixth Seal opened the mystery, to the end of 42 Months, which may be properly taken three years and a halfe, about 54 or 55. God hath given me to look for great deliverance to the Kingdom of the Church, and that Christ shall raign in power here in England, which shall be very Oriential to behold, far beyond your learned power; and you shall not be Doctor speaker alone, and cannot know any true way, nor live in any stable righteousness: for Christ the Minister of God doth ad­minister life and all quickning power, which is the substance of all, and you cannot do the same: therefore lay down your Ministerial power, and accompt your selves as other men; let others speak, and ye speak to them and so judge the truth among your selves; and throw down the error of one mans tongue. There hath been many Scholars raised from Oxford and Cambridge; swear­ing, voluptuous persons, and yet tolerated by your degrees, and so become Pulpitsayons: another sort have been civil men, though not sanctified, yet raised by the degrees of learning without any Heavenly substance; others have been raised very dunces, neither good Scholars, nor spiritually of God and yet have worne long Canonical Gownes, Lawyer-like, whose folly was raised from those two Fountaines, and much typeth out the Scribes & Pharisees, very proud and sumptuous, as the Raven that setteth her Nest high, to be seen and heard afar off; then think they, we are secure: and yet their Nest must come down: for the Pulpit-tree having but one Leg, and set so high, will have a great downfall.

Why should disciplying be kept in a Corner so high, by one tongue, as one Mr. Speaker?

Ye Doctors Diffinators, know this, that disciplying must come down among your Fellow-equals, and shall be carried by the Feet of the Witnesses from Sea to Sea, and from one end of the Earth to another. Therefore Christ denied himself, and would not be Mr. Speaker, saying, If I speak my own words, my testimony is not true; there is one that beareth witness with me: and that is tolerable.

O man, why should thy tongue bear down all, and silence all the people, [Page] and cannot prove thy self a Minister of God, but sitteth as Scribe in Moses Chair?

Doctor Pulpittian, four things I strike at: Thy Pride, thy Power, thy Cal­ling, and thy Pulpit.

First for thy Pride, which is unseemly for a Disciple of Christ to be proud by such carnal policy.

Secondly, Thy Power if it be spiritual it is of God; but if a carnal power, it cannot stand: for he will give power to his two faithful Witnesses and not to one, though he be never so wise. Doctor, it is not that Latine tongue that can be good English, Isa. 33. calleth it the stammering tongue: but ye high Priests and Lawyers take any course to hold up your power. The Universities and Innes of Court are fine places for the stammering tongue; they be not for the simple-hearted; Fools shall not come therein; and I am the Fool to tell you so. The Prophet Zachary saith, Behold, thy King commeth riding upon an Ass. Now in the time Christs power is appearing, a man was bet­ter to be a Fool or an Ass then a high Doctor, when their power is shaking, and ready to fall, with the rest of their Pulpittians.

Doctor, the third thing I strike at, is thy calling. Art thou called of God? then shew thy assent: if it be of God, it is not from those two high places, but from a heavenly assent, Divinalligy of it is from Christ, and that is a true cal­ling. But I find your calling is from men, wich cannot be a Divine calling but hatched by the learned Dictators, which is not from the Divine nature, neither doth it savour of Canaan, but is derived from learned Art and Skill, very tradi­tional; and when it goeth down, we shall have a new Government on the earth, which I suppose wil be betwixt 50. or 57. or sooner that your pulpits wil down.

Farther, To vindicate thy Calling, thou sayest thou art the Minister of God, so wise, who may gainsay it? but Solomon saith. There is more hope of a fool, then of him that is wise in his own conceit. If thou beest the Minister of God, then Christ must lose his place, or thou shalt lose thine; for none can say I am a Minister of God, without he be sent of him, saying, Go or go tell them of my resurrection. I doubt you will hardly prove any such calling; yet we finde Christ was sent; God he sent his Son in the similitude of sinful flesh once for all, as the Minister of eternal life: then why should men hang upon Doctor Speakers, that have learned their skill from Oxford and Cambridge?

Ye Pulpitsayans must down; one witness cannot be tolerated, for he ap­peared to the twelve Apostles: and David calleth us, the Ends of the Earth that God will appear to; Where two or three are met in my name, I will be in the midst of them: which doth debarre one mans speakal tongue: for Christ is Divine of himself, and man is to be joyntly as one of the Brethren, and shall plead for righteousness among the rest, and to live by the teachings of the Holy Ghost, without Dictators or cunning deceivers. And let all the [Page] Doctors, high Priests, and Prelates know, they are but as other men, and have the same infirmities, not able to stand; then no high Priest or Minister, but faylable. Then let us all talk together of the goodness of the Lord, and what he hath done for our Souls, acknowledging our sins one to another, and pray for one another, and give to one another the right hand of Fellowship, which will be a sweet savour of goodness, to laud the Lord together.

Doctor, I know none but Christs Disciples that were tolerated to preach, and not any but such as he said unto, Go and learn all the Nations, bapti­zing them in the Name of the Father, Son, and holy Ghost, Mat. 28. he appeared to the two Maries, saying, Go; which was a lawfuller calling then any you can shew: and he gave some of his Disciples gifts of healing, which you have not received.

Doctor, one mans tongue cannot comparmise nor comprehend the full truth of God: as the Church may do by many voyces and witnesses: if Christ himself the eternal Priest denyed himself from his own power of speaking, how ought you to be cautelous of speaking your own words, though in a Pulpit?

I marvel how Pulpits first came up; they be much a kin to your Fonts, where ye disciple Babes in Clouts, which is as a Monster that shall never come to perfection.

There be many things more that I may tell you of; Malachy 3. saith, Bring the Tythes into my store-house: as if by an illusion he should say, For the Blind, the Lame, the Fatherless, the Widow, and the Aged, to relieve the Op­pressed, that men might be eased of Collection to the Poor in every Parish, and for all such as want: And you Pulpit-men work with your hands as others do, for you are almost at the end of your period, having so much of the Letter, and so much example of Christ, that I wonder with Paul, when he said, Who hath bewitched you, that you do not obey the truth?

Ye Doctors are carried away from Christ by Self-ends and personal interest, as great Tythes, which is utterly unlawful for them that call themselves Ministers of God, and yet rob his Store-house, and commit Sacriledge against God.

Under the Law, the order of Gods House was changed by the Priests, and the Prophets reproved them for it: under whose reproach ye Doctors and Ministers lye to this day, in that ye rob God of his interest. Bring the Tythes into my Store-house: for now I reprove you under the testimony of Christ.

There was a Treasury in the time of the Apostles and Christ, which the people ministred unto, and brought in their gifts, consecrating their love to Gods house, as Joanah and Susanna ministred of their substance to the Trea­sury, and the Widow brought in her mite, which was received with great ac­ceptation: which way of Gods worship you and the Bishops have strangled [Page] Gods House, and got those priviledges into your own hands.

Again, I must tell you both Minister and People, impropriations would make the poor of such places merry, if they might or could have their right given them: but we have so many devouring Foxes have stoln them away, and you have not pleaded for them in the Pulpits, but you falsly keep those bene­fits to your selves; ye blind guides of the people, that make clean the outside, and the inside is full of putrification.

These Pulpitians have spoyled the Commonwealth of Israel; you have been one of the Hornes of Oppression: otherwise we might have had the Go­vernment of Christ set up before now; which is by Four and Twenty, as we may call Governallity, which is Governation, A Parliament of Four and Twenty, which should be for commonality: but you have stood so high in your Pulpits, that the silly World believeth that your Pulpits were ordained of Christ; which were nothing so, but arose from Bishops Deanes, Chan­cellors, Deacons, or Doctors of Divinity as ye call them, men of low descent, yet raised from those two Fountaines Oxford and Cambridge, pethy places for learning of the stammering tongue.

Christ gave gifts of learning, which was not to one, but to more then one; as if he should say, Let no man silence the people, as he said, John was a burning and a shining Light; but I have greater witnesses then that of John, for the work to finish: so that one mans tongue shall not stand, but the talking of witnesses shall manifest every truth; for, Pulpittian, Christ questioneth thy Authority: thy People shall speak and thou must answer, other­wise the truth cannot be established without much trouble, and many witnesses; which produceth the grand voyce of the Church.

And therefore ye Taskmasters, down with your Hour-glasses; many words in your own tongue cannot satisfie the people, neither can you make out truth by your own tongue.

Noah was a Preacher of righteousness, but not in a Pulpit; and Abra­ham preached forth Faith; he believed, and it was counted for him for righteousness. The good life of those two Fathers preached righteousness to the people, and so should yours be to act in righteousness without partiality of the tongue.

It is not the hearing nor the preaching, but the doing of righteousness: for to enquire the way and not to walk in it, is a vain thing,

We ought all to live up to God in truth, and that is the best teaching; To disciply and distinguish truths is good learning, and the best preaching to an­swer the things of conscience by the grand power of the Church, and not to rest upon the mouth of one teacher: neither do I know any Minister after the flesh, but like Minister, like People, all full of frailty; then how canst thou be a teacher, and art but equal to other men in sin and sensuallity? it is the Sheerds of Gods free mercy, that redeemeth thee as well as others.

What is the University more then any other place? your Latine tongue is is but an empty thing; it must be onely the Divine power that keep­eth thy soul alive, and causeth thee and me to live; which is above any ex­ternal power: neither can godliness be learned; it is from the Ministerial power of Christ, and from the gift of God, and not by the hearing of faith: but thou must have a personal faith of thine own, and to prove thy self, and lay open thy self to the Church, and let thy moderation be known to God, and openly to the people, and pray for one another to Christ thy Minister, for by him we have boldness to the Throne of grace, and are made capable of his Ministery; which cannot be done by any fleshly Priest, which is but as all other men, though he may smooth up the people as if he were the Minister of God, and so commit Blasphemy against the holy Ghost, taking away Christs Authority, making themselves Pulpittians, to tye up the consciences of such as follow them, as if they had full power given them of God.

Ye Doctors and Ministers, ye must fall some degrees worse then your Fa­thers the Bishops; the light of the Lord shall so cleerly usher in, that you shall be discovered, and Christ shall be chiefe Speaker to his flock; one Priest, one People; one Shepherd, one Sheep of the elect; Abraham called and san­ctified by Christ, and not by mens teaching.

For Mr. Speaker, Doctor of tongues, you may say, What, do we stand for a Cypher? Yes: for Christ is all our teacher, and you Ministers lye under the vail as well as others.

Therefore (Minister) lay down thy false power, and deceive the people no longer, and know thy self as low as others, and much inferiour to Christ. Oh take not away his Divine Authority, which properly belongeth to the Son of God. Christ he preacheth continually to them that are neer, and to them afar off: he preacheth to every Kindred, Tongue, Language, and Nation; he saith, My Sheep hear my voyce; not your Sheep; he saith, My Disciples keep my sayings, not your sayings.

For my part, I accompt all you Pulpittians to be but false Christs; yet I disparage not the gift of godliness in you, but I adhere to any thing that is good in you. Christ saith, They shall come in my Name, and decieve the People. And truly ye Ministers and high Doctors must needs be the men, for you call your selves the Ministers of God standing in the high place, and alas ye are no more then lay-men that never were at Oxford and Cambridge: you be men of infirmity as others be, and therefore your power will fall, and cannot stand.

O General, O Parliament, O People, why do you commit error against God and his Christ, to follow after fained lovers, which are but Ministers of the letter, and have not the gifts of healing, neither are they sent? for it is Christ that ministreth the gift to all, & keepeth all alive by a power from above; [Page] and every person that is godly, shall have a personal power in himself from Christ to stand upon his Feet, without a Pulpit-preacher: for man cannot preach of himself, except he was sent of Christ, saying, Go, or go forth, as he said to his Disciples. But now in our dayes God hath appeared to us by his Sonne, and no other: and Christ saith, If I go from you, I will send you the Comforter, that shall teach you in all truth.

Object. What shall he teach the Parsons?

Answ. Yes, as well as the People: for Minister and People shall be but Sheep in his Fold; for Christ is the high Priest; his Lips shall preserve knowledge; ye shall all know me from the greatest to the least; there must be a personal knowing of God by faith, as Abraham and Noah lived and walked with God, and it was accounted to them for righteousness; every degree, from the Doctor to the People, shall know God, and stand upon their Feet, without a Preacher, whose breath is in their Nostrils: silly Guides, not able to stand of themselves, neither can they Doctor up others, but may go teach our Children of seven years old.

I am but a Fool to speak that which no man hath declared; but I can have no rest for Sions sake, nor give my self any rest, until I see the work of God accomplished in the Earth, which is the procreation of the Jews, that shall come forth and stand upon their Feet.

Army, Army, O Arm of the Lord Almighty, Army shall stand upon their Feet, Ezekiel 37. which I suppose will be within four or five years after 1650. to the admiration of the World.

Ye Ministers and Doctors Definators, ye would fain hold up your high places, but truly your Temple must fall; for Christ saith, There shall not be one Stone left upon another, that shall not be thrown down: for your Worldly power will be at an end, when Christ the great Shepherd shall call forth his Flock to stand upon their Feet, and live without your Declarations; when all men shall declare out of the gift, and not by the letter, to speak the things they have received of God, and shall re­fuse your teachers that are not sent of God, but be End-workers and Mony-merchants, that shall be dissolved and cast out of the Temple as Mony-changers; for God will set up a disciplying, when your power lyeth low as Doctor Hill's Bones, and we may say with the Prophet Ezekiel, Blow Wind, and shake the four quarters of the Earth, to raise those dry Bones, that have been very dry so long, that they come up in the Valley of Jesus Christ: for he shall sit to judge the Heathen round about. Put in the Sickle, the Harvest is ripe, the Wine-press overflow­eth; multitudes, multitudes shall usher in, they shall be a willing People in the day of Gods power: but all ye Doctors are so high and justitious, that ye keep Christ off from his regal power and Authority; [Page] therefore ye shall fall with reproach under Armegiddon. Oh Arme, Arme, Arme of the Lord.

Finally, Doctor, you stand in Christs place. Man may speak out his judgement, that another may answer, and Christ he ministreth to all: every truth must be proved affirmatively, but not by one mans tongue; and you shall be called to account by the grand Church: for the Prophet John saith, There shall be Lightning, Thundering, Voyces and Witnesses.

First, the Light of the Lord appeares, and shall break down the Con­stellations.

Secondly, he will Thunder forth Justice, Judgement, and Equity in the Earth, by a personal power of Saints under him. The Apostle Peter tells you so, that the Saints must judge the World, and you the Angels of the Churches too.

Thirdly, he will appear by many Voyces, that shall give sentence and decide every truth.

Fourthly, he will appear by Witnesses, which shall extinguish one mans tongue: for the mouth of two or three witnesses shall be an e­stablishment, and the many Voyces shall swallow up your Ministerial Voyce.

These two witnesses shall have power in the dayes of their Prophesie to turn the waters into blood so often as they will; that is, to declare forth the bloody condition of blood-thirsty persons; which you dare not do, for losing your impropriated Parsonages.

These Witnesses shall have power to shut Heaven gates so often as they will, that it rain not. It is not meant the imperial Heaven of Heavens; but it is meant, they shall shut the gates of the heavenly and visible Kingdom here below, that none shall enter in to raigne in that pure State, but such as shall be approved Members of that glorious Jerusalem above.

These Witnesses shall have power to shut Heaven that i [...] rayne not, that is, twelve; it shall not raigne in the dayes of their power, but shall be finally swallowed up in the Victory of Christ: it shall not raigne, it and it, it and it, it and it, it and it, it and it, it and it: That is, no outward power shall raign in the time of Christs power.

The first the first thing that shall not raigne, is Earthly King and Grace.

The second thing that shall not raigne, is Lord and Protector.

The third thing that shall not raigne, is Power and Excellency of Man.

The fourth thing that shall not raigne, is Worship and Honor.

The fifth thing that shall not raign, is Highness and Greatness of Men.

The sixth thing that shall not raigne, is Priest and Lawyer: for [Page] Christ will sit upon the backs of all those, and be exalted by the mul­titude of the people: multitudes, multitudes shall stand upon Angella: Christ must raign by his Saints till he hath put all Authority and power under his Feet, 2 Cor. 15.

The Feet of the two Witnesses shall tread in pieces the Dragons tail; as Christ broke his head, so they shall bruise his heel: for the Antitype of Satans Kingdom must fall and perish under the power of Army Gid­don.

O Army, Army, Arme of the Lord, he will create a defence upon thy Walls and Bulworks: They shall have power to shut Heaven that it rain not, that is, they shall silence all the powers, and the Angels of your Churches, that is, by a new disciplying power that shall put down the raigning power of such as have raigned over his power: though they may make an attempt against the holy City, yet fire must come down from Heaven and destroy them.

Any instrument framed against the power of Jerusalem, shall not pros­per; none shall raigne in this Kingdom but the faithful Witnesses of Christ called and chosen.

These Witnesses are said to be two, though many in number; yet two is the least number, which maketh one mans testimony void, and of none effect.

Ye great and high Doctors, and all ye Legators, what will become of your Courts and infamous Colledges? I suppose in short time they will stand like old Pauls, or the Barn of Westminster, without any trading; very infamous, yet borne up with Crutches, whose constellations will fail, and all your Priestly powers which have raigned so long over the peo­ple: for there is one King, one Lord, one High-Priest, and one Prophet, that shall put down every power.

High and lofty Doctors, that ha [...]e got so many hundreds a year in your hands, and yet are commanded to bring your Tythes into Gods Store-house, and not into your own houses; you have kept the people under bondage, which God will now set at liberty, when your Ministery is down: yet the people shall bring the tenth of their substance into Gods Store-house, as their Father Abraham did, which shall shame your doings that are not good. He saith, You go to your Cieled Houses, but my House lyeth desolate: and ye rob Gods House of the benefits, and come not in at the Door, but clime up some other way, which is unlaw­ful. And Christ saith, I am the Door, the Truth, the Life, and ye injoy all things of my Father; and those benefits of Tythes you cannot injoy to your selves, for they be proper to the Widow, the Fatherless, the Stranger, the Blind, and the Lame, and to be brought into the Store-house; [Page] for Collection and hospitality to those that want. But in this I finde the Priests do omit, and commit Sacriledge, against the Order of Gods house.

Ye Doctors, see and wonder, the Lord hath appeared in me, that I should be to you as a foolish Shepherd, to tell you of folly; sometimes in the night, when my Body slept, yet my spirit was awake, and heard as it had been Voyces, both in the night and also on the day; which caused me to write, when he declared unto me the things that should short­ly come to pass, by so many dark and spiritual appearances: which are hideous to men, yet known to me, as one born in due time.

Doctor High-Priest, you must stoop at ordination, Christ was an or­dained Minister, so was not you; he was sent of his Father. Now if you can prove your selves ordained Minsters, then you may put Christ out of his place.

You are of the Stepmother or Bondwoman, and came not in at the Door, which is not according to ordination, but by way of impropri­ation, or a taking Christs place upon your selves; and set your selves in high places, as Ministers of God, though not ordained, yet you take upon you the place of Christ, and declare your selves Pastors to the Peo­ple, and yet not able to feed your selves.

O silly Shepherds, know assuredly, there is but one Pastor, and that is Christ alone; he is Pastor unus, Pastor varius, Pastor magnus, and Pastor function: he is the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls; he is our book of remembrance; he is the eternal word, without any Letter-teachers.

It's a great shame that men live more by the teachings of men, then they do by the teachings of the Sonne of God, which teacheth us in all things.

Then down with all your Letter-teachers, that are as Lawyers, that study wisdom by art by policy, by learning and skill to deceive them of weak understanding Mal 3. saith, There was a Book of Remembrance opened, and they talked often together; which was the best teaching. So that, Voyces and Witnesses shall be heard in the room of the Priests: for ye must lay down your Priestly power; ye must deny your selves, and declare Christ to be all in all, that he may be Priest & King over all: but ye have stood so long as Vice-admiral over all in your Pulpits, do­mineering over the People, to keep them under your rule.

Doctor, thou canst not truly preach Christ, till thou throwest all down at his Feet: and whatever thou beest, thou must throw down thy own self-power.

Object. What a Minister, and throw-down his power?

Answ. Yes, why not? for how canst thou royally preach Christ and declare thy self a Minister of God, and yet walke after the custome of the World? I say, If thou livest not after the example of Christ, thou art a Minister of sinne, and thy life doth not teach others; then thou maist preach to others, and be a cast-away thy self.

Alas poor fleshly man, thou teachest the Letter, and yet art ignorant of the truth; thou hast set thy self high in a say-Pulpit, to speak great things in a seenal way of repetitions, speaking many things to please the people.

Ye be subtil Sophisters, men-pleasers, and self-seekers, that can derive themselves into many formes, contrary to the truth of God, by setting up Sub-ordination in the place of Ordination, to set themselves higher then Christ: And in that they are made equal with him; for he was made a little lower then the Angel, meaning the Angels of your Churches, that still keep him upon the Cross, and crucifie his power.

Christ was ordained Minister of God, but ye ordained your selves.

I can give a relation of one within the County of Lincolne, a Minster called Mr. Male, as I understand, doth ordaine Ministers, and that some petty Ministers have come many Miles to be ordained of him: which is intolerable: I wonder his heels are not pictured upwards.

Thus they may do, though not by Lawful means. But be you sure, all sub-powers must down, as things in Heaven, and things on Earth, and things under the Earth, must bow at the name of Jesus. He is the Prince of Peace, and Prince of Power: the Lord shall be exalted in all the Earth, and your powers shall come down as low as dry Bones.

Ye high Priests, know this, that your state is failable for as you have cry­ed down the Bishop and his Surplis, so now the Witnesses shall cry down with your Pulpits and your Fonts: you are spiritual high in your own con­ceit, full of pride, sedition, and covetousness, self-seeking, full of envy and bitterness; in that ye differ not from the general world, & yet you can say you are the Ministers of God, & yet not walk after the example of Christ.

This that I declare, is called your Funeral-Sermon, or wind-up, for ye shall be eclipsed by the bright appearings of the Lord.

This eclipse took its first entrance in the year 1650. which shall cause the greatest earth-quake that ever was since the creation; and the power of it shall decline towards the fourth or fifth yeer after 50. here in England.

Doctors, what will ye do when your Tythes fail, and your Ministery fails, & your new-Moons and Sabbaths fail? then it shall be to you as the mourning of Hadadrimmon, or a destructive time, when ye shall have no audience or accommodation of the people; for every one shall have a personal power put in them, to stand alone, without Preachers. They shall [Page] be so inherently taught of God, that the Minister shall say no more to them, Know the Lord; for they shall all be Prophets inwardly, and shall stand by a personal faith, as Abraham and Noah did in fulness of Spirit: for the Lord saith, In the last dayes I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and my servants and hand-maids shall prophesie; When ye Ministers may say, We are Vine-dressers and Husbandmen, to till the waste Commons; for our weekly Sabbaths are changed into one Sabbath; once a year we shall go up to worship the Lord, and to keep a Feast of Tabernacles, which is a true Sabbath according to Christs Resurrection, to keep a good conscience, which is a Feast in the heart of the Creature, and that is the best Sabbath, to live in all righteousness every day, which is a Sab­bath.

And though the Jew have have lost his new-Moon, and thou O Gen­tile thy new-Moon, yet thou shalt remember the Lord, and once a year consecrate thy gift to him, and keep a new Sabbath by an offering to God in his new Covenant, to worship him with all thy substance: and then it will appear that thou art one of the new Sabbath. Thou must deny thy self-ends, and all sinister engagements, and so betroth thy self unto God in righteousness, to covenant with him according to the new-Sabbath.

Though the Constellations may fail, yet his Sabbath-Ordinance shall stand, it shall not be disannulled: Heaven and Earth may pass away, but not one jot or tittle of his word shall fail. For Christ is the word of the Sab­bath; and in him we shall have rest, if we enter into Covenant, and that is to acknowledge him by a new Sabbath: for in those dayes, and at that time, saith the Lord, I will make with them a new Covenant, not according to the old; for this shall be the Covenant that I will make, never to turn from them, or take away the Ordinance of Sabbath from them,

Yet the Lord saith, I hate your Sabbaths, because your hands are full of blood. As if he should say, Ye keep Sabbaths to your selves, and trans­gress my holy day. Once a year thou shalt come up to keep a Feast of Taber­nacles; and all that will not come to the worship of Jerusalem, shall have no rain, or raigning power in this new Sabbath of rest.

Silly Priest, I question not, though thy Sabbath be taken away: for Christ is thy eternal Sabbath, and thou shalt worship him according to the or­der of Jerusalem: for all your subordinances shall stoop at ordination: your Sabbaths shall change into one Sabbath. If thou wilt walk in my wayes, and do that I command thee this day, then thou shalt ride upon the high places of the Earth; that is, whoever shall Covenant to this new Sabbath, shall enjoy all the promises, the Lord saith, I will dwell in you, and ye in me.

Ministers, your Sabbaths are failable, therefore they be called your Sab­baths [Page] by illusion, as if he should say, If ye keep a day, keep it to me: for you observe dayes, and do no righteousness; therefore your new Moons and Sabbaths shall change and be taken away: for I will make a new Co­venant with them, saith the Lord, not according to the old; but this shall be my Covenant, never to turn from them that truely Covenant to me: saying, I will betroth thee unto me in mercy and loving kindness, and thou shalt know the Lord: for my counsel shall stand.

Doctor, the taking away your Sabbath shall cause the Lords Sabbath to shine out more clear; for ye have changed my Ordinances, Mal. 3. Therefore the Land is cursed with a curse; and your moonorital Sabbaths shall change: if ye keep one day, keep it to me, saith the Lord. So that we ought to keep every day as a Sabbath once a year, to make out our ac­compts, which is Easter-day, and the six dayes before it: for every year shall be called as a Sabbath-day, and so from year to year ye shall keep my Sabbath Ordinances, and live in them that is, from year to year ye must come to Jerusalems worship, Zachary 14. Christ preached every where, and made every day a Sabbath.

It is not for thee and me to keep a day once a Week, and walk contrary to God in all the rest. If ye keep a day, keep it to me; and keep every day as a Sabbath.

One reason is, ye make the seventh day a Cloak for your sinne, to use holiness for your own turn; so did the Jews under the Law, and Christ cut off their Sabbath, and so he will yours, so that you shall not insult over them, nor they over you: for, saith he, I hate your new Moons, and your Sabbaths. The Lords day should be a rest betwixt God and thy Consci­ence; if Christ dwell in thee, thy soul is full of light. If ye keep Cove­nant with me, I will be your resting-place: and that is a Sabbath in thy Conscience.

Paul saith, ye observe dayes, and months; I wonder who hath bewitched you. Your way of holiness is as the witcharft of Endor, subtilly to beguile men, and cause them to swim in vain conceits, and so to hold up your a­bominations by keeping so many Sabbath dayes once a week for your own turnes, as the Jews did their seventh day, and yet persecute Christ: and therefore it is not for them nor us to observe daies, for there is but one Sabbath, and that is the Lord, in whom we shall have rest; and that is to reform our lives, and live in all good conscience, to walk in righte­ousness; and that is the best Sabbath, shewing the day of his resurrection by a newness of life.

And at the appearing of the Lords power, the Jew and Gentiles Sabbath are out, by a wonderful dividing of time, called once a year; so that I finde the whole year is the Lords Sabbath: All the year, you in me, and [Page] I in you. Thou shalt consecrate thy substance to the Lord, which is the seventh from the creation, called the seventh vial or valley of Jehosaphat, under which the World shall come under judgement, called the Sabbaths Vial, which is that we now live under, called the separate time that God will set apart and take to himself the great glory of Monarchy, that now shall resume that name to themselves: and therefore, Priest, thou must fall with the King and Lord of dishonor, that the prophesie may be made out, that you may say, I am no more a Prophet, but an Herds-man, or keeper of Cattle; I am but as other men, no Priest, no Minister; no Minister, then silence not the People.

THere be four sorts of Definators, that may be called the Witch of the world, very seenal and subtil. I call them not the Witch of Jezebel, neither do I call them the Witch of Endor; yet I call them the Witch of the earth, in that they use their own authority, and pretend fair things, though foul in effect; promoting themselves by skill and art, making out the authority of the beast, and so deceive the people. Those are four in number, yet not any of them shall remain in authority, for the Witch shall be cut off out of the earth, and all that make a lye, and every abominable branch shall be found out. The Witch of the world is very subtil, and much deceiveth by flatteries and seenal Juglings, to steal away the peoples appetite, as to delude them with smoke, or to puff them up with some vain ostentation: subtil Sophisters, winding themselves into the form of Christ, deceiving the people, denying the power of his resurrecti­on, preaching up themselves, bewitching the world, and deceive the people. So much for the first Definators, that call themselves Mini­sters of God, and are not. Brethren, I would have every one live up to the teachings of God, without second-hand-teachers; and to walk up to that principle of grace put into them: for spiritually we live under the divine power of the Son of God; he is all our teacher, to [Page 2] guide us in the way of truth; it is not for man to do it. David saith, Renew in me a right spirit: Psal. 1 [...]. Who knoweth the error of his life? Who can teach, but Christ alone▪ Then let us stand in that liberty wherein he hath made us free. And James saith, Walk so, that you may be judged by the law of liberty. And Paul saith, Prove every truth; that is, by witnesses. So that no man can preach of himself, but Christ doth preach all, both neer and afar off, by a singular power from God to teach us all things: he saith, I am the way, walk in it, follow my example, but not the examples of men. The Doctrine is from thence, That all men and ministers are but learners, and cannot teach any further then they walk by a good example. The first Reason is, It is not words, but works of faith and piety, which is a good example: It is not for a man to say, I am a Minister, and yet but all words. Look upon the good life, and not upon the profession. The second Reason is, Men or Ministers have no lawful authority to teach: for Christ and the ho­ly Ghost inwardly teacheth; and they are the two Witnesses by a law inserted in the conscience. The third Reason is, They cannot teach, in that they cannot prove Ordination. The fourth Reason is, That every petty Priesthood must fall, and stoop at Christs Ministery. But some silly people may object, Shall we lose our teachers? better lose our Christ. And so they dote upon a Ministery of flesh. Was not Christ the Messiah a Minister ordained of God? He teacheth, and shall sit upon twelve thrones by a power, and all men & Ministers must come under his teaching, and lay down their Crowns; and the honourable men must stoop at his Scepter: for he is the Minister of God, and no other: for we have had many Teachers, yet none can lead us in the true way. And having so great an high-Priest, that is able to lead us in all truth, he hath once entred into the Priestly Office, and maketh intercession to God for us continually. Then why should we lean upon the pettifogging Priests, which must come down from their Pul­pit-Thrones, and set up Christ upon his throne? For while your Power raigneth, Christs power is crucified upon the cross, and his truth suffereth violence. But now he shall sit upon your thrones, and judge the Whorish power by a seat of justice, so ordained. And until you all throw down, and make Christ the full end and scope of all teaching, your Temple will be divided: for you must come all to the Law and Testimony, which is Christ and the Spirit writ as a Law and Testimony in our consciences, which are the two witness-bearers to prove every true Christian: for this is a time dividing time; I speak of a new Sabbath, Christ in the conscience, every day, once a yeer continually: I speak of a new Sabbath; old things must pass away, [Page 3] and the things that are old must change. Brethren, ye ought not to look so much upon feigned Teachers of the second hand, feigned lovers, and so defile the Christian Marriage, and break your Sabbath-union with Christ, to follow Teachers whose breath is in their nostrils, and shall down at the testimony and feet of the two Witnesses, when all things shall be brought upon record, and great Babylon shall come in remembrance, and power shall be given to the Saints, as Daniel, John, and Peter declareth. Then Doctor look to it, for thou shalt be censured by the Church: then Kings shall throw down, and Lords throw down, and Honours throw down, and Priests throw down; we must all throw down our Crowns and Dignities, and stoop to the first dominion. Thy kingdom come, whose Scepter shall not fade away: e­very pretended Power framed against him, shall not prosper. If thou callest thy self King, it is high conspiracie against the King of heaven, so to pollute his holy name: for he is that one Lord of the whole earth. Now if he be Lord, then thy name Lord must down of neces­sity: for God will have his Name known thorow all the earth, and before him every knee shall bow. Then set not up thy self: the grea­test climb may have the greatest fall. If thy place be never so high a­mongst men, yet it may be but a left-hand-mercy, or such a priviledge as will decline: and whoever standeth as Lord or King, shall fall at the appearing of Christs power. And the Prophet Daniel saith, They shall fall too that hold them up; that is, he that giveth the name Lord to a man, he shall fall by dishonour: for there shall be but one Lord over the earth, and his Name one: for the name of Baal, Monarchy shall be cut out of the earth, that assume to themselves such high ho­nour, and pollute his holy Name: it is an intolerable Witchcraft that shall be cut out of the earth, that hath so long deceived the people, calling fleshly man Lord, and so pollute the name of the holy One of Israel, taking his name in vain. He is the Lord of the Creation, there­fore stand up for him, and thy liberty: O Army, Army, arm of the Lord, stand up; for it is given thee, That every Power shall perish under thee. Army-giddon, valley of destruction, or a destructive sword shall rise, that God will fourbish against all the powers, none excepted: but his Divine power shall stand, that shall govern under him: his power shall raign in all places; and so far as they keep up the Lords honour, they shall stand with prosperity. But your honou­rable-men must fall: though they set their names as high as heaven, yet they shall come down: for the Lord will set on fire the four ele­ments; which are not the skies, as silly men teach, but it is that hea­venly power that hath raigned so long, and shall now burn at his [Page 4] bright appearing, and shall expel all the Witchcraft of the world. Secondly, the general world must change its course, by a more sweet comply of Government, and to lay by their outward Idolatry. The third element that shall burn, is the proud waters Euphrates, seven streams of powers shall dry up: all the Egyptian powers shall be dis­solved; and no power shall stand, but that of the Son of God. The fourth element that shall burn, is the Moon and Stars. Christ saith, Matth. 24. When the light shineth from the east to the west, then the power of the Son of man is nigh at hand. You know, when the Sun appear­eth in its brightness, the Moon and Stars must give place to that light, and it onely raigneth over them: so Doctors, Ministers, and Churches, your lights shall go out at his appearing, and all your Moo­norical powers shall be extinguished, and all the Stars called Ministers shall lose their borrowed lights; when every one shall acknowledge Christ to be their Minister, and live under their own vine. So much for the four Elements, called the four Constellations, which is the Church-power, or otherwise called Moon and Stars, that shall fail at his bright appearing, that the glory of the Son of God may appear from on high, and that all may be reconciled to his light, declaring him to be King, Lord, Priest, and Prophet, the onely called Minister of God, before whom every Ministery shall cease; onely pleading for truth shall hold, with prayer and mourning among all Christians, called the great mourning of all the families of the earth, every fa­mily apart: when the brightness of the Son of God appeareth, it shall be as the mourning in Hadadrimmon, when there shall be trembling and quaking, as the Prophets did in their times of danger; when there shall be a great shaking, that men shall shake, & Ministers shake, and every power shake, truely then it behoveth every one to quake and tremble: for the Lord will terribly shake the earth: the mighty men shall fall, & the honorable men shall throw down their Honors, and shall deny their high Titles of Grace and Worship: for all their seenal Witchcrafts shall be cut out of the earth, and every Witch that deceiveth the people: every Soothsayer shall be found out, and every Sorcerer that deceiveth: for all things shall be proved upon the Sanctuary: thou shalt not worship any graven image, which is but an earthly man, to fall down and worship before him: thou shalt worship God, and him alone, and not man, whose breath is in his nostrils, though living in honour, yet shall perish as the beasts from his presence, as contemptible.

IT hath always been, that wicked Hamans have ruled over the peo­ple of God: they be called Gog, or Haman-Gog, that shall be brought under; and so low, that they shall not act as they have for­merly done. What have your Pulpittians been all along, but as a Gallows to hang up Mordecai's. Though I do not say all Ministers are Hamans, yet some of that strain have been cruel men called Bi­shops: and for the most part you Priests are much like the generation that fell before Adam, so proud, that God in his jealousie threw them down. They were called the Angels that fell, and Royally petype out Ministers, that John calleth the Angels of the Churches, or the Stars that must fall, that have stood so long in the holy place of Christ, and now shall be bound down with the world, under the name and notion of the worldly kingdom, that shall suddenly be bound down for one thousand yeers. When Christs power shall raign, then Satan and his kingdom shall be bound, said to be Haman-Gog, that shall have no more power to assail and afflict the people of Christ; when the persecuting power is taken off, when the Saints shall sit and judge the Ministers which hold up the power of the Beast, which stand so high as Lord Speaker, to silence the people. Ye Ministers are called the abomination sitting in the holy place, as Mediators betwixt God and men: so high, in the place of Christ, and therefore Capernaum exalted so high shall come down as lowe as dry bones: for Gog and Haman-Gog's bones shall be gathered together, and so be buried by the number of seven yeers, that their weapons and power shall have an end. Now to accomplish this prophecie, look in Ezek. 38. he speaketh of burning their weapons, burying of their bones; which we hope will be in some short time after 1650. or before 1657. in our Nation. We cannot predict the full accomplishment, or make out a full discovery of the great designe he hath to do, or when it shall fully end: yet I hope the time is at hand: for a short work will the Lord make upon earth, to redeem those dry bones that have been very dry, poor Witnesses of Christ killed and troden down by your Priestly power: false Christs, second-hand Teachers of the letter, but can give no spiritual life, and yet call your selves Ministers of God, you shall fall with great rebuke; one witness of Christ shall chase a thousand of you, and two witnesses shall put ten thousand of you to flight. O down with your false power: for Christ Jesus will redeem Israel out of your hands. The two Witnesses plead shall bring down your power as lowe as Doctor Hill's bones: for the Wit­nesses shall live without your teachings, and shall stand upon their [Page 6] feet a mighty Army. O Arm of the Lord, every Power shall perish under thee. Object. Doth Christ need Ministers? then where is his power, or divine light, or spiritual appearances? Doth he not ap­pear in all, and teach all by a spiritual teaching, which is far higher then all fleshly teachers can do? I am ashamed to hear your Sorce­ries, to say ye are his Ministers: then ye may go and teach him what to do. The Heavens preach, the Stars preach, and the Creatures preach, in Psal. 14. but what is this to the preaching of God in his power? Christ Jesus is in the mount, and preacheth to all things. John saith he is the Angel fleeing in the midst of heaven, and preach­ing the everlasting Gospel to every kindred, language, and nation: then what need we have so many Preachers? When Christ preacheth to all, he silenceth the tongues of men and Angels. Christ is upon the mount, and it cleft asunder, shewing that every preaching power shall break and dissolve. Now the Angel he preacheth in power: Christ Jesus is the Angel of the Covenant, therefore let all the earth be silent: he will make all quiet before him: it is he alone that shall still the rage of the sea, and will quiet mens spirits, when they shall yield the power of preaching into his hand, when Ministers shall strive no more for their own power. He is the onely preacher. When he stood upon mount Olivet, it cleft in sunder: so shall every preach­ing power dissolve before him. He is the preacher of light and life: but ye Diviners, Soothsayers, and Flatterers, ye call your selvs prea­chers: what need that? There is but one preacher; he standeth on the mount. Christ he shall put all rule and all authority under his feet: he leadeth us by his holy Spirit, that shall guide us in all truth. The Creatures may preach, yet not declare forth the invisible power of God, for that is proper to Christ alone, to preach forth the ever­lasting Gospel, Rev. 14. Therefore stop your mouthes, ye Priests: for every one shall be taught of God, from the greteast to the least; even ye high Doctors must come under the teachings of the Son of God: he is the Day-star that dawneth from on high. If ever thou wilt see life, that spiritual life must be from him, to transform thee into the likeness of him: for the way of all mens teachings shall burn up with their wood and straw, and every untempered thing which holds up the abomination that makes desolation. And truely Ministers are to blame in this thing of discipline. Paul saith, Eph. 3.10. that principalities and powers in high places ought to be approved by the Church, that is, to put forth Queries of Scripture, and to quire out every truth by witnesses: for every vision shall fail at the beatifical vision. Ye sons of Ai must down: it is not any visible power that [Page 7] can stand before the invisible; nor any created power stand before the Ordained and Created Minister of God. Ye sons of Levi must throw down: though you have been Legators so long, yet now there is an Alligator that teacheth us all things, by his bright appearing, far higher then you can elevate. It is not your literal teachings, but it is the invisible teachings of the Son of God, that maketh wise to salvation. Call not thy self a Minister of Christ, for he is a Minister of himself. Therefore lay down thy power: for he teacheth us in all truth. We and our predecessors have been taught by you, and such as have called themselves Lord Bishops: horrible names, and intolerable, to call themselves Lords. And you Priests call your selvs Ministers of Christ, yet you are but of that spawn of Euphrates, that shall dry up, with thy Lord Bishop, Lord of folly. Those, and such as you be, have nuzled up the people to thie day. But now God will teach his people to stand and live without your Lordly power. Your Bishops are fallen, and you must fall under contempt, for sitting in the holy place as Ministers or false Christs, to deceive and seduce the people. Some of you have gone under the notion of Lord Priests, great Impropriators of Tythes and Donatives, and could license authority, and give gifts to men, as spiritual Peters, that had the keys of Purgatory, but not the keys of heaven-gates: they could lock and unlock: they had all in their own hands, as if they had been spiritual Lords of heaven and earth. And truely what are ye Mini­sters and high Doctors? If the Bishops were the cedars, you are the shrubs that must be pluckt up: for your power is like to burn, as one of the four Constellations: for your heavenly power shall go down with your earthly power, and shall be consumed by invisible fire from above. The universality of God shall so appear in flesh, that men shall refuse your teachings, and shall repair to the house of the Lord, saying, He will teach us of his ways: which will put an end to your di­vided Ministery. When God teacheth, all shall be silenced; Mini­sters silenced, and people silenced, and every power silenced in hea­ven and in earth. John saith, There was silence in heaven for the space of half an hour: which declareth Gods wonderful works. When Me­deum is in the midst of his power, in the top of the mountains, your elevated powers shall cleave in sunder, and every power shall shake and fall at the presence of Christ the great King. Oh faithless generation, can ye not stand and live in faithfulness to Christ? he tea­cheth thee and me all things, how to live: he doth inherently teach every one that will savingly come to God; and none can come to the Father but by him: all other Teachers are but vain ostentation, and [Page 8] failable, but God inwardly teacheth. Ye high Doctors, petty Priests, Legators, and Merit-mongers, you that can teach the holy Ghost, saying ye have begotten souls, and have power to convert souls: truely in that ye are the greatest deceivers in the world. Conversion is not from the letter of history; it is a work of great mystery, beyond mens prating. Yet some of you will say, you have begotten many souls to Christ: which if ye can do so, ye may set up Meriting-houses to please the people. It is not your much teaching that can do it: you be but Historians, all upon the literal history, not discerning the mystery of Gods work, which is called Conversion: It is Gods work: let no dirt-danber meddle with converting of souls. But some of you Historian Priests will say, Did not Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles convert souls? I answer, No. But did not Pe­ter convert 3000 at one Sermon? Yes, he did so: but it was but to an outward conformity of Religion, as you train the people up to; and all is but in the outward, that ye can do: for ye are not the very Christ to do it. Then lay down: for renovation is a work of God, and not of man to do: and Ministers stand for a cypher, and the men of Galilee stand gazing upon them. I am but a fool, yet not the son of folly: if I erre, I erre for Christ. He that giveth honour to m [...]n, can never truely honour God. Silly people, have your Mini­sters perswaded you all this while, saying they can convert souls, and cannot? O down with their power as lowe as Doctor Hills bones. Let their power be utterly dissolved: for in Gods account they be no more then other men, and shall fall more contemptibly then the Bishops: for they have hid the mystery of iniquity, and kept it as a sweet morsel under their tongues, and seduced the people. These Merit-mongers, Legators, that keep the people under their bonds, meriting, Christs mediators betwixt God and the people, as if the history of the Bible could convert souls. Alas, no, it is not done by the history of mens works, neither can it be done by the example of Historian Fatherly Authors: it is not a work of history, but Gods work of mystery to convert to salvation. Therefore, Priest, lay down thy power, and let the people speak from the heavenly University, and as they be taught of God, so let them speak from the All-speaker, that shall teach both Minister and People. Ye Mediators, Ministers, as ye call your selves, ye seduce many souls, and keep them under your yoke, from that freedom they have or might have in God; be­ing free, and yet not free, by your bonds. O down with all such yoke-Ministers: if Christ hath made thee free, thou art free indeed: come no more under their yoke, but walk so, as thou mayst be judged [Page 9] by the law of liberty. John bids thee buy eye-salve, but not of men, which is an outward and vain ostentation: it is not an outward know­ing that can do it: it is by a spiritual inward knowing that we live. You say that we receive faith by hearing, or the preaching of faith. I con­fess outward faith may come by the letter preached; but saving faith is of the gift from above. Then salvation is onely of God, and not from the letter. Then how hard a thing is it for a Priest to convert souls? Even as to create the whole creation. Therefore, Doctor Priest, thou must surely lay down thy power: for thou hast taken up­on thee a work of renovation, which is beyond Ministers art and skill: for Christ is the souls solempnicy, and the first moving cause of our salvation: he is our Minister and sollicitor, and ye dissembling Christs that say ye have been means of mens salvation, and have be­gotten souls to God; and call your selves soul-saving Ministers. Ye false tongues, stop your mouthes for shame: ye Wise-men, Counsel­lors, Priests and Legators, Definators, Merit-mongers, that call your selves the Seers in Israel, or Watch-men over poor souls. Alas, Do­ctors, your sorrow is at hand. Mic. 3. saith, The seer shall be ashamed, and the diviner confounded; they shall cover their mouth: for there is no answer of God. You call your selves soul-savers, but we may call you Wise-men that beguile the people, whose counsel shall stand but a while: for the Prophet Isaih saith, Your counsellors shall be as at the first; taught of God, as Abraham and Noah were. Christ and the Spirit of God is our great Counsellor, and shall be as Law and Testimony in us, that shall lead us in all truth: and those be the two Witnesses of the great Jehovah dwelling in us, which will confound every Ministerial pow­er, and every ordained power of man. For now is the time of the Elijah, and the Witnesses prophecie. If ye be soul-saving Ministers, then change the course of the rain if you can. You say you can and have converted souls; then you may as well change the course of drought, which is now a judgement upon the earth for three yeers and a half. But the Lord will make the heavens as brass, and the clouds as iron. And under this three yeers and a half, the Witnesses shall pro­phesie in sackcloth, though not utterly killed, as they have been be­fore the Law, and under the Law, and since Christ came in the flesh, until now the opening of the sixth Seal, which produceth life to the two Witnesses, though by prisonment and sackcloth, under this se­venth Vial. Noble Pulpittian, thou must lay down four high titles, and give them up to Christ: Thy Ministery, Thy Priesthood, Thy Power, and thy Teaching: for all this belongs to Christ. But thou sayst thou art an instrument. I doubt not but ye are some of those [Page 10] instruments spoken of by the Prophet Zechariah, saying, What are those instruments in thy hand? he said to me, These were they that wounded me in the house of my friends. And the Lord saith he was wounded by such instruments. You Ministers may be outward Ministers, and yet come short of converting souls to God, but what ye can do outward­ly by a conformity, and no more. Thou art an instrument, but not instrumental; that is too high for man, seeing thou art but a creature: so I finde that there is no power in thy hand: thy instrument cannot do it; for he is instrumental, and not thou. Thou art haven, but he is havencial. Thou art a petty Priest, but he is an eternal Priest. Then become a fool, as I am, and throw down, that thou mayst be made wise. For he is the Priesthood-power; and glory renovation is of God, and not of men. Doctor, thou tellest me thou art instru­mental; and so far thou speakest an untruth: for it's proper onely to God. And thou art but star, but he is starrestial. He is unmove­able, and thou art changeable. He is Minister, and thou but Star. Thou art an Angel, but he is Angelical. Thou art Man, but he is God. Christ is the Minister and Mediator of our souls; and therefore lay down thy care and charge of mens souls, and look to thy own soul, and say no more I am in Christs stead. Doctor, know that thine is an earthly authority, but Christ is a Minister by an heavenly authority. Then lay down thy false power. You say you are Ministers of God, and yet can minister but the outward letter; and the letter shall non­residence you, and suspend your authority: for you are but false Christs. Therefore, Priest, thou must lay down: Christ is all thy Lectury: he is eggal, tyal, and substantial. You are but egg, but he is eggal. Therefore lay down, and say, We are no teachers, but plea­ders for righteousness, mercy, and justice, and cannot teach the holy Ghost. Christ is the altar: then go no more to the Scribe, nor to any earthly teacher. If Christ be truely formed in thee, go no more to the Wise-man or the Scribe, which be inwardly ravening wolves; and yet they come in Christs name: which enjoy the tenth part of our Nation, called the Tythes and Impropriations, which might outwardly redeem the poor, the blinde, and the lame, the fatherless and widow. People, you look for an outward speaking; but the in­ward speaking is of God: It is the holy Ghost that speaketh in thee, and me; and that is the surest teaching, and ten thousand times more good it will do thee, then all thy second-hand-teachers, that cannot declare a true testimony. Then, all ye blinde guides that lead the blinde, the Lord doth rightly teach. Ministers dare not express themselves, men dare not express themselves: therefore the truth of [Page 11] Christ must needs suffer violence. And I finde that these Wise-men and Counsellors are but the Witch of the world. Ye Pulpittians, there can be no election of Ministers but by Christ, in whom he said Go: it was in those days a work of election onely of Christ, and from Christ, an Ordination tolerated by the Son of God: but now that power of election is of none effect: and let him be what he will, if a Minister or Lay-man, if he take upon him to ordain or elect any to be Ministers of God, or to give any such authority, he falsly standerh in Christs place, and cometh not in at the door, but take Christs Of­fice in their hand, and they are not called to it. The work of mans Priesthood failed long since: for Christ is our high-priest once for all, and he standeth a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedek. He shall purge the sons of Levi, that they may bring an offering in righ­teousness, which is to throw down their power at the eternal power, and live up to the endless Ministery of Christ; and shall say, I am no more a Minister of God, I am but as other men. Mens Priesthoods have been ever held up with money, and outward territories: but Christ teacheth freely, and so did all they that he tolerated and sent. All his disciples were without resting-places, so are not ye: he said, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests: but the Son of man hath nowhere to hide his head. Which of all the disciples of Christ held up personal proprieties to themselves? I am sure amongst them it was not a common thing, as it is amongst you; for some of our Priests have large inheritances, and will rather lose Christ, then lose their Parsonages or great possessions of land. But Christ did not or­dain such disciples, but such as were to carry neither scrip nor staff to trust to; shewing, that proprieties were not given them. Learn of me, saith Christ: if I have nothing, what can you expect? if I be your example, be as I am. I tell thee, if thou beest never so high a Doctor, and eminent for gifts, and yet dost buy and sell the creation, thou art no Minister of God. Therefore lay down thy authority, for it is false. At the first, the Creation was not bought and sold for mo­ney; it was to stand in its own original, and not to be traduced or ingrossed by money, and so to be changed from its original. None of the Apostles bought or sold the Creation for money, as some of our Doctors have done, which is utterly unlawful. Heaven is the Lords throne, and the earth his footstool. Now, ye abominable Priests, that buy and ingross the earth into your hands, and tolerate all others so to do; can a man buy the Lords throne for money? No: for it his place of rest: neither can ye buy the earth, which is his footstool. Therefore ye Ministers are buyers and sellers, and as mo­ney-changers [Page 12] in the Temple of God: and for this cause of buying and selling the Creation, your Temple is broken in pieces, and there shall not be one stone lest upon another, that shall not be thrown down. So that I clearly finde, that Ordination of Priests and Mini­sters ceased at buying and selling the Creation: for then Christ came and put an end to their Ministery; and God appears chiefly to us by his Son, having him dwelling in us by the gift of the holy Ghost, that is the Law and Testimony in us: And God hath left power to his two Witnesses to plead for righteousness, because there was no truth in the Priests: therefore he hath given the two Witnesses power that shall hold to the end.

YE Assyrian Priests, it is not your way to save souls, it is proper to God alone; ye may counsel them, or inform them, that's all ye can do: for God alone teacheth, I will write my Law in their inward parts. He spiritually teacheth and infuseth grace in the soul. Priests and Levites, it was to you for a time, but our Ministers for a shorter time: if mens Priest­hood failed under the Law, how much more shall yours be under Christ? and as the Priests were cryed down under the Law by the Prophets, how much more failable are you, under the eternal Priesthood of Christ? for all Tythes, and Levitical forms of Tythes have ceased since Christ came in the flesh. If Aaron the Priest could have no inheritance amongst Israel, what benefits can ye expect under the everlasting Gospel? Tythes were given at the first by a legal power of men, and therefore it was called Legal, or Levitical, pretending td Gods house, or to the righteousness of God, till Christ came in the flesh, which cut off old Levitical forms by a new Co­venant, nor according to the old, saying, I will make a new Covenant with them, and write my Law in their inward parts: as an eternal Sabbath in the conscience, that shall burn up every outward form. When Christ appeared in the flesh, all Tythes and forms of slavery sure ceased. Truly Doctor thou maist say what thou wilt, yet I cannot believe thee; though thou saist, Thou art Christs Disciple; yet I say thou art not, except thou deniest thy self by a cessation of Tythe-forms, for they must all cease, there cannot a bit of Levitical Priesthood stand before Christ Jesus the eternal Priest: every Priesthood must down, for that made the Law a Law, and the Divel a Divel: Christ Jesus is a free Pastor to all that come unto him: and all ye Doctors and Ministers are a generation of Angels must fall, calling your selves Ministers of Christ for the Tythe, and for the Fleece for money and Glebe-land; ye sit as little Bishops gaping under a sunny bank, so fat and so proud, and no Disciples of Christ in his poverty. Therefore Bishop-black shall array himself in Sheeps-clothing among o­thers that be his low equals: Christ is the royal Shepherd in the Mount. Al-medium preacheth in the Mount, and your Ministerial power shall go down: he set his foot upon Mount Olivet, and it cleft in sunder; so shall your elevated power divide in sunder.

Now Al-medium preacheth in the Mount, your Ministerial preaching shall go down, your Olivet will cleave in sunder: you go to your mercenary mediating houses; but Christ is all in all to me, he is a Mediator, and a Minister without your deffinating. It is not your Church going, or all your preaching that can do me any good; but what I have received inwardly of God, that keepers my life. Christ saith, He that heareth me, heareth him that sent me; and he that believeth me, believeth him that sent [Page 18] me; so that we ought to believe Christ, and be taught of him alone, for teachings of men are not the spirit of truth. He saith, If I go away, I will send you the Comforter, that shall teach you in all truth: so that we must prove every spirit, and hear the voice of Christ onely: once in the Lord, and ever in him; once a year, and ever from year to year to keep a Sabbath on Earth as it is in Heaven: and so stand free and effectual, to stand and live, and live and stand fast in the liberty wherein Christ hath made us free, and be no more entangled under the yoke of bondage of Priests, that are in so many mindes, and know not the truth. Twenty Ministers, twenty mindes, and yet Mediators of the letter, and tie them­selves to observe dayes and new-moons, beggerly rudiments, full of lega­lity, and superfluity of words. I wonder the world is so miserably sedu­ced by them, as if they could teach Heaven in the Mass-houses or Churches, as ye call them, which if men could teach Heaven, what need we then to look upon Christ, having so many merit-mongers, or soul-saving Mi­nisters? Oh but say they, We declare the minde of God and Christ to the people, as if God were not present in all places, or as if he were afar off and must have Embassadours to satisfie his elect. Oh ye blinde guides, doth not God keep up the full creation by a providence? then much more by his power; for Almedium teacheth in the Mount of his power, which is far above your teachings: and truly it is for you to leave off teaching, that have stood singularly in Christs place so long, and done little good: it is time now to call an assembly to sit, and set up thrones for Justice. Oh people, ye men of Galilee that stand gazing, I believe I shall see you ab­hor your earthly gods, and look upwards: I mean, you shall abominate all those leaders of silly women, that bewitch the world in their own forms. Can we think God is tied to the outward means once a week? Is not he the same every day, yesterday, to day, and for ever? Ye end­workers, that object and say, Ye be the means that God hath ordained: ye false Christs, Mediators, that stand so high to limit that holy one of Israel; Is not God and his Son wise enough, but they must have your help? Had not we Abraham, Moses, and the Prophets, and the Son of God after them, to confirm all that are once entered into the glorious li­berty of the Sons of God, which is a free state, free from the teaching power of a man, and being set at liberty by Jesus Christ? Then let us be no more entangled under their Priestly yoke. Ye silly simple Priests, you must come under the teachings of God, as all other men must do: when Justice, Divine Thrones of Justice are set up, then God will purge all you sons of Levi.

But methinks I hear some high Priests say, Why do you not quote Scrip­ture to prove what you write?

My answer is, Christ is the end of legal Scriptures, and you have quoted Scriptures long enough, and could never make out truth: Christ is the word, and the end of all Scriptures, and standeth in his place, when all Scriptures shall be failable, and every vision shall be unfolded at the beatifical vision of Christ Jesus: and truly Scriptures are good, but Christ is the principal; then let us hold fast to the principal, and wave the letter, Christ is the foundation, and every mans work ought to be built upon him. Men and Prophets in the old time spake as they were moved by inspiration, and yet it was but by the by, or by the moving power of the holy Ghost; so being written by the inspiration of Christ, shew­eth that he is the Word far beyond all Scripture written by men that stand but by Christ, and are failable when he cometh in power. He is the chief medium and principal Senator, and we must throw off our earthly gods, I mean, all our Priests, onely to rest upon him; for until then we shall have no true Sabbath. He is our Sabbath: if we come out from the Priests, then he will give us true rest: he is our Vine to live under: therefore my bowels yearne over the people to see them led off from Christ, by legating Priests, as wise-men and Lawyers, standing in Pulpits, when grave Christians shall be taught by some young boyes standing in their Priestly Office, so high in Pulpits: it is a great shame that godly men and women do not come out from them, and stand upon their feet, and say, Christ a­lone is my Teacher, I have been much deluded by proud Priests, by co­vetous Priests, by scandalous Priests, by young Priests, by ruffinly Priests, by swearing Priests, by literal Priests, by historical Priests, and by deceiv­ing Priests, that have kept us from the power of Christ, and freedom of Sabbath, tying the people to their set-forms, or what they call a Sabbath. Their mass and dirge shall down, for every form shall cease but one, and that is the Government of Christ that shall stand, when all your Priestly power shall lie as low as Doctor Hill's bones. Doctor, thou canst prove but one calling, and that was a Law to Adam, That thou shouldst work and labour by the sweat of thy brows, as others do, none excepted, and no other calling of Ministery canst thou prove. Therefore thou must without dispute throw down thy trade of preaching at Christs feet of two Wit­nesses called the Law and Testimony writ in thy conscience.

People, I can but controverse with you: ye say ye know God, and love God, and fear God. I say, No, ye know the Priests ye fear the Priests, and ye love the Priests, otherwayes ye would renounce their wayes con­trary to Christs. The Priests are dissemblers, but Christ is our true Mi­nister. They tell thee a fair tale, that Christ is simply good, he is full of pure simplicity, an high attribute, so low, yet above all the Priests: how are ye married to Christ, and yet follow after fained lovers? If Christ [Page 20] hath redeemed you, think it enough: follow not after those that deceive silly men and women, and lead them captive from Christ, as if we could not enjoy Christ without the teachings of men: having the Spirit of God and the Scripture, with the example of Christ and the Prophets, and having so much Apostolical divine light, methinks they might guide us in the true way. Methinks I see the Priests grow shamed the light discovereth their veile cast over the people, and the people begin to see them so black, and Christ in his brightness so pure, in a heavenly shape: but the Priests are as Locusts that shall fall under Armegiddon: Euphrates shall dry up. Oh Army, Army, Arme of the Lord, their power shall fall under thee.

Priest, thou sayest thy power is a spiritual power, yet it is but a civil power; and therefore it must down and fall before Sion. The overthrow of the Bishops was for calling it a spiritual, and for their spiritual courts audacious to think upon, full of blasphemies, set up by an Antichristial power, which now is thrown down as contemptible: therefore all your civil Christs must down, as your Spiritual Fathers the Bishops have done; if you call your power Ecclesiastial, it is equal with Christs; if you call it Ecclesiastical, you must prove it from Christs saying Go teach, whose or­dination ceased after the Apostles; so that your Authority of Oxford and Cambridge is void and cannot stand.

Ephes. 1.4 and 5. He hath chosen us in himself, before the foun­dation of the world was laid: he predestinated us to the adoption of children by Christ Jesus; but not by your Ministery. You see the Saints, were first chosen, predestinated and called before, your Ministery stood up: and yet you say you are called to convert souls in the Pulpit. You Priests must have a hand in the work of renovation, though you are not called yet ye run, and are not sent to do such works of wonder; for it is he alone that doth abound to us in love, in wisdom, and in prudency, Having made known to us the mystery of his will, vers. 6. according to his good pleasure, which he had purposed in himself, and not by your means, Ephes. 3.4. and 5. God who is rich in all mercy hath quickned us, which sheweth that it is not your teaching that can do it: and elsewhere he saith, By his grace you are saved, and not of works. Then down with these working teaching Christs, that can learn the people salvation: for it is the gift of God: not of works left any man should boast, Ephes. 2.9. and 10. For we are his workmanship created to good works, which God hath foreordained: therefore it is properly and fully the work of God freely to our souls: but let no durt-dawbing Priest have any hand in thy conversion; for it is Gods work. Let no swine­herd meddle with such a pearl, as if they were outward means of mens salvation. He alone is our peace, who hath broke down the mid-wall of [Page 21] our reproach having abolished the enmity, even the Law of Command­ments contained in Ordinances, by making in himself of twain, one new man for peace, that he might reconcile both into one body by his cross, having slain the enmity thereby, Ephes. 2.17. He preached peace to you afar off, and to them that are nigh: so that by him we have access to the Father, and not by the Priests of the second hand, which have little skill in the creation of salvation, it is a secret work of God. Let no man say he can teach: but let us all be taught of God, Minister and People, from the least to the greatest: let us all covenant to him with one consent, and betroth our selves to him, that he may take pleasure in his Spouse, and his beloved ones may have pleasure in him the All-teacher, and come out from their fained Priests the gods of their Temples, that call themselves Ministers of God, saying, The people must reverence them as Embassa­dors, for the works sake: as if God had not power on earth aswell as in heaven: he is present in all places by his omnipotency and omnipresence, and by his immensity, and by his all-seeing eye, and by his providence that governeth the whole creation, and by his inspiration and foreknowing what shall come to pass, he spiritually beholdeth all things, he alone hath created the earth; then doth he not see and teach all, and will bring all rule and power under himself? Then lay down, ye high Priests, and say, Ye are all taught of God; for he will teach us of his wayes, The Law shall go out of Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, which shall be Christ preaching from the Mount, when the people shall give au­dience to him, and cast off their fained Priests, which are but as wood and straw, whose stubble shall burn before the fire of his jealousie; wangea­ble shall their power be, when God shall give power to his two Witnes­ses, and the Law shall preach out of Sion, Revel. 14. The everlasting Gospel shall preach to every language and nation, when all your wrang­ling Priests shall be forced to lay down, because they can establish no­thing in order correspondent to his bright appearing: therefore they must lay down and say, We have spent our time in vain too long, and besotted the simple people; and yet we have said, We were the ordained Ministers of God, though we were destroyers and no builders: historians that have preached this or that; but what of the new work can we do? it is not our talking of Peter and Paul that will serve the turn: for God will make a new heaven and a new earth, by a new discipline Ecclesiastical and Civil, he will make all new, to do away your carnal formes, every form shall cease to a new formality, God will make his latter temple more glo­rious then all the former. All earthly builders shall not be found fit for the work of Gods house, every flatterer shall be nonresidensed, and cast out according to Gods extent, and laid open to the sight of the grand Church, [Page 22] to be excluded from the common community, shut out of fellowship and society with the unsociable and rebukeable. When God shall try Sion, and search Jerusalem with lights, when he shall purge the Sons of Levi, and break the constellations that stand so high, and remove the stars out of their places, when the moon shall blush and be ashamed, and all the stars come under his feet, when this discipline that now standeth upon crutches shall be taken away, then you may declare the great things of God, saying, He hath formed a new temple, wherein all righteousness shall dwell. Old things are become new, and all fashions and forms are passed away, but onely one, which is called the formal Power and Government of Jerusalem: and God, and our Lord Jesus Christ is our Temple. The Lord is our light within us, he is our Sabbath: the Sun shall not burn us by day, neither shall the dark Night overshade thee: thou shalt conti­nually walk in the light of the Citie of the great King; when thou shalt throw off thy fained lovers, I mean thy Priests that erre in darkness, and know not the true way; for God will surely consume the smoak of Baby­lon, and burn up all darkness before himself, that he may dissolve the great blindeness and ignorance of the Priests, that there may be light in the City, that hath lain so long under darkness, suspended from the truth, lying under thick darkness.

Therefore we must all come under the teachings of God, which will be a stable peaceable Government; when we shall strive no more for dis­ciplying Ministers. Your power that you hold up, is full of many horns of the beasts pushing and persecuting in your thought, such as will not come under your bow: but God will have a peaceable dominion, when your power lies as low as Doctor Hill's bones.

This is a hard doctrine to you, which you have not learned at Oxford and Cambridge, yet you must stoop to his dominion. Christians and People, how have you been deluded in your way, and solely con­ceited in earthly Priests? Is not Christ all in all? Ye look upon mortal man to teach, yet God hath a providence that teacheth and ruleth all things in heaven and in earth. Doth he not guide Winter and Summer? and every season declareth his wisdom: and by his power dark things de­clare forth the light; that the people may know, there is an higher Mi­nistery then that of men.

Doctor Pulpitian know this the more you tie men to your audience, the more they shall break off from your tyecal ties, and your hearers shall be few in number.

Further know this, When they turn their backs upon you, there will be a great consumption of your power, as we may call a consumption of the lungs, or an endless consuming, so that you shall be a hopeless Mi­nistery, [Page 23] for Christ is the beginning and end of every work, and all truth is from the Father and the Son. Christ never resisted the powers, but said, Give tribute to whom tribute belongeth: he further said, Give Caesar his due. He was circumcised, he read the Law, he went into the water and was baptized; yet all things are failable when he cometh in power: then all such customes and forms must be done away, though he suffered all after the flesh; yet he redeemed all by a spiritual power, and shall con­troverse for every wrong done in the flesh contrary to the will of God.

Doctor, there must be a falling away, but not from God; but shall bring them neerer to God. It shall not be a falling from their Sabbath rest, which is the endless Ministery of Christ; but it shall be a falling a­way from your power, that the mystery of iniquity may be dissolved or discovered; for there must be a great falling away, and then you Stars, or Ministers called, shall fall from your high perfection, and shall dissolve before Sion.

Ministers, you shall be much disconsolate at this great falling away, when your sheep shall seek a new Shepherd, and go to the right Shepherd Christ Jesus, when the kingdoms and powers shall be all given into his hand: when no man shall say, I am a Priest or a Minister of God, then you high Doctors may say, How are the mighty fallen? How be our wea­pons of spiritual warfare perished, and we are counted as low as other men?

Babylon, thy honour is going down, thy Temple is rent: for there will be a falling away from thee: two parts of the people shall fall away, and the other two shall be tryed in the fire of his jealousie, for God will bring all things upon trial to prove who are sincere, and who are not; and who will lay down life and all for him and who will not. This falling away from you will be a redeeming of the people to Christ, by bringing them out from your adulterous power of Ministery, which is not of Christ, but of men, and cannot stand, for yours is the Gospel of men and not from above; your power is literal, and you as so many decoy-ducks, that deceive and in­snare many others, so do you captivate all those that follow you, and neglect the principal of all, which is Christ.

Isai. 20. and 23. The Lord saith, He will make a consumption in the midst of the Land: which is now to be observed by this great falling away, as by a shaking or quaking of the people of God; which shew­eth they must fall from your Ministery, and be restored to Christ their great Conquerour.

This Tribe of Christ, called the North-Tribe, shall grow and prosper until it come to be an invincible Tribe of the Lion of Judah. This Lion of the North shall cause all the beasts of the field to quake, and a terrible [Page 24] shaking shall be that have disobeyed him. This great Conquerour Christ Jesus of the new covenant, first appeareth to the Messenger of the covenant, and so to the North-country, by an alusion to Jeremiah, saying, As I have scattered them, so will I gather them from the North country, and from all the countries where they have been scattered. Christ alone he shall gather the people, he is King of the North-country, and of all the countries: when his power doth arise it shall be as water in the bowels of the world; he shall gather the people, he shall sit and rule upon his Throne, he is the Lion of the North-sk [...]t of the Jews, whose power shall go forth.

This Tribe of the North is the Tribe of Judah, to whom every Tribe shall stoop and fall, Gen. 49.8. Judah thou art as a Lion, thy hand shall he upon the neck of thy enemies. Judah thou art as a Lion from the prey, and shalt stand up for the Scepter shall not depart from thee, nor a lawgiver from between thy feet, until Shiloh come, and unto thee shall the gathering of the people be. So that I finde this Lion of the Tribe of Judah shall gather in all the lost Sheep of Israel to their fold, that Christ may separate the Sheep from the Goats, which will be a great shaking and falling away from your Ministery. When God shall divide your Sichem, and deliver his people out of your hands to be taught of Christ, and taken from your mouth; Then they may joyfully say, Our Moon is set, and no darkness appeareth. The Lord is the light of our Temple.

The seventh and last part of this Sermon is set forth to declare the peace­able dominion of the Son of righteousness.

All this may be, yet Christ hath done so before thee, for he hath laid his life down, and done the work thorowly, for all that can believe.

Then Oh Priest, look to thine own soul, and take no charge of other mens souls; though Noah, Daniel and Job should pray for others, yet they can have an answer but for their own souls: for Christ is the end of all happiness and salvation, he is the end of war: look upon Sion the City of solemnisie to see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a peaceable dominion. When the people see, the Ministiners shall be ashamed, when the Lord of Hostes shall raigne in Mount Sion, and sit before his ancient glory to judge, when Christ shall sit upon his throne by a Government called Mount Sion, by an Auditory of twenty four, or some twelves in other places to declare and effect condigne justice to all, according as God shall ordain and appoint without the help of man. Let no man say, He can teach: for no man can teach life and salvation.

Then down with all teachers, that we may live under a peaceable Go­vernment, our own Vine Christ Jesus, for he will teach us of his wayes without all differing disputations. Those that call themselves teachers, they live as drone-bees, by the sweat of other mens brows. Therefore let them stop their mouths; for the people will not give ear to them, but will live under their own vine by a new Sabbath Covenantial: and you shall bewitch the people no longer: when fulness comes, God will teach, and the people shall declare what God hath done for their souls. Then all these Dromidaries of Midian, must break off your heavenly teaching, and come under the peaceable Dominion of Christ. You high Doctors, blame me not for speaking; where life is, it will branch it self forth. Who shall hinder my speaking the truth? the silly Worm, to the cold Earth; the Sal­lamander to the Fire; so all things to their proper use, to the honour of God.

Oh that these rotten Priests would lay down their power, and make Christ all in all. Fat Priests that live as Drones, belly-godded persons, proud and delicious, God is angry with you, because no power will throw you down: God will give his people wisdom to come out from you, and to live by a higher teaching, which is from the holy Ghost; for there will be a great falling away, that the iniquity of the Priests may be discovered. I have tried all your Ministeryes, and can have no rest in them, my spirit is [Page 26] so universally taken up with the appearings of Christ, that I unfailably see an absolute doing away of your Forms, your Sabbaths, your Sacraments, your Baptism, your common-Churches, your separate-Churches, your Anabaptist-Churches, your Papist Churches, all your set forms must return to the ancient Church of the Jews, which is the stable perfection of Christ; for now he apeareth all your forms must be done away. Christ at the first came under a state of imperfection yeilding to the laws of men; but now he cometh in perfection, and will do away all your forms and shadows; for when that which is perfect is come, the unperfect must be done away.

My desire is to see the Priests thrown down, and let the Lord preach alone, for all the Ministers under the cope of heaven, are not able to de­fine or make out the truth; neither can they speak truth, till they give up their Ministery to Christ; for all teaching belongeth to him, and I know not any as can teach, but shall run themselves into errors; for it is God that teacheth, and not fleshly man; for by mans teaching the curse hath con­tinued on the earth to this day: neither shall it be till Christ hath the full pre-eminency, and all powers yeilded up to him by an endless Covenant; saying, When that which is perfect is come, then that which is not shall be done away; when he cometh in power, your illegal forms and relecks shall be done away; for his formal power shall throw off your shadows, as all the creatures declare the glory of God, and preach forth his excel­lency; but not as a Priest to Minister in Christs place, but to shew what the Lord hath done for the creation, and to acknowledge Christ alone to teach life. He preacheth forth peaceable dominion to them that are nigh, and to them that are afar off: from him righteousness doth arise, which is the end of all preaching; Christ is the stability of the Church, I do not say, of named Churches, but of one Church, without difference or dividual dividing; he is the husband of one spouse, his perfection shall guide us unto all truth: and for want of setting up Christ in his oriency of power, men set themselves up, and destroy his heritage; but the chosen peo­ple of God must act against every thing that is opposite to Christ; for he is Prince of peace, and Prince of power, and for his cause sacrifice thy life, otherwise thou art no Christian: for we must look no more upon the Ark of the Covenant, it must not be once named amongst us.

The letter of the Scripture shall be failable: when the testimony truly, dwelleth in us by faith, then all our outward shadows shall be done a­way; Christ hath redeemed us from all typical shadows, and from the curse of the letter, being once made a curse for us, that the blessing may come upon the people by faith, and not by literal forms and shadows, Gal. 3.13. Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree; Shewing the miserable condition of all such, that hold so much by the tree of the [Page 27] Law, and deny the freedom of the Spirit they might have in the Son of God; for as many as rely upon works, are men-workers, lie still under the curse; for Christ is the free Abraham, he hath done all the work of re­novation, and we are free in him without works, and saved in him with­out mens works: if once in Christ, then free indeed from all mens tradi­tional teaching; while we are justified in Christ, we acknowledge our selves sinners, in that we see nothing in our selves, and Christ to be just in all. It is the believing Abraham that shall be justified, and not the working Abraham, For grace is of faith, and not by works, lest any man should boast: for if the inheritance be of the letter, it cannot be of faith. God gave it to Abraham as he believed, so the Lord promised to him and to his seed for ever according to the Covenant of faith, which is the Law and Testimony written in the conscience, called two Witnesses with­in, which do Christian a creature, and baptize him into the promised Co­venant of Abraham and Christ, which is far above all your teaching forms and shadows.

I speak to the people, saying, Stand fast in the liberty wherein Christ hath made you free, and be no more entangled with the yoke of bondage; but know your selves at liberty, as children of the day, and rejoyce with Jerusalem, all that love her be glad and rejoyce, for the amplitude and stability of the Church; when all the Churches shall be maried to Christ in the new Covenant, that they may suck and be satisfied with the brest of consolation; for the Lord will extend peace to his Church as a river and to the people as a flowing stream, from a fountain of teaching from above.

GOod men may sometimes deny Christ, not knowing the end of disci­plying.

This Doctor Hill was an eminent man, (and without all question de­clared forth many good things in his time, yet subject to erre as we be) by relation of some of the Souldiers, that quartered in the town of Cam­bridge as they told me. I cannot tell, but as they related, a sad story of this Doctor Hill; by relation he was intended to persecute with the tongue; whether right or wrong, his spirit knoweth it best, I cannot prove it; yet it was certified me. About some short time before his end he was appointed to preach as he had formerly done, and went up into the Pulpit, and God gave him time to declare forth his text; and being inraged a­gainst some good people that were not of his judgement, fitted himself with words against those that were not of his belief; and suddenly after he had [Page 28] mentioned the words of his text, something as it were twinged him, as if he had been stung. Lamented, saying, He was stricken; and so left off his preaching-discousre; a sad thing to think upon. I doubt many of your Priests are so taken with discontent, now God appeareth unto all flesh: yet they think no flesh like their flesh, as when God giveth gifts to men below them they envy them, and preach against them, calling them opini­onus-men, as if none be of the heavenly privy-counsel but they of the black guard, I mean Priests and Legators. Literal historian Priests, I must tell the truth, I am inwardly called and sent to do it, I fear no flesh, nor the per­son of any man; I must do my message from God, though I die.

SInce the time of Adams fall, the world hath been quartered out by the name of four beasts, as a time, and times, and half a time lying under the rage of Antichristian power, contrary to the everlasting Gospel three times past, that the sinful kingdom hath ruled over the kingdom of the Gospel, by a beastlike power: and now is the fourth Monarchy, which we lie under, a dispensation, called the fourth beast or Monarchy, wherein the beast and false Priest shall be taken together, and shall uphold their power together by a comply, as if they cure the wound, and make the world to wonder; but they shall be taken by an extent from God, for in this fourth Monarchy, the time shall divide within the time, though they may ware out the Saints for a time, yet God will give the power of Mo­narchy into their hands; though God may suffer for a time and times, yet Daniel saith, Judgement shall sit to take away and consume their power, Dan. 7.26. So that this fourth beast shall magnifie himself above other gods of the earth, and shall lift himself up in honors by blood, and shall extol his name, as high as the God of Gods; but time shall divide within his time, and judgement shall sit, and he shall be taken with the Priests and the false Christs, and shall be censured for blasphemy against the God of Gods, taking to themselves such high titles, as Lord and King. Isa. 2. The Lord shall be King of the earth, and shall rule many strong Nations. Isa. 2.17. The haughtiness of man shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted. Isa. 4.18. In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinckling ornaments. Isa. 9. Behold the children that the Lord hath given me are for signes & wonders in Israel: when they shall say, Seek unto them that have familar spirits. The Lord saith, Shall not a people seek to their God? they have changed the Ordinances, trangressed and broke the everlasting Covenant.

Therefore the Priests shall fall by heaps, and their power will lie as low as Doctor Hill's bones; for the fifth Monarchial power shall put down their power and Priesthood. I cannot fully declare my self in this great [Page 29] mystery of God preaching in flesh. Therefore I confine my self to end with much grief and sorrow, desiring to see truth magnified and all error trod down, that the Lord may be all our fort.

ALl that love the appearing of Christs power, come out from the suttle delusions destructive to Christ, and betroth your selves to him, that ye may be free from the seducings of men so miserable and sottish by their great conspiracy against Christ, by their whitchcrafts and whoredoms. God will judge them that seek to wise men and counsellors, and not to the Lord, which is the principal; and so make men their teachers; but all Christian propriety is called of the Israel of God. And I can call none Christians till they fall off from beastion, and covenant to Christ in the new Covenant, and that is utterly to fall from their beastly power: he is a Christian that lives up to Christ, without going to wisemen for councel.

The counsel of the Priests have alwaies seduced the people, Solomon speaking of the wisdom of Christ, questioneth all things, saying, Where is wisdom? It is not in me: it cannot be found in the creature: wis­dom was before the creation. The sea and the deeps give up, saying, It is not in me. So that we may pertinently finde, that Christ teacheth all wisdom by the power of God, and he that wanteth wisdom, let him ask of God that shall give him all things.

Then throw off thy beastion wise men and counsellors, that keep thee from the Covenant of peace, and cause thee to deny thy marriage-union with Christ. Christ is the Husband of the Church, then why do you seek to fained lovers? Beastion durt-dawbers, that seek all wit, art and skill, to hold up their trade to secerate the people from the way of Christ, and see the blinde lead the blinde. Thou must be a great professor, yet be thou what thou wilt, I cannot call thee a Christian, until thou dost quake and fall from all thy wise men and seducing councellors, I mean from all thy Pulpitian Priests, fully to come unto Christ; for there must be a falling away from the Priests, that the mystery of iniquity may be discovered, and every beastly power dissolved. Some of your Presby­terian Priests are so fat and yet full of frailty, very unconstant and unsta­ble for the truth, but Christ is our never fading hopes. Then look not so low upon men below Christ, having little or no percility in them, not living power in themselves, then how shall they teach others to live: Let us go out to the fountain; for Christ is our immortality, he is the beginning and end of wisdom, he teacheth in heaven and in earth. Then stop your mouths you beastians, that ye may may become Christians, laying down all your bewitched forms, that contradict the truth of Christ.

MAn is not born to live to himself, neither can he cross provi­dences, The winde bloweth where it will; so God guideth the stern of all things, by a living providence, surmounting every pretended thing. My cross is my outward loss, if God will have it so. I am unfortu­nate to the world, God raised me up, and immediately cast me down, which caused my soul not to look upon any outward interest, or self-seeking hopes below Christ my Protector; for God is all in all to me, his intent hath been all along to drive me out of all earthly freedom, which proved hard and difficult to my thoughts, That I of necessity must throw up all worldly interest, to be least in the world, if I did not, I could not be a faithful Disciple, or a witness to Christ. Nature considered what a hard thing it would be to forsake wife and children, and calling too; yet I must do it, and that is my cross, to follow my Saviour in his example, and not to be led by false Christs, or such as you call Ministers of God. And for that, I stand up, which doth anatomize my life. And as John lost his life for Christ, so I lay down my life for him daily. I know my self truly called to it: night and day I can have no rest, the Lord is with me continually moving me in the work of the new Creation, and to go out a Disci­ple in the power of Eliah, a Messenger to call in the Jews. If any one would take up my place, he cannot perform it; neither can I deny it, or put it off. Therefore let all godly souls mourn with me, for I shall be sure of a solitary life, as an Anatomy shall I die, and the end of my pilgrimage is not known: and thus I give up all; yet I advise not every one to do so; but to walk up to that calling, that God hath called them to. I say, Judgement must sit, and the Saints must judge the ends of the earth, for God is the beginning and the end of every work. I speak as killed, & yet alive; and though I die daily, yet I live, and my cross doth anatomize my life, when I see the unstableness and brevity of life, so changeable are all things under Christ, his brightness putteth out every light, he appeareth as the Sun. Let all be silenced.

BAbylon shall down, with all her merchandizes: Gods people are commanded to depart out of her, the world doth lament her miserable condition, saying, Alas, alas, and cannot help her; and being thus taken in the same snare with her, that they can do no [Page 31] less but mourn with her, saying, How is our condition changed, and we brought low, that were so high exalted?

The clamation is, saying, It is not your greatness, but your good­ness that God esteems, which causeth her to mourn, seeing her wants, saying, How art thou fallen from God in the world, and art become odious in his sight? destitute, and art become the habita­tion of Divels, and all unclean spirits, saying, We have recreated our selves in the world, and sent gifts one to another in vain, for in a moment our condition is changed, and we left miserable and deso­late, cut off in our hopes: our iniquities have reached to heaven, and God is angry. Alas poor Babylon, how are we fallen? our Ido­latry, it is all disclosed. And thus Babylon must fall in all her practices of oppression and covetousness, and from every unlawful act, when all scoffers and jeerers shall be brought under this sad calumny of hell in the world, which may then cause them to say, We be asha­med of our smoak, that ascendeth up to heaven, and we justly see our burning, saying, Alas, alas, for in a moment it is come upon us, when all prophane persons shall be laid out in the open view of Gods Church under the judgement of a community, bar'd out from the in­ward temple, being left under a dark and a fearful dispensation, How may this terrifie the hearts of all unbelievers? when judgement is inflicted upon them, when they shall be shut out from the holy com­munity of Saints, burning under the fire of Gods jealousie and con­tempt, hopeless and helpless. I pity your condition, all ye Mer­chants of the world; for your earthly treasures shall burn, and your sorrows shall come unawares, and ye must fall at his appearing, and all the dark corners of the earth shall be made manifest and discovered by his kingdom. Alas poor Babylon, we cannot hide our decayes, upon Gods discovery, it is not our curiosity that can keep us; but if we be wicked, we must fall; for God will search Jerusalem with torches, and much more you that disobey him; he will prove all your works, and what is within us, and whether we be Hypocrites or Christians, to know whether we be royal for him or no, otherwise we must burn and fall in her idolatry, and so be shut out of the land of the living, and lie in eternal despair. This Babylon shall fall first at the preaching of the kingdom. Secondly, it shall penetrate and fall at the discovery of the outward court. Thirdly, it must fall at the building of the inward temple. Fourthly, it shall finally fall after the little book is opened, and the everlasting Gospel preached to shake both heaven and earth; meaning the godly and the wicked. There is a threefold shaking; first, of nations, to bring them all into one, which is to his [Page 32] kingdom; for all the kingdomes of the earth must become the king­dom of our Lord, and yeild to his golden scepter. Secondly, there must be a great shaking of heaven or the heavenly people, Ministers, & others, to drive them of their own bottoms, so that every Christian way shall be broken to pieces, and this burning from above shall cashire all your opinions, that godliness may be one, and all diffe­rences cease, that Christ may be one, and his name one, and his nation one to him. That unity may swallow up all differences, that they may serve him with one heart in love, and under one consent. The third shaking, is, the earth or earthly mindes of men thus carried a­way from God. And therefore they be called Babylon, which shall endure a terrible shaking, when the third part of the earth shall fall, which is Sodom, when God shall give up all her doings of cruelty to his holy ones. This shaking shall shake down all her power and pride, and all her domineering fashions; which shall cause her to say, Alas, whither are we fallen, now our condition is changed, and we brought under our underlings? when our pompe shall be turned into emptiness, and our wordly joy into mourning, it shall then shew apparently, that thou art fallen, and so soon as God calleth out his own people from out of thee, in that very moment and hour thou shalt burn and consume till thou shalt be found no more. O Babylon, how soon will thy judgement come? What city was like this? and cry when they see her burning with spiritual fire; for in a moment our great riches are come to nothing: they that were made rich by her shall stand afar off, and see her burning, and dare not controverse for her, nor hold up their hand to defend her; but shall cry, Alas, alas, such is our condition, hopeless and helpless. This shall be her con­dition, when Sion raigneth, and God shall sever the one from the other, by a refining power. Here is a use of trial to all your consci­ences, to know and try your selves whether ye be of Canaan or not: if thou beest not, thou must burn with Babylon; for God will burn up all idolatry, he will consume the wicked from off the earth. Therefore rejoyce over her ye holy ones, come to the feast of the Lord to eat her flesh, and burn her with fire; for in her was found the blood of the martyrs. Come, may the Church say, Let us eat her up, for God hath given her into our hands; and Christ shall raign, and shall put all authority under his feet.

IT shall be a peaceable Dominion, when Christ shall raign over the Earth by a personal power of Saints, that shall fully hold forth the Scepter. He shall come to raign in power over the earth, till all rule and authority is put under his feet. Kings must throw down and stoop to his peaceable Dominion, he shall make straight every crook­ed way, his endless Priesthood shall teach, when every mouth shall be stopped, he giveth peace, which the world cannot give; he saith, Walk in my way, I will be your Sun, and your light, when every form and written declaration shall cease and be no more. I would have all men live above the flesh, by a heavenly procreation or inclination of doing good, and that is perfection indeed; for by doing well thou shalt have joy unspeakable, which will be as a whole kingdom in thy soul.

I would have Gods people preach forth restoration, and desire to see a full manifestation of things made out, as the Lord alone to be all our teacher, he is our Protector and not man; his Priestly power shall be a peaceable Dominion, when Monarchy is put down, though Kings and Lord stands in his place, and Protectors stand in his place; yet who shall stand when he appeareth by a more brighter shining light, when all shall be forced to give up their dignities, & stoop to his peaceable Dominion? Isa. 66. I will send them to declare my glory a­mong the Gentiles; shewing the great day of Jehovah, when men shall finally throw down their high titles, and then peaceable Dominions shall raign. What Priest will plead for my name? saith the Lord, against them that set themselves so high, as Lord and King, and set themselves up by earthly enjoyments.

Therefore God hath raised my Spirit to plead against all the Priests, and to lay open their folly that call themselves Seers in Israel, and yet keep all things as they were, ye have not yet preached the Gospel; but denied the Son of God, and the power of his resurrection; for ye have given his glory to men.

Therefore as yet ye have not preached the Gospel, nor laid your life down as yet for the truth. You have declared the History of the Prophets, and of Peter and Paul; but we have had enough of it, without you would preach them out of their Graves. But which of you Priests will vindicate life for the eternal Gospel? to set Christ upon his throne, to say he is King alone, and Lord alone, and so deny out­ward honour, and acknowledge nothing honourable but the Lord, and that is true Gospel, thou must tread down all for Christ, thou shalt tread upon Scorpions and Serpents, and they shall not hurt thee, it is the words of our Saviour; thou must tread upon Kings, [Page 34] Lords, and Princes, and Nobles, and Rulers, if thou beest true for Christ, he is the everlasting Gospel, thou shalt cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils, it is the Lord that preacheth peace, & keepeth all alive, fear not man, or any power of men formed against the Gos­pel, it shall not prosper: when he appeareth, Kings must lay down, Princes must lay down, Protectors must lay down, Lords must lay down, Magistrates must lay down, Priests must lay down, thou must lay down, and I must lay down, the Stars and Constellations shall fail at his appearing, the negative voice shall not stand; for he will give power to his two witnesses to plead for all truth, before a Judge­ment-seat of the Saints, when this Government shall be taken away and changed at his bright appearing, when all formed Gospels of men shall be changed to a new Sabbath, when men shall be forced to lay down for the Gospel, when they shall ascribe to him kingdom, power and glory, and that is the full end of preaching, to set God upon his throne; he is the everlasting Gospel of peace, and I know no other Gospel, but that he should rule above every man in dignity and honor. And that Lord, man should not pollute his holy name.

Ye high Doctors may Object, saying, What is the power of Christ you speak so much of?

I answer, It is the power of God, that shall silence the great mens spirits, when it shall apear, it shall take away their sting, as from King, and Lord, and Bishop, that have formerly persecuted the Saints. Christ saith, All power is given me in heaven and earth; and God saith Vengeance is mine. I wonder how men dare do as they have formerly done, to put an end to some of Gods chosen people, by taking away life and free-creation, and by silencing some others in prison, which is a type of hell, and dare not kill them, lest heaven and earth should cry out a­gainst them, as that it hath done long since.

Ye Ministers go with your hands full of blood, by flattering men in their blood-thirsty-way, by sowing pillows and cushions under their elbows, very loth to tell them the truth from God, saying, Why do you take away life and free-creation from the creatures of God? seeing life and death is in the hands of the Lord, then what hath man to do to take away life from any of the creatures of God? it is an intolerable thing: which of you Priests will ingage for Christ in this cause? saying, Oh great men, I doubt you will sink in the lake of Gods irrecoverable vengeance; for vengeance is the Lords, and he will give it them to drink; for the Soul that sinneth it shall die. Let men take heed how they act, and see that they act in righteousness: better they had never been born, then to be bloody persecutors, to offend [Page 35] any of those little ones of Christ, either by death or imprisonment.

GOd teacheth us by his Son, he is the sure word of prophesie, & our everlasting Gospel which may reprove the literal teachers, that call the Scriptures the Gospel, when indeed they are but the writings of men put together as a History, but Christ is the eternal mystery, Christ Jesus alone is our eternal peace, free from failable mixture, it is God from the beginning; he is the word of life beyond the written word of man, so is the eternal decree in paradise, and as by a further manifestion of his Son to preach and declare forth all truth, far above the writings of men, which is not the word of God, but mans word spoken in part, nd prophesied in part, as Paul declareth.

Therefore the Scripture cannot fully be called, the word of God, but mens traditions, and part of the minde of God, they prophesied in part, they writ in part, they believed in part of the mystery of God; but Christ he comes in the volume of the book, he is our sure word of prophesie, far higher then any Scripture, and for that cause Scripture cannot be fully called the word of God, except God hath writ it, Christ never pen'd down the mystery, he is the final end of perfection. The promise was made in him 400 yeers before the lo­cal Scripture; the promise was before the Law, and righteousness came by faith, and not by local Scriptures, Christ opened the seals in order, He is the word from the beginning, John 1. The word was at the beginning, before the traditions of men were written, and shall stand till fulness come, which shall then be failable, perfection shall put an end to imperfection, when mans writing is done away, the Son of God is that wisdom from the decree of God, to make out his full work, and shall stand when all mens Scriptures shall be failable, David cryes out in the 19 Psalm, saying, Who knows the errors of his life? so that men and Prophets may be unstable in their judgement.

All Scriptures were written by the permission of God, and men declared of things a far off, and could not fully speak of things to come, but as they spake in part. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one tittle of Gods word, which was his ancient decree from the be­ginning; before men writ the Scriptures, his decrees were, and his councel shall stand; he spake the word, and it was done: if Scriptures could be the word of God, then common Christians might write by inspiration, and call it the word of God; which that they cannot do; [Page 36] for it is but mens declaration; & yet the Priests say, They preach the word of God, though they deceive the poor people with the letter, men may be very plyant and prophetical as the Prophets were, and write many sweet truths; yet the decree of God shall stand, when written words are failable, though they write after their judgements they shall be failable being yet in the flesh; for Christ is our sure word of prophesie, far above Scripture, to declare what the word is, first, it is God. Secondly, it is perfection. Thirdly, it is his councel and de­cree. Fourthly, it is spiritual light from above. Fifthly, it is a word of life that preacheth out from the mouth of God. Therefore the written letter is not the word of God, but put into them from a spiri­tual ingenuity, or received of God by a spiritual power from above, being writ by failable man, that hath received in part of that full perfection. Christ is the full end of all mystery, he preacheth upon the mount, hear him, with a laudable voice, he inwardly teacheth, his wisdom is excellent, past finding out; mens writings and teachings are subject to change, but the word of God is the same from the begin­ning, not any thing of God shall fail, Mount Sion shall ever stand sta­ble and firm, the Lord is unchangeable, though mens teachings fail, and Scriptures fail, and Prophets fail, and Priests fail, and all outward forms and ceremonies fail, though outward Sabbaths fail, yet the two witnesses shall not fail, the two anointed ones shall stand before the God of the whole earth; if Christ and the Spirit dwell in us, they shall teach us how to live in all truth, though man in his ignorance lieth under the letter, and liveth altogether by line and verse, the Law being a Schoolmaster or Teacher to him, yet when he is redeem­ed by the Spirit, he walketh above the letter, knowing himself free, incorporated, and brought within the precincts of the glorious liber­ty of the Son of God. Christ is the sure word of prophesie, far higher then the Scriptures which the Doctors call the word of God, and is not, but part of the truth; but Christ shall endure when all mens wri­tings be as low as Doctor Hill's bones, and shall be failable before the great manifestation of the light that shall appear when all shall bend at the Scepter; his wisdom teacheth all truth, men teach for envy, some for pride, and some for money, and some teach other mens works, and yet call it, the word of God, though they can declare no­thing out of the gift, but what they have received by learned phrases, and much slight the word of the eternal Covenant, by adoring the writing and preaching of men, which are outward, literal, and not the word of God, but Scriptures of men, as Chronicles and Histories, and shall be failable. I do not deny the good as is in the Scriptures, [Page 37] but I adhere to it, so far as it answereth to the righteousness of God, and so far we ought to walk plyant to the Scriptures, as by the exam­ple of Christ, his rule ought not to be compounded with other mens works, but that his fame should be seen alone; for by that means the Priests do preach mens praises more then the honor and authority of Christ.

Now in all your learning, I desire you would learn to know Christ the sure word of prophesie, which is God alone, above the Scriptures; and so the Scriptures are but mens traditions laid together, chroni­cled up, what good men had declared by history for a memorial or ex­ample for us that come after, and not to look for spiritual life by the Scriptures; for that is the free gift from above by his grace; but to look on them for an exhoraation. Christ saith, In the Scriptures ye think to have eternal life; yet he doth not say, In them there is eternal life; for he is life eternal, and he hath done all things well. Prophets, and Priests, and Men may write, yet of themselves can establish no truth, for Christ is the stable center of all, he is Almedium that preacheth in the Mount, he is our sure word of prophesie, yet he writ no Scripture, nor declared himself by letter, yet many Scriptures have testified of him, he was and is exemplary to all.

Therefore I would have all men live to the Lord, above that which is written of men; for what is written but shall be failable? or what light can keep its full oriency, before the Sun? every borrowed light shall be failable. I desire men would not hang so much upon the letter, Christ Jesus is unfailable; he is yesterday, to day, and for ever. Let us set Christ above all literal Scriptures, which shall contingently fail: when he cometh in power he shall put an end to every work, Christ is the prime reality of all true integrity, he is the eternal word of life, all things live by the decree of God finished in us, his promise was a­bove 400 yeers before any Scripture was writ, given to Abraham by faith, and not by Scripture, in that we ought to know somthing above the letter, which is the word of faith, a sure prophesie, it is not the word preached, that can redeem us, except we have personal holiness in us, by a right knowing of God by inspiration, otherwise it is un­possible to please God; for men may hear Scripture preached, and yet not be happilized, and Priests may preach, and yet cannot save souls.

Therefore ye high Priests lay down your authority, God teacheth from above, and will order his affairs above your art and policy, who shall learn him knowledge? shall Oxford and Cambridge instruct his way? their places are inferiour to him, for Christ is our true word of prophesie, far above all art or pretended skill, God is the best Uni­versity, [Page 38] he will teach his people in all truth by an inward renewing the mind: if God teacheth, then let men lay down, and say, We cannot savingly teach; we preach the letter, but salvation is from above, he ministreth the gift of healing, and man cannot do it: Ordination is ceased with the Apostles, and God doth appear to us by his Son, and under the name of two witnesses, which is the Law and Testimony within, that teacheth us better then all the Priests. Therefore I de­sire we may all see and live under the teachings of God, for he teach­eth us the mystery of truth: let God be true, and every man a lyar: you Assyrian Priests may prognosticate the people, but Christ is the sure word of prophesie, we will hear him with a laudable voice. The Priests say, Hear us, we will not be silenced: but for all this thou must be silenced Oh Priest, for Kings, and Lords, and Nobles, and Magi­strates shall be silenced, at his bright appearing, There shall be silence in heaven for the space of half an hour, Rev. 8.1. Who shall stand when he appeareth by a dividing of time? I say, all you Ministers have not yet preached the Gospel, neither can any man preach the Gospel at all, until he throweth down his own power of preaching, and make Christ your Priest and Teacher, and say you are no more a teacher of salva­tion, but a keeper of cattel from your fathers, and to work by the sweat of your brows, for knowledge shall run to and fro, and meet by voices and witnesses, that shall throw off and extinguish all your ne­gative voices, that stand deffinating so high in Pulpits: one witness of the Minister, or Priest of himself, is a negative untruth, and is centred upon meesum, which is by a singular vote, and cannot stand; for it is Christ alone that shall stand to preach; for he is ordained and sent as a Mediator of himself between God and man.

Priests, I believe in short time your people will be few in number; for then and at that time, the people shall betroth themselves unto the Lord, and will refuse your teachings; when they are inwardly taught of God, they shall remove from you Pulpits, and ye shall no more say to the people, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me; that is, they shall all know Christ to be the Minister, and shall return to their first Love, from whence they were fallen, saying, Come, do thy first work; as if Christ should say, Christians, come enter into your rest: once in him, and ever: he is our Sabbath and Gospel of peace, he is unchangeable to the end, and that is a Sabbath indeed, it is not your keeping a day once a week, that can make a true rest, it is the Sabbath within, having Christ dwelling in thee by a true faith, that is a Sabbath and a rest that cannot be taken away, the receivings of Christ in thee quickeneth thee every moment from day to day, which [Page 39] sheweth forth in thee a continual Sabbath, From yeer to yeer thou shalt worship the Lord, and keep the feast of Tabernacles, when a Christian walketh in all outward righteousness, that is a feast of one Tabernacle, and to walk by inward righteousness, that is the other feast of Tabernacles, Ye shall once a yeer come up to keep the feast of tabernacles, Zach. 14. These two Tabernacles, the one for an inward, the other for an outward, are cal­led first and second Tables, which shall be the worship that shall be set up from day to day, and yeer to yeer, until Shilo come.

Priests, it is not for you to keep a day once a week, and be as evious as ever; it is not to keep a day, and be as covetous as ever; that is not a true Sabbath, Christ is the Sabbath, and he is our eternal rest. And Mini­ster, thou must deny thy self, if ever thou wouldst enter into his rest; for Christ sweetneth all things to a Christian, every doubt is comprehended and comprimized in him, he is the end of trouble, of war, and of every conflict, he is our Gospel-peace to still the rage of all obstruction, and for want of making Christ our teacher, it causeth us to follow false Christs, I mean Priests and Jesuites, that teach their own Gospel, and set themselves up by fat parsonages, feigned lovers to deceive the people, as if they had the minde of God at their will; Humble-bee-Priests, fat belly-goded-Parsons, to declare to the people once a week, as if God were tied to their set times: so as the Jews did, so do you, keep a day once a week, and yet crucifie the Lord, and so do ye, not knowing his eternal Sabbath.

Ye silly people, I much condole your weakness, in that you so much i­dolize the Priests, and neglect your onely true rest. The Lord appeareth to us every day, aswel as on that day, which thou callest the Lords day, and truely ye are as legal as ever the Jews were, though cunningly you call your Sabbath the Lords day, yet cannot take away your observed forms: the Lords day is every day.

Therefore Priest throw down thy observation, Christ is the Sabbath of rest, his day is every day, from yeer to yeer. Ye Doctors and Priestical Mi­nisters, you are very censurous.

I cannot but further relate a Pulpit-story of this Doctor Hill, by some godly persons of neer relation to him, having some discourse with them, they did not comply with his element, but were a little contrary to his judge­ment, not pleasing to his allegation, which to affront them in their judge­ment, he thought to met with them in the Pulpit, took a text of Scripture to cross them; but as I understood God met him in the way, and frustrated him in his first text; whereof he took another text, and in the same manner God met him again, and blasted him upon his third subject, so that he judged himself stricken, and came down from the Pulpit, and related a sad story to some, that God justly punished him, by reason of his inveterated spirit of [Page 40] bitterness, so that I finde God met him by way of etilliation, as we have an example in Jacob and Esau, the Lord punished Jacob for taking his bro­ther Esau by the heel. Therefore let no man think so low of his brother, but that God can spiritually raise men to higher knowledge, then Cam­bridge can do. And let not Ministers and Doctors be so high, now God appeareth to the weak things of the world, to confound the haughtiness of the proud; for we have a sure word of prophesie, far higher then you can teach. Doctors and Ministers, ye preach of a Prince that ruleth in the Air: I pray you, what is that? if you were as far from that, as you are from right disciplying, you would have but little to do with it.

Doctor, I must tell you what it is that ruleth in the Air, it is money, which is the King of all the creatures, that ruleth in the Air, it buyes, and sells, and captivates all things under it; silver and gold bewitcheth the world, and you would spend your lives in the Pulpit for it, and it is called but the Prince that rules in the Air, and beguileth the Priests that preach for hire; Christs is a free-Ministery, and an endless Priesthood; yours is failable.

I can give relation of a Priest, that removed himself from about 40. l. a year, for a place of 300. or 400. l. a year. This Priest cunningly be­witched his people of the new place where he came, and in the midst of his Sermon, related to them, That God had brought him thither in a cloud from the substance of 40. l. a year, to 300. l. a year. And was not this a cunning dawber to delude the people by a dark cloud?

Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, declareth, That the Priests shall have no inheritances: therefore I finde they that have bought Tythes and Impropriations, have bought and sold that, which was none of their own. Lord Protector, I desire you would give Tythes and impropriati­ons to the widows, the fatherless, the blinde, and the lame, and to the poor: as Christ would have it done, so let it be, that every Parish be eased of col­lection; and praise God for the great good you have done for them. A poor messenger, a disciple separate for the kingdom of Christ.

I could have added much more to this work; but in short I have declared some of the minde of God.

Daynus, A messenger of the new Covenant, under the Ark-angel of the Covenant. As John was sent a messenger to the Jews, to declare the king­dom of heaven at hand, so I Daynus am sent to the whole Israel of God, to shew the kingdom of heaven is come in power to me, and I am the first upon the feet, restored of the dry-bones of Israel. Daynus, to shew the day and year of the Lord, and his year excepted.