offering, Heb. x. they that went from the priesthood to Christ, the Jews did excommunicate them out of the synagogues. Now they did not know the son nor the Father, that did excommunicate, John xvi. though they had the figures and types of the son of God. They held up their outward things, and saw not the son of God the substance when he was come. So these knew not the son of God nor the Father, that excommunicated and put out of the synagogues. And Christ bade them that were to be put out of the synagogues, not be offended at those things; he told them before they came to pass, that when these things come to pass ye may remember that I told you.' Now those are they that Christ said should come, and the apostles saw were come, that went forth from them; who have got up tithes, and temples, and pulpits, and priests; and the priests are excommunicating out of their synagogues. And these must neither buy nor sell with them, nor eat, nor drink, nor have any thing to do with them, except they will worship the beast, or his image, and fall down to him. And this is the worship of the beast, got up since the apostles, by them who apostatized from the true church, and went forth from them, which all the world wondered after and worshipped, and received his mark and his image, who buy and sell, and let others do so with them, who are they that make war against them that keep the testimony of Jesus and the commands of God, and against the saints and the Lamb; but the Lamb and the saints shall have the victory. But the Lamb of God, the seed of God, is risen; the beast and the false prophet are taken, which hath long deceived the nations. Revelations ii. The old dragon, the serpent, the murderer, the deceiver, the devourer, Babylon, the mother of harlots, which hath made all nations drunk with her fornications, which hath corrupted the earth, Rev. xiv. which the beasts and the false prophets that deceive the nations, and antichrist, say are come but These are deceivers of the nations, that say they are come but now; for Christ said they should come, and John said they were come before his decease, whereby he said he knew it was the last time. And in the Revelations he said, all the world went after them; and all nations have drunk of the wine of her fornications, and the kings of the earth have committed fornications with her, Rev. xvii. 2. (mark the word have,) and the false prophets say, they come but now, and now is the last time. And these are the deceivers of the nations that say so. Now are people but coming from them; and now is the judgment of the great whore come; and now are the vials of wrath to be poured upon her that hath corrupted the earth, and now shall they go into captivity. Rev. xiii. Rev. i. 4 and 18. And now shall people come to that which the false prophets, the beast, and the mother of harlots, went from, all these heads, and horns, and crowns, will turn against VOL. III.

now.

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others with their tongues, languages, and Babylon, that have been amongst them. And now is the seed of God risen, which overthrows all the excommunicators upon the earth, both beast, and false prophets, and Jews, which seed of God brings to see to the beginning. Glory to the Highest for ever; the seed is at the top of them all, Jews and Gentiles, beasts and false prophets, and the corner stone is laid.

John Castairs, and James Durram, priests of Glasgow, when the fast was appointed by the English, kept their houses, and caused their servants to work, and took notice of all those that countenanced the English fast; and the first day they preached afterwards, said it was necessary that a day of humiliation should be, and that all people should be humbled for the powers they saw now ruling in the land, for they were giving liberty and toleration to all sects, and blasphemies, as Anabap tists, Independents; and said that the Baptists denied all worship and ordinances, as they were and ought to be according to the ecclesiastical government, which government is the true hedge of the church of Christ.

Lodowick Simerell, priest of Munkland, said, before several persons, that 'no true justice had been, or was, since those enemies came to this nation, neither would be until the Lord removed them in his own time.' Henry Foreside, priest of Lingiah, said, "if Paul had been alive he would have stoned the Quakers;' and it was christian zeal to stone them.' And many Friends are stoned and beat, and blood is shed. Such were those that stoned the apostles and saints, and haled them before judgment seats and magistrates; and the chief priests had a hand in putting Christ to death, persuaded the people so to do, and the chief priests had a hand in stoning Stephen to death, and the priests had a hand in casting Jeremy into the dungeon, and into the stocks, and said he was worthy of death. And the high priest Ananias examined Paul, and Peter and John were examined by the priests, and put out of the temple by the priests and rulers, and charged, no more to speak in that name. And such were these who had a form of godliness, but denied the power; and such ever stirred up the people to blood and tumults against the harmless, and innocent in the truth. Therefore come to the light, you that have tasted of the power of the Lord God, that with it you may see and judge how the priests blinded the magistrates by flattery, and so came to be the enemies of truth.

How do you receive strangers, ye Presbyterians of Scotland! and obey the commands of God, and the apostles' commands, which were, be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for some have entertained angels unawares? when ye would have the servants of the Lord prisoned, and stocked, and stoned to death, or their heads chopped off! So you are they that are in Cain's way, vagabonds from the spirit of God. Now a vagabond hath not a habitation in God, but wanders from the

witness of God in him, like Cain, who built a city and called it after his son's name. Heb. xiii. 2. Gen. iv.

I am the light of the world, that lighteth every one that cometh into the world,' saith Christ the saviour of your souls. You that go from the light ye are enlightened with, are vagabonds, and have not a habitation in God; and so go into Cain's way, are envious, and would slay; Balaam's and Core's way, who are with the light condemned; and like unto those Jews, that haled out of the synagogues, that Christ spake of, that go in long robes, and are called of men master, but Christ saith, • Be ye not called of men master, for one is your master, even Christ.' Matt. xxiii.

Christ said, they that went in long robes, loved the chiefest places in the assemblies; should hale out of the synagogues, and they that do these things are gone from the light. John iii. 19. John xvi. 2.

All this persuading of corrupt magistrates to persecute them that reprove sin in the gates, in the steeple-houses, streets, and highways, is, because men have a selfish end, and a private interest to themselves, both professors of scriptures and teachers; and they that persecute have a selfish honour, and an interest to themselves: and so the selfish professors, teachers, and magistrates that persecute for them, have a form of godliness, but the witness lies slain in them. And they matter not for that rising; for in that rising all the deeds, words, and actions come to the light, and then, if the witness of God arise in them, they will not be offended at such as reprove sin in their gates, markets, steeple-houses, and streets. For all upon the earth, while they are from the witness of God in them, are corrupted, and they may get the form of godliness, the form of Christ's, the prophets', and the apostles' words, and live out of the power, and are in the religion that is vain; for none upon the earth come to the power of godliness, but they must first come to the witness of God in them, and there are none upon the earth that ever come to the first principle of the pure religion, but they must first come to the witness of God in them. None know the scriptures given forth from the power and spirit of God, which was in the saints, but first they are brought to the spirit of God in their own particulars. Come, all you officers and soldiers, now, after ye have ease and have overcome your enemies without; take heed lest you sit down in your ease and fulness, and fall down into the earth, and flesh, and feastings, and fulness, and pride, and so corrupt the earth, and yourselves, and not come down to the witness of God in you; whereby the enemy of God and of your own souls might be slain, that you might come to find rest and peace in God, after your outward wars, and so come to the inward wars, which take away the cause of the outward, whereby you may all come into true understanding, to answer that of God in every one;

for they that do evil, act contrary to that of God in them; to such the sword is a terror, but a praise to them that do well, who are led by the spirit of God, up to God, who is pure, and out of the evil. And all magistrates' swords upon the earth, should reach to that which is pure in every one to the soul, so it takes away that which wars against it, that breaks the outward. So the soul comes to be subject to the higher power that is above the transgressor, which all the magistrates and rulers upon the earth must give an account to. And there are none upon the earth that come to worship God in spirit and in truth, but they first come to own that of God in them; and there are none upon the earth that are like to retain God in their knowledge, nor his covenant, while their minds are reprobated from that of God in them.

There all may see the covenant of grace to all men, and the covenant of light and life with the Father; he gave him for a covenant of light to the Gentiles, to the heathen, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and Judah,' the people of God, 'I will write my law in their hearts, and their minds,' so saith Christ the covenant of God, I am the light of the world,' and doth enlighten every one that cometh into the world, that all men through the light of the covenant of God might believe; it is the covenant of God, that every man that cometh into the world is enlightened with, and every one that hates the light wherewith he is enlightened, hates the covenant, and the light condemns him; and here all men may see that the free grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared unto all men. They that turn the grace of God into wantonness, and walk despitefully against the spirit of grace, neglect their salvation, and bring punishment and condemnation upon them, as it is written in Jude.

Concerning election, and what is elected. The grace of God which brings salvation hath appeared to all men,' to the clearing God's justice, and the fault is in man for his condemnation.

There is a precious thing in these Scots, but there is a filthy, beastly, dirty thing lyeth over.

A book -I have received out of Holland, the title of which is called 'A Catechism of Christian Religion,' printed at Amsterdam by John Frederick, stationer, at the sign of the Hope, 1639. The principles in it as followeth.

P. 'OUT of the law, they say, they learn they should love the Lord God with all their strength, and mind, and soul, and their neighbour as themselves.'

A. Now these words are said, but where these words are performed, the commandment is known, and God is loved, and his neighbour as himself; so he loves the creation, the workmanship of God: but where these words are talked of, and not done, and they say they have not power, then they are out of that state that the Jews were in that came out of Egypt, who had power and ability to answer the law of God; to whom the law was committed. And God is equal and righteous, and commands nothing but what is equal and just, and measurable, and reasonable, according to that which men may perform; and such as he gives the law to, he gives power, but if men transgress the law, they abuse the power, and such were not justified; and may say they had not power, but that is false, it is a lie.

P. They say, they are not able to keep the word of God perfectly, that is to say, to love their neighbours as themselves, and love God; for man is prone to evil-hatred by nature.'

A. That which brings men to keep the commandments of God is beyond nature, to order nature, and to rule nature, and is above nature, and it is to subject that which is prone to evil, and that nature that the law goes upon; so he that looks into the law and loves God, is turned from the evil nature, for the evil makes the nature corrupt. Man in the beginning had the law of God within, the commandment; man in the fall had the commandment given to him, and there he had power, as man had in the beginning the law and the power; but they both transgressing abused the power, so became unrighteous. But God is not unrighteous, or a hard task master, to lay more upon a man than he can do, as the corrupt wills of men, and the slothful servants look upon God so to do, as to command them to do the thing they cannot, so make God unreasonable, they that love the darkness, and their pleasures and lusts more than God, and so have not regard to God and their neighbour. For man in the beginning, lost his uprightness by transgressing the law, and so the devil's seed comes to be sowed in mankind, and the image of God lost, and the image of the devil is set up in man, and so come darkness, hardness, mists, dimness, and blindness. And death reigned from Adam to Moses; so then came the law by Moses, that went over all transgressors, answered the principle of God in all men that was transgressed, and the Lord that gave man the law, gave him power and ability, who said his ways were equal, and righteous, and they were then to love God with their strength, and their souls, and their neighbour as themselves. And such were preservers of the creation, and lovers of the workmanship of God, but such as were transgressors were destroyers and defacers of the workmanship of God, and not lovers of God, nor of their neighbour.