ADOTFW Section Four

Title Page—Sec. 1—Sec. 2—Sec. 3—Sec. 4—Sec. 5—Sec. 6

{Page 18} IV.

A caution to all who shall be found persecutors, persecuting the righteous, not suffering that Spirit to speak which boldly and impartially speaks without slavishnesse, being carried up above, fears not him who can kill the Body and can do no more; but fears God.

Take heed ye men of the earth, how you contend against the Lord, and how you speak evil of things you know not: why do you imagine a vain thing against the Lord, and against his anointed? By your rage you show yourselves to be heathen: He that sits in heaven shall laugh, the Lord shall have you in derision, he will set up his king upon his holy hill of Sion without your leave. Did ever any strive against God and prosper¹? He will break you with a rod of Iron and dash you in pieces like a potter’s vessel; be wise, take heed, fear and tremble before the Lord, lest his wrath kindle against you and you be consumed in his anger; Woe to him that striveth with his maker; let the potsheards strive with the potsheards of the earth², shall the clay question the work of the Potter? You forget yourselves while you are contending against the mind of God, you are exalted and have forgotten that you are but dust, and must to dust again; you were not made to oppose the Lord in his works, but to humble yourselves before him. And know this all yee proud ones of the earth, that God is now exalting his own Son to be King alone upon the Throne of David³, and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end; for he shall order his Kingdom himself in judgment and justice forever; but woe unto {Page 19} the proud at that day, for the day comes that shall burn as an Oven, and all the proud and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble; and the day that comes shall burn them up, and leave them neither root nor branch⁴; yea, who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appears? For he is like a Refiner’s fire and Fuller’s sope, and shall sit as a Refiner and purifier of silver, and shall purify the sons of Levi; all you must pass through the fire, and all your dross and tin must be consumed: your high looks and great swelling words will be found drosse, and is for the fire.

You that go about to limit the Holy One of Israel, what he shall do and how he must make himselfe known to his creatures⁵, and by whom, God will never come your way, for your ways are not his wayes, nor your thoughts his thoughts, for the one are contrary to the other. Oh, vain man shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him, he that reproves God let him answer it⁶. What art thou that questions the work of the Lord, or his way? Thou art of that brood that came to ask Christ by what authority he did those things his Father had sent him to do; and because thou must not enter into the secrets of God by thy Serpent’s wisdom, thou wilt forbid and persecute them in whom it is revealed, as they did. Now wouldst thou but look back and search the Scriptures,, thou shouldst find thy generation all along from Cain to thyself, for all particulars are of that Serpent’s brood.

It may be that thou wilt own all that generation to be of Cain, till it come to thy self, and then thou wilt deny that thou art any of that brood, and yet art found acting in the very same things; and herein thou differest not at all from the rest:for they would all deny it, even from the first. For when God asked Cain where his brother was? said he knew not: Am I my brother’s keeper?⁷ whenas he had slain him. And the Scribes, Pharisees and chief Priests garnished the sepulchers of the Prophets whom their fathers slew, and said, Had we lived in their dayes, we would not have killed them; and at that very time were they consulting to kill the Son of God, to whom all the Prophets bare witnesse. But as the devil was a murtherer from the beginning, so he was a lier from the beginning. But though thou wilt not {Page 20} own thyself to be of the Devil, yet thy actions declare to thy face before Men and Angels, that thou art not of God: Did ever any that was of God forbid any to speak in the name of the Lord Jesus, whom he sent to declare his will? Did they ever imprison any for it? Did they ever beat, stone, mock, revile or hate any? Did they ever raise lies, slanders, or false reports of any? Or seek false witnesses against them? Did they ever oppresse the stranger because he was a stranger, and send them to prison when they found them because they knew them not, though they never did them harm⁸? And then, to make way for their further oppression, to have their Agents abroad, to seek out any who will witnesse any thing against them, and so lay snares and traps for the simple and harmless man. There was of thy generation in Isaiahs time, and God plagued them for it, as saith the prophet: The terrible ones are brought to naught, and the scorners are consumed; and all that watch for iniquity are cut off, that make a man an offender for a word and lay a snare for him that reproves in the gate⁹. Now all you that will be found in this practice, take heed, repent betime, the righteous God will judge righteously, he is no respecter of persons, and he knows all your secret plots, and who they are against¹⁰; you may hide things from men, but woe unto them that dig deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth? Surely your turning things upside down shall be esteemed as the Potters clay, and God will overturn, overturn you, and bring all your plotting wisdom to naught. Oh consider what is become of the persecutors of old¹¹? Did not God find them out and plague them for it? and dost thou think to escape his hand? Thy thoughts are vain and will deceive thee, the Lord will set a mark upon thee, thou that art a persecutor of the messengers of the Lord¹², Go to, says the Lord, write it in a book, that it may be for time to come, forever and ever, that this is a rebellious people, lying children, that will not heare the law of the Lord, which say to the Seers, See not, and to the Prophets, prophesie not to us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceit. Now see if it be not so in these dayes; he that studies out eloquent words to please the ears of men, and can {Page 21} talk against sin in words, but when they have done, joyn with the wicked in his wicked wayes, as pride, covetousness, oppression, drunkenness, rioting, and suchlike, & so become men pleasers, these are prophets most fit for them that love their sins, and would not have their minds crossed. Micah saith¹³, in his days, that a lier, and one that will prophesie of wine and strong drink, is a prophet most fit for this people; and these prophets shall never suffer persecution nor ever turn any from their sins. But if any come with a true message from the Lord and declare his judgments to come against all sin and filthiness, and witness against all the ways of the wicked both in word and practice, then away with such a fellow from the earth, it is not fit he should live, for he judgeth all but himselfe¹⁴; send him to prison, or into his own Country out of our coasts, what hath he to do here, or who sent him, or what is his authoritie? I love him not, for he never speaks good of us, but evil¹⁵. O friend, didst thou but know whom thou strivest against thou wouldst tremble before him; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks, thou art not against man but God.

And this know, that no prophecie of old came by the will of man¹⁶, but against the wills of all men in the world, both he that was sent and they to whom he was sent, but who hath resisted his will? for there is a necessity laid upon such as are sent by him; and woe to them if they go not. And they who are thus sent are no Hirelings, neither do they come with What will you give me¹⁷? but they must witnesse forth freely what Christ has revealed in them though they suffer for it; but this call is not known to Babylons merchants¹⁸, who buy, sell, and trade for money, neither is it known to the world, for if it were, they would not hate and persecute it¹⁹: but they that are sent by God have been hated in all ages, and it is the same now, else how should the Scriptures be fulfilled, but O man take heed of what thou doest; thy power is limmited though thou know it not, thou canst but kill the body, and the soul shall live²⁰, thou canst but imprison the body, and the spirit is at liberty out of thy reach, and therefore Christ bids his not to fear such, who can go no further, and it is so, for they who are kept close in obedience to Christ are kept out of the fear of man²¹, for, saith the {Page 22} Lord, I, even I am he that comforted you; who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die, and the Son of man that shall be as grasse, and forgetteth the Lord thy maker that hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and hath feared every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy, and where is the fury of the oppressor²²; but, saith the Lord, I have put my words into thy mouth and have covered thee with the shadow of my hand, behold, I have taken out of thy hand the Cup of my fury, and thou shalt no more drink it again, but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee, which say to thy soul, bow down that we may go over thee; and thou hast laid thy body as the ground and as the street to them that go over²³, therefore take heed, you that tread the poor and helplesse under your feet, repent, repent, your day is coming on apace wherein the Lord will avenge the poor on him that is too strong for him, and how canst thou stand at the day, when thou shalt become weak as another man, and no false pretenses will be accepted, thou must be judged according to thy works, good or evil, Oh that you had hearts to humble your selves before the Lord, that ye might find mercy at that day, for why will you perish through your own will?

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1. Psal. 2.1,2. Psal. 2.4,5. Psal. 37.13. Job 9.4,12. ↩

2. Isai. 41.9. Isai 29.10. ↩

3. Isai 2.10,11,12,13,17,18,19,20,21. Isai. 9.6,7. ↩

4. Mal. 3.2,3.↩

5. Job 21.22. ↩

6. Job 40.2.↩

7. Gen. 4.6. Mat. 2.19,30,31. ↩

8. Isa. 3.15. ↩

9. Isa. 29.20,21. ↩

10. Hos. 5.1. ↩

11. 1 Pet. 1.17. Psa;. 37.12,13,14,15. Isa. 29.13,14. ↩

12. Isa. 30.8,9,10,11. ↩

13. Mica. 2.11. ↩

14. Acts 22.21. ↩

15. King. 22.8.↩

16. 2 Pet. 1.21 ↩

17. 1 Cor. 9.16,17. ↩

18. Revel. 18.11. ↩

19. 1 Cor. 2.8. ↩

20. Mat. 10.28. ↩

21. Isa. 51.12,13. ↩

22. Isa. 51.16. ↩

23. Isa. 14.19.↩