MYSTERIES DISCOVERED. OR A mercurial Picture pointing out the way from BABYLON to the holy City, for the good of all such as during that night of general error and apostasy, 2 Thes. 2. 3. Revel. 3. 10. have been so long misled with Rome's hobgoblins. Byme PAUL BEST Prisoner in the Gatehouse, Westminster. Printed in the year, 1647. MYSTERIES DISCOVERED. CHAP. 1. BEing so extremely necessitated after so manifold a manner, as first for the discharge of my conscience to God, and man; that woe is me if like a fearful or idle servant I should bury that simple talon; Secondly, for the vindication of my reputation, if I should sitdowne in silence, I might seem to be an accessary to the false accusation of those that blast we with the most odious infamy of blaphemy (to deny the heavenly Trinity, and Jesus Christ to be our blessed Saviour,) and the truth of the sacred canonical Scriptures; Lastly, by my long and excessive endurance, being that I cannot procure by the best friends I have, or of those that are appointed by the Parliament, a Petition to be presented to the Honourable House of Commons in Parliament, to omit, that I cannot receive that small Annuity due into me out of Yorkshire, besides the false reports of injurious and ignorant persons, that I am not only a most debauched, and desperate, but a distracted and mad man; which I hope will be a sufficient plea to indifferent judges for the publishing of my bonds. And I appeal to my country and all good Christians, whether or no by so long imprisonment, without any allowance, or having a determinate hearing, notwithstanding above 100 Petitions printed and written to the House in general, and the most eminent (and concerning members) I be not debarred of Christian, but of the liberty of a Subject contrary to Law, Ordinance of Parliament: equity and humanity. So that without a speedy remedy of such common continuate, and unheard of cruelties our ensuing end is like to be worse than that which we suffered in our late civil Wars. For it is not the continuance of our mock-fasts that will excuse, so long as our oppression continueth, Isa. 58. 5, 6. &c. yea, of such as conclude their Fasts like that of January 28th. 1645, at Westminster, with a consultation how to murder an innocent, and that after a most cruel (more than Heathenish manner without any legal hearing) much less laudable proceeding: (being not allowed of the Divines once to oppose, or yet to give an advised Answer by writing) Lord, lay not this to their charge, being but an intent (through ignorance) which by God's providence, and the more gracious of the parliament was prevented. For my discovery of two grand mysteries, viz. that anomious or lawless mystery, 2 Thess. 2. from the third to the thirteenth Verse, As also Revel. 17. 1, 5. and its opposite, Revel. 10. 7. the mystery of God, to wit, the Father and creator, 14. 17. For the better clearing of which misty mysteries, Imagine some great King like some of the old Persians, that would seldom or never be seen of the people, should send his son and heir fully acquainted with his will and pleasure, as his vicegerent plenipotentiary and prolocutor, whether the son being equivalent (to use that term) in way of reference, John 14. 9 as 13. 20. 1 Thess. 2. 13. be in himself coequal to the King, for that (as) John 5. 23. is an adverb of like quality and not equality; this we know that God the Father is that invisible and indivisible King, 1 Tim. 1. 17. 6. 15, 16. John 1. 18. 5. 37. 1 John 4. 12. and that the inauguration or anointing of our blessed Saviour was his baptism, Matth. 3. 17. 4. 17. Acts 1. 22. 10, 37. which is therefore termed the beginning, viz. of his Gospel, John 1. 1. 1 John 1. 1. and that new creation, 2 Cor. 5. 17. so that Christ is to us both God and his Word, as Moses was to Aaron, and Aaron to him, Exod. 4. 16. not that a word is Christ, or Christ life everlasting, but in a figurative sense after a Scripture manner and meaning, according to the character of that beloved Apostle, as Erasmus observeth in his argument to his Epistles, and Jerome in his Preface to his Gospel showeth that this Apostle had a special intent to confute Corinthus and the Ebionites that affirmed Christ to be but an ordinary man the son of Joseph, &c. this Apostle being the best Commentator of his own meaning; how Christ is said to be that visible God, as Isa. 40. 7. the word, John 3. 34. yea, and palpable word, 1 John 1. 1. life eternal, 5. 20. that lamb of God, John 1. 36. our Passeover, 1 Cor. 5. 7. the the rock 10. 4. David our King, Ezek. 34. 23. Hosea 3. 5. in them typical predications, and the like, John 15. 1. Matth. 17. 12. Is. 1. 10. Revel. 11. 8. by a Metaphor, or Metonymy, as Perkins and Alsted in their Tracts of sacred Tropes; where Alsted expounds that 1 Cor. 15. 28. then shall the son also himself be subject, that is acknowledged to be. CHAP. 2. TO come to the Question whether Christ (after the doctrine of Athanasius in his symbol) be coequal with the father? We know what charge the Apostle giveth, Gal. 1. 10. against such setters up of new Creeds without warranty, contrary to the first and great commandment set forth by proclamation of the great King, expressly testifying not only his unity, Deut. 6. 4. Psal. 83. 18. 86. 10. Isa. 37. 16. &c. &c. &c. but also his supremacy and majority, Psal. 13. 5, 5. Joh. 10. 29. 14. 28. Ephes. 1. 17. 4. 6. Luke 1. 32. John 17. 3. Mark 13. 32. in exclusive and superlative expressions: Of which see more, Mat 20. 23. 27, 46. John 20. 17. Heb. 1. 9 1 Cor. 15. 28. the son being tenant in Capite, to God the Father, 1 Cor. 11. 3. both for his words, works, and honours, John 3. 34. 5. 19 2 Pet. 1. 17. and therefore not coequal, for without contradiction the less is dignified by the greater. Also God and Christ are distinguished, John 14. 1. 1 Thess. 3. 11. it being an observation of the learned Erasmus, that where God is put absolutely the Father is understood, as John 8. 54. To come to the offices of Christ our mediator, 1 Tim. 2. 5. as a King, Acts 17. 31. Matth. 25. 34. as a Priest, Heb. 7. 24. of a Prophet, Deut, 18. 18. according to that most usual epithet of his sanctification, the Son of man, denominations, being for the most part taken from the more worthy, so John 8. 40. Acts 2. 23. 13. 38. Rom. 5. 15. 1 Cor. 15. 21. Col. 1 15. Heb. 2. 16. 4. 15. 2. Esdras 13. 25, 32. which were to no purpose if the better part of his person were not man: there being but a gradual difference betwixt him and Moses and us, Heb. 3. 5, 6. 4. 15. Rom. 8. 17. there being not one such word, or any one text tending to that purpose in the whole holy Scriptures, but many to the contrary: If we have respect to the scope, coherence, analogy, and the originals, in discerning figurative forms and phrases according to the sense and meaning, which is the spirit and life of the two Testaments, Revel. 11. 11. whereas the letter is but the corpses common as the highway throughout Christendom. Wherefore to speak definitively of the heavenly Trinity. I believe the Father to be God himself, as 1 Thess. 3. 11. expressed by these adjuncts, the God of heaven, Revel. 11. 13. the living God and Father, Joh. 6. 57 69. and that the Son is our Messiah, 4. 26. whom God made Lord and Christ, Acts 2. 36. Prince and Saviour, 5. 31. And that the holy spirit is the very power of God, Luke 1. 35. 24, 49. as 1 Cor. 2. 11. or the Father God essentially, the son vicentially, the holy Spirit potentially, or the Father God above all, Ephes. 4. 6. the Son of God with us, Matth. 1. 23. the holy Spirit God within us, 1 Cor. 2. 16. but for the Son to be coequal to the Father, or the holy Spirit a distinct coequal person I cannot find; and I believe that these three are one, or agree and conspire in the substance of the same truth to salvation. See 1 Cor. 13. 13. 1 John 5. 8. of two Trinities without coequals, or yet persons. * Purchas Pilgrimage. Covert's Travels. And that of three coequal persons to be but the chapel of Rome, for the Church of Christ, and that which keepeth the rest of the World in the Pope's pound forth of his fold, both the Jews that believe the Old Testament, the Turk, and the Great Mogoll, &c. according to the dictate of common intelligence, not corrupt in this kind by a contrary habit, who cannot be brought to believe in a Trinity implying polytheosy, or apotheosy, i. e. many gods or a man-god. So that the denying of a second Deity or Godhead is not destructive of faith, but only removes it from false foundation to a true, that is God the Father by Christ Jesus, 2 Cor. 5. 19 1 Pet. 5. 10. for that John 5. 18. was a misprision of the Jews proceeding from their ignorance, as may appear, 10. 34, 35, 36, 37. by our Saviour his own Comment. CHAP. 3. TO answer objections of Scriptures wrested by that third semipagan Century, and a prepossessed posterity; as in Gen. 1. 26. Let us make man, which in the next verse, also 5. 1, 2. six several times; and Matth. 19 4. Mark. 10. 6. is expounded in the singular number like that, Gen. 11. 7, 8. which were a contradiction, not an exposition, and that Elohim bara, the Gods made in the first Verse, a solecism and not an Hebraism, being a figurative consultation with his wisdom, or communication with the holy Angels by way of approbation, as 1 Kings 22. 19 Job 1. 6. or enallage of the plural number for the singular, for the more honour, * Buxtorsii thesaur. 2. 10. as Job 18. 2. Dan. 2. 36. John 3. 11. as Kings write in the style of Majesty after the manner of the holy tongue, Drusius uno Elohim. see Gen. 24. 9 of Abraham his Masters, Iosh. 24. 19 he is holy Gods, Is. 19 4. 54. 5. Etc▪ but to infer three coequal persons from thence, the person of Christ (according to the flesh) nor then existing is altogether inconsequent; of the like sort seems that to be, Eccles. 12. 1. if parents be not employed. For them high and glorious epithets, Isa. 9 6. of a manchild that was to be born, it is granted, they are very great and excellent, yet well beseeming our blessed Saviour, the founder and governor of his Church; of whose wonderful birth and works we have sufficient testimonies; being of his father's most intimate counsel, a mighty God (not almighty God) above all appellative gods, 1 Cor. 8. 5. Revel. 1. 5. the everlasting Father, or of the Age to come, (as Jerome) either by way of Regeneration, and that by, an excellency or equivalency; as John 14. 9 of whose government although there were a beginning, Heb. 10. 6. yet shall there be no enduring the term militant, or of mortality, 1 Cor. 15. 26. So that it is not a small thing for Christ to be so dignified by the Father, unless he be deified and equalized with the Father, see Gen. 41. 43. Exod. 34. 14. 1 Sam. 18. 23. Ester 6. 9 as Is. 49. 6. That Jer. 23. 6. is but an argument from the name for some relation to God, as Gen. 22. 14. Exod. 17. 15. Judg 6. 24. 2 Sam. 6. 2. as it may appear, 1 Cor. 1. 30. 2 Cor. 5. 21. unless we would make Jehovahim gods in the plural, which were dissonant to that incommunicable name. That Zach. 13. 7. speaketh of a social and not a coequal party, as Iudg. 18. 20. Acts 15. 28. God and Christ concurring as social causes, to wit, primary efficient, and principal instrument in the business of salvation, John 6. 44. 14 6. 1 John 1. 3, 6. CHAP. 4. THat John 2. 29. is an Enallage of the active for the passive, and is spoken declaratively, as 20. 23. Levit. 13. and 14. &c. of the Priest cleansing the Leper, like that, Gen. 41. 13. by the divine power wherewith God endowed him, John 5. 2, 9 there being so many testimonies to that purpose, Acts 2. 24. 13. 31. Rom. 4. 24. 1 Cor. 15. 19 2 Cor. 4. 14. Gal. 1. 1. Ephes. 1. 20. Col. 2. 12. 1 Thess. 1. 1. with Heb. 13 10. &c. That Acts 20. 28. in some Translations is with that peculiar blood, and not God's own blood which is absurd. That Rom. 9 and 5th. is spoken of Christ, as he was an Israelite by kind, with the like clause to that, Rom. 1. 25. 2 Cor. 11. 31. That Philip. 2. 6. should be took not upon him the equality of a God, Lord or Master, as Posselius and Pusor show; the Apostle exhorting them by the example of Christ, who being in a twofold form, as John 13. 13. Gal. 4. 1. took upon him the form of a servant, wherefore God hath highly exalted him, as Verse 9th. so that John 20. 28. is as much as Lord and Master, like Elohim and Adonim, for the truth of Christ's resurrection was that which Thomas doubted, and not his Deity. That John 8. 58. of Christ his being before Abraham, is to be understood in place and dignity, as Verse 53. and not time (as appeareth) by circumstance 57: like that 1. 15, 30. of the Baptist. That 1 John 5. 7, 8. be the same in effect, like that, Mar. 10. 8. Sixtinus Amama Gram. annot. one by conspiration, or conjugation, not individuation, as 1 Cor. 6. 17. John 17. 21. Acts 4. 32. Heb. 2. 11. Jer. 32. 39 otherways we should confound the Trinity by such an Unity. That John 17. 5. is a Scripture Prolepsis, in regard of divine anticipation; as may be gathered from that 13. 31, 33. Luke 24. 26. according to Revel. 13. 8. so Jer. 1. 5. in regard of God's sore-knowledge and decree; Acts 2. 23. Gal. 1. 15. Ephes. 1. 4, 3. 11. 2 Tim. 1. 9 That 1 Pet. 3. 19 is understood of No as in the next Verse, who by the same spirit (1 Cor. 12. 4.) preached whiles the Ark was in preparing; before Christ began to preach, Mat. 4. 17. That Christ in the Revelation is called Alpha and Omega, so is the angel, 22. 13. it being usual to attribute that to the ministerial cause, which is proper to the primary, Gen. 22. 15, 16, 18. 17. Exod. 3. 6. 7. Judg. 2. 1. Josh. 1. 11. 15. 2 Esdras 7. 3. For that which some contend, the first Chapter to the Hebrews to be of the some, they are to observe the manifold transitions; as first of the Father, 2, 3, 4. of the Son, 5, 6, 7. of the Angels; 8. to the son; 9, 10, 11, 12. to the Father according to the 102 psalm in which not a word of the Son; 13, 14 of the Angels again; so that in the sixth Verse is understood of a secondary and not supreme worship like a shadow to the person it belongeth to, 1 Chron. 29. 20. so that inference of the whole first Chapter to the Hebrews, is a fallacy from a part to the whole. That John 1. 3. All things were made by him, is not meant of this material world, as appeareth by the 10 verse, but according to the subject intended, the new creation, 2 Cor. 5. 17. according to that, Heb. 1. 2. which ought to be ages, and not worlds, see 2. 5. concerning spiritual and eternal things, as 2 Cor. 4. 8. Col. 1. 16. That Christ is said to be our Saviour, we may read the like of others respectively in their kind, Judg. 3. 9 15. Isa. 19 20. That Pro. 8. 11, only argues that God's wisdom was always present with him, and doth infer his holy spirit, ler. 10. 12. Job 33. 3. as Wisd. 7. 25. to which actions are attributed, Prov. 8. 1. by a prosopopy of a person, as Psal. 85. 10▪ 11. That Trifagie, Isa. 6. 3. is a reduplication expressing the excess of the action or affection, as 2 Sam. 18. 33. Prov. 31. 2. Deut. 13. 14. Wherefore let us labour to reconcile Scripture by Scripture, and by no means admit of an absurd sense. CHAP. 5. THat which is objected that Christ were not a sufficient satisfaction if he were not equal to the Father; is dissonant from the condition of remunerative justice consisting in a geometrical proportion of acceptance by the party offended, the party offended being sinful man, besides that inferreth imminution to Christ his most precious blood, Mat. 26. 28. 1 Tim. 2. 6. Heb. 10. 29. 1 Pet. 1. 19 Revel. 12. 11. John 15. 3. For a corollary I will conclude with that, Exod. 34. 14. Because the Lord whose name is Zealous, is a zealous God, and will not give his glory to another. as Isa. 48. 11. having no equal in heaven, as Psal. 89. 6. Isa. 48. 11. for to add or subtract to and from equals, maketh them unequal, equals agreeing in the same common measure, as Revel. 21. 16. So that if Christ be equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead he is so much more by the addition of his manhood, which I now do more than suspect to be that 2 Thes. 2. 4. of that Catholic professor in a Romish sense, according to the original at Thessalonia, Hist. Tripart. 9 7. and if this, that, and another person, be equally God, Almighty, eternal, &c. (three ones make three, as well in the greatest persons as least parts, also if the Son be from the Father, and the holy Spirit from both by a personal generation and procession, there must needs follow a Hysteren proteron in the Deity, to say that from God to naturals is inconsequent, it is to be noted that for particular respects, God having a voluntary agent, and that infinite, doth whatsoever he pleaseth, even beyond ordinary means, yet in general respects, there is good consequence to and from God, with naturals observing the distance that is due to his Majesty, as Malac. 1. 6. Mat. 5. 48. 7. 11. Wherefore to make Christ coequal to his Father, is to make another or a false Christ▪ or (to deal plainly with friends) an idol Christ, or two Gods (as much as in us lieth) the great indignity to his imparalleld Father, which the indignation of his most pious Son, in wounding the Father through his sides, and I fear that which we now, and others hereafter shall suffer for, as Revel. 6. 16, 17. for as it is high Treason to equalise even the King's son, with the King himself, so it is high blasphemy to equalise the first borne of every creature, Col. 1. 15. with the Creator himself, Rom. 1. 25. and I suppose that blasphemy of the Beast, with seven heads and ten horns, Revel. 13. 1, 3, 5, &c. and that mystery of iniquity written in the forehead of the G. Whore, 17. 5. diametrally opposite to that of the father's name, written in the forehead of the 144000, 14, 1, 7, 7, 3, &c. As for that common evasion, applied to Christ as he is God, and as he is man, it is contrary both to reason and Scripture, to limitate by so great a disparity, as Hos. 11. 9 for I am God and not man, Isa. 31. 3. 40. 17. implying contradiction, as he is, and as he is not, and is but a presumptuous begging of that which is in question, and if it be illogical to limitate by a superior, or subordinate (as the Pope errs, not as he is Pope, but as he is man) it is much more absurd to limitate by a disparate, and that of infinite disparity, to omit that Luke 2. 40. the grace of God was with him, and Act. 10. 38. for God was with him, which were an idle tautology if he were God, only he is called God by a metaphor, as Gabriel a man, Dan. 9 21. and Judas a devil, John 6. 70. CHAP. 6. THus we may perceive how by iniquity of time the real truth of God hath been trodden under foot by a verbal kind of Divinity, introduced by the Semipagan Christians of the third Century in the Western Church, immediately upon the ceasing of the Heathenish Emperors, who for their open hostility were likened to a lion, 2 Tim. 4. 17. as their successors to a Dragon, for their serpentine subtleties, continuing 1260 years, begun by the first Nicen council about 328, and made Catholic by the imperial decree at Thessalonica, 342, Hist. Tripart. 9 7. but that prescription is no plea against God, and God be thanked, the time of this general apostasy is expired, the mystery discovered, and the unity of God, Zach. 14. 9 come upon the stage, Covenant. The second particular, that I cannot forbeate but to cry out with the people, it is fallen, it is fallen, Babylon the great, whiles I perceive that first resurrection from Antichristian error, as Napier, and the calling of the Jews coming so fast on, Rom. 11. 15, &c. to make one sheepfold, Joh. 10. 16. Wherefore to make the G. Whore stigmatical, first, by her brand in the forehead, Reveal. 17. 5. by that which is in the very frontispiece of all the catholics Confessions concerning the Trinity. Secondly, by prescription (or mark in her hand) thereunto Revel. 13. 16. Thirdly, by her seat and place notorious, by seven hills, and ten Kingdoms, 17. 9 Fourthly, by that so well known name Latemos, 13. 18. as Moulin in his accomplishment of Prophecies. Fifthly, by her persecution of the Saints, 12, 13, 7, 17. 6. Dan. 17. 11. Sixtly, by a heathenish polytheosy of many Gods, and apotheosy of a man-God. Seventhly, by her Tricotomy of the three Catholic professions, Revel. 16. 19 holding with the Whore in tail general. CHAP. 7. HOwsoever Constantine by God's providence was ordained for ceasing the heathenish persecutions, yet had he no commission for setting up a new religion of redivived ehtnicism, as Mede, Revel. 11. 3. in imitation of the three sons of Saturn, their three major Gods; the deifying of Hercules, Augustus, &c. their Heroes; in forcing some more difficult and figurative texts to confirm their inventions; whereas that which is most plain, common and commanded is the measure of that which is more difficult and obscure; for which cause they are termed Gentiles in the Revelation; and the true believers Jews. To pass by the reports of Zosimus concerning the conversion of Constantine; we may observe by those, judges 8. 27. 2 Sam. 17. 23. 1 King's 1. 5. 12. 28. Ier. 44. 17. how Kings, Captains, and Counsellores, (albeit renowned) are not precedents for Religion more the meaner men, as 1 Cor. 1. 27. 2, 6. so that such servile cattle and men-admirers for advantage, Jude 10. are the very bain of all ingenuity and Christianity. CHAP. 8. TO come to the first Nicen Council (the Load-star of the three following); besides that human Councils are but external and accidental means of truth; it was falsified by Sozimus the Civilian concerning the point of Primacy; and is generally condemned for there-baptization of the Cataphrygians; their three and ten years' penance; that men should pray rather standing then kneeling; and is reproved by Jerome, for equallizing the History of Judith with the holy Canon, besides that divers of the best learned of them dissented from the rest and major part, according to that Exod. 23. 2. also Calvine could not endure that very God of very God in their Creed; for God being a most pure act, a begotten God (to speak properly) is a most gross contradiction: And that begotten not made, contrary to that, Rom. 1. 3. Gal. 4. 4. generation being proper to living and mortal creatures for continuance of their kind; thus by going forth of men's buildings or systemes, as 2 Esdras 10. 54. transported by some good angel into the wilderness, as Revel. 17. 3. I got a glimpse not only of the G. Whore, but of the Spouse of Christ, 12. 6. 21. 9 which things although they may seem strange and new, the reason resides in the abolishing of an old error, see Zech. 14. 7. &c. Isa. 30. 26. 2 Esdras 5. 4, 6. 22. For mysteries they are either of things more hard to be understood as parables not expounded, Matth. 13. 11. prophecies not fulfilled, Ephes 3. 3, 4. godliness to a sensual worldly and wicked man, 1 Cor. 2. 14. or that cannot be understood, as meerlyes in believing things that are not, especially express contradictions concerning the unity and supremacy of God, as 2 Thess. 2. 11. Revel. 22. 15. For to multiply the Deity, or detract from its unity is blasphemy, as all the Doctors define. CHAP. 9 BUt methinks I smell a Fox or rather a wolf, in the Fable, and unless the Lord put to his helping hand of the Magistrate, for the manacling of Satan in that persecuting power, Revel. 20. 2. there is little hope either for the liberty of the Subject, or Law of God amongst us, Psal. 119. 126. so this woe will not depart until it rest in a poor and terrified remnant, as Revel. 11. 13. And I cannot understand what detriment could redound either to Church or Common wealth by the toleration of religious, not antipoliticall, but rather benefit, as we see by example in Holland and Poland. CHAP. 10. FOr that which was objected concerning Arrius his formidable end, it is rather an argument of his equivocal perjury, &c. Hist. Tripart, 3. 10. like Ananias and Saphira, Act. 5. or Judas 1. 18. then of the cause: As for that which is commonly answered, that God is not divided but distingoished into three equal persons, is as much as if they had not a real, but only a relative or rational being or existence, as if essence and existence differed in God, or in any thing whose kind consists in one individual: for hypostatical union and communion of properties, they are but real contradictions, and the froglike croaking of the Dragon, the beast and false Prophet, Revel. 16. 13. by virtue of a Hocus Pocus and a Babylonian mouth, thus after the precipice of this Romish Jezabel, and the death of her two daughters, Homousia and Symousia like Aholah, and Aholibah, Ezech. 23. I perceive how the Western Sun declineth to its period and setting: And as for that third Reformation which succeeded the Calvinian upon the Turkish Territories more remote from the Romish tyranny, especially, about Anno 1560, in Transilvania, Lituania, Livonia, and Polonia, we cannot expect to be complete before the revolution to the East (where it first began) Revel. 7. 9, 9 14, 16. 12. (there being 12 Bishops successively at Antioch, unto the year 400, * More's Chronoll. magdeburg's Hist. Antioch being the Metropolis of Syria, (famous for that, Acts 11. 6; and the ten Persecutions, bounded on the East by Euphrates. CHAP. 11. AS for presumption, to profess that which God commands, yea, that first and great commandment I aver it to be none, Deut. 18, 20. and the son of sirach 3. 23. 5. 10. be it opposed by never so many, or great; Numb. 14. 44. 16. 2. or never so glorious titles of the orthodox Nicene Fathers, and the Pope his holiness, for that Job 32. 22. therefore, howsoever some object that it is damnable to believe no more than what we can comprehend, as Job 11. 7. yet let them consider that in the precepts necessary to salvation, we are to believe what we may apprehend according to our best understanding, Mark 12. 33. Ier. 9 24. this I say to the shame of such as shut their eyes against the most illustrious and authentical testimonies of all or the most memorable and approved times, places, and persons; hardly to be brought that ever they had greater grand Fathers, &c. not allowing any more of authentic and classic testimonies, than the most vain and improbable traditions amongst men; nor to believe the Histories of Moses, Christ, &c. because they had not the happy hour of St. Thomas, or others to be seeing, and sensible witnesses, as John 20. 27. 1 John 1. 1. The Lord God of his most gracious goodness grant, that the more able and ingenuous, like true and trusty soldiers of Jesus Christ, whose eyes the God of this world hath not blinded; would do their utmost endeavour to reduce the rest from that long captivity of our spiritual Babylon, under that Man of sin; and that God would prosper their endeavours that are studious of the sincere Truth; and strive for the same to death, as the son of sirach, 4. 28; and defend justice for their life, to the exaltation of their Nation, as Prov. 14. 34; that relieve the oppressed, &c. as Isa. 1. 7; that so we may enjoy the good things of the Land. AMEN. To the Honourable HOUSE of Commons at WESTMINSTER. The humble Petition of PAUL BEST Prisoner in the Gatehouse. Humbly showeth, THat whereas your Petitioner hath been a close Prisoner ever since the fourteenth of February 1644, only for this his premised reasons or opinion committed to a Minister (a supposed friend) for his judgement and advice only; having at all times showed himself a liege loving and active Subject to the utmost of his ability: in these and whatsoever else humbly submitting himself to your most serene and able judgements. Your Honours would be graciously pleased in commiseration of his exceeding distressed Estate, with what sufferings he hath already endured, to grant him his release or judgement, according to the worth and wisdom of this Honourable and independent Court, And your Petitioner shall pray, &c.