A Few WORDS by way of QUERY; TO THE TEACHERS, and PROFESSORS, CALLED PRESBYTERIANS, And INDEPENDENTS. WITH A Word of PROPHECY, in Verse.  
ALSO A Word of Exhortation and Warning of love to them to haste out of Babylon, the Mystery of Iniquity, into ZION, the City of Holiness:  
With A Word at last to those that were PERSECUTORS.  
Written by one that desires the good of all men, and the Glory of God and his Truth: JOHN WHITHOWSE.  
Printed in the Year 1662.   

A few Words by way of Querie, to the Teachers and Professors, called Presbyterians and Independents, etc.  
WHat was the ground of your Zeal, which carried you on in the Years lately passed, to preach and profess, as you then did, seeing now the carnal sword is taken from you, it is greatly fallen in you, and you are fallen from that zealousness that then was with you?  
Whether had you ever any command from God, the Higher Power, for the keeping of your Lectures, and other of your Assembling yourselves together, to preach and pray to God, as you have done? seeing now man commands the contrary, you let them down.  
Whether was your Ministers, and your Order of Ministering, ordained by the power of God, seeing that by the power of man you are put to silence; and yet not by force and violence only, but by words of command?  
But if you say, We are put out of our Places and Churches, and cannot do as we have done:  
Then I Querie, Is not anoher Place as lawful as that? seeing Christ saith, Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my Name, there will I be in the midst of them? And also the Ministers of Christ, when they were put out of the Temple and Synagogues, feared not to preach the Gospel, of which they were made Ministers, though they were commanded of men to the contrary; yet they met together in Houses, and other Places, as the Scriptures testify.  
And have you not Houses that might serve for that purpose? And if God ever set you on in his work, why do you not go on therein? not fearing vain man, who can but kill the body: and take your Company that have owned you and your Ministry, and have denied the Common-Prayer long ago; and separate yourselves therefrom; and so bear a Testimony by your practice publicly against it. Or else, may it not be said justly, That you are an hypocritical Company of Time-servers, who in the Time of Liberty preached, and professed against it; but now, for fear of Man, and what he may do, conform thereunto?  
Whether did Daniel well or ill, and the Three Children also, in disobeying those King's Laws, in their days? and bearing a Testimony, as Living Witnesses for the Lord, although Daniel was but one man, to stand against a King and Nations Decree: and likewise the other, but Three against the Decree of the mightiest King in all the Earth at that time; who thought no God could deliver out of his hand? And had Daniel ceased praying openly, as many of you have done, and Preaching also: and the other Three conformed to that worship, as was then commanded, as many of you have done now, to a Worship of the like nature; which is to say contrary to God: then had they not, I say, betrayed their God? O then, consider what you have done, and are a doing: And also, How had the Everlasting Gospel been published, if the Apostles had been of your spirit? when the Chief Rulers of Jerusalem charged them to speak no more in the Name of Jesus. And seeing you profess yourselves to be Ministers and Servants of him; How is it that your actions are so quite contrary to the Faithful Ones before mentioned now you are tried in like manner as they were: Upon which ground; may it not be concluded by all people, That you have had but the outside show, or Covering of the Ministers and Servants of Christ, and have wanted the inside nature all this while? Dan. 103, 16. Acts 5.28, 29. 
Some build on the waters, and some build on the sand;  
But nought but what's o'th' rock in this day will stand;  
For the waters will roll and toss, and the winds will blow;  
And what's not grounded on the rock, the storm will overthrow;  
For now the sheep covering shall be ripped off the wolf;  
And all deceit shall be cast down, into hell's dark gulf,  
Whence never more it shall arise, the simple to deceive;  
For from all that hath made them a prize, God will them bereave:  
And they shall see, who is i'th' form, but wants the power; 
Eze. 34. Read the whole Chap.   
For they shall not stand in his trying hour,  
Which is come, and coming on all professions them to try,  
Whether they will suffer for their Religion, or to escape, it deny?   
The false Church stands upon the sand, and waters; which are peoples, multitudes, Nations, and tongues, Rev. 17.15. which are like the tossing Sea; Isa. 57.20. But in the New Creation there shall be no more Sea, Rev. 21.1. And yet the Kings of the earth shall bring their Glory into the Holy City new Jerusalem therein, ver. 24. He that reads, let him understand; for verily the time's at hand.  
TO such as plead it lawful and good to conform to the Common-prayer, and hear the Teachers thereof, I query thus; Whether do you believe, that it is the Spirit of God that leads and guides them to read and perform that Form of worship which to the Common-prayer belongeth? which if you believe not, then how dare you join with them, seeing it is said, They that are not led by the Spirit of Christ, are none of his? 1 Rom. 8.9. And they that are not for us, are against us, saith Christ, Luke 9.50.  
Ah! How dare you that profess to love Christ, join with those that are against him, who saith, My sheep hear my voice; and a stranger's voice will they not follow! John 10.5. Then if you join with, and follow those which you are convinced speak not by his Spirit; do you not manifest yourselves to be none of his Sheep? and if not his spirit, than what psirit, than what spirit is it? seeing there is but the Spirit of God, and the spirit of the Devil, that doth lead or guide the spirits of men: O consider, if you follow these, do you not err from the Spirit of God, according to your own belief or Profession in times past?  
But if you say, You join not with them though you hear them, than I query; What do you amongst them? What doth the Spirit of God lead you to hear and conform with those that speak by another spirit? or do you think to benefit any thing by them towards God, that you believe are contrary to God? and if contrary to God, than they are of the Wicked one; and then the best of their Words and Works are sin; for it is said, The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, Prov. 15.8, 21, 27. yea, and the ploughing of them is sin: And then do you not sin in joining with, or hearing them in their sin, which is the fruit of darkness? And in so doing do you not err from the Scripture? which you have professed your Rule; which saith, Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but reprove them, Eph. 5.11. and come out from amongst them and touch not the unclean thing, saith the Lord, 2 Cor 6.17. and I will receive you.  
But if some of the Common-prayer Readers do preach sometimes according to the form or manner of your Teachers which you own, and you think you may lawfully hear them in that:  
Then I query, Whether they can serve two Masters in an hours time? or do the Devils work in one half hour, and Gods in another? Or be the Ministers of Antichrist, and of Christ, both in one hour? Or whether are they not of that spirit, as those were, which the Apostle speaks of, who with good words and fair Speeches deceive the heart of the simple?— or may they not have a Form of the words of Godliness, and yet deny, and be enemies to the power thereof. And do you not deny the Apostles Exhortation in the Scripture, your professed Rule, except you deny and turn away from them? 2 Tim. 3.5.  
These things are not written to accuse you, nor to condemn any thing that is good in you; but rather to provoke you to be zealous in it, and for it: Also to put you in mind, to consider, That much of your zeal in times past sprung not from the power of God, but from your own wills and strength; which is manifested by the falling of it: Now the power and arm of flesh is fallen from you, that which is of men will come to nought: But that which is of God, Men cannot overthrow, Acts 5.38, 39  
So every one that hath any sincere desires in you after God, or tenderness of conscience in you in this day of trial, take heed how you conform or bow to any thing contrary to that tender Principle in you: for if you do, it will murder those desires, and also deaden and cool the true zeal that is in you; which will not be the way for you to increase, but decrease to God. Therefore be revived in the true zeal of God, which moves in you, against every appearance of evil; and be zealous for Zion the City of Holiness, the habitation of God: and come out of Babylon, the Mystery of Iniquity, and abomination of the Earth; and partake not of her sin; for if you do, you must taste of her Plagues; the Lord God will not spare you. 
For he will burn her walls, towers, & buildings, both wood, stubble, & stones,  
and against the walls will he dash & break all her children's bones; 
Je. 51.58   
And if then in or under her skirts you be found;  
Then, with his terrible dart he'll smise you to the ground:  
Therefore out of her coasts see that you haste and fly; 
Jerem. 51.45.   
For all that in her live and dwell, a perpetual death must die: 
ver. 57, 39   
But Zion shall stand safely, for in her's the corner stone, 
Isa. 28.16.61.9   
And blest shall that man be, that lays on it his foundation.  
So all out of the darkness come, turn in unto the light, 
John 12 35, 36.   
For without it you cannot see to lay your building right,  
So the Lord direct all the true desires  
After his life, through the wilderness; and all the criers  
Therein, whose faces are turned towards Zion, and make  
All the hard things easy before them, and every crooked way straight;  
That into Zions coasts they may come, where none are crossed, but blest;  
And a habitation they may know, even in the Land of rest,  
Wherein the Sabbath day is kept, which never shall have end:  
In these desires my soul doth rest, in which I am your friend.   

A word to those that were Persecutors in the time of their prosperity.  
Remember you the days of your prosperity, how 'twas said oft to you then,  
That what you measured to others should be measured to you again.  
But than you stopped your ears, hardened your hearts, and would neither hear nor see:  
But now a day of persecution on you is come, in which it fulfilled shall be:  
For many by you were cast into prison, their goods also destroyed;  
Of Justice, Equity, Mercy, or Law, by you they were denied:  
Now thus in this day to you doubt, in this day it will be;  
Unless you will turn to your vomit again, and own Idolatry.  
Remember little Joseph was hated and persecuted of his Brethren: what was the reason? Because their Father loved him best, therefore they grudged: also, because the Lord shown more to him then to them; for which they hated him the more, Gen. 37.5. and scorned at him, v. 19 and made a Conspiracy against him to destroy him: yet the Lord was with him, and blest him, and brougth them down to bow before him; and yet notwithstanding all this which they did to him, he loved them freely, & his bowels yearned towardeds them; and he gladly received them in the time of their distress. O Remember and consider this, and be not envious against little Joseph, whose love and bowels towards you yearneth, which is, and shall be manifested unto you: For a famine is entered into your land, and scarcity amongst your dwellings; But joseph's habitation is in a fruitful Land; for his Store houses are full, yea, and his fatty overflow: Therefore be not stiff in your minds, neither think it a disgrace to receive at his hand; for you must bow, the Lord hath said it, else you must perish in this dry and gloomy day, wherein all the springs and rivers, but what comes from the invisible, will dry away; at which Joseph shall drink, and be kept alive, which as the Willows of the Brook shall make his soul to-thrive: 

Therefore come in the simple love, take Joseph by the bend;  
And he will lead you to the well, which doth wide open stand:  
Out of which the Streams of Life do run freely:  
Where all may freely drink, for none needs to buy, 
Isa. 55.1.    

Praises everlasting, hallelujah to Sion's King;  
For out of him the living Rock,  
the water pure doth spring,  
Which doth refresh the weary,  
and make glad the poor:  
Therefore let him have the honour,  
now, and for evermore.    
He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear, and fear. For he that loves father, or mother, wife or children, houses or land, gold or silver, life or liberty, or any thing else better than the Kingdom of God, in that state he must never come there.  
Now, he that conforms to Idolatry for fear of losing these things, the fame is he that lous them better than the Kingdom of God, The 1 Epist. of John. 2, 15, 16, 17. Jam. 4.4.  
This is the hard Saying, that causeth the Earthly Mind to draw back.   
John Whithowse. Given from my hand the 19 day of the 8 Month, 1662.  
THE END.