A Whip of small cords, To scourge ANTICHRIST (Sitting in the Temple of God, and exalting himself above, and opposing himself against all that is called God) Out of the Temple of GOD; AND Clearing up the way for the receiving in of the Lord JESUS CHRIST in his glorious power in and over the Church; now exercised in The Working of Miracles, Gifts of Healings, and Other extraordinary Gifts.  
WITH The Knot at the end of the Whip.  
Whereunto is added, The Sheerer sheered, and cashiered; The Shaver shaved, & the Grinder ground.  
By MATTHEW COKER, being Apostolicus Propheta, & Propheticus Apostolus; ut Bapt sta severus, Christi praecursor; Bapt●smate Sp●r●tûs baptizatus; Antichristi & Antispiritûs: ant●thetos oppositus; necnon Angelus: n●n Evanus, (qui vanus) sed Evangel●cus.  
Lonndon, Printed by James Cottrel, on Addle-hill. 1654.   

WHereas some persons (curiously wise) have taken upon themselves to be the onely-best interpreters of those most sacred gifts of God's holy Spirit, which none can so well judge of, or understand, as he or they that have received a greater measure of that same Spirit, and been made thereby partakers in some sort of some Gifts, at least, likewise:  
I therefore, who (as the works best testify of me) have received the power of working Miracles, and the gifts of Healings, have thought fit (hoping to be soon heard) to speak both experimentally and knowingly: And my Method shall be, in resolution of Questions in this Age proposed, or that haply may be proposed; and answering Objections which have been, or may be made unto or against the same.  
Quest. 1 Whether the Gifts in the Apostles times be in our times.  
Answ. The Gifts in the Apostles times being the gifts of God's Spirit, as recited in Chap. 12. of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, have extremely abated since the division of us and Rome, that is, of us living in the Jurisdiction of the Church of England, and them under the Papal power usurped over the Church of Rome; and so the spirit of Unity having much ceased in that respect between Churches at home and abroad, and the spirit of Division having advanced itself, the faith of Christians through want of true Charity hath been much weakened, to the great disabling of them in the receiving of those great Gifts, which the Apostles, inflamed in holy flames of Love and Zeal for the Truth, even unto the death, received in their time, and men nearest approaching unto them in several Ages since, have, according to the great measure of God's Spirit imparted to them, and their great care in not resisting the motions of that blessed Spirit, received gifts measurably answering to the Grace given and received.  
Quest. 2 Then none can have those gifts, but he or they that have such grace given.  
Answ. None can: For it is not an injunction and command to men, to believe so far as to the obtaining of those Gifts: it is enough to believe to salvation.  
Quest. 3 How then is it that they can be received?  
Answ. As I said, By grace given; that is, that God through his Son, Head of the Church, is pleased, by his Son, through the Spirit of him, to convey, when he pleaseth, that faith in the ninth verse of the former Chapter, which brings man within the capacity of receiving of those gifts, and exercising the same, by virtue of our Saviour's affirmation; (But observe, here is not his command:) If you believe, the things that I do you shall do also, and greater things than these.  
Quest. 4 Are not miracles ceased according to the opinion of the Church of England?  
Answ. Yea, according to the opinion of many they have ceased, but according to the faith of the Church it cannot be presumed that any member will say, Those gifts are ceased which are in Christ the head, from that time especially that he ascended into heaven, and so ever since. Ceased indeed, as to the great operation there was in the Apostles time, as yet they have; but ceased so, as never to be again exercised in the Church of God, will sure be maintained by none, that believe, That that same Spirit shall be given more and more in the later days, till Time's last day; after which, in Eternity, we shall live in and by the full measure of that Spirit, for ever.  
Quest. 5 What hath the common received opinion been, touching Miracles ceased?  
Answ. By wise men, in this sense: As when night comes, we say day ceaseth, till the Sun returns again to the East: so in the night of Ignorance, Schism, and Division, times of Error and black Darkness in the Church, the Truth ceaseth to shine in its pure lustre, and the Spirit of God hath not its perfect visible operation in and over the face of the Church, till the Sun of righteousness, which hath been long set in the firmament of the Church, (in respect of the great wane of light which the Apostles had) shall arise oriently and purely, to the bringing in at last of the perfect day. But that being come, or near his full approach to the high noon-tide of Gospel-light; Ignorance, Schism, etc. are dispersed, and vanish quite away into the bottomless pit, back into the smoke again from whence they ascended up; and then those gifts appear more and more, as fast as the contrary flee away.  
Quest. 6 Whether it hath been held, that gifts of Healings in the Church have ceased?  
Answ. That was never held, but by those curiously-wise persons, who have by Sophisms laboured to prove Miracles and Healings all one; which is as accursed as the separating of that which God hath conjoined. And that Miracles (that is, as the text saith, working of Miracles) and Gifts of Healings are not all one, appears, first, by the wisdom of God, whose Word puts them distinctly, which otherwise it would not it rather for the most part speaking with the greatest brevity, so far as may be, and yet avoid too great obscurity. And here if Miracles and Healings be all one, than Miracles are Healings, and Healings Miracles. But that cannot be: for that act that makes the Lame to go immediately, is much different from the laying on of hands, which on a wound being placed, conveys immediately virtue, but heals not up under many days or weeks sometimes, according to the quality of the wound. So that that wound which by Plaster requires long time, will also proportionably by that Gift take long time; but yet ordinarily cures within half the time the other doth. So that such healings, though miraculous, are not in themselves Miracles, for that such healings may & usually are effected by Physic, and by Plaster. But yet as to this they are Miracles, in that touching the manner and way of cure, they are healed without such means, and that by laying on of hands, the form and way in the Apostles days of conveying the holy Ghost on believers, and the form and manner always of exercising the gifts of Healings, proceeding by and from that selfsame Spirit.  
Quest. 7 What is to be conceived the scope and intention of God, in sending to any person the power of working Miracles, gifts of Healings, and suchlike extraordinary gifts of God's Spirit in these later days?  
Answ. That in the Apostles days they were given for proofs of true Apostleship, and of the Word delivered by Apostles, as in the Prophet's days such gifts (though not so generally) were given for vindicating and manifesting those persons God sent to be Prophets, and for better proof of their word of prophecy. And so as in the Apostles days they tended to the beginning of that Church, which in Christ's time (the fullness of time) was erected and confirmed by and under him the Great Prophet and Apostle: so in these later days, wherein the Church hath been so often lifted at, and even shaken off the foundations, it befits the goodness of God, and the office of Christ, to depute a person or persons unto the restoring and settling of his Church according to the true Apostolical Faith and Government.  
Object. 1 of this Age. These things done in our age, are not the works of God.  
Answ. These works done by Christ in our age, are not the works of Antichrist, which denies our Lord Jesus and all his works: nor are they the works of Satan, the father of the son of perdition.  
Object. 2 But, Sir, these things cannot be done.  
Answ. They cannot be done unto or upon you that deny them by unbelief, which obstructed our Saviour from doing many mighty works in his own country.  
Object. 3 There are many wise men, and many grave Divines; and why he? and why not rather they?  
Answ. Why was Moses raised up a Deliverer, David a King, Daniel a Prophet, Paul an Apostle? Let God, or his Word, or manifested will, declare that; and the same God, and his yet-secret will, in time manifest the other.   

To the Christian Reader.  
I Trust thy judgement, by committing it to the Spirit of God for directions to read both my words and meanings. I pray God give thee charity to love the works and matters spoken of, saith to believe them, and then wisdom to apply them to their right use designed. This short Narrative I have this afternoon at my leisure drawn up, with little study, and yet by good advice. Those works of Miracles and Healing that are not only talked of, but really performed, I will own: and in brief, that I have the power of working Miracles, the gifts of Healing, of Prophecy, and the spirit of Discerning, I will justify, if I am called to it, not only before God, Men, and Angels, but before Satan, Antichrist, and all the powers of hell: yea, if I knew the way to enter the gates of hell, by way of confirmation of these Gifts, and of revenging the abuseful reproaches of them from the devils and their agents, I would; and, through the power of God and his Christ, make the devil and his Antichrist roar and howl their worst, that they might be the sooner silent.  
The 25 of May, 1654. MATTHEW COKER, the Apostolical Prophet, and Prophetical Apostle.   

The Knot at the end of the Whip: Added this 25 of June, 1654. being on the Lords day.  
TO my unbelieving Opposers, especially those who not only maligned me, but also at least ignorantly blasphemed the works and operations of God's Spirit mightily shown forth at the time of participation of the holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, at the Chapel of Lincoln's Inn, last Michaelmas-Term.  
It is by reason of you, hypocrites at best, but half-converted Christians, that the Name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles. Had you had the least measure of true grace amongst you that looked so high and so scornful at my devotion, because surpassing yours, you would rather with humble admiration have given thanks at such time, then have been so unreasonably bold, to have then and after judged the worse of me, only because of the different sound of my voice, which I am sure was rather by a change through a more heavenly and melodious accent, as the piously-devout could and will assert, and not so strange, and even barbarous, as the hypocrites would then (and still, if they could) make it. But I wish them to confess their hypocrisy and rash judgement to the world forthwith, yea though they suffer shame for their ill doing, as well as I have far and near suffered reproach for and through their foolish judge, censurings, and unhandsome and uncharitable informations of and against me, whereby I was so blemished and tainted by all sorts of men, not excepting one as I knew to the contrary, that even every one spent his verdict of me; and he or they that would not so egregiously censute me in my Religion, did at least hold and suppose I had been under some bodily distemper: whereas, for mine own part, I still call God to witness, I was only weak in body, as I had been many days before; whereby my soul and spirit being more at liberty, I was then in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard a Seraphical voice singing with me, and myself in the mean time (whether in the body, or out of the body, I say not) was in a great ecstafie, and perfect ravishment of soul and spirit.  
And you who were of the more charitable sort, and who, together with the Spirit of Christ in you, had also a conscience bearing witness within you, at that very time, of and concerning my unblameable deportment in every respect at the Sacrament, insomuch that I hope even to this present you deem my actions not otherwise, then only obedient to the holy Spirit of God, moving in and on my heart, tongue and voice.  
I have also against you a few words; that is, because, notwithstanding the unreasonable struggling of all sorts, even of men, women, and children, censoriously in City and Country upbraiding me, or rather, the works of God by me; That you then should be so timorously silent, and so modestly wicked, in that point, as not to spend a little breath, in a few words, to have choked that stinking breath of Antichrist, which cunningly did vent itself, not only in Sorcerers, Magicians, and suchlike vile persons, but also, as much as it could, in the children of God themselves, to be even their instruments and trumpets to noise abroad disgracefully those works of our LORD JESUS, which in themselves were right glorious, and not a whit beneath those he hath since by a mighty power shown by me in and near this City of London.  
And as for you Hypocrites, of whose amendment there is small hopes, you will without sound Repentance, both you and your relations, become a stink in the nostrils of all the generations to come.  
And you poor faint-hearted ones, (though I confess many of you amongst the number of God's dear children) will never be thought worthy, unless your own consciences, being now pricked, shall incite you to make amends for your former defaults, by a greater future sincerity to the works you have childishly, and yet stubbornly opposed, or at least not maintained, as you ought; you will otherwise, through the just hand of God, be restrained from entering into that good land in this our Nation ere long to be possessed by those true Israelites, who become like those obedient ones under the Conduct of Moses their Deliverer, so known to be, notwithstanding his being despised, by the signs and mighty wonders God wrought by him.  
My Advice is to all Christians in general, and even to all good Moral just honest men, That they no longer stand in awe of Beelzebub, a god of Flies; of a Devil, the begetter of strange fancies, and foolish fears; and that they show the like confidence when their time shall be, as I myself intent in mine, that is, To go up to the face of Antichrist; whom I shall know by this mark, That he and his will riggle and struggle at the noise of my Whip of small Cords.  
And if he and they will not hear and obey, and permit the Gospel to have its free course, as it ought to have, (with all Blasphemies, Heresies, and Oppositions, taken out of the way;) then I will, in the power of Christ, come in that zeal as he entered the Temple, to whip out all defilers thereof; and with a real (and not fictitious) Whip, of smarting (though) small Cords, whip him and them out, not only out of the Temple and Temples, but out of house and houses also, which they say are Temples.  
Wrote by MATTH. COKER, (ut Baptista severus, Christi praecursor, Baptismate Spiritûs baptizatus) in his fervour of spirit for Christ's cause and the Gospel's.   

The Sheerer sheered, and cashiered: The Shaver shaved, AND The Grinder ground to powder, As will be the end of those that puff with a weak breath of Antichrist against the Lord Christ, who will destroy that wicked one with the spirit of his mouth, and brightness of his coming.  
June 26. 1654.  
I Understand this morning, That a Sheer-grinder living near the Palsgraves-head-Tavern without Temple-bar, is, with the rest of his faction of fools, much troubled at those things done by me in the power of God, which he cannot understand; and that he doth not only, with this last Faction of the world, speak evil (with those foretold) of things he understands not, but also of the person he knows not. For if he knew me, as the Angels of God, and all holy men inspired, do, he would not this morning have said, That he hoped to see me hanged one of the first.  
But I advise him and them Antichrists, and Antiworkers against the Lord Christ, and the works done through his power by me, That they bear in mind what they have heard and read of the great success Haman had, by preparing the gallows for Mordecai; whereby this benefit accrued, That they were the better made ready to hand, against Haman's time came. I would desire this sort of people to make application: only I fear that some of them, worse than Haman, as bad as Judas, or worse, may do that office on themselves, which Judas did, who betrayed his Master on earth, as these would the Messenger sent from him now our Lord and Master in heaven.  
I see the sheep of Christ would be well sheered, if they came under this Sheer-grinder, who very likely for his Pension doth sharpen the sheer, and put an edge to the instrument or cause in hand, for others to proceed the better.  
But if there are many more such Sheerers, I fear they will prove but Shavers, and that not of us, but of their own scabbed flock; who with their crooked Rams-horns, and crookeder conditions, will at last ere long butt at one another. And my reason is this; for that such are all of the household of Antichrist, the old enemy of Christ come in the flesh, however they pretend to confess him openly, whiles in the mean time they deny his works, or at least will not or dare not let them be vindicated, or at least examined impartially and in a right way. And whereas it is said, That an house divided against itself cannot stand, thence I infer, That because this house of Satan cannot long stand, therefore it will of necessity be divided against itself. God send no worse divisions amongst us Christians, and all good Moral peaceable honest men, and we shall quickly outlive for ever the threats of Hanging, Stabbing, Pistolling, and enjoy a continued Peace to us and ours for ever. And this is, next to the Gospel, the greatest thing I aim at, and which, through the power of God, I intent still to go on to accomplish, till by death or violence I am taken out of the way; which my faith will not easily admit of, believing in this cause, till I feel the last grasp of the fatal hand of death, if so be I shall.  
MATTH. COKER, the greatest Opposite of Antichrist in our Age.  
 
God deal by me, as I intent by his Cause and the Gospel's, for which he himself hath stirred me up, and I must go on with, though thorough a sea of blood.  
His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. MATTH. COKER, Angelus Evangelicus, Fidelu Nuncius.  
FINIS.