THE SCORNED QUAKERS  
True and honest Account, both why and What he should have spoken (as to the sum and substance thereof) by Commission from God, but that he had not permission from Men, in the Painted Chamber on the 17th. day of the 7th. month 1656. before the Protector and the Parliament then, and there met together, with many more of no mean account, who were not of them, yet were then crowded in among them.  
ON the 22th. day of the 6. Month 1656. it being two days after the general Election of Members of Parliament for the several Counties of this Nation, the word of the Lord came unto me, even unto me Samuel Fisher, at my own outward being at Lid in Kent, saying, go thou unto the Protector, and the Parliament, when they shall be met together in the Painted Chamber at Westminster, on the day appointed for the first sitting of this Parliament, and there speak among them what I shall bid thee, even the words that I shall in the mean time put into thy mind, and at that time into thy Mouth; which Motion, (howbeit at that present I was still, and quiet, and not unwilling if the Lord's will were to continue it upon me but sweetly satisfied within me to obey it,) yet was afterwards at sundry times, (even so oft as flesh, and blood drew me to consult with it) attended with no small Commotion in my mind, and being often held under a sense of the tediousness, and terribleness, of so great and weighty a service, which the carnal part, that ever opposeth, and (till it be subdued) oppresseth the Pure, did still represent of dangerous consequence to me, as to the outward, I was taken at times (as Christ's Ministers often were, 1 Cor. 2. 3. who were approved to be his by the tumults they were in for the truth's sake, as well as by other things, 2 Cor. 6. 5. with some weaknesses of mind, and no small fears, and tremblings; Nevertheless being called of the Lord to seek his face yet further, even seven or eight days together with fasting, tears, and supplications, for the full clearing up of his Mind unto Me in that Matter, and his strengthening of me to it, in case he would not excuse me in it, nor send his Message by the Mouth of any other beside myself (than whom (O Lord thou knowest) I thought a more unworthy one could not be singled out, among all thy Saints that are impolyed publicly about thy service) besides the daily supplies of new evidences, and refreshments to my spirits, during all the time of that abstinence, which was a fast not of mine, but of the Lord's own choosing, (which kind of fasts the formal fasters of this age, are not acquainted with the mystery of, nor ever will be, till they come out from the outward Court, wherein they dwell, trampling the holy City, into the inward Temple, and that inward acquaintance with the voice of God, which in the holy of holies only is to be had: on the 9th. day waiting upon God after the receiving of something, for the sustenance of my outward, I was also more than ordinarily sustained in my inward Man; Yea, the Lord not only put it out of doubt, and perfectly sealed it up to me, that it was his mind that I must go, which I had all along desired earnestly, that I might never do at my own will, if it were not his, but also forbear to be a terror to me himself, as he had been very often by fits, not without special reference to my good, for these many months together, wherein his hand hath been very heavy on my Family, making me moreover by his wrath in a renewed sense of all my old sins, even those of my youth, which he made me anew to possess, sometimes a very terror to myself, and lastly to take away all that terror that was wont to arise in me, from the weightiness of the work under hand, and removed all my fears of the frowns of man's face, and counter-pleaded all my pleas to him, that I should not speak for fear, and that they would not hear me, & such like, with the often iteration of what he supported his Messengers by of old (viz.) whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear (for its like they will be rebellious enough, and make their necks as an iron sinew) yet go thou, and be not afraid, nor dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them; whereupon having received such a charge from the Lord, without any more gainsaying, or giving any heed to flesh, and blood, I from thenceforth concluded unalterably to be there, and accordingly was there at the time appointed, and began to speak so soon as possibly I could get conveniency of a standing, after the Protector had done his speech: but so it was, that by the grievousness of the crowd, that was there, and the violence of five or six more barbarous than all the rest that stood about me, (who hearing me say with desires to them of room (of whom I hoped to have had assistance in order to the audience of the rest) that I had a word to speak from the Lord to the Protector, the Parliament, and the People, set me at nought, (some saying the Protector had spoken long, and was very hot, and weary, and I might be ashamed to occasion his stay now any longer, some crying a Quaker, a Quaker, keep him down, he shall not speak,) I was hindered a while, and held under of them by the utmost force they could use, till there was a rising to go away, and the Protector was with the sword, and Maces before him descended, and departing from his Chair, but the word of the Lord burning then as a fire in my bowels; so that I could not but speak, whether I should be heard yea, or nay; for I was weary with forbearing, it forced me to crowd in and stand between two of them, that stood before me on a form, and so spoke whether they would or no, (and whether it were fit for me to obey God, or these Men that had no power there to forbid me, but the power of darkness, judge ye) but having spoken with much difficulty, so much as is contained in about half a dozen lines, of what is here under written, in which the Protector, and Parliament are only named, and before I came to that, by which I was moved of the Lord in his Name, to be speak, and challenge their attendance, I was forthwith unpeaceably prohibited, not by the Protector himself (whose Nobility in hearing what is said, whether he heeded it yea, or nay, as it hath been experienced heretofore, so I am as free to acknowledge it here, as Paul was to take notice of the like in Festus, whom he held most noble in that he would hear him, though he thought him Mad) nor yet by any one of the Parliament Men that I know of, 
a Unless either of the two Justices were Members of the House, that took me to do a little after, one of which taking me to be a Jesuit busied himself more about me than he needed to have done, unless they had found cause to do more to me than at last they did.  (of whom I am persuaded that together with the Protector they would have heard, could I have spoken before they had been so far onward in passing our, and am not out of hopes, but that they will patiently read me herein, how ever) but by many of that multitude, that was mingled then among them, who (much like them who fell with one accord upon Paul, accusing him that contrary to the Law, he taught the worship of God, and took Sosthenes, and beat him before the very judgement Seat of Gallio the governor, he caring for none of those things, 18 Act 12. 17.) took and tore me from my standing, tumbling and haling me to, and fro, and how far hitting me, I name not, sith I had no hurt, I cannot say before his face, for his back was then turned to pass away, but while the Protector was yet in presence, howbeit not knowing happily what they did; which incivility of theirs I now mention, not to shame any of those men that shamed themselves (if they be not such unjust ones as know no shame) too much in the very acting it, yet O Lord lay not that their sin unto their charge) but to show them how much more uncivil they were when they had done, in laying their own sin to my charge, for howbeit I was wholly innocent as to any breach of peace in coming thither in a peaceable manner, to show them the way to the true peace, which they know not, yet (as it ever did upon the Lord himself, and all his Prophets, who when they were most disturbed were made disturbers, whereupon I rejoice and am contented) disturbance arose upon me, and not only so, but even by the Justice of Peace in whose custody I was a while, as well as by the rest, who made the ront, I was accused as a wanderer that went about disturbing of the peace.  
But the day is now dawning, and that true light shining forth, which will show, (as the book of conscience comes on to be opened, and it cannot now be much longer closed) that such as are run out, and gone astray from the light of the Lord, and cry peace, peace to themselves in their sins, and in their wicked disturbings of his truth, are the chief vagabonds, and peace-breakers both in their own souls, and in the Nations, sith there begins to be from henceforth, for ever, and is to be from henceforth more than ever, no peace (saith my God) unto the wicked.  
Now as to all those that were then so rude and unreasonable, as to say it was both unmannerly, and unseasonable for me to offer to speak then, and there, though in the Name, and power of the living God, as if it were King jeroboam's chapel, or some place so privileged by the Lord God himself from having any of his word dropped there, that none of his Prophets may come near it, I advise them to consider that the word of God as it is worthy to be tarried for by Man, and waited for by Man, so it cannot, (as the words of trencher-Chaplains often if not ever do) tarry for Man, nor wait for Man, it ever comes at his own will, and not at the will of Man, but in a Cross to it, even his will who speaks, and his who is spoken to, the Spirit blows as well when as where it lists, and the Man that is born after the flesh may hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it comes, nor whether it goes, nor what his being, nor way, nor time, nor season is, who is borne after the Spirit, and therefore ever opposes, and contradicts him, fancying that, which the other knows to be most in season, to be most out of season, and holding the word which is to be preached, both in, and out of season most unsuitable, and unseasonable at the time and place, when and where if it be not spoken; no other time, or place to speak it in (acceptably unto God) can be found either suitable, or seasonable: and just so no otherwise, (as will appear by these presents to any but the blind) was the case in that my speaking of it, which is here spoken for, and proved to be both just, and warrantable: in my faithful tendering of myself to the speaking of which, as I was commanded, I am delivered from the terror of the Lord, and the blood of these three Nations, which would have been upon my head, if for either fear or favour, I had rebelled against his spirit, and forborn to bear my Testimony, against those transgressions of these times, which makes them perilous, and how hardly soever I am both judged, and spoken of in the dark night of man's day, yet in the Lord's own light, I see my acceptance with him, and abide in that peace, which far passes all their understandings, that for the truth's sake shall ever trouble me, and which I would not want, for want of obeying, for all that outward peace, and prosperity of those I would have spoken to put together, if they be at peace under the power of any sin; and in the general day of the Lord's judgement, which is near upon them, I shall be cleared to have done nothing amiss in that Matter, and nothing but what was in true love, not only to the Lord, but also to their souls, who may probably hate me for my offering to tell them the truth: nevertheless that in the mean time, truth may not bear all the blame (as it hitherto hath done in all ages, and places) of those hurries and stirs that are about it in the world, to which it's no way accessary as the cause thereof (for that men's lusts who hate it) but as an occasion, I was since then moved of the Lord, sith I was not heard, to write this, one syllable of which neither was before, nor else was to have been (for aught I know) committed to writing, and at my return to my own home, whether (if he please) I am now passing to leave a testimony behind me of my innocency in the case, wherein most that hear of it may hold me guilty; in order, whereunto, and in obedience, to his Motion, I have given forth, not only what goes before, as a manifestation of what true right I had, then, and there to speak, but also that which follows, (wherein excepting only what is annexed in the margin is the very sum thereof) as a Manifestation of what true, and right things might have been spoken (as they were committed to me from God to speak) by his own power assisting, had I been permitted to speak by Men, or had not Satan been permitted (as at other times also he hath) to interpose his power, and been found resisting by his Assistants.   

The sum and substance of the message itself, and for the most part the very order and form of words, which (could I have been heard) I should have spoken in.  
THe burden of the word of the Lord God of Heaven, and of earth, as it came unto me, on the 22th. day of the last Month, and as it now lieth upon me to declare it in his Name, both unto thee, even unto thee Oliver Cromwell Protector (so called) of these three Nations of England, Scotland and Ireland, and also to all you, who are chosen out of the several parts thereof to sit in Parliament this day, to consider of such things as concern the commonwealth thereof; and likewise to the three Nations themselves, even to the Towns, Cities, Countries, and all the subordinate Powers, and people thereof, whose Rulers, and Representatives ye are; which word of the Lord as you do not deem yourselves too high (or too great, or too good to be spoken too from the Lord, and as you will not fall under the guilt of that sin of saying to the Seers see not, and to the Prophets prophesy not, prophesy not unto us right things, prophesy smooth things, prophesy deceits, which iniquity will prove such a breach among you (if you do) as you will never be able to make up again with all your wisdoms: I charge you all in the name of the living God, that without interruption, or opposition whether you like, or like it not) you stand still and hear it, and when I have done you may do with me as the Lord shall give you leave, or leave me under the power of your hands to do; no Law of Equity condemning any Man before he be heard, specially when he speaks on so high an account as from the God of Heaven himself, though to such as are no less than Gods under him here on Earth.  
Ye are a seed of evil doers saith the Lord, an hypocritical Generation, a people whose heart is not right, and whose spirit is not steadfast with the Lord, ye have made many shows of seeking my face, but ye have not yet found it, because ye have not sought it in sincerity: ye have talked much of turning unto me, but ye have never done it yet, with all your hearts, but feignedly saith the Lord; ye have seemed much to inquire after me in your long prayers, as if ye did delight to know my ways, but my ways, which are ways of purity, peace, and pleasantness (though grievous to the wicked) ye yet know not, so well as ye might do, did ye stand in my counsel, and so far forth as ye do know of them, ye have no delight to walk in them, so straight, and rugged are they to that Nature, which ye yet remain in: ye call out to me after light, as if ye were very desirous to be enlightened, but ye are haters of my light & of my life, saith the Lord, even the light in the conscience, which I have placed in every one of you, to be a witness for me against yourselves when ye do evil, which if a Man believe in, he shall not abide in darkness, but shall see the light of life, and come forth in my Image, and likeness saith the Lord; this ye come not closely to, lest you should be reproved by it, but love darkness more than it, because your deeds are evil: ye have fasted often, and hung down your heads like a bulrush for a day, but you have never yet fasted unto me, saith the Lord, you find your own pleasure still, the bands of wickedness are not loosed, you are captivated still in the Cords of your own sins, neither have you in the midst of all your abstinencies, abstained ever yet from the fleshly lusts which war against your souls; but are as proud as ever, as pompous and vain as ever, as luxurious and wanton, as covetous, and earthly minded, as self-seeking, as time-serving, as Men-pleasing, as oppressing, and unrighteous as before; ye have often fasted for, but never fully from your iniquities to this day saith the Lord: you would be counted professors, yea promoters of Religion, but are indeed persecutors of the very life and power, and of that people that do live in the life and power of that same Religion which inform, and words ye have long professed: the Christian Religion, contained in the Scripture is that, which in the 35th. Article of your present Government, ye say shall be held forth, and recommended, as the public profession of the Nation, and indeed many several outward forms, fashions, and professions of that Christian Religion, ye have run out into, saith the Lord, but the substance itself living in the spirit, walking after the spirit, keeping a man's self out of the lusts of the flesh, unspotted of the world, which is the only pure, and undefiled, and true Christian Religion, the Scripture calls for, this is rather held under, and discommended than held forth, and recommended by you, any further than in a sound of words, so long as such as do solidly, unfeignedly, in truth, and not in talk make public profession of that, are by all empty formalists in all places injured, accused falsely, unjustly censured, and abused; ye judge not the meek in righteousness, ye condemn the generation of the just ones, ye love liars, hurt the peaceable, and destroy the dwellings of such as bring forth fruits unto me (as yourselves never yet did,) and that do you no harm, saith the Lord; Witness the sad sufferings of so many of my Saints and Servants, that tremble at my word, saith the Lord, and are therefore commonly, but scornfully called Quakers, many of whose precious ones, of whom the world is not worthy (as unworthy as they are thought to live in quiet in it) have for these two or three years' last past, in some parts of the other two Nations, and in most parts of this, undergone trials of cruel mockings, and scoffings, revilings, and derisions daily, also of stockings, and stonings, cruel, and bloody whippings and scourgings, shameful and despiteful entreatings, and handlings, halings out of Synagogues, risings of people in rude, and tumultuous manners upon them, and such cruel kinds of bonds, and imprisonments, as those that are Malefactors in deed (for such are objects of your pity while they suffer, and not your hatred, saith the Lord) do seldom or never meet with, castings into narrow nasty holes, and stinking Dungeons, wherein yet access of friends to minister to them is oft denied them, heavy and cruel fines, which they can sooner choose to perish in prison, (as some have done) than ever pay, they being merely by the wills of Man imposed upon them, which fines will be at last a talon of lead upon their consciences that have set them, and as the Gall of asps in their bowels, that exact the payment; these, and such like things, have my servants suffered among you, some for one small matter, some another, but not for aught at which I am displeased, or offended with them, saith the Lord; as namely some merely for travelling to and fro to fulfil the Ministry they receive of God, and to testify the gospel of his grac in obedience to him, who hath laid such necessity on them so to do, that woe be unto them from him, if they do it not; even as the Apostles, and true Ministers of old did by the power of the Spirit of the Lord upon them, who passed up and down preaching, and had no certain dwelling place; and yet though counted the very scum of the world, as these are now by you, were neither rogues nor vagabonds, saith the Lord; some for only entering into the Synagogues, whose doors stand open for all Men, and there either doing nothing, or declaring (sometimes in deed before) but sometimes not till after all is ended, even as the movings of the Lord are upon them, against the false worships, and hireling Priests thereof, that Divine for money, and the people that love to have it so, which both Christ and the Prophets and Apostles of old did (even there) cry woe against, and yet were neither disturbers, nor malefactors, saith the Lord: some for not having the faith of God with respect of persons, which who so have, are convinced of the Law as transgressors: some for not giving flattering titles unto Men, not honouring them in their own way of bowing before them, not stooping to their wills beyond either sense or reason, which the Law of God flatly forbiddeth; some for not putting off the Hat to them, or standing bareheaded before them, which no Law at all of either God or Man commandeth, but is only one of those many customs of the Heathen, which are vain, and so vain is this (especially as the complemental Cringers and foolish fashion-followers of this vain age use it) that men may with as much civility put off, and require the putting off of their Coats one to another, and to as much good purpose, saith the Lord: some for using the plain English of Thee and Thou to Men, though it be the most proper speech to a single person, whether you speak to God or the greatest Men, witness your own translation of the Scripture into your own English tongue, in all which it can't be found, from one end thereof to the other, where the word you is made use of when no more but one person is spoken to: besides what evidence is given in from other tongues to the truth of this) save only that mere pride and respect of persons doth both improperly, and impudently plead to have several sorts of speaking to several s●rts of people in this brutish Nation, and adulterous Generation, saith the Lord: some for telling liars in plain terms only of their lying, which to do is held to be such reviling, as deserves little less than half hanging among many, though there is no more real hurt (but that falsehood, and foolish custom hath perverted the true being of many things, and your true seeing almost of any things as they are) in saying to him that lieth, Thou liest, than in saying to him that sweareth, Thou swearest, saith the Lord; some for not paying of tithes even to them, that they neither do, nor can in Conscience ever own to be their pastors (though they hinder no Men from paying them that have a Mind to it, and whose Consciences compel them even that way to maintain their own Ministers) which as the gospel is against the paying of, by Christ's flock, to their own shepherds that feed them, much more to such shepherds, as whether they will or no do fleece, but never feed them; so no Law in this Land can compel any Man to pay at all in case he be minded, whether out of Covetousness, or Conscience to refuse it; the Ecclesiastical Courts being clear taken away, and there being an express Statute extant remaining yet unrepealed, that it shall not be lawful for any to sue for tithes in any temporal, or in any but in ecclesiastical Courts, nor for any to be summoned before any secular Judge to give in any answer about that Matter, and therefore what condition the Judges are in that now meddle with it, who are sworn not to do against any Statute Law of the Land, let the light in their own Consciences be judge, for to that measure of my light in them, by which I am coming to be a swift witness against the false swearer, as well as every other evil doer, do I now speak, and appeal saith the Lord; some for no more than bare going, out of duty to God, to visit their imprisoned, and afflicted friends, have been sent back without the sight of them, and some with passes as Rogues, Vagabonds, and idle wanderers, though they have been of sufficient worth as to the outward also, and have never either begged or stole; and others are taken up by the way to their friends, and put by whole heaps together in prison, and there kept till they can buckle so low to the wills of Men against all Law, and Conscience, as to say if the Lord will they will go back, without effecting their intended lawful business of visiting Christ in prison (which woe to them that do not, much more woe to them that do imprison him) or not go on in that their honest undertaking: witness that sinful shameful business at Exeter, where are no less than between ten and twenty at once in prison, merely for going to see friends in prison at another place; and there held unless they will find sureties for their good behaviour, or pass their words if the Lord will, to go which way they would have them, as if the Land were not free for Men that are bound by the Law of God to a good behaviour to pass up, and down in, about none but lawful occasions, without binding themselves thereunto, (and so giving it for granted, that they have misbehaved themselves, when they have not) upon every malicious Officers unruly will, or Magistrates slender, and mere groundless suspicion 
b Wherefore how justly Thou, even thou Oliver Cromwell, chief Ruler according to Man in these Nations, couldst say in thy speech (as in my hearing thou didst before my offer to speak these things from the Lord) that thou knewest not of any one man, that suffered imprisonment unjustly in all England; I plainly know not, unless thou be mistaken (as very often no doubt thou art, and very easily ●ver mayst be (if thou see, and hear not sometimes with thy own eyes, and ears, and not always with other men's) in the people of God's conditions, thorough that unusual mist of misinformation; which as it ever makes thy own misery greater upon thee, so it often makes our misery far greater under thee than else, perhaps it would be, if the Cloud of false accusation did not cover us, and hide our integrity towards God, and our innocency towards thee, and all men from thy eyes; whereupon I am moved of the Lord, a new here to warn thee (if thou mean to reign) that thou take away the wicked from before thee, and all flattering false accusers, if thou find any such about thee, else the throne will never be est●b●ished in righteousness; and if thou doubt the truth of our speaking to thee from the Lord, so immediately as by us is owned, because the old prophet's words, and Scriptures by us are often used (as thou didst when by special motion, and special mission I spoke once to thee from the Lord, to what purpose thou shalt once remember again, if it be now forgotten) know thou in order to the removing of that stumbling stone out of thy way, that howbeit Micah, wrote the same words that Isaiah did, Mic. 4. 1. Isa. 2. 1. and Christ spoke the same words that Esdras spoke before him, 2 Esd. 1. 30. Matth. 23. 37, 38. and the Apostles often spoke in phrases which were found before them in the prophet's writings, yet all these holy men of God, both spoke and wrote immediately by the Spirit, as it gave them utterance, and no otherwise did all holy men of God ever speak, but as they were moved, nor do any holy men of God now speak the word of God, but as they are moved by that one, and the self same holy Spirit. .  
Thus is my people made a prey of, saith the Lord, for which in special as for all other of your evils, have I had a controversy with you, and my hand hath been against you, saith the Lord, so that you have not prospered in your undertakings, ye have traveled much in your counsels, but ye have brought forth little, ye have wrought no deliverance in the earth to any perfection, neither have your enemies fallen before you of late as in former days but ye have fallen (even woderfully) before them; ye have sown iniquity, and reaped mere vanity, ye have sown wind, and reaped a whirlwind, even a grievous whirlwind of wrath from the Lord, which falls with much pain upon your heads, of distractions, divisions, jealousies one of another, and suspicions fractions, and factions, confusion, contention, disappointment, and vexation upon vexation, ye have sown to the flesh, and there is come up a crop of corruption, that hath made you fit fuel for the fire of mine indignation, which is kindled, and (except ye repent) will ere long, wax burning hot against you till it have consumed you into nothing.  
Wherefore now thus saith the Lord God unto you, ye stiffnecked and stout hearted ones, who (though ye talk of it) yet are far from my righteousness, ye high, and sturdy oaks of Bashan, ye tall and haughty Cedars of Lebanon, come down, and sit in the dust, and humble yourselves under my mighty hand, which is stretched out against you, and turn you to me, even unto me with all your hearts, and with fasting, weeping, and mourning, even that fasting which I have chosen, and amend your ways, and your doings saith the Lord, and purge yourselves from your own personal abominations, and turn in every one of you to the light in your own Consciences, which shows you all the evils of your own hearts, and (if you take heed thereunto) will save you from them; and as for my people whom ye oppress, even my people Israel that tremble at my word, and by that holy disposition are discerned from all other people upon the Earth, who are found trembling at the words; and falling down, and worshipping before the wills of Men, let them go, saith the Lord from under that hard and sore bondage, wherewith ye have hitherto made them serve.  
And it shall come to pass, saith the Lord, that if you shall yet harken unto my counsel, the light in your Consciences, which whoever lives according to, not turning aside into the darkness, cannot live besides the Scripture, but lives the life of it, and shall wash you, and make you clean, and put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, and cease to do evil, and learn to do well, and undo the heavy burdens of my people, and break every yoke from off their necks, and let my oppressed ones go free, then will I bless you, and you shall be a blessing upon the Earth, then shall your light break forth out of obscurity, and your darkness shall be as the Noon day, and I will unite you that are heads of the people, together in your counsels and you shall repair the breaches of these Nations, and build their wastes, even the desolations of many generations, and ye shall be the restorers of paths to dwell in, yea, you shall honour me, and I will honour you, and make you truly, and eternally honourable, saith the Lord God.  
But if you shall still continue to be self-seekers, and men-pleasers, and servers of your own ease, your own honours, your own interests, base ends and earthly concernments, and shall be proud, and stubborn, and stiffnecked against my counsel, making your necks, as an iron sinew against all my reproofs and wi●l not come down, and give up yourselves to be guided by my word, which is nigh you, ev●n in your very hearts, and mouths, and shining clearly as a light within you, and their checking and condemning you, when you do amiss, or go astray to the right hand or to the left, and shall rebel against me, so as not to let my people go, but hold them still in slavery and servitude to your own lusts, and lawless wills; then I testify this day to your faces, saith the Lord of Hosts, that I will not honour any one of you that shall so despise m●, so as to use you in my service, or to own you in any thing you take in hand, in order to the deliverance of these Nations, but as by Men that lapped, and not by Men that bowed down to drink, I delivered Israel of old out of the hand of Midian; so not by any of you that mind earthly things, and make your belly your God, and love this present world, and drink so deeply of it as to stand doting of it, and seeking great things for yourselves in it, but by men that use and abuse it not, that fly the shadow of it, that are not conformed to it, but (seeing the fashion of it passing away) have it under their feet, will I bring great things to pass, saith the Lord Almighty; yea, the very poor of the flock, the flock of the slaughter, whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty, my people whom ye so disdain as to count them the offscouring of all things, those plain, simple, despicable, contemptible people of mine, whom ye so trample upon, who are so small in your eyes, even them will I make to increase upon you, saith the Lord, who seek to snap, and surppess them, as the old Israel their type did upon Pharaoh, and the Egyptians, so that the more ye slay them, the more they shall grow and multiply, and their blood shall be the seed of that Church, that shall be called the Zion of the Lord, which I will make so glorious as to be even the joy, and praise of the whole earth saith the Lord, and I will cause them to stand out with great boldness before your faces, who shall afflict them, and make no account of their labours, and they shall be a burdensome stone to all people that trouble themselves with them, and they shall be rebuked for their sakes in the wrath of the Lord, and vexed in his sore displeasure, yea, they shall be cut in pieces, and fall into mischief for their sakes whoever shall go about to mischief them, though all the people of the earth shall be gathered together against them, saith the Lord, I will make them to the Nations, as an hearth of fire to the wood, as a torch of fire in a sheaf, and they shall devour round about, as a lion amongst the beasts, among the flocks of Sheep, which tears, and none can deliver; they shall be my battle Axe, wherewith I will break in pieces the people, the horse, and his rider, and they shall have a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth, wherewith they shall thresh the earth, and beat the very mountains of it into chaff, and all the glory of the great image of man's dignity, and dominion, being smitten by these stumbling stones, shall be as the chaff of the Summer floor before them, and the wind shall carry it all away, and they shall become a great Mountain, which I will establish on the top of all the Mountains, and all Nations shall flow unto it, and it shall even fill the whole Earth, saith the Lord.  
And as for you, even you? O all you Powers, Priests, and People in these Nations, to whom my people are a reproach, I will enter into judgement with you, and recompense all your wickednesses upon your heads, and repay unto you the things you do to my chosen, saith the Lord, and I will bring you into contempt, that are now honourable in the Earth, and shameful spewing shall be upon all your glory, and I will blast, blind, and confound you in all your counsels, and reject all your confidences, and ye shall not prosper in them, and ye shall reel to and fro, and stagger, and be as bottles filled with Wine, filled with drunkeness, and I will dash you to pieces one against another, and give over, to bite, and devour, till ye be consumed one of another, and you shall labour in the fire of anger, and attempt many things, but your ways shall not prosper, ye shall weary your-selves for very vanity, yea in your ways of wickedness shall ye weary yourselves, and the light of righteousness shall not shine upon you; mischief upon mischief shall overtake, and befall you, and I will rain down snares, and stumbling blocks upon you and my word, which you stumble at out of the mouths of Babes, and stammerers, shall be unto you precept upon precept, line upon line here a little, and there a little, that ye may go & fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken, and your whole way shall be as sl●ppery places in the dark, and ye shall be driven on and fall therein: and you shall look to your Seers, but behold darkness; they shall not be able to guide you, they shall be as blind as yourselves, and though they shall flatter you, with the name of Zion, so long as you feed and pay them, and cry peace, peace, while you honour them, with your thanks, for their pains, and with your praises, and put into their wide mouthed purses, and shall say we see, yet the vision of that destruction that is coming upon you and them shall be as a Book sealed, a thick cloud shall cover them, the day shall be dark over them, the Sun shall set upon them, and it shall be night unto them, so that they shall not divine; yea, the understanding of all your prudent ones shall be brought to nought, and the sword of the Lord shall be upon the arm of the Idol shepherd, and upon his right Eye, his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right Eye utterly darkened: and when it shall be thus with you all, that your feet are stumbling upon the dark Mountains, and you tumbling up and down like a wild Bull in a Net, not knowing which way to get out of your perplexities, and shall have wrestled so long in chains of darkness, till ye come to that utter darkness, which is the portion of all them that suppress the Light; and their judgement, at the great day now dawning upon the world (though it sleeps, and sees it not) then shall you awake, and remember that you had warning in time, but would not receive it; yea, this word now spoken to you, shall stand as a witness over your heads for ever, and ye shall know that I the Lord have sent my Servant to speak all these words in your ears at this time, in this place, and thereby to the three Nations, whose chosen Servants, and Representatives ye are, saith the Lord Almighty, whose Counsel shall stand in the midst of all man's thoughts, and who will work and none shall let it.  
What shall one then answer the Messengers of the Nations? even this, that the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people have betaken themselves unto it; but all luxurious wantons, and covetous worldlings, all formal professors and dissembling hypocrites, painted Sepulchers, and whited walls, base backsliders, and filthy liars, hyreling Priests, and fawning Prophets, and all proud oppressors, wicked opposers, and persecutors of Christ in his people, can have no share in it, but are shut out into the lake, and gone down for ever, with the uncircumcised, into the pit, which hath shut her mouth upon them, there world without end to be confounded:  
Given under my hand as that Testimony of Jesus, which was given me in charge from him to deliver by word of Mouth, (if I might be heard;) at the time and place forenamed; and now to give forth to the view of men in writing; the truth of which I am made willing, by the power of God upon me, to seal (if called thereunto) and give testimony to with my blood. Samuel Fisher.   

THE SCORNED QUAKERS Second Account of his second attempt to give testimony to the truth of Jesus, wherein is showed both why and what (so far as the Lord should have assisted) he should have spoken by Commission from God, had he had permission so to do by men, to the Parliament, and Ministers, and people met together at Margaret's in Westminster, on the 24 day of this 7. month 1656. being the day appointed by them for their first public humiliation.  
ON the 22. day of this 7. month 1656. Ay, even I Samuel Fisher being then in the City, and happening to take notice of the Parliaments ordaining two days (the one being, by the joint agreement of the Protector with them, the 29. of the 8. month 1656. for all these three Nations together with them, the other being the 24. of this 7. month 1656. set apart more peculiarly both by and for themselves) as days of public fasting, and prayer, for the humiliation both of themselves and of these Nations, That notice I took passed by me as a thing of nought, not taking any impression then upon my Spirit, neither wot I then of any other thing but of returning to my own outward home soon after, even so soon as I should have finished a transcription of my first account, which that night I did well nigh finish also: Nevertheless the next morning when I awaked, I was with the Lord, and his command came upon me, to go again unto the Parliament, and what people should be met together with them on the morrow, and to give forth among them, what he would give in unto me, which what it should be yet I distinctly knew not; which word was more black, and more bitter in my belly than the f●rmer, that came unto me before; and by how much I gathered by my first entertainment, that in this second service I should be less welcome, and more troublesome to myself and them, by so much was I tempted by the evil one to say, as his servants out of fleshly fears have done before me, Lord send by the hand of whom thou wilt send, for thy word is made such a derision, and reproach, that its in vain to make mention of it any more in thy name, for they will neither hear nor receive it; thus though the Spirit in me had a willingness to go, (yet a lion being in the way) the flesh was very weak and fearful; nevertheless waiting from thenceforth, with fasting on the Lord, till the day after this service, and their fast was fully over, not without some weeping and supplication; the Spirit of the Lord, who was greater in me, than he that is in the world, waxed stronger than either he or I, and did prevail so, that in the pure fear of the Lord, wherein only his secrets are seen, if not without any further fear, yet without any further fainting for fear of any fleshly foes, and at the will of the Lord, which (whatever became of me and of my house) I saw was worthy to take place against mine own: I at last very quietly and freely gave up to go, and so was with them at the time appointed, where hearing two of their three Ministers, and abiding with much patience, till they had fully done, in the pure heat of my Spirit, in which the word of the Lord, even like a fire was often kindled, so that my heart waxed very hot within me at last (having a fit standing behind the seat of the houses Speaker) I began to speak as the Spirit moved, and gave utterance to me: but (what patience the Rulers would have had with me, had not the people been so unruly as to hinder me, I know not) the multitude gave me but little audience, for no sooner did I cry aloud (as I was bidden to do) and lift up my voice like a trumpet to tell them of their sins and their transgressions, which in the visions of the Lord, I saw for all their fasts, if not fasted from, would be their ruin; but I was handled after the old sort, as at other times, even hurled from my place, and haled up and down by some, and thulched on the breast by others, that I might not speak, and (speaking notwithstanding in the power of the Lord all along as I went with my face inward toward the Auditory, so much of the burden that was on me, as will leave them without excuse, and witness against them for ever, yet (whether they will hear or forbear) they were warned by word of mouth from the Lord to repent) born away by the people, and at last thrust backwards out of doors; such were then the fruits, yea, even the first f●uits of that days fast, and yet not the first fruits of such like fasts as are ordained and observed at the will of man, for such like, and far worse fruits, even more despiteful doings to the Lord's servants for their obedience unto him, and declaring the truth when he had sent them in love, their very souls that do hate them, have before this attended some other parochial fasts in some other places: which rude doings of the people then. I'll not impute either to the Magistrates, or to the Ministers that were there (sith in that crowd, if they would, they could not help it) though in many places both Magistracy and Ministry, may find cause in their own consciences to condemn themselves, as accessary to the sufferings of the Lord's servants, by their discountenancing of them in the work of the Lord, and their connivance at these that do abuse them: nor do I relate these things as one at all disturbed, at what disturbance then befell myself; for verily I have my peace, and am at rest in the Lord, at rest in my bed with all those, who are every one of them found walking in his uprightness, however the tongue is drawn out, and a wide mouth made against them by the sons of the Adulterer and the whore: and however I am judged of by the natural man, that hath the veil still o'er his face, and lives yet but in the dim moonshine of man's day of judgement, who takes upon him to judge before his time, and so speaks evil of what he knows not, it matters not much, sith among those spiritual men that judge all, while themselves are truly judged of no men, who see with open face, as being in the Spirit, and in the sunshine of the Lord's day arising on them, I am not unknown, nor to the Lord, and so could most sweetly sit down in silence; nevertheless that the truth may be still kept clear from the clouds of false censures, with which it is often overcast, to the darkening of it, so that men, who might else embrace it, thereby perish from the blessed sight of it, and that for ever; I am again moved and made willing by the Lord at my departure hence to my own outward being (which as it had likely been ere this, if this service had not been put upon me so (if the Lord so please) may be so soon as it is performed) to unburden myself in writing of that heavy burden of the Lord's word that lay upon me to have spoken at the time and place forementioned, and to leave behind me, that which is written hitherto to declare, what true Right I had then and there to speak; and that which now follows after to declare, what true and right things might have been spoken (so far as the Lord should have drawn me forth, and enlarged me in the uttering of them, as he hath since to writing of them here) if I might have spoken without resistance  Samuel Fisher.  

THE BURDEN OF THE MESSAGE OF The Lord itself, as it lay on me from the Lord to speak it, or so much of it as he (had I had man's leave to speak) should have been pleased to assist me to utter, and as it lay upon me from him, and was given in unto me by him in this fiery flying Role to commit to writing.  
THus saith the Lord? Repent O all ye sinners, that are here present, both Ministers and people, and ye powers of the Earth; for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, the Kingdom of our God, and of his Christ is at hand, That Kingdom into which no unclean thing nor unclean person, no Drunkard▪ no Riotous one, no Epicure, nor Belly-God, nor worldling, nor wanton, nor self-seeker, nor time server, nor men-pleaser, nor backslider, nor dissembler, nor formal professor, nor proud one, nor any transgressor of any sort whatsoever, shall ever enter, unless he be justified, washed, and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God: And therefore I say unto you all again in the name and power, and in the word of the living God, yea, thus saith the Lord God himself unto you all (though by an earthen vessel) Repent and that not of, nor for only (as hitherto ye have often done) but also from all your iniquiti●s: Repentance not for, but from dead works, is the very first of those first principles of the Oracles of God, which till ye come (not to talk of barely, for there is too much of that, while so little of the other) to witness, ye have not yet (for all the fair shows ye have made in the flesh by your forms, and your frequent namings of the name of Christ) so much as truly begun to be true Christians; nor are your mournings of any worth at all, till ye come to mourn with that Godly sorrow that worketh repentance to salvation; the sorrowing after a Godly sort it worketh care, and fear to offend, and zeal, and desire, and indignation, and taking a revenge upon yourselves and such like, so that at last ye overcome, and return not again to those iniquities ye mourned for, so that what pride, and filthiness, and wickedness of any kind ye see, and are sensible of in yourselves, and are afflicted for, you cease from, and fall into no more for ever, which to do is according to the true Proverb, like the Dog to return to his vomit again, and the Swine after washing to wallowing in the mire: that repentance which brings to a salvation of you from those sins you profess, to repent of, is the only true repentance that can stand you in any stead in the sight of God, all other will come once to be repented of: yea, thus saith the Lord God, repent ye this day, not only for your sins; but for all your old repentances, and for all your humiliations, and all your fastings also, in which services you have been formerly acted towards me but formally, and feignedly, saith the Lord: insomuch that since you are still in your iniquities, I cannot away with your solemn assemblies, I smell no sweet smell in your Sacrifices, it is iniquity to me, even your most solemn meeting: Therefore now trust not in lying words, saying the Temple of the Lord, the Church of God, the worship of God, and such like, nor think that this is the fasting that I have chosen, and will accept, for a man to afflict his soul, and hang down his head for a day, and then go on in his sins, as if he had obtained from God by his coming to him a dispensation to sin more securely another time; for this is but deceit, and all your labour will prove but a lie to you, saith the Lord; but wash you, make you clean, and abstain from the fleshly lusts of your own hearts; and turn in every one of you to the light in your own consciences, that shows you good and evil, and frame your ways, and your doings according thereunto; even that pure Law of righteousness plac●d within you, whereby every one of you are made from God even a Law unto yourselves; which light is God's own wi●ness within you all, which if it condemn you, God justifies you not; and harken to the voice of that Prophet Christ Jesus, to whom (in words) your own preachers point you, and to whom I (who came not in among you this day to be your Teacher myself, but to direct you to him) do from God himself who sent me, direct you as your truest Teacher, to whom also the true Ministry did direct men of old, who were sent of him to turn men from darkness to the light, & from the power of Satan to God, who is light and to Christ himself, who is the light of the world, that enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world; That Prophet, whose voice soever hears not, and obeys not, even in all things whatsoever he saith to them, shall be cut off from among his people, who by a measure of light from himself, hath enlightened every one of you, whose voice is within, and not without to you; nor heard now without by any of you; for the Scripture is not his voice but (so far as truly translated) a Declaration of what he spoke to, and by those holy men that were moved to write it, who heard his voice within, and saw him in his own light within, as ye may do, if ye will but hear (ye deaf) and look (ye blind) for he is that powerful and living word of God, which is nigh you, so nigh that ye need not say, who shall go to Heaven to fetch him down to us? and who shall go hither, or thither; beyond Sea, or into Scotland, or this Land or that, to fetch a Directory for us; he is nigh even in your hearts, within you by his light, Preaching himself to you, and the mind and will of the Father to you, and known by you to be in you too, if you be not Reprobates; yea, I say, it again to you from the Lord there is within you his Light, which both seeth, and showeth you all that ever you did in your lives, and that you now daily do think or speak, and sets all your sins in order before you, reproving you for them in your own consciences, if you do but heed him; and that is the light of Christ, the word of God, that is quick, & searches you to the quick, before whom all things are n●ked and bare, and by whom all shall be brought to judgement; who by his light within you showeth you as in a glass your own faces, your own Spirits, your own selves, and what manner of men you are, as the Scriptures cannot do; for in the Scriptures (which I own and honour, and am far from dissuading any man from looking into) you may read the Right of things, and what you should, and should not be and do, but the light within is larger than that, and of further extent, showing not only the Right, and the Law, and what we should be and do, but also the fact, even what we do and are: the light, which the Scripture sends to (as we also do) it manifests all things, not only that aught to be done, but also that are done, and therefore evil ones come not to it, lest their deeds by it should be reproved, but they that do truth come to it, not only that it may appear (as it may in a Letter without also, to them that besides the light within have the Law in a Letter also, and heed it) what they shou●d do, but what they do, that their deeds may be manifest, whether they are wrought in God yea or nay? now turn in your minds, I say, to that, even to the light, I say not to the darkness (for there is that also) but to the light, which is within, and that b●ing heeded will lead you out of the works of darkness, that it discovers to be in you, even up to Christ, to the life of Christ, and God from whom it comes; yea, if you be minded to try the truth of it, turn into it, & in what measure you take heed to it, and abide by it, even by the word hid in the heart, you shall not sin against God, they do no iniquity who walk in that his Law, they that walk in the Spirit, shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh, you shall find that light the power of God, to the salvation of you from the sins which it shew●, to be in you, and bring you not only under judgement for them, and to confess ye the sins that are past, and so to a forgiveness of them, but also through faith in his blood, to a cleansing from all unrighteousness, all filthiness of flesh and Spirit, and to the perfecting of holiness in the fear of God; and bring forth his righteousness in you, and his Image in you, who is made of God to them that receive him, even wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, and they in him the Sons of God, and partakers of his na●ure: to that therefore turn your minds and attend, and by it be guided, and there you will witness peace and acceptance with God, and boldness before God, your own hearts not checking, nor condemning you of sin (which is the transgression of that Law) however you may be condemned of men, which turning from you go condemned in yourselves, and before God, and then what will it profit you, if all men should speak well of you and justify you, and say you are Godly, and honest men, and this and that. And this is the only infallible teacher for all men; for the Scriptures (not as written by the men that were inspired, but as since then mistranscribed, even in the very Greek and Hebrew Copies, how much more as we have them mistranslated in many things, and in so many several translations) these are in somethings fallibe, & so not fit to be the Rule, as in the dark for want of the true light yet shining, which now shineth forth, they have been supposed to be, and the only sure foundation of the faith, and Church, but Christ himself, his light and Spirit, which show good and evil in the heart, which are the only Guide, Light Commander, counsellor, Leader, Law, Lawgiver, Foundation and Rule, which the Scripture sends to; and this is infallible, and to be followed in what it speaks infallibly (and not otherwise) to the conscience; and there is the only sure, and safe walking, even in the light, in Christ, in the Spirit, and not in the Letter, which is fallible by false interpretation and translation (which yet is true, as 'twas penned by the Spiri●) much less in the flesh, and in the darkness, as too many do, besides both the Letter and the light, of them that talk much of the Let●er, yea, of them that talk also of the spirit of the light; but if the light be put out in any through abuse of it, and the God of this world hath been suffered, by the God of all the worlds, to bli●d the mind, and put out the eye (& then if the light be darkness, and the eye, which is the light of the body, be out, how great is that darkness) who can help i●? who can help it, if for not walking in the light, while men had it, darkness is come upon them? if for not liking to retain God in their knowledge, when what might be known of him, was manifest in them, and showed in them, and for not glorifying him as God, but becoming vain in their imaginations, and not receiving the love of the truth that shined in them, their foolish heart was darkened, and they given over to strong delusion to vile affections, to do things unseemly, to hate, whisper, backbite, envy, murder, be filthy, drunken, swear steal, lie, dissemble, still they knew the judgement of God, that they that do such things are worthy of death, yet not only did the same, but had pleasure in those that did them; if the gospel be thus hid, it is hid but to them that are lost; but they are happy still, who keep steadfast in the light, their foundation is still sure and infallible, whose heart condemns not itself, nor the true light that shines in it, in what it allows itself in, and does: for he that walks in meekness, temperance, love, joy, peace, innocency, righteousness, purity, patience, doing what he would be done to, which is the Law and the Prophets, saith Christ, the sum of all, the fulfilling of the Law, which things the light & Spirit of Christ leads all that follow it up to, cut of the lusts, and fruits, and ways of the flesh, if all men cry out of him for an heretic, a deceiver, a devil, a base fellow, a disturber (as they did of Christ) he clearly comprehends them all to be but in the deceit themselves, and in the vanity of their own thoughts, and falseness of their own imaginations, yea, infallibly he knows in the light of the Lord) himself to be a true man, and all those that think him otherwise, and call him hypocrite, to be but liars; and again, if a man walk in the lusts and ways of the flesh, which are infallibly also manifest in the light, as drunkeness, revelling, wantonness, cozening, cheating fighting, hating, adultery, murder, lying and the like: If all the men in the world shall flatter him, and tell him he does well, and he need not fear but he is right, and these things are good, and pleasing unto God, unless I say again, the light be quite put out (as the candle of the wicked, which once they had shining in them, often is (and then woe) so that they call good evil, and darkness light, being scaled up under obscure darkness in God's just wrath against the judgement) there is that light in his conscience, will tell him (if he heed it) his way is false and filthy, and these men that cry peace to him in it are all liars: and when ever the book of conscience but a little opens, it appears so to be in wicked men at this very day.  
Now therefore turn into that Law of mine written in your hearts, saith the Lord, which Law if you turn away your ears from the hearing of, your very prayers are abominable unto me, saith the Lord, yea, though you make many prayers to me, and long, and spread forth your hands, and howl unto me, as you do on your fast days, and in the days of your ordained humiliations, whereby to make your voice to be heard on high, yet will I not give ear unto you, saith the Lord: but as I call and cry for righteousness, and purity, even within you, and ye hear not, so ye shall call and cry to me without, and not be heard: and though my hand be no way shortened that it cannot save, nor my ear heavy that it cannot hear, yet if after your fasts you enter (as you have often done) into strife and debate, and smite (even my people) with the fist of wickedness, and find your own pleasure, and do your own works and wills, and think your own thoughts, and live still under the power of your lusts, and will not be led by my Spirit in you, which would lead you from them: then I will not accept you at all, yea, my Soul shall even loath and abhor you, and these iniquities of yours shall separate between me and you, and your sins shall keep good things from you, even the good things ye cry and call for: and you shall wait for peace, but behold trouble for light and joy: but there shall be dimness of anguish, and ye shall be driven more and more to darkness, and ye shall roar like Bears, and mourn sore like Doves, and groap for the wall like the blind, even like them that have no eyes, and those that look for good from you, who are their representatives, shall find none, their eyes shall fail with looking for help from you, and even drop out before ever deliverance shall come to them by you, yea, they shall, wait for justice: but there shall be more oppression of them, & righteousness, but there shall be nothing but a cry, because he that departeth from iniquity is made a prey among you still; and ye hate him that reproveth in the gate, and a man is made an offender for a word speaking, even for my word spoken among you, by command and commission from myself: neither shall any one among you be able to uphold, and ye shall be a broken staff in the hands of such as lean upon you, running into their hands rather than sustaining: neither is there any one of you from the highest to the lowest that shall come to good, or be vessels of honour, saith the Lord (unless ye be sanctified by my light) or counted fit at all for the Master's use. Be wise now therefore O ye Kings, ye Rulers and Judges of the Earth, and serve the Lord, with fear and trembling, ye serve him every one of you in your own persons, and obey him by putting a way the filth of your own Spirits, sweeping every one of you your own houses first, even your own hearts, that they may be fit Temples to receive the King of Glory, that he may come into them, and ye be made holy habitations for God through the Spirit: and cast the beams out of your own eyes, else (thou hypocrite) how wilt thou see to meddle to mend others that are blind, thou being blind also: if the blind lead the blind, and the blind go about to order the blind, they will all fall into the ditch: be ye therefore personally reformed (as Men) from all your own vanities of heart, and pride of Life, else the counsel of all those that put & press you on to the serving of him, as Magistrates by making national reformations and Reformations in the Church (as they call it, who know not yet the true Church, which is in God, and needs none of that arm of flesh, and magistratical help, which the false false Church calls for) and in its Government, Ministry, and maintenance, and by helping of Christ against his enemies, and heretics (whom yet I plead not for) and such like, will be turned as Achitophels into foolishness, and the Reformations, will be but Deformations at the best, and both you and your Church, and Ministry, whose lips you mainly take counsel at, and not at the Lord himself and his Spirit, shall be at your wits ends, even you that they call to for help, and they that call to you for help shall both fail together, and none shall help either of you, and those that have misguided you into byways, even blind and bloody ways of suppressing Saints as heretics by your Civil sword, you shall at last be forced to leave, and look to yourselves, and run in holes of the earth, to hide you from the face of the Lamb, and from his wrath, and they shall be even smitten with shame and madness, to see all their ways turned (as they have turned the ways of God) upside down, and esteemed as the potter's Clay: therefore kiss the Son, turn to him, seek his face, see him, and submit to him in his own Light, walk with him in his own way, lest he be angry, and you perish for ever from the way of your own eternal peace, yea, not as one, reading it in the Letter only, and out of that amplifying it to you, or as one having it by hearsay only, from those that felt it, and so wrote of it (for so many a one can tell you much of the terribleness of God's wrath, and that talk may be a bugbear too to terrify your hearts a while, howbeit that terror will wear out after a while) but as one that hath witnessed it, and been made in some measure to know the power of his wrath, and feel the weight of his hand in my own conscience, opening its black Jaws upon me of late, to the affrightment of me for all my old sins, and bringing me to judgement for them (for judgement now begins, though the wicked, among whom it is to end, see it not, at the House of God, therefore no marvel if there be so much trembling in the true Church, as now there is, and so much paleness on Jacob's face; for it is the day of his trouble, and travel out of which yet ere long he will be saved, and Esau and his seed come into it in his stead) yea as knowing by a sense thereof the terror of the Lord, I persuade you all people to take heed to your ways by the Light of the Lord, lest he tear you as a moth, or as a Lion, and lest his wrath be let forth, in the full vials of it upon you, which if it be kindled but a little, blessed then indeed are all they (and all they that do so well know it also) even all they that trust in him: moreover all ye people, and you that are the Representatives of the people, think not your fast is done when the Sun is down, and your service done when your Sermon is done (as many do who look for one day towards Heaven, and then after live as if hell itself were broken loose again upon them) but know that your business is now to begin after you have humbled yourselves, and are got up from the ground, where you lay before the Lord, now are you to live over all that good that hath been yet but talked on; many good and excellent things (though some also that might not unjustly be excepted against) have been spoken among you, and pressed upon you I acknowledge (for far be it from me not to give every one his due) by the men that have preached before you, this day, in my hearing, yet much more in the words, which man's wisdom teacheth, than in the words which the holy Spirit teacheth, who giveth utterance to them he sends, yea both what and how to speak even in that hour they are to speak in, nor are they so solicitous, if they be called before Kings and governors, to give testimony to the truth, so as before hand to take thought for it, much less by way of preparation to pen it down, and so to preach it out of notes, as is the usual course of your national men, and a course used before you at this day; I say many good, things you have heard, and good words, and fair speeches, which Paul saith they may use, who serve not God but their own bells, whereby to deceive the hearts of the simple, now see that they be turned by you into good works, and let it not suffice, that a sound of words hath passed from their mouths, and pierced your ears; as if there were an end of the matter, or at least as if when as private men you are come home to your own houses, or as Parliament men into your place of sitting, and have according to the common custom, and their expectation sent them the great thanks of the House, for their great pains, than you are quit of what is required; be not deceived God is not so mocked, nor will he be put off with such slender shows and complemental services (which men's Religion mostly lies in, while they lie in the dead and fleshly night of man's day, and till they come to be in the Spirit on the Lord's Day) in this hour wherein his own day is approaching; but know that for all this, if ye go on again to sow to the flesh, when you are ripe in corruption, you shall reap condemnation; and if the ground of your hearts still brings forth Briars and Thorns, it is nigh unto cursing, and its end is to be burned; and if this be all the fruits of your fastings, to continue the same men you were, or rather to wax worse and worse, as such ever do that grow not better by such services, (and oh how often is it so seen at this day in many, who the more they pray to God the more they play fast and loose with him, the more they harden, the more they heighten, the more they strengthen themselves in the devil's Kingdom, and (in their blind misguided zeal, which tells them 'tis error who can't see wood for trees) against the truth, so as in that zeal as Paul once did, till his eye was opened, to persecute the Church, for how true that was which was said before you this day (viz.) that in the turnings of the world there was a change of men, but not of things, I'll not determine, in some respects it may be so, yet sure I am, this is as true also that in the turnings of the world to God, there's a change of things, and not of men (unless it be into worse) for though they shift from form to form, from a darker to a clearer, and from a superstitious to one more refined, yet themselves remain some as, and some more dark and superstitious in those their finer forms, and not a few, as unrefined as ever; still in the same manners, still in their old natures, in Esau's, Cains and Ishmael's natures, murdering Abel, scoffing at Isaac, hating, yea, hunting Jacob, even from the very prelatic party that reformed most immediately from the thick fog of Romish false-worship, to the Presbyterian whom they persecuted, from them to the independents whom they persecuted, from them to the Baptists, whom they persecuted, and from them to the Ranters, all which sorts though they are mad against each other, yet as to the true tremblers at the word of God, and Saints of the Lord in substance, not so much in show, form nor shadow and things without, they all now come against these with one open mouth, and as Edom, Amelek, Moab, Ammon, Midian, Israel's fleshly kindred against him, even so all they that were formerly fighting, quarrelling, and disputing against each other, now leave the battle they have among themselves, and even make one head against the Quakers, as they call them, whom they all persecute with lies and revilings, and hatreds, and hard censures, and all the harsh usage, and despite that possibly they can, stumbling at every straw, to the breaking of their own necks, that they find amiss among them, magnifying every molehill, even every small matter, and some things that they have but by hearsay, and some things that they are mistaken in by mere misrepresentation of them, and some things that are flatly false too, and in truth just nothing, to make them, (even them among whom many (if many, as we know many will do, prove worse than nought) are glorious with the glory of Christ upon them full of grace and truth, which was a glory ever unseen to the world,) as odious as they can, even as the devil himself, in the eyes one of another: The end of all which disjointed yet joint baiters, and biters, and abusers of God's hidden ones, whom though they hate, yet they can neither hit nor hurt, they being as secure as they are obscure, having one life more than the world, who may take away that of the body, can either touch, or come near so as either to live in it, or kill them out of it, hid with Christ in God will be to be hewed to pieces by God's Prophets, slain by the rod, even the words of his mouth, to be burnt up by the flaming breath of his lips, and those coals, sparks and tempests, thunders and lightnings of his Law, arising from the dead in their own consciences as a witness for God for ever and for ever against them, according to that true and most plain prophecy that went before of old of these times, these men, and this matter, 2 Esdras 13. which who so reads shall find it more lively now upon the Stage then ever, and lastly to be consuming a while by the Spirit of his mouth, speaking now here a little, now there a little, to them out of the mouth of Babes and stammerers, and at last to be utterly destroyed by the brightness of his coming) now than if these shall be still the best fruits of your fasts, that God's innocent ones, his precious ones, his anointed and holy ones shall be hunted by you, as a Partridge upon the Mountains, and you abide still under new names, and notions the old men, in the old earthly, sensual, cruel, wrathful, and malicious nature in enmity against them that are created after God's own Image in Righteousness, and Holiness of truth, and are brought forth into his own divine nature; Then hear the word of the Lord ye Rulers of Sodom, and give ear to it ye people of Gomorrah, I will hide mine eyes from you, saith the Lord, and have no respect to your offering, though it seem to the outward eye (as Cains might do) more gay and costly then that of Abel, I will stop my ears and not hear your voice, though it be as the voice of Jacob, saith the Lord, whilst your hands are the rough hands of Esau, wherewith you cruelly and coursely handle your brethren and oppress them; yea all your services shall be but a smoke in my Nose, as a stink in my nostrils, saith the Lord, I will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn meetings, and you shall be taken away with it, and howbeit you may reform many things as Josiah did, in whose days yet I raised up my Prophet Zephany to warn them, and threaten them in my name to consume them, because all things were not yet as they should be, and the names of the Chemarins with the Priests were continued, so will I bring a consumption upon all your earthly joy and glory, saith the Lord, and curse you and all your blessings, if you do my work, even the work of Reformation negligently, and but by the halves, even the Reformation of your own persons, which in the first place I look for from you that are the powers, in which works many whom your teachers will tell you had need be reformed are gone far beyond you; and also the Reformation of the Nations, wherein still they are not only continued standing, but also maintenance is forced from my own people, that cannot own them for the Chemarims, even for many black and smoky Priests, whilst my own Ministers whom I send unto you, that desire not so much as maintenance from you, cannot have so much as common countenance with other men, and sometimes not so much as them that are malefactors indeed (as these are only accounted to be) do and have obtained at your hands, saith the Lord.  
Now therefore, thus saith the Lord, take heed what ye do in this day; the new wine is in the cluster, see that you hurt it not, for a blessing is in it; there is a people gathering together, whom I am redeeming from among all people, Nations, kindreds and tongues, and taking one of a family, two of a Tribe, and bringing unto Zion, who are asking the way thereunto, with their faces thitherward, whom I will lead thither with many supplications, and tears, and tremblings, as blind ones by a way they know not, in a strait way, wherein yet their feet shall not stumble, for I am a God unto them, saith the Lord, by the way of the wilderness, wherein yet they shall not be weary, nor in want, nor in fear, nor miscarry, nor lose their way that wait on me, for I will be with them to refresh them, saith the Lord, with Bread from Heaven, and water out of the Rock, and to overshadow them with a Cloud, and go before them in the likeness of a flaming fire, so that they shall eat the same spiritual meat, and drink the same spiritual drink, as the Fathers of old, who drank of the same Rock that followed them, which Rock was Christ, and shall pass to their rest under the same protection, providence, and illumination as my people that were the Type of them; by which light wherewith I enlighten them, will I puzzle and dazzle, and blind all your Egyptians which pursue them, saith the Lord, till you have brought yourselves into inextricable perplexities, & into the very jaws even of inevitable destruction: see therefore that ye touch them not, they are the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord, whom I am gathering from under the conduct of those careless false shepherds, that have fed and served themselves of them, and not fed, but starved them, and stenched the pure pasture, and trodden it down, and fouled the pure water they should drink of, and forced t●em to drink of their own pudled waters which they have fouled with their feet; see that ye stand not in the cross ways, as Esau did of old, to cut off, saith the Lord, the Remnant of Jacob that are now escaping, and returning to their own home and Country, saith the Lord, out of all places, and Countries, foreign forms, fellowships, Churches, Companies, and strange lands, and ways of worshipping of me, saith the Lord, whereinto they have been scattered, and shattered up and down in the dark and gloomy day: and though they are a people scattered up and down in all parts, and Provinces of these Dominions, and every where complained on, and accused by proud Haman's Generation that ever hated them, because they could not honour them who were accursed of God, and bow according to their haughty expectations, as a certain odd people that keep not the laws, and live not as other men do, but are every where, and every way cross, because so to the carnal wills of men, and disturbers of the peace, so that it cannot be for the commonwealth nor profit of the Nations, nor of the powers thereof, to suffer them, and are sold as sheep to the slaughter in the wicked wishes of their malevolent and bloodthirsty Adversaries, that they would not care what they paid almost into the Common treasury to have them hanged, or banished, or any way however spoiled, saith the Lord, yet take good heed to yourselves ye powers and people, of meddling too much at the wills of such as suggest evil to you of them; and if at their suggestion, ye will do any thing against those that oppose me, and are my enemies, yet take heed that under pretence of that, ye sighed not unawares against me, and be opposers yourselves of those that are my friends, and speak to you both for and from me, saith the Lord, for if they be of the seed of the Jews, before whom Haman and his seed begin to fall, they will never recover themselves till they have brought the very mischief they have hatched for my beloved ones, upon their own Pate, saith the Lord: yea though my people are low, and weak, and few in number, and silly, and contemptible in your eyes, yea afflicted and ready to die from their youth up, yet I live, saith the Lord, who am a protector and redeemer to them, who neither slumber nor sleep; but watch, and am Almighty to avenge them on all their enemies, and I will do it, saith the Lord: yea let the Heathen rage, and the people imagine, and the Kings of the earth set themselves, and the Rulers take counsel together against me, and mine anointed, saith the Lord, yet will I set my King upon the holy hill of Zion, and give him the Heathen for his inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession, yea and all in whom he reigns shall reign (as they have suffered) with him; In an innumerable multitude, of which he is coming to judge the earth in righteousness, and the people with equity, to pass a judgement upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly, of all the ungodly deeds they have committed, and of all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him; and he in them and they in him shall rule the Nations with a Rod of Iron, and break them to pieces as a potter's vessel, even as they have received of me their Father, saith the Lord: and though they are now laughed to scorn, and had in daily derision by high and low (saith the Lord) and condemned by all, and made the very strife of all tongues, and made ashamed in all places where ever they are, and all people make a noise and roar against them, like the roarings of the Sea, and as the noise of many waters, yet will I get them praise and same in every Land, wherein they have been put to shame, and every tongue that riseth up in judgement against them shall they condemn, and I that sit in Heaven will laugh at the calamity of those that hate them, and mock when their fear cometh, yea I will have them all in derision, and they shall be as my people have been among them a very proverb of reproach, and I will Roar upon them out of Zion, and utter my voice from Jerusalem against them, as a lion, and the Heaven and the earth shall shake, and I will overthrow the thrones of Kingdoms, and destroy the strength of all the Kingdoms of the Heathen, and be myself a wall of fire about my people for their defence, and the hope and strength of my chosen ones in the day wherein I do this, saith the Lord God; yea I will never rest till I have made all their foes their footstool: and howbeit the powers of the earth are of me, and for conscience sake to me-ward are to be obeyed, and not resisted, and have been obeyed and not resisted in things not contrary to my own commands, by my holy ones, that have ever suffered as evil doers under them, of whom they ought to have had praise, yet if that which was once mine own outward Ordinance for the punishment of evil doers, and to be a terror to evil works (as Rulers are ever away when they are as they ought to be) continue to be so abominably perverted as in the pride and stoutness of their hearts, making their own lusts and not my light their Law, to be a terr our unto works and ways that are truly good, I will hold my peace now no longer, saith the Lord, as concerning this evil which they so profanely commit, and do daily against my chosen; but will utterly subvert and overturn them, and bring the Kingdoms, and Dominions, and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven into the hands of the holy ones of the most high, and give unto my Son and his Saints to reign over all the earth, and take all the Rule, and authority and power that shall stand up against my Son in his Saints, and put it down among all the rest, as one of his great enemies under his feet, saith the Lord; for though the world take no delight in them, yet I take pleasure in my people, saith the Lord, and I will beautify my meek ones with salvation, and I will put my high praises into their mouth, and a two edged Sword into their hands, and they shall execute vengeance upon the Heathen, and punishments upon the people, and shall bind their Kings in Chains, and their Nobles in fetters of Iron, and execute upon them the judgement that is written in my eternal decree, and unchangeable counsel, saith the Lord: this honour have all my Saints, this is the heritage of my servants, saith the Lord, & their righteousness, and their reign their salvation, and redemption, and all their dignity is of me only; and of me only, and not of themselves, shall they acknowledge it to be, saith the Lord God Almighty, who is now doing all this his holy will, and good pleasure, and who is he that shall ever disannul it?  
Given forth under my hand, as the Lord himself gave it into my heart to see, and into my mouth to speak in part, and unto my hand thus at large to write it; this 25. day of she same month, 1656.  
FINIS.