Francis Howgill
A WOE AGAINST THE Magistrates, Priests, and People of KENDALL,
In the County of Westmerland, Pronounced from the Lord by one of his PROPHETS.
Which may warn all the persecturing Cities and Towns in the North, and every where, to Repent and fear the Lord, and let the Decree go forth against them.
Also, the Stumbling-block removed from weak Mindes, who are offended at the strange Signs and wonders acted by the Servants of the Lord, scornfully called QUAKERS
In the Northern parts of this Nation.
(London: no publisher, 1654)
The word of the Lord came unto me saying , Write and declare against that bloody Town of Kendall, and leave it without excuse.
Hear ye which pretend to be Rulers, and ye that pretend to be Teachers, and ye people, the trumpet of the Lord is sounded, gather your selves together, for I will please with you, your iniquities are come up before me, and your Transgression is come into mine ears; Wo, wo, and misery is coming upon you, you shall be as Sodome and Gomorrah, and as Admah and Zeboim; Desolation and a crie, lamentation, howling, bitternesse and sorrow shal come upon you unawares, the sword of the Lord is drawn against you, it is sharpened for a great slaughter, and you shall be cut off, because you have despised my name, and trodden under foot my precepts, and walk after your own wils, and the imagination of your own hearts; and yet saith the Lord, they say I am amongst them: Wo unto you hypocrites, I am weary of you, and of all your profession, it stinks in my Nostrils, and I abhor it as much as if ye slew a man; you have slain my Son, you have mocked my Prophets, and despised my Messengers which I have sent early and late to forewarn you of the evill to come, have not I wrought signes and wonders amongst you, as ever was in any day, or from the beginning, have I not made the Mountains tumble down in your sight, have not I caused my Judgments to fall upon them that have set themselves against me? Have not I cleansed the Lepers? Have not I quickened and raised them out of the grace, which were dead in Sins and trespasses? Have not I brought down the proud? Have not I exalted the low? Have I not caused the weak things to confound the wise? Have not I sent signs among you, and have sent my servants to declare against you, as I did to Nineveh, and have you not hears it? Have not I commanded my Servants to go bare and naked in your sight, to be a sign to you that your covering is now rent, and your garment is to be torn, and you shall be left naked and bare, and you shall be made a mock and a proverb to all, as my Servants have bin made a mock and a proverb to you; and I will scatter you in my indignation, and I will cause my fury to rest upon you till I have consumed you ... [page 1]
O ye raging Priests, who have set your selves against the mighty power of the Lord in his own ... out of your envie against the truth, take occasion to lay stumbling-blocks in the way of others, wherein you plainly appear to be in that generation, who will neither enter into the kingdom your selves, nor would suffer others ... you who take occasion to Preach and Print against the truth, because the Lord hath caused some of his servants to go naked along your streets, as in Kendal and Kirby Stephen, as signes of wrath to come upon that pride and fullness that Priests and people live in ... [page 2]
[B]ut search the Scripture and there you shall fine, that the might God ... hath always before his great Judgments which he was about to bring on a people or Nation, made some of his dearest Servants to pass and act as signes to such Nations of what was to follow ... And if ye search the scriptures of the Prophets, you shall see in what strange and foolish things to the wisdome of the world and was so usual among the Prophets, and them who knew the word of the Lord, that the Prophet Isiah speaking in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, saith, I and the Children whom thou hast given me, are for Signes and Wonders in Israel ... And if ye search the Scriptures of the Prophets, you shall see in what strange and foolish things to the wisdom of the world they were acted in, as in Esay 20. the Prophet was to go Three years naked for a sign, what the Lord would bring upon Aethiopia and Aegipt: Now had these men lived in his days, they would have cryed that up as a delusion and madness, and not as the Word of the Lord, as they do at this day; for they neither know the Lord, nor his Word who stand in their own wills: Also read the 4. Of Ezekiel, and see what a sign he was to be, and what folly he was to act as to their wisdom, and that in the midst of the City ... [page 3]
[F]or God is not tied to any rule to walk by, but his own will; and where he commands wo to him that doth not obey, and where he commands not, woe to him that acts in his own will, and saith, it is the Word of the Lord. Wherefore all ye that fear the Lord, take heed of being stirred up by these men to speak evil of that you know not, but consider that the priests have been always the movers and perswaders of the people against Christ and his Kingdom, and power in his saints, and instead of being forward to speak evil of the things you know not, turn in your minds into the fear of God, and mind the light in your conscience that will let you see what sins you are guilty of, which these signs are threatnings to, that you may repent of them and escape the Judgment and fine mercy, as they did in the time of the prophets, who feared the Lord and escaped the Judgment; but the envious scorners and fools passed on and were punished [page 4]
To all you who have Eyes and yet are not blind, and who have Ears and yet are deaf, and have Hearts and yet cannot understand; To you I am moved to declare.
The Lord is proclaiming himself to be King, and all the Mountains and every Isle and every Oke of Bashan, and all the Cedars of Lebanon, and all who rule as Kings and Conquerors shall bow: Hear ye deaf, the trumpet is blown, the Standaard is lifted up, there is open War proclaimed between Michael our Prince and all the Inhabitants of the Earth. Arm your selves, O ye Mountains and gather your selves on hea O ye Isles, the glittering Sword of the Lord is drawn, and a fire is before him, and all ye will be found as stubble, and you are all to be slain heaps upon heaps, and are all to go down with all the uncircumcised Rulers and people into the Pit; the Lord the might Jehovah is revealing himself from heaven in flames of fire to render vengeance upon all the workers Iniquity; for you have slain the heir of the Vineyard, you are killing his Prophets and imprisoning his Saints; to all you Professors, Rulers, and Priests, which say you are Jews, and are not, but are the Synagogue of Satan; I speak in plainness of Speech unto you all who live in all the abominations of the heathen and yet say you love Christ, do not you call the Master of the house now light of Christ which enlighteneth every one that comes into the world ... [pages 5-6 ]