come first to the way and means that God hath ordained And is not the second coming of Christ in the Light of his Holy Spirit the way by which all must come unto God the which is without spot without guile And must not all that come unto God come unto him in this one blessed savoury offering And is not this Christ of God the same yesterday to day and for ever as he was before Abraham was and so the same in the beginning of all things And must not all that come to God come out of Transgression the cause why mankind was drove from the presence of God And is not this Christ of God the way out of Transgression who was obedient and subject to the will of his Father in all things And must not they all that are saved be brought into this blessed Covenant of Life the end God's great love in his Son manifested to the World that through him they might not abide and perish in Darkness but through believing and obeying that second coming and appearance of the Light of him they might have the Light and Understanding of the Life of him the one blessed Offering that perfects for ever them that are sanctified And now all you blind Leaders of the blind under all your imaginary lifeless Confessions and Professions of God and Christ what strength of Arguments do you use in your perverse Wills and Affections to strengthen the old World of Transgression in sin and iniquity whereby you go about with all your might to make void the second Covenant which is without fault and so you shut up the way to God's Kingdom and the knowledge of his Righteousness by labouring and moiling in your vain service and works to establish your own Righteousness and dark works therein And by this fruitless labour and travel what darkness and blindness have you brought over the Nations through your ignorant Concâ—â—vings of those gracious words which were spoken by the effectual working and moving of God's holy Spirit in and through holy men the which was for a blessed end spoken even to turn people from the darkness which was over them by reason of their transgression unto the true witness in them the Light makes manifest all that is reprovable and wicked in mankind the which being turned from and the Light obeyed that they may be led to the knowledge of God that they may not be without God in the World whom to know is Life Eternal And so Light is sown for the Righteous that through this blessed Seed the Serpenâ—'s head may be bruised and kept under in all and so is way made to put on the Heavenly Image again by being led and guided out of Darkness by the Light of the Emanuel in and through every blessed and glorious degree of his works to the mark of that price the measure and stature of the fulness of Christ Jesus the Heavenly Man the Heavenly Image as many as are baptized into Christ put on Christ Now I say unto you blind Leaders of the blind who have got some few of the gracious words and works of the righteous mâ—n of God therefore I say but few of them because there is but little upon record of those mighty works which did then shew forth the wonderful power of God in and by the effectual workings of his holy blessed Spirit the which if all had been written the World could not have contained the Books and of that which was written you have but a part with which you blind Leaders of the blind have made a long Trade in Wresting Perverting and Corrupting to your own destruction making them look every way but the right in your imaginary Conceivings thereof So wrong you are in your Judgments who have denyed the effectual workings of God's holy Spirit that what in you lyes by your works of darkness you are making void God's holy Law and Covenant as to any true understanding or knowledge of it in the mind and heart And so building your selves up in Imaginations and Conceivings what strangers are you to God's holy work in and by the effectual working of his holy Spirit within man How bruitish are you in your understandings to stand and wonder and some to despise till they perish at the news of these works though God hath raised many faithful Witnesses who have declared and given Testimony to them even to the laying down their Lives and many their Liberties and in great measure their Estates whereby it hath plainly shewed that this is the time and season wherein God is making known his mighty power for the subduing and bringing under the power of darkness that the Kingdoms of this World may become the Kingdoms of God and that the Kingdom of his Son which is in Righteousness Peace and Joy of his blessed holy Spirit may be set over all And is not this according to that Prayer Thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth c. Now consider are not all those wayes destructive to mankind that are made up in the dark Conceivings of man without the Light of understanding the will of God herein And by your works of darkness in opposing the blessed effectual works of God's holy Spirit what misery and consusion have you brought your selves and the Nations into where you lye in heaps in Controversies about the works and words without till the enemy's works of darkness be overgrown in you by which you are so droven from the presence of God and the Light of his Countenance that you are greatly confounded kicking and stumbling at the precious stone the which in your fleshly worldly wisdom you think too mean to be in your Buildings by reason of which how many fashions are your Building of reeling and staggering from one fashion to another soaring alost in your airy imaginations of the things of God in using your Wits and Arts to bend the holy men's Testimonies to your corrupt Wills and Affections And so much more as you strive in these works so much more you are and must be confounded What a sad work have you herein taken in hand and what vast Sums of Money have you exacted out of Nations to maintain the Pride and Arrogancy of your hearts herein Oh! that there were such a heart in people to sit down before the Lord that they may partake so much of his works as to open the Eye of their understandings that they see over these works of darkness where nothing is good nor pleasant to the truly hungering and thirsting Souls after God's Righteousness How miserably have these Nations been cheated by these blind Guides who have exacted abundance of Wages under pretence of being Healers and Curers of the Nations but are now found by the Effectual Workings of the Light of God's holy Spirit to be the chief Instruments of the letting in of Darkness Corruption and Abominations that raign on the Earth through that adulterated Spirit the Mother of all Harlots who are departed from
outward written Law since they must be judged without any such Law for transgressing of what Law must they be judged it cannot be denyed but that God hath given them a Law to walk by and that it is for the transgression thereof that they come under condemnation and must be judged Before this question be answered in Truth that Gospel must be known that is preached in every creature which is under Heaven Page 37. The Author saith we that have the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles brought down to us in the Scriptures may according to Scripture Dialect be said to have Christ and his Apostles as truly as it was said of the Jews in our Saviours days on Earth that they had Moses and the Prophets for it was by having in the Scriptures what they said and did that they were said to have them and by hearing and believing the Scriptures of the New Testament we may as well be said to hear and believe Christ and his Apostles c. Answer That ever such a stranger to Christianity should be so impudent as to say I will shew you the method and way of God that doth not know himself one step therein as appears by his dark arguing The Jews had the writing of Moses and the Prophets and no question but they did believe them to be so but what did they profit by them when out of that Faith and Spirit through which they are profitable they did testifie of Christ and were a witness to the righteousness of God as saith the Apostle when by them they judged Christ ought to die Christ did send the hard-hearted Jews who went about to kill him to Moses and the Prophets saying Joh. 5.39 40. Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal Life and they are they which testifie of me and ye will not come to me that ye may have life And mind what the Apostle saith Rom. 3.12 But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets which righteousness the said Jews did not know though they had heard what Moses and the Prophets said of it But mind the cause of their not hearing so as to understand Neh. 9.20 Thougavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them but the cause of their blindness was even their rebellion against Gods Spirit And Stephen said to the Jews Acts 7.51 Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your Fathers did so do ye So it 's very clear though the Jews had Moses and the Prophets writings yet by not taking heed to the Instruction of Gods Spirit in them they were without the knowledge of them and thus it is with the generality of those called Christians they have some of the writhings which gives a relation of Gods great love to the World in his heavenly and powerful gift of his holy Spirit manifest in the flesh to bruise the Serpents head and to destroy the Devils works But by disesteeming the blessed appearance of the Light of the Spirit of Christ in man as the Author of that Book doth in calling it a natural Light being thus in unblief their foolish hearts are darkned So though they have the New Testament as it is called by many that do not know the Law and the Testimony though they have some part of what was writ concerning Christ the Way Truth and Life of Christianity Yet by their quenching and grieving the immediate motions of Gods holy Spirit in them they are as clearly void of the knowledge of the end and tendency of Gods great love in and by the motion of his holy Spirit that gave forth those writings with the several blessed Testimonies therein even as the hard-hearted Jews were of the Law and the Prophets when they were in the gainsaying and rebellion against Gods holy Spirit But such kind of smooth teaching as the Author of that Book who is unlearned in the blessed Teaching of the Spirit of Truth is very pleasant to unlearned people in the things of God but the Scripture is fulfilled in many of them Acts 13.41 Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish for I work a work in your days a work which you shall in no wise believe though a man declare it unto you So it 's very clear and that in a true sense that people may have the writings and not have Christ nor his Apostles neither be in their Doctrine but in lieu thereof they may have the Spirit of Antichrist and Doctrine of Antichrist and the ravening Woolves nature though they may have the Sheeps clothing First The Scriptures we must needs highly own in that they refer us to and exalt Christ and his immediate teaching of his Divine Light and Spirit within as being subservient thereto where they are received therein But since a great part of the work of the Author of that Book is to maintain the Scriptures being a rule of Faith and Practice and to gainsay the sufficiency of the Spirits teaching without the Scriptures or its immediate teaching now adays without some outward teaching I do ask whether the Authority be in the Spirit that spoke the words or in the words when spoken or written if none can deny but the Authority both was and is in the Spirit And Isaiah by the same Authority of Gods blessed Spirit he can work a saving change in people either with or without what is written therefore it is a high degree of presumption in going about to limit the blessed holy Spirit of God as the Author of that Book doth But what Authority or effect had the true Prophets words in the false Prophets mouths this sad effect they stole away the hearts of people from the living fountain and put them upon a vain labour in making broken Cisterns that could hold no water And what Authority profit or advantage have the true Ministers and Apostles of Christs words now in the false Teachers mouths with their meaning upon them Even this sad and lamentable effect they thereby steal away the hearts of people from the sense of the immediate motion of Gods holy Spirit in them and to gainsay its powerful teachings and the universal love of God in the moving of his universal holy Spirit through all the World in its convincing and reproving the World of sin c. And then to set them upon vain and unprofitable service First having turned their hearts and minds out of the way that the holy Spirit of Truth leads in and then set them upon a vain labour and travail in seeking but never finding till at length they conclude with the Devils Doctrine that there is no way out of a body of sin and death on this side the grave And such flattering and deceitful Teachers are in a high esteem and account among a flattering deceitful people So all may mind that we do not oppose the in ward Teaching of the Spirit of Truth
make it manifest by the light of his Spirit within so man being convinced of and reproved for evil if he heeds not reproofs but perishes in his evil then his destruction is of himself but if through this love of God shed abroad in the hearts of people they be awaken'd thereby and so cleave to the good and follow and obey it then will that which was a Reprover for Evil be an Instructer in a Blessed Life where sin nor evil can't enter nor be neither is there any agreement with darkness in that life in which there 's no evil but the soul being in this liberty then Come I will tell you what the Lord hath done for my soul and my soul and all that 's in me praises the Lord. So here 's the Blessed Fountain opened where the streams of God's love are felt to run which drive back the streams of malice uncleanness and abominations which have corrupt mankind So Blessed are they whose Eyes are to the Living Fountain and wait for the rising of the springs thereof in their hearts from whence the truly thirsting soul comes to be satisfied refreshed and strengthened through a true sense of the springing up of this Well of Water which he gives who hath all power in Heaven and Earth the which Well of Water springing unto everlasting life all being dipped or plunged under this the soul comes to be washed from corruption and so made white as Snow the which is an everlasting ordinance ordain'd of God for a perpetual Covenant the which all that would know Salvation through the remission of sins they must wait to be confirmed in this Blessed Covenant where the Blessed Unity stands out of sin for there 's no evil in this Covenant So all that come to be concerned here must first agree in their hearts to cease from sin and evil and then to wait for the rising of the Pure and so to watch in the Pure against all appearances of that which is corrupt and so to grow up in the Pure to a Blessed Dominion over the corruptible and so in the pure measure of God's Spirit to receive and use the Creatures of God with Thanksgiving where every Creature is good when they are so received so to the Pure all things are Pure but to the Defiled and Unbelieving there is nothing Pure So the way of God that is Pure and Undefiled and Blessed are they who are Undefiled and keep and are kept in that Blessed way to finish their dayes where the Soul rests in Peace with God the which is the will of God according to which is this writ So to him be glory and honour from the rising of the Pure of himself forever and for ever Amen By a Servant of the Lord Stephen Smith THE BLESSED WORKS OF THE Light of God's Holy and BLESSED SPIRIT Exalted above the works of Darkness COme sit down together in a deep Silence out of all fleshly Wisdom forgiving all Trespasses that he that sits upon his Throne who said behold I make all things new that he may forgive all your Trespasses and then wait for acceptance into Gods pure holy Covenant his holy Law in the Mind that it may be writ in the Heart and they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and inibuities will I remember no more A blessed day magnified be the Lord whose Works praise him for ever and not good works out of wicked workers mouths to these mighty works of the mighty God the which he is working and bringing to pass through his mighty power are appointed that mankind should live in the enjoyment of them to the praise and honour of his Maker for ever And that it may be distinguished between evil workers who have got the good words and the good works from whence all true and good and gracious words came observe In one of the Collects appointed in the Book of Common Prayer it is thus written Almighty and everlasting God which of thy tender love towards man hath sent our Saviour Christ Jesus to take upon him our Flesh and to suffer Death upon the Cross that all mankind should follow the example of his great Eumility mercifully grant that we both follow the example of his Patience and be made partakers of his Resurrection c. Now mind To pray for this that is common and used in the old World of Transgression where iniquity and sin is which separates from God and are out of his Blessed Work But to be in the Humility and Patience this is God's Work where his Will is done on Earth as it is in Heaven So that if people would but so far condescend to the Will of God as to sit down in coolness in a true Silence of all the works of the fleshly wisdom would they not agree with us who are in Scorn called Quakers in Judgment at least though it may be not in Practice viz. That Words without Effects are as Dreams and Chass to the Wheat the Substance So he that hath a Dream let him tell his Dream but he that hath Gods Word let him speak it What is the Chaff to the Wheat Is not my Word like a Fire saith the Lord and like a Hammer that breaketh the Rock in pieces Jer. 23. I am against the Prophet saith the Lord that steals my Word from his Neighbour who use their Tongues and say he saith and Prophesie false Dreams and tell them and cause people to err by their Lyes and Lightness And so now in Coolness when the works of the enemy are down viz. Prejudice and Passion c. Then by a little work of God in its least appearance by which mankind is made sensible they may see by this small distinction what it is that we who are in Scorn called Quakers stand for and against And when the Eye of your Understanding is opened to behold his glorious works whom you have pierced then will you love us whom so many have hated because of our Testimony of God's Works Do but see how you first hated the Light of God in your selves before that great Darkness came over you to hate us who are called Quakers because we are bowed unto Christ's Spirit the true Christians Spirit and therein have in some measure partaken of his Cup out of which some indeed have drunk very deep even to the following of his great Humility and Patience even to Death as in the New-England Sufferings may be seen by those cruel imaginary Christians whose wicked hands have been deep in the shedding of Innocent Blood And though through Ignorance the Sufferings of God's people hath been much in Old-England yet they have not been in that desperate kind as there where doubtless they are more drunk with the Whores Cup of Sorceries and Witchcraft then those of that kind are here in
prepares for his glorious and everlasting Kingdom the desire of all Nations is come and coming blessed are all they that wait for him and receive him where there is neither Greek nor Jew Col. 3.11 Barbarian Scythian Bond nor Free but Christ is all and all And this Love of God to the World in his Son Christ Jesus the Lord of Heaven and Earth by his universal Power and Wisdom hath raised thousands of Living Witnesses who cannot deny him before men knowing assuredly that the Cause is the Lord's and he will plead it with all flesh and to all faithful and true witnesses that continue to the end they shall have a Crown Immortal Life the which Life and Immortality is brought to Light through the Gospel praises be to his holy Name forever So it s for True Christianity that many who are call'd Quakers have so deeply suffered to this day and in this true Self-denyal and dayly Cross following our blessed Leader and Commander Christ Jesus we have sought the good of all mankind testifying against Infidelity and Corruption where-ever it appears Take but a view of this Nation and see what abundance of poor distressed Families are begging up and down and many are ready to perish for want of Conveniencies and do but view how others do swell in Pride and Luxury and cover themselves over with a Name of Christian whatever esteem this may have in the sight of fallen men I am sure it hath none with God nor those who are raised unto some degree of knowledge of his divine power and wisdom by which all things were created good in the beginning and by which alone that which is out of order must be put into order again The Lord God prosper his blessed work of Reformation which he hath begun in the Earth saith my Soul and the Souls of all who are truly sensible of his Righteousness therein By one that did Live several years amongst them Stephen Smith The 8th day of the 12th Month 1673 THE END A Faithful Testimony Concerning the SCRIPTURES And Dangerous Estate that they are in who through their private Interpretations do add unto and diminish from the Holy Prophesies therein Contained And do thereby make void the End and Tendency of Gods great Love through the Moving of his Holy Spirit in Holy Men in giving forth those Blessed Testimonies plainly shewn And the Blessed Motion Operation Revelation and Divine Inspiration of Gods Holy Spirit in its Blessed Works and Manifestation in this day time and season Asserted And an Exhortation unto all to Bow to the Light and Manifestation of Gods Holy Spirit in them least the things which concern their Everlasting Rest and Peace be hid from them With some brief Instances of Wicked motions and their Effects and Blessed motions and their Effects taken out of the Scriptures Revel 22.18 For I Testifie unto every man that heareth the words of the Prophesie of this Book If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the Plagues that are written in this Book Printed in the Year 1679. A Faithful Testimony Concerning the SCRIPTURES COme all Professors of the holy Scriptures to the tryal whether there may not be great and high talking of by those who are real opposers of the very end and tendency of that love and mercy of God which through the Scriptures is testified unto Come to plain dealing and weigh things in a true ballance and let that which is light and vain which is a lett that the Noble Seed cannot come forth Let that be cast off that the Nobility of your Understandings may be opened and cleared from darkness and error that the things which concerns your everlasting peace may be witnessed before you go from hence and shall be seen no more The 2 Pet. 1.20 21. Knowing this first that no Prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation For the Prophecy came not in old time by the Will of man But holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost Now mind since the Prophesies in Scripture is of no private interpretation let all who would not be supposed to be of that number who are giving their private Interpretation of those weighty and high concerns consider what Spirit they are led and acted by therein For as much as those weighty concerns cannot be understood but by the universal love and mercy of God in and through the manifestation of the Light of his holy Spirit given to every man to profit withall Therefore all had need to consider whether they feel and understand the mind and will of God through the manifestation of his blessed Spirit leading and guiding them into the knowledge of those Prophesies aforesaid And if this love of God in the manifestation of his Spirit be not taken heed unto and received and used for that end it is given all they who neglect it can give no other Interpretation of the Prophesies but what they conceive in their private Conceptions the which is a dangerous Estate the Prophesies being deep things wherein the great Salvation of the Lord unto mankind is signified and this goodness and mercy of the Lord is only revealed by his Spirit as said the Apostle 1 Cor. 2.10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit for he searcheth all things yea the deep things of God So it s by taking heed unto the manifestation of the blessed gift of God by which the love and mercy of God were witnessed unto by the holy men of God that the Scriptures of Truth come to be clearly understood And this Spirit of God giving to man kind light and understanding in the things of God this also pure and holy in man the which must be taken heed unto by all that comes to a clear understanding in those weighty concerns of life and peace under that penalty least they be hid from them Therefore there is a necessity even for all to take heed to that love of God in the blessed operation and inshining of his holy Spirit in them as saith the holy Apostle Rom. 1.19 Because that which may be knâ—â—â— of God is manifest in them for God hath 〈…〉 unto them And therefore aâ—â— that deny this universal love of God the moving of his holy Spirit and do nor the heed to the manifestation of it in themselves they are they who are the opposers of the love and mercy of God signified through the Scriptures And thus in the works of darkness being found opposers of the 〈◊〉 intent and meaning of the will of God through the blessed operation of his good Spirit how are people giving private Interpretations of the Prophesies in the Scriptures according to their own private Imaginary conceivings adding and diminishing to bring them to their corrupt minds and wills In which works of darkness they make void the great love of God testified of by holy men throughout the Scriptures and so are without the real benefit which
to lead into Christianity wherein the Author of the Book hath sufficiently manifested his folly in undertaking to detect that for Error which is a fundamental Truth Indeed he hath made a bold attempt in his dark comprehension in going about to limit the leading of the Light of Christ Jesus which shews plainly that he is not acquainted with the way thereof and in adventuring to speak and to affirm things so confidently that he hath no knowledge of this bespeaks him to be a rash inconsiderate man But least we should know him like a Coward he hath concealed his Name And in our reasonable and faithful confidence in Christ the Way Truth and Life we cannot give such dark ignorant works better entertainment then they deserve and by giving of them their due entertainment according to Truth we have cause to believe the endeavors of such dark immaginary Spirits will grow weaker and weaker and the turning of things upside down as the Author of that Book and his Generation hath done will prove a miserable hard travel and labour that will end in great sorrow and trouble But to come to the business in as brief manner as may be that I may not be tedious to the unprejudiced Reader This short answer is recommended shewing the drift of that dark Spirit by answering only some particulars Such manner of work as this having been often answered by many worthy Servants of the Lord the which are faithful witnesses against all such dark works By the way let it be remembred 1. That we truly own the holy Scriptures and all true and effectual outward Teaching in their place as proceeding from the holy Spirit 2. That by the assistance of the same Spirit only the Scriptures c. are truly to be understood and be made profitable 3. This Spirit works immediatly in the understanding where ever outward means becomes effectul 4. Divine Light and Inspiration being all sufficient to teach immediatly it is not to be limited to outward means First to prove the sufficiency of the Light of Christ Jesus to lead into true Christianity either without outward teaching or by it The Lord God of Heaven and Earth be his glorious and powerful outgoings in the Light being not to be limited take two or three instances out of the Prophets concerning this blessed leader the Light of Christ within Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart and said David rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness The which many thousands do this day by the springing up of this ever blessed Light within even where outward Teaching is not and by the effectual working in its powerful operation in springing up out of darkness many who had the name of that they were not were both convinced and converted and led into true Christianity And Isaiah prophesying the coming of Christs kingdom saith Isa 2.5 O house of Jacob come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord and in the 55 chap. 4 v. Behold I have given him for a witness to the people a leader and commander to the people And of this Covenant this light promised to inlighten the Gentiles John the greatest Prophet that was born of a woman God sent to be a witness that all through him might believe and this Testimony of the true light that lighteneth every man that comes into the World he had from God who sent him and not man's Teaching And Paul saith Gal. 1.12 speaking of the Gospel For I neither received it of man neither was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ So here men were made Christians by Christ the Light of the World without outward Teaching and this overthrows the affirmation of the Author of that Book who saith That men do not become Christians by following the Light within without outward Teaching But the Author may know that these men true Christians and men But I do affirm that there was never a true Christian made by mens Teaching without the leading and guiding of the Light of Christs Spirit within and that is by the leading of Christ within that people are made true Christians and the gainsaying of the Truth is the cause there are so many false Christians now adays by reason of such natural men as the Author of that Book manifests himself to be being ignorant of the Light not knowing the way thereof neither doth he know the fundamental principle of the people called Quakers the which is a manifest token of the gross darkness that he is under in that he presumes to call that error which he is a stranger to But neither he nor any else hath yet proved our opposing the leading and guiding of the Light of Christ within to its leadings and guidings in Teaching without But we do oppose its blessed Leading within and Teaching without to such dark unchristian-like Spirits that doth not know the way thereof who in such like dark works in a high degree of pride and arrogancy are going about to limit and set bounds to the works of the Lord God Almighty So that which he calls a fundamental Error is a fundamental Truth that it is possible with God this day and time as well as in days past to lead by the Son of his love into true Christianity with or without outward Teaching of which Truth the Lord God hath raised abundance of living witnesses this day and by his arm and power he is raising up more dayly who are built upon the same foundation that the Prophets Apostles and the Primitive Christians were built upon against which work and foundation the gates of Hell cannot prevail This Covenant this Light this Witness this blessed Leader Gods love Gods gift to the people all mind that it did not only inspire immediatly the Apostles but also the people by which Inspiration people come to understand when they have done evil even when none without can accuse them by this love wicked people are made sensible of their wickedness though indeed as it is written the Candle of the wicked is often put out yet many times they are overcome with the Light and Love of God therein that thereby they forsake their evil and turn from their wickedness and by yielding their members servants unto this righteous appearance of the grace of God and by obeying the infallible teaching thereof many have been converted into the true Christians faith and by the Truth sanctified and then justified through their obedience to the Heavenly gift of God are made true and living Christians abiding the Baptism of Christ who Baptizeth with Fire and the Holy Ghost and therein are confirmed and settled under the shadow of his wing whose fruit is very precious and pleasant And it is by this Light that the voice of the true Shepherd comes to be known from the false Shepherd thus by grubbing up the root of the tree the branches must needs