sect or opinion or judgement or Religion soever they be of who deny the Light which Christ Jesus bath Lighted every one withall to be â—ufficient to lead to salvation 〈◊〉 I say they know not that which makes free from sin and death and brings to life no can they beleeve that when it is declared to them but say none can be free from sin on this fide of the grave and account it errour to say that any can be free from sin here or be righteous here without sin and say the most righteous man sins and he that is borne of God sin which is Blasphemy so to say and this is and hath been their doctrine in the world amongst the Priests and profelsors the Antichrists and Anrichristians who are out of the life of Christ and the true Christians that now their nakednesse appeares to thein shame because they have not submitted to the righteousnesse by faith in Christ Jesus that they might be covered with it who is the true Light to beleeve in the Light that by it they might be led unto Christ Jesus from whence it comes who is Gods righteousness and thereby know the righteousness of the Law fulfilled in them and know the kingdome of god within which cometh not with observation as Christ saith and the righreousness in which it stands and the power in which it stands is within and the Law of the Spirit which makes free from the Law of sin and death and the life which is eternall which is the gist of God through Jesus Christ in whom the Law of the Spirit of life is But now all who are pleading for sin and say None be free from sin here they are still under the Law of sin and death which Paul sayd he was made free from Sin is still a Law to them and they are servants to it and so they are free from righteousness as the Apostle said While ye were servants of sin ye were free from righteousness but being made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness That at sin had reigned unto death so righteousness might reigne unto life through Jesus Christ our Lord And againe His servants ye are whom ye obey whether sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness Therefore come all ye Teachers and Professors of the World what say you Can none be made free from Sin and Death here while he is upon Earth what is there not a living man amongst you all who is quickned Is there none of you come up out of the Grave that can truly say Oh Death where is thy Sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory Thanks be to God who hath given me Victory over Death What are you all as Graves which men go over unawares Have none of you heard the Voyce of the Son of God yet which they that hear shall live Are you all dead in your sins and trespasses unquickned yet in the Fall in the first Adams state in the Disobedience by which Sin entare dinto the World and Death by Sin Are you all there still where Death reigns Is there none come to Life which is through the Obedience to Christ Jesus the second Adam the quickening Spirit the Lord from Heaven Have none of you the Word of God abiding in you which Word is Quick and Powerfull and the enterance of it gives Life Come forth and answer for your selves What are you all shur up in the unbelief untill this day and have not beleeved in him whom God hath sent who is the Resurrection and the Life who saith he that beleeveth in me shall live for ever he shall never dye for he hath Life in himself and he gives Life to every one that beleeveth What are you all searching the Scriptures which testifies of Christ and thinke to have eternall Life in them and you not yet come to Christ that you may have Life him whom the Scriptures testifies of and saith He is the trus Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the World that all might beleeve in the Light and become Children of Light and he who followeth him should not walke in darknesse but he shall have the Light of Life and know Christ Jesus who is the way so the Father the Truth and the Life who saith No man cometh unto the Father but by me I am come a Light into the World c. What doe you not beleeve Christ Or doe you thinke to find another Way to the Father an easier Way then Christ or a broader Way a Way which is not a Crosse to your Wills or a Way where you may walke your selves without a Guids that ye may goe whither you list but that 's not the Way to God as Christ told Peter when he was young he girt himself and went whither he would c. Answer me plainly to these Queries Oh ye Priests and Professors who have been so long talking of the Scriptures but have been out of the Truth and out of the Life of Righteousnesse and out of the Light and out of the Way who have been wandering in the Darknesse not knowing whether you goe and seeking the Living amongst the Dead and are erred from the Truth in your hearts and hold it in the unrighteousnesse professing the true Words but are and have been out of the Truth and so could never be established there for none can ever be established but in the Truth and in the Righteousnesse But ye have been out of the Life and so are dead men still and are yet in the Graves and have not heard his Voyce that should raise you up yet because you have not hearkened diligently that your souls might live though you have been long talking of him and searching for him without in the Observations and have been saying Lot here is Christ and Lot he is there in this Form or in that Forme of Worship and in this or that Ordinande so Death hith heard of the fame of Wisdome and hath been talking of the fame of Wisdome which is justisied of her Children but ye who only have been talking of Wisdome and speaking of it while you were in the Death and did not learne the Way to Life ye are but soolish Children and are not justified for you have all been but as the foolish Virgins the best of you who have had Lamps but wanted Oyle and so ye are in the darke still your Lamps are not burning nor your Lights shining neither hath your Light so shined before men that they may see your good workes and glorifie the Father But you have all professed that which ye did not possesse and so are found in the hypocrisie and your righteousnesse hath been like the Righreousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees whom Christ told should in is wise enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Now all that are but there will be shut out though you have
been talking of Faith and Hope and Sanctification and Redemption and Adoption and Justification by Christ and by his Righteousnesse while you are in the Unrighteousness and in the Sin and Transgression who would have Christs righteousnesse to be a Cloake and Cover for your sins and would be justified by Christ in your sins who came to save his peopie from sin and to destroy sin and to destroy the Devill who is the Author of it and he came to take away all Cloaks and covers for sin who saith himselfe If I had not come and spokon to you ye had not had sin but now have ye no Cloake for your sin so he it is that hath spoken to you once and againe but ye have not regarded and he doth speak to you and reproves you for sin all of you secretly in your consciences and for your evill deeds by the Light of his Spirit with which he hath enlightened you all who saith Except ye beleeve that I am he ye shall dye in your sins and then there will be no covering for you for your shame and nakedness will be seene though ye may call to the Rocks and Mountaines to fall upon you and cover you But the woe is unto all who are covered with a covering and not of my Spirit saith the Lord and woe will be for ever to all such who want the covering of Gods Spirit at the last day Therefore all people turne in your minds to the Light of Christ Jesuswithin you which doth reprove you for sin and never consents to the doing of any unrighteous thing and beleeve in the Light and be obedient to it for obedience to it is life Then will ye come to put off that and be uncovered of that which ye have been covered with which the woe is too brings the trouble and sorrow and anguish upon your soules and which will bring shame and confusion and woe and torment for ever except it be cast off and separated from And who come to the Light of Christ and beleeve in it and love it which is the Law of the Spirit of life with it they come to be quickened and made alive unto God and made dead unto sin and so come to be covered with the covering which the woe is not too for the Spirit is Life because of Righteousnesse but the body is dead unto sin As the Apostle said How can we who are dead unto sin live any longer therein Mark They who were quickned which Paul writ to who were once dead in sins and trespasses children of wrath as well as others these were made alive unto God but they were first dead unto sin and so could not live any longer therein except they would goe about to build again that which before they had destroyed and so make themselves transgres7s ors 2 Gal. 18. Now this the Saints said and witnessed who were made alive unto God and quickned by his Spirit dwelling in them and made free from the Law of Sin and Death but now this is contrary to all the Apostate Christians the Priests and Professors in this Age who say That they must live in Sin and have the Body of Sin as long as they be here and none can be perfect here nor be made free from sin but they sin in thought word and deed dayly and say they had need to pray for the forgivenesse of the sins of their Prayers and the best of their holy Duties is full of sin and the most righteous doth sin c. and so teach people These I say never yet did know sin destroyed nor never yet come out of the transgression nor our of the fallen Adams state nor we yet re-quickned but are still dead in their sins and trespasses and therefore they are not like to shew people the way out of sin or how to be freed from sin for they themselves are still in the Death the dead not raised yet and therefore hath all their preaching and praying been in vaine both to themselves and others and their faith vain also and they are yet in their sins even as the Apostle said If the dead arise not then is our Preaching vaine and your faith is vain also and ye are still in your sins Now you I say who long have been called Christians and you who have professed your selves to be Ministers of Christ and yet are walking according to the Course of this World not redeemed out of the World nor separated from the World but dead in sins and trespasses unquickned yet unmade alive unto God in the Death yet where all the World lyes who are in the wickednesse your conditions are far unlike to the Saints conditions who spoke sorth the Scriptures ye who are not yet come from among the dark world who sit in the darknesse and in the shadow of Death and love darkness rather than Light because their deeds are evill And will not these Teachers and Professors abide with them in the darknesse And doth it not appear that they are resolved upon it who say they must have sin and cannot be freed from it here but as long as they live here they must carny a body of sin about with them and a body of Death and so they walk in the shadow of it and sit in the shadow of Death and are not yet come to the Light nor will they come to the Light that they might see a way out of it but love their evill deeds rather than the Light so there they are sate down in the darknesse and remaine in the Death untill this day and will not arise and hearken to the Voyce of Christ Jesus whom God hath given for a Covenant for a Light unto the Gentiles to open the blind eyes and to unstop the deafe eares and to bring the Prisoners oat of Prison and them that sit in darknesse out of the Prison house and out of the House of bondage where they are all in Egypt still in the Land of darknesse and it hath been and is still the worke of the hireling Priests to cry peace to the people there and when any of the Servants of the Lord have been sent by him to call people our of the darknesse to come to the Light of Christ which he hath enlightned them withall that by it they might be led out of spirituall Sodome and Egypt where our Lord Jesus Christ hath been and is crucified afresh and put to open shame I say the Priests and Teachers they have stood up to oppose and have been like Jannes and Jambres who withstood Moses and would have hindred the people from going our of Egypt even to keep people in the darknesse and by the flesh-pors of Egypt where they may eat and drink with the drunken and satissie their lusts and yet notwithstanding tell the people that they are the Children of God and Christians and that none can be free from sin and the best have their sailings and
the Saints formerly and the testimony thereof we know is true and your deceit and hypocrisie comes to be laid open as theirs were whom ye have been crying against for many yeares the Scribes and Pharisees and Jewes who crucified Christ and killed the Saints and Prophets and have been envying against them and have a Law made that none of the Jewes should come into this Nation c. and speake against them as they did against the false Prophets and their fore-fathers that slew the true Prophets and said if they had been in the dayes of their fore-fathers they would not have done so but Christ told them not withstanding that they were the Children of them that killed the Prophets and they built their Tombs and garnished the Sepulchers of the righteous And he called them Whited Walls and painted Sepulchers and Serpents and a generation of Vipers c. Therefore come now ye Professors and Teachers and Priests own your fore-fathers the Scribes and Pharisees and Jewes which are gone before you whom ye have cryed against and said ye would not have done as they did And yet have ye not done and are doing many of the same things as they did in persecuting of the righteous for now have ye not slaine the Prophet in you which Moses spake of Saying Like unto me will the Lord raise up a Prophet in the midst of you him ye shall hear in all things c. And are ye not slaying and persecuring the righteous and killing the just who doth not resist you and are painting and garnishing the Sepulchers and building the Tombs of the Prophet and of the righteous And are in your faire outside Worships as they were to be seen of men and crying 〈◊〉 this Forme and the other Forme of Church government and this Ordinance and the other Ordinance and this way of Worship and the other way of Worship and crying up this Learned man and the other Rabbi and are in your Observations as they were and have set up the Jewes Tythes which were to the first Priesthood and so deny Christ Jesus the second Priesthood and have set up Sacraments and Sabboths and Schools and Colledges and Churches which God never commanded and giving them Saints names as the Papists do and call the Papists old Masse-houses Churches and so are crying up dead things and dead Names and Ordinances of men and Doctrines of men and things which may be touched tasted and handled which all perish with the using And by these things have ye kept people in the Death while they have seemed to live and have made a great stirre and bustle in the World for many hundreds of yeares by crying them up and setting them up and your Ministry or Ministers as the Oracles of God and the maintenance for them and have killed some for witnessing against these things and have been ready to kill one another about these things and could not agree about them and one hath built a Wall and another hath dawbed with untempered Morter and so have been dawbing and dawbing to keep it up from falling and whiteing of it to make it appear beautifull to please men and to be seen of men And all this invented Worship and Imitations which ye have set up and brought people into are but as so many Tombes and Sepulchers of the righteous and these have been cryed up by the Priests for Divine Institutions and Orthodox and Canonical and whiteed over with large Pretences and plausible Arguments and undeniable Consequences as they have called them and the poor people have received all this for Gospell and Ordinances of Christ and of his Church as if Christ had been there present who is the true Prophet and the Righteous Seed which the Promise is to when as there was nothing but Tombes and Sepulchers of the Prophets and of the Righteous which they had garnished And so people while ye have been in these things ye have been all in the darknesse and in the Death and have been all as Graves which men goe over unawares being erred from the Spirit which quickens and makes alive which Spirit was in the Prophets by which they Prophesied and declared forth the Truth which came to passe accordingly to the Jewes That in seeing they should see and not perceive and in hearing they should hear but not understand which also is come to passe in these our dayes among all the Teachers and Professors who have been thus dawbing and building and painting the Tombes and Sepulchers and whiteing the Walls the just hath been killed and he hath not resisted you and the Prophet lyes flain in you all and ye understand not nor hear him nor see him neither have perceived nor known his Voyce who is the true Light that lighteth every one that all in the Light might beleeve him whom Moses said was like unto him whom the Lord would raise up a Prophet from the midst of them whom ye should hear in all things And it shall come to passe saith he that whosoever will not hearken unto this Prophet shall be cut off from amongst the people And so Moses saw and declared of concerning Christ that which ye do not know nor see nor hear though ye have long been talking of him and naming of his Name but it was but death speaking of the fame of Wisdome because ye have been erred from his Spirir which is the Spirit of truth which convinceth the World of sin and reproves them for sin but this the World cannot receive which doth reprove them for their sins and evill deeds because they love their sins and evill deeds and not God Now they that love the Lord hate evill but he that loves not God nor receives the Light of Christ nor beleeves in it which is the true Pro and faithfull Witnesse of God he loves his evill deeds but hates the Light which reproves him for his sins and evill deeds and therefore the Light is his condemnation as Christ saith and so this is not their Comforter who beleeve not but love their evill deeds But this is he whom we have received and followed even Christ Jesus who is come a Light into the World and denyed our selves and our own Wills for him and taken up his Crosse and we know the Prophet raised the Spirit of truth come which is our Comforter in all our troubles and leads us into all truth and brings all things to our remembrance and knowledg which were spoken before by the Prophets Christ and the Saints which Spirit is in us which was made manifest in the flesh and dwelt amongst the Saints and they saw his Glory who was the begotten Son of God and did hear Testimony of him who said unto them who beleeved in him I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive Mark Because it
agreement with hell and to keep people in the death and in the darknesse and errour which they called Light and Truth and none must remove from the place where he sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death this hath been the Priests work for many years past to keep people there in spiritual Aegypt and darkness So the Leaders of the people have caused them to erre and they have told people that these Laws were the Discipline of the Church to keep out errour and to preserve the Gospel and to keep Heresie from spreading Now this hath been their cry and their pretence whilest they have been keeping out Truth thereby and limitting the Spirit of God to this or that form so that Truth hath not had its liberty which is only able to keep people from Errour and Heresie And what Errour and Heresie and wickednesse is there that can be named that is not amongst them And you Oh ye Preists and Teachers notwithstanding all your outward Laws who have had all these fair pretences to keep up your Forms of worships withour the power even by your outward Laws and carnal weapons as Stocks and Whips and Prisons and Courts and Leagues and Covenants and Oaths and Protestations and Assemblies of Divines so called and Confessions of Faith and Directories to worship by c. All this hath been but to hold up your Trade to preach for hire and filthy lucre and for your bellyes and to bear rule by your means over the people and to keep them still in the house of bondage and darknesse in AEgypt to labour in the Brick and so have been as the Taskmasters over them who would have their tale of brick and would allow them no straw but they must go abroad to get it and so have oppressed the people and have been cruel so that ye have made them to groan under their burthens and there was none to help them And now the Lord hath heard their cry and is risen and come to deliver his people from under you even from under the mouths of such devouring Wolves who have made a prey upon them And have cryed peace to people in their sins and wickednesse and have had mens persons in admiration because of advantage and have kept and do keep many there Now ye that have done so have not been the Ministers of Christ but of Antichrist not of righteousnesse but of unrighteousnesse and Messengers of Satan though ye have transformed your selves into several forms and shapes but your end is seen and your reward will be according to your work For though the strong man armed have kept the Palace and so the things therein hath been in peace yet now a stronger then he is come who is in us even stronger then he who is in the world And this is he whom we preach Christ Jesus the true Light who hath enlightned every one that cometh into the world which convinceth them of sin and reproves for sin and speaks not peace to them there but sends a sword to take it away and leads them out of sin who beleeves and obeys him and this is he who saves his people from their sins and destroys the work of the Devil And he is come and appeared in his Servants and Ministers as of old To call sinners to repentance and to turn from sin unto God and from the darknesse to the Light and from the power of Satan unto God that so they might receive remission of sins and an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified Which many who have been turned and are turned by them can witnesse the inheritance and an entrance into it Glory be unto the Lord God of Heaven and Earth for ever Therefore do I exhort and warn every one of you in the fear of the Lord to turn in your minds to the Light of Christ Jesus within you Who is given for a Light to the Gentiles and for a new Covenant to the house of Israel where the Law is written in the heart that so ye may come to read there what is in your hearts to know Good from evil and the just from the unjust and Truth from error the right way from the wrong For the Light will shew you if your minds be turned to it For the Law is Light saith Solomon and it is a Light unto my feet and a Lamp unto my paths saith David And again he saith The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soule The Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart The Commandements of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever The Judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether By them thy servant is forwarned and in keeping of them there is great reward And again saith he Oh how doe I love thy Law it is my delight it is my meditation day and night Whereby he became witer then all his Enemies and more understanding then all his Teachers And this is it which gives the knowledge of sin and convinceth of sin and reproves the world for sin and condemneth for sin them that beleeve not And this Law is Spiritual Holy Just and Good and this will let you see that ye are carnal sold under sin and found in the sin and transgression of it and in the corruption whilest ye have been promising of your selves liberty and saying ye are justified by Christ and so would have made him the Minister of sin Gal. 2.17 while yet ye are under the Law and the Law hath dominion over you and condemns you for your sins and evil deeds As the Apostle saith Know ye not for I speak to them that know the Law how that the Law hath dominion ever a man so long at he â—â—â—eth For Paul saith Rom. 7. I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came sin revived and I dyed That slew him and so that which was ordained unto life became death unto him he being in the transgression of it and so dying unto sin he was dead to the Law not under it for then he faith I through the Law am dead to the Law but alive unto God So that which slew him and made him dead unto sin brought him unto Christ Jesus who is the Life the end of the Law for righteousnesse to every one that beleeves So the Law was our School-master to bring us to Christ saith he Gal. 3.24 So who are come to Christ they are come out of the transgression they are come to live unto God they are come to Christ who sulalls it Who is the Way the Truth and the Life and they are not under the Law but under Grace For the law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ And now to the witnesse of God in you all doe I speak who
see beyond the night of the Apostacy and over it and what was before it and what hath been since in it among the Apostate Christians since the Apostles dayes that people have been in the darkness and night who have not seene the true way nor knowne whither they have been going But now unto all that feare my Name shall the Sun of righteoususse arise with healing in his wings saith the Lord For who comes to take heed unto the Light which shines in the darke place they doe well and who comes to doe well they come to be healed and to know the Sun of righteousnesse to arise from whence the Light comes and they are those who doe righteously and truly and honestly and walke as in the day time and to put off unrighteousness and the workes of darkness and fleshly lusts which warre against the souls For that is it which hath wounded the soule even the fleshly lusts that warres against it now the Light which shines in the heart leads from the fleshly lusts and out of them to Christ Jesus the Sun of righteousnesse who ariseth with healing For as the unrighteousness and workes of darkness is put off and the fieshly lusts abstained from which warres against the soule and wounds it so Christ Jesus the Sun of righteousness ariseth and is put on who heales and bindes up the wounds and powers in wine and oyle thereinto who is the good Samaritan who is better than the Priest and the Levite who passed by like strangers and left the man halfe dead who had fallen among theeves and robbers among his Enemies and was wounded as the hyrelings Priests doe now who are strangers that passe by and leave many wounded and as it were halfe dead and instead of helping of them are rather the theeves that rob and wound and murther and kill For saith Christ the hyroling cometh not but for to kill and to steale and to destroy neither careth he for the sheepe but for the fleece and for his Tythes as the Priests and Levits did who passed by And again saith the Prophet As atrope of Robbers waite for a man so do a Company of Priests further in the way by consent And these things have been seene and are as plainly fulfilled and manifested amongst this generation of Priests and Teachers and professors as in any age of the world Nay it will be more tolerable for those that went before then for these even the Scribes and Pharisees who perfecuted the Saints and put Christ to death whom they did not know that it was he that should come as the Scripture saith If they had knowne they would not have crucified the Lord of life But these say they beleeve that he is come and professe they know him and yet persecute him where ever he is made manifest in sons or daughters and cast him into prison c. Now the Fewes and Pharisees were under another Priest-hood which God had commanded and so had a righteousness there according to the Law of Moses outwardly which mey sought to establish and so could not own Christ Jesus the second Priest-hood who is Gods righteousness nor submit unto it and so were rejected But now the Priests and professors and Apostare Christians they doe confesse Christ Jesus comain the flesh in words who is the second Priest-hood who is Gods righteousness and doe deny the Jewes Rharisees And yet they set up another Priest-hood which is contrary to Christ and contrary to the Jewes which God never commanded and they take Tythes and stipends and Augmentations and gleabe-lands c. and seeke to set up a righteousnesse without them to be justried by which they call the righteousnesse of Christ while they are in the unrighteousnesse themselves and in the sin and transgression of the Law of God and so have not submitted to the righteousnesse which is of God by faith in Christ Jesus no more then the Jewes did Therefore this is but their own righteousnesse which is but as filthy rags and Antichrist in the likenesse of Christ and Antichristians and Apostates in the likeneste of true Christians For this is but their own Inventions and their own righteousnesse which inderd is not worthy to be called righteousnesses where they are puft up in their fleshly minds which they goe about to establish whilest they are disobedient to him who is the righteousnesse of God and was made manifest in the likenesse of sinfull flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the Spirit Now there is none ever cometh to the righteousnesse of God and to have the righteousnesse of the Law fulfilled in them and to walke after the Spirit but who come to beleeve in the Light of Christ in their own particulars and obey it which convinceth of sin and reproves for sin and condemnes sin in the flesh who doe so they walke not after the flesh they come our of the weaknesse for the Law was weake through the flesh or they come to feel the power and the opperation of the Spirit which makes free from the Law of sin and death which the Law could not doe because it was weake through the flesh But now God hath sent his Son in the likenesse of sinfull flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us say the Saints who walke not after the flesh but after the Spirit And this Law of the Spirit of life which condemnes sin in thee and makes free from the Law of sin and death and is in Christ Jesus and this is the Light which Christ Jesus hath enlightened every one with that cometh into the world and is a manifestation of the Spirit which is given to every one to profit withal his which is sent into the world to convince the world of sin and to reprove for sin and will be the condemnation of all the world who beleeve not in it but dirobey it and hate it and love their evill deeds and their sins which it doth reprove them for So that it is not their comforter but their reprover and condemner that doe not receive ir and love it not but reject it But it is the comforter of all those who doe receive and love is and beleeve and obey it and are led by it for it leads into all truth and sets free from sin and death and heares witnesse with their spirits that they are the sons of God for as many as are led by the Spirit of God the same are the Sons of God This the Saints did beare witnesse of in former times and this the Saints doe witnesse now glory and honour and living praises be unto the Lord God of heaven and earth for evermore But this is a mystery to the world and hid from all the Apostate Christians in it of what
so dawb with untempered Morter and speak peace where the Lord speakes no peace and so lead people about like silly women laden with sins and diverse lusts ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth For who knowes the truth the truth makes them free and brings them from under the load and from under that which burthens and vexeth the righteous soul as the righteous soul of Lot was vexed from day to day with the uncleane conversation of the wicked Sodomites Now these would keep people in Sodome and Egypt under the heavy burthens and loads in the fleshly lusts and filthinesse by the flesh-pots of Egypt that even peoples hearts and minds have been boyling up with wickednesse and uncleannesse and their eyes full of Adultery who cannot cease from sin and here they have been ever learning but could not know truth while they are there and so by this means they have made people to pay them for reaching of them and to uphold them and give them fire and these are the blind leaders of the blind into the Ditch But who comes to the Light which Christ Jesus hath enlighmed them withall to waite in it and hearken diligently to it they hear the Voyce of Christ and live and arise up from their seats and so come out of Egypt and out of the shadow of Death and the house of bondage and from under Pharaoh and his Taskmasters and they come through the Sea as Israel did and was Baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and through the fire to be Baptized into the name of Christ with the Spirit and with Fire and to be baptised all into one Spirit and to be made like unto Christ in his Death to be made dead unto sin that they may not live any longer therein and to drink of the spirituall drink and to eate of the spirituall meate and to drink of the spirituall Rock which Rock is Christ that is gone before us which Rock is the same which Israel drank of which followed them who were under the Law untill the Seed came which Seed is Christ who redeems from under the Law who was made under the Law that he might redeem them which were under the Law who fulfilled the Law and blotted out the hand writing of Ordinances and nayled them to his Crosse which whosoever are followers of him they must take up this Crosse which crucifies the flesh with the affections and lusts and makes dead unto sin and slayes the Transgressor and so makes peace through the blood of his Crosse I say this Crosse must be taken up dayly by all who will be true Disciples indeed and true Christians the Preaching of which Crosse now to the World and Professors therein is foolishnesse and is despised and cannot be endured as it was formerly to the Jewes a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishnesse but unto them that beleeved therein both Jewes and Greeks it was the Power of God and the Wisdome of God and to them that believe now it is the same but unto the unbeleeving it is foolishness even to all who are not yet turred to the Light of Christ Jesus within which he hath enlightned them withall they are still in the unbeliefe and so never yet knew the Power of God nor the Wisdome of God and so it is foolishnesse to them for they are all spiritually blind and so cannot discern the things of God which are spiritually discerned but are all as foolish and sottish Children without understanding and untaught and unlearned neither are they come to receive the Law from him who is the Law-giver that they might be taught of him who sarth Learne of me I am meeke and lowly im heart and ye shall finde rest for your soules and be made wise unto salvation for in him is hid the treasure of wisdome cand knowledge Now all those who only lookes out at the Scriptures and comes not to the Light of Christ within which the Scriptures declares of the treasure of wisdome and knowledge is still hid from them for it is in Christ Jesus from whence the Light comes which Light leadeth to Christ where the treasure is hid and where the Life is hid from all the world yet who are searching the Scriptures and thinking in them to have eternall life But ye will not come unto me that ye may have life saith Christ I am the Life the Way and the Truth and our Life is hid with Christ in God sayd the Saints Therefore now all people this is an Invitation of love to all your soules to turne in your minds to the Light of Christ within you which is spirituall holy true just and good which will let you all see what your words are your actings are though done in secret and what the thoughts and intents of your hearts are it will try them all and let you all see your minds being truly turned to it what is in your hearts and minds and what your wayes are now and have been and what your lives are and how you have lived Now this I say which lets you see these things and reproves what is contrary to it will let ye see whether ye are come to Christ yea or nay who is the Way unto God the Truth and the Life and the righteousnesse of God from whence the Light cometh and so here every one of you will know Judgement layd to the Lyne and righteousnesse to the Plummet and that which is lyes and deceit and hypocrisie will be Judged and condemned in every particular with the Light which is and will be the condemnation of the world who love their evill deeds evill wayes evill lives evill thoughts and intents of their hearts and evill words rather than the Light which doth reprove them and therefore the way the truth and the life which is Christ is hid from them and they know not him in whom the treasure of wisdome and knowledge is hid Now the Light is that which doth Reveale and make manifest that which is hid and hath been hid from the wise and prudent men of this world and hath been hid from ages and generations past But now is the Truth plainly seen and known and declared as it was in former ages by them whom it was then manifested to by the Spirit of God Even by us whom the world in soorns call Quakers who have beleeved in the Light of Christ and received the manifestation of his Spirit which is Light which is freely given and tendered unto all and hath appeared unto all but is not neither hach been received by all But as many as receiveth him to thom doth he give power to become the Sons of God even to as many as beleeve iâ— his Name who is the true Light and who is true and faithfull and everlasting The same to day yesterday and the same for evermore