of the Priests and such like Popish stuff that these things are Idolatry Folly and Vanity and butia mocking of God and yet some of these People will run after this Vain Worship for self-ends stavish-fear and to keep themselves in esteem with or amongst those who plead for it And others there are in thee who instead of being sorrowful for such Abomination and Superstition or reproving the Practicers thereof in the solid seasoned savoury Life and holy Dread of the Lord God they write and speak scoffingly of those things even to the stirring up one of another into vain Laughter and so make a Sport of others Idolatry and this grieveth the Spirit of the Lord also and doth not convince but exasperate and harden those that are zealous for their blind Worship and Superstition There are also a great number of brittle fiery rash unsatisfied people in thee O Land who are as unstable as Water and these rebelling against the Light not knowing the way of it because they abide not in the path thereof they are restless rouling and raging oft-times like the Sea One time they will have a Parliament and cry out They shall govern and heal them and when they have gotten them in a short-time they grow weary of them And then another time they will cry out for a King and say He shall heal them and make up their Breaches But there people are not long of one mind for they are much like the Athenians who spent their time in little else but either to tell or to hear of some New thing These People also are like mighty Tydes in thy Chanels O England which one while run with Violence driving all unsetled light unfixed things one way and shortly after run with as much violence the contrary way Therefore in a miserable condition are those Rulers whose strength is in such a People And until Rulers come to be setled and fixed in Him who is the Rock of Ages and singly to rule in and for Him whom the Winds and the Seas obey who maketh the Waters to stand on heaps and divideth them hither and thither and altereth the natural course of Tydes as he pleaseth as he hath done thine of late to shew thee the Figure of the People they can never be safe neither will the People be still'd long together but there will be Swellings Ragings Overflowings sore Breakin gs and Ruines Oh! that the foregoing Rulers would have been perswaded to have Received Him for their Teacher who Ruleth in the Kingdoms of Men then should they not onely have seen what the Lord cast out others before them for but they should have been taught how to have denied all those things which the Lord was angry with others for and they should have received Power to have abstained from the same but they would not hear and obey the Lord nor his Prophets and therefore were they cast out also And therefore Oh! that the Rulers that now are would be perswaded whilst they have their Day by the Lord and his Servants to receive the Lord Jesus Christ to be their King and Teacher and then they should not onely see for what cause the Lord cast them out and others in their Age but they should be taught to deny and forsake all those things which God was angry with them and others for and they should receive Power to do those things which they and others before them left undone But alas How few are there that will Hear Regard and Obey the Prince of Life and his Followers and therefore is Desolation coming as a mighty Flood which none shall be able to stop Now all People in what Sect or Opinion soever in whom there are any true Breathings and Desires after the Lord and the way of his Holiness Fear not neither be Dismaid because of the Rage that you may yet see the Waters of the Land in and because of the Confusion and Cruelty of the People But stand still in that Life which begetteth Breathings and Thirstings in you after the Lord that you may come to see and feel his Salvation and that you may be gathered into that Patience Meekness Contentedness Rest Peace and Satisfaction which many of the dear Lambs and Children of my Father are gathered into wherein they Lye down and none can make them afraid though their Bodies and Estates be oppressed and abused Oh! Stick not Stick not in your Forms without Power neither Flee the Cross any longer but wait in the True Simplicity to feel God's hand of Tender Love which he reacheth forth to and manifesteth in you to lead and guide your minds into his Pure Worship which is in the Spirit and in the Truth Oh People This is the Worship that he will set up He will be LORD and LAW-GIVER in the Consciences of his People and those that will not be content that EMMANUEL should Reign over them he will Slay them with the Sword of the Spirit The Words of his Mouth Oh! Hearken hearken a little and stand still that you may bear the voice of the True Shepherd in your own Hearts who calleth for Truth in the Inward Parts and he will discover what lodgeth Within and He will shew you the Way wherein you should walk and he will let you see what the Cross is unto and He will teach you when you are alone in your Beds or where-ever you are if you will receive Him who giveth you Life and Breath whose gentle Reproofs and Instructions are the Way of Life Therefore you in whom the Breathings and Desires after the Lord are Consult not with Flesh and Blood neither reason against the Cross but submit to every Appearance of Gods Power in you which appeareth to Crucifie the Fleshly Birth and Nature which hath stood and doth stand in Rebellion and Enmity against the Pure and Precious Life and Requirings of the Lamb of God that so that Mind which is at enmity against God and that Nature in you which is disobedient to his Commands in Spirit may come to be Crucified that so there may be a Change Inwardly felt and witnessed by the working of the mighty Power of Christ in your Inward Parts and then the Desires and Breathings which are Begotten in you after Righteousness they will be strengthened and the Teachings of the Almighty will be Truly known and you believing in the Power you will receive Power to obey and Practise whatsoever the Lord shall make known unto you by his Spirit to be his Will and Requirings Oh People Let the Dread of the Lord Seize upon your Spirits in this the Day of his Power wherein he is Trying Sifting and Winnowing the Nations and wait to feel that Life arise within you which beareth Testimony against all evil within and without that so ye may become more and more acquainted with the Teachings Drawings and Leadings thereof that thereby you may be drawn and led out of those things which have kept your Souls in the Death
and hindred you from enjoying the Pure Peace of God And this know and consider that all that come to witness their Souls raised out of Death and brought to enjoy the Peace of God they must Believe in the Life of the Quickning Spirit which is the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven who for Sin Condemneth Sin in the Flesh and appeareth in the Inward Parts of man to work out Sin and transgression which hath Separated from God and so to make clean the heart and inside of male and female Oh People This is the Work of Christ the Son of God even to make manifest and destroy the Works of the Devil and so to reconcile man unto God by the Virtue of his own Life which he gave a Ransome for many and blessed are all those that believe in the Life of the Son of God and feel and know it manifested in their mortal flesh for they shall witness the Power of it to make all things new and so their Souls will come up in the hand of God and his Peace will be Received and Enjoyed Oh people Wait to know and feel this Work of Christ within you that so you may be made able to Stand in the Judgement and to Endure the Tryal and that you may be Hid from the Wrath of the Lamb which is night to come upon the Rebellious Oh! Consider this Those that are his Followers they come throw many Tribulations and their overcoming their Enemies is by his Blood not by a talk of it but by the Virtue and Power of it sprinkled in their Hearts which washeth and maketh them White Clean and without Fault before God Oh People my Bowels yearn my Bowels yearn towards you whose Desires in any measure are after the Lord O that you would now Return with all your hearts unto Him and obey the Voice of his Power in you then should you be made able to stand and endure the fiery Trial which is come and coming Oh! the Day hastens wherein all Profession that is not grounded in the Life and Power of the Lord Jesus Christ whatever the shew of it be it will be so shaken that an utter Blasting and withering shall come upon it and for that cause the Lord doth and will yet suffer great Trials to come both upon the Professors and Possessors of his Name that so his Children the Possessors may be manifested unto all and discerned from all that are but Professors though never so fair and seemingly Covered For all Coverings but what is of the Power and Spirit it self shall be too Narrow and all that are not Covered with the Spirit and Power of Emmanuel their Shame and Nakedness shall appear more and more This is the Testimony which the Spirit and Word of Truth giveth therefore He that hath an ear to hear let him hear before the day of his Visitation be wholly past and the things belonging to his Peace be hid from his Eyes For yet a little while and the Voice shall be He that is filthy let him be filthy still For the Spirit of the Lord shall not always strive with Flesh but his Plagues and Indignation shall be poured out upon such as will not be gathered in the Day of his Patience long Forbearance and Free-Love and He or She that Loveth Father Mother Husband Wife Children House or Land Liberty Honour or any Thing more than the Life of the Lamb shall be counted not worthy of him and plainly manifested so to be Read this who can and he that can receive it let him For the Time draweth nigh that these Sayings must be fullfilled Printed the 13. of the Second Moneth THE END
ENGLANDS SAD Estate Condition LAMENTED IN THIS JUST COMPLAINT Taken up against the greatest part of her Inhabitants Because of their great Abominations and Treacherous Dealings both with God and Man For which Cause the Terrible and Righteous Judgements of the Lord are coming upon them and the Land WHEREIN Is also contained some PROPHECIES and EXHORTATIONS By George Fox the Younger London Printed for Robert Wilson at the Black-Spread-Eagle and Windmil in Martins le Grand 1661. ENGLANDS Sad Estate and Condition LAMENTED c. OH ENGLAND England The Abominations of the greatest part of thy Inhabitants who can declare them They have reached Heaven so as they are come up before the Lord the Jealous God and Wo unto that part of thy Inhabitants who have sinned out the Day of their Visitation and have wholly slighted the Day of God's patience and long Forbearance and would have none of his Reproof but have altogether rejected the same and have made a mock at Sin and have sported themselves with their own Deceivings and Lusts and have gone a Whoring from under the God of their Lives Wherefore thus saith the Lord the onely God I will make such become a Hissing and Reproach and my Anger they shall not be able to Escape because of their provoking Abominations and Treacherous Dealings both with Me and Man Oh England England How have and yet do a great part of thy Inhabitants Rush into Idolatry and all manner of Profaness and grievous Abominations even as the Horse and Mighty Rush into the Battel How do they drink in Iniquity even as the Ox or Parched Ground drinketh in Water Oh! What manner of Lamentation shall I make for thee my Native Countrey Or What manner of Complaint may I take up against a great part of thine Inhabitants who have long Sought and yet seek thy Ruine and Destruction Verily their Actions have Declared them to be like the Inhabitants of Sodom Yea their sins have rendred them to be as bad as those of Gomorrah O they have Vexed the Righteous Soul Yea and they have Grieved the Spirit of the Lord from Day to Day with their Vnjust Conversations They have multiplied their Transgressions and heaped up their Iniquities till they are become as the Sand on the Sea-shore without Number Oh! The Lord hath long striven with them yea He hath also long born their Iniquities He would have gathered them to himself out of their Abominations Yea he would oft have healed them But they would not but they have stiffned their Necks and hardned their Hearts against the Lord and his Counsel day after day and have chosen their own wayes and works even to their own hurt and would by no means be reclaimed for when the Lord hath reproved them by the Light of his Son in their own consciences and set their sins in order before their eyes they have stopped their Eares and closed their Eyes and willfully Rebelled against the Power of God and trampled upon his Witness the Light in them as a thing of nought counting it not worth the taking Notice of And when the Lord hath raised up Prophets Children and Servants and sent them out Commanding them to lift up their Voyces like Trumpets to shew the People their Transgressions and to preach Repentance and Amendment of Life Yea to warn and exhort them to turn from their Sins to God and to lay before them their great Abominations and to Prophesie what should come upon them if they would not turn from the evil of their Doings Oh! how have a great part of thy Inhabitants Scorned and Derided these Yea how have many of thine Inhabitants Beaten Whipt Stock't Stoned and Imprisoned some of these till Death for bearing their Testimony for the Lord against a crooked and perverse Generation who hate such as speak uprightly and abhor such as reprove Sin in the Gate that so it is even thus come to pass in thee O England That he that departeth from Iniquity maketh himself a Prey to this Generation of Evil doers whose hearts are set upon their Luâ—ts Idolatry and grievous Abominations and the Lord hath beheld it and it pleaseth him because there is no true Judgement for these Evil doers are all gone out of the way yea there is none of them that regard to do the thing that 's Juâ—t and Good any further than it may be advantagious to their own Corrupt Designes Oh England England How oft hath the Lord God smote thy Rulers and Mighty and Proud Men how oft hath he laid their Honour in the Dust Yea How oft hath he Overturned and Confounded thy Mighty Men even thy Men of War with thy Princes Nobles and Captains of Thousands Hundreds and Fifties O how oft hath he Overturned thy Governments and Changed thy Governors But how few of them have so Regarded the Out-goings of the Lord in all these things as they ought to have done And how few of them have rightly Weighed and Considered the Causes for which the Lord hath brought or suffered so many Changes in the Land Or have those who saw the Causes that provoked the Lord of Hosts thus to Act laboured so to remove them as they ought to do or might have done Nay Assuredly they have not for the Lusts of this World and the Pride of Life hath blinded the minds of most and such who have seen what their Duty was the honour of this World and that cursed Self-intereâ—t hath stopped and hindred most of them from doing those things which they saw they ought and which they had opportunity also to have done Oh! How have the new Governors in almost every Change of late cryed out of the Tiranny and great Oppression of those whom they did Succeed and how have most of them Vowed unto God Declared to and Promised the People That they would Remove the Burdens and Oppressions that the foregoing Rulers had Laid and Continued upon them But alas very few of them have regarded their Vowes Declarations and Promises either to God or Man but in Treachery and Deceit have they gone on Serving themselves and their own Lusts and not the Lord nor their Generation faithfully For although many of them have been very large in Promises and Good Words whereby they have long sought to Deceive the hearts of the People yet it is but very Little that hath been done for their true Liberty because that wicked Spirit which seeketh to make it self great by the Ruine of others hath Ruled and doth yet Rule in the hearts of many Rulers and this is of the Devourer and Destroyer who cannot forgive Enemies but Crys out of Rebellion and Treason labouring to exasperate the Spirits of Others that so occasions may be gotten if possible against them thereby to bring them under and keep them in Bondage Oh England England Such is thy sad Estate and Condition that severall of thy Rulers are and have been as roaring Lyons even greedy to Devoure And many of thy Teachers have been