a striving that may hurt the unity that should be kept in the Light and hath sometimes grown into a Heat which hath set some Spirits against one another which should have been one and kept in the Unity where the love and comfort is And so all watching in the Light and waiting to feel the healing Power and Life in your Souls there will be a sweetness and Heavenly oiliness over your Hearts in which you will have a delight one in another and in one anothers good and this will help you all and so the strong comforted in the innocent and reverent care of the weak and the weak comforted in the Love Care Gentleness and Kindness of such that are strong And this preserves as a pleasant Family to the Honour of the great Lord and Father And so then shall you see how he will delight in you and appear among you and enrich you and bless you every one with a Portion from himself out of his Heavenly Bounty and Divine rich Treasure that none will want Bread nor refreshing Wine to nourish you in the inward Man but the holy Gift in you will be as a Well springing up unto Eternal Life And so you dear suffering Children of the Lord God Allmighty my Heart and Soul most dearly salutes you all and in the Love of God I have Unity with you in your blessed Testimony for which you suffer in which the God of all Grace and Truth comfort your Hearts and bear up your Heads over all your Hardships and deep Sufferings which as I understand are renewed and increased upon you That through him for whom you suffer who is your God and the great Lord of Heaven and Earth you may be strong to endure and abide to the end to his Glory and Honour who is over all and Worthy of all Blessed for ever Amen London the 20th of the 3d Monh 1682. From your Friend and Brother in that which shall out-live all Hardship in which we have believed J. B. A Copy of an Epistle written to Friends at Bristol in the time of their Sufferings Dear Friends UNTO you whom God hath Visited in his Love and Mercy and unto whom he hath shewed Kindness through his Son our Saviour whom he hath given for Salvation unto the Ends of the Earth unto you I say doth the real Love of my Heart reach forth and for you in my Heart there Dwels a Care that as God in the exceeding Riches of his Love and Mercy hath Visited you and called you to be Saints through the Sanctification of the Word and Purifying through Faith that you being made Holy might become Heirs of Eternal Life through his Son Christ Jesus and of that Eternal Kingdom into which no Unholy thing must Enter And now being you are called with this Holy Calling thus to be Heirs through Faith in the Seed in whom the Election and Heirship doth stand for ever do you all mind the Heavenly Rule and Government of this Holy Seed in all your Hearts that your Spirits may be kept in their Places in Subjection and Reverence unto him whom the Father hath Anointed and whose Spirit the Father hath sent forth into your Hearts to lead you into all Truth even into him who said I am the Truth in whom the Fulness Dwells that you might be in him that is True even in the Son in whom the Heirship is That so you may be Heirs yea joint-Heirs with him that is True and Holy for ever And now my Friends being the Lord in Mercy hath called you unto this high and honourable Calling to be Saints and Heirs in Christ mind your Calling and what you are called unto and be careful to keep in him and walk in him as you have received him and to sit together in him in Heavenly places as the Saints of Old did for the Heavenly Places are in him the safe dwelling and he is the Way and in him is the safe Walking and therefore did the Apostle exhort the Saints to Walk in him as they had received him Now my dear Friends all learn to know what it is to walk in Christ the Power and Righteousness of God and then your steps will be sure For he is the Light and Day where there is no occasion of stumbling And you are to mind your Sitting together in Heavenly places in Christ not a-sunder not out of the Unity but together in him who is but one in all and holds all in Oneness in Life and Fellowship that abide in him For he cannot be divided his Coat was without Seam that was the Figure and so is his Spirit that is the Covering of his Body now which he hath Purchased with his own Blood it hath no Division or Seam in it but is One although it differs in Manifestation or Gifts as to degree or operation because of the many Offices proper to the distinct Members of one and the same Body whereof Christ is the Head yet the Life through the whole Body by which every Member is supplied with ability to answer its place is but One and thereby is the Body kept in Unity For the Life doth rule the Members of the true Body and therefore that Member that goes from under the Government of the Life must needs Die Death comes over it and the Power of Death rules it and hence comes the Breach of Unity and the Discord and the Strife and the Contention And therefore let all your Hearts be kept in the Sense of the true Life and Power of God and in subjection thereunto in true Love Lowliness of Mind and Humility of Spirit and then in this right frame of Spirit you will be ready to serve one another in Love and not to rule over one another in Lordship for that is not proper no nor it is not Natural unto the Living Members of the Living Body unto whom Christ is the Head and over whom he Rules And so dear Friends you all keeping in the Power and that ruling in your Hearts that keeps tender and lowly you will be full of an holy Care and the living Zeal for the Lord's honour and for the preservation of his People in Righteousness that the Truth may be kept a top and Righteousness Lived in by all that do make a Profession of that honourable Name and Truth in which we have believed and through which we have been Saved and Sanctified and made holy and then will Unity Love and Peace spring and grow among you and you will be a Joy and Comfort one unto another and strengthners and helpers one of another in this great Work and Day of God And thus the Faithful keeping their Places and their Care in every Meeting and minding the Order and Government of Truth in themselves to be kept in Humility and the holy Tenderness in their own Hearts there will be that Sweetness and peaceable Reverence that will be Savoury and Comely in the Eyes of all And in and under the Government
Heart and with the Mouth confess him unto Salvation and blessed be the Lord and the Day of Mercy in which he visited he was pleased to make his Labour of Love effectual unto thousands in which he sent his Servants to labour amongst whom it pleased the Lord to grant me that favour to keep a share of the benefit of this blessed Visitation whereby I came to be informed concerning the right way of the Lord and directed unto the true Light which the Apostle was sent to turn People unto in his Day and so from the Darkness and from the Power of Satan unto God and his blessed Power which in my waiting in the Light I received through which deep Judgment did spring in my Soul and great Affliction did grow in my Heart by which I was brought into great Tribulation and Sorrow such as I had never known before in all my Profession of Religion so that I might say in Spirit it was the Day of Iacob's Trouble for the God of Heaven by the Light of his blessed Son which he had lighted me withal which shined in my heart let me see the body of Death and power of Sin which reigned in me and brought me to feel the Guilt of it upon my Conscience so that I could say he made me even as it were to possess the sins of my Youth and for all my high profession of an Imputative Righteousness and that though I lived in the act of sin the guilt of it should not be charged upon me but imputed it to Christ and his Righteousness imputed to me I found it otherwise when I was turned unto the Light which did manifest all reproved things then I came to see that the guilt remained while the body of death remained and through the power thereof was led into the act of sin then I saw there was need of a Saviour to save from sin as well as the Blood of a Sacrificed Christ to blot out Sin or Faith in his Name for the remission of Sins past then began the warfare of true striving to enter the Kingdom then Paul's state seen to will was present but to do many times power was wanting then was that cry known O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death and free from the prevailing power of the Law which remained in the Members warring against the Law of my Mind which brought into Captivity to the Law of Sin then when this War was truly begun all my high conceit in my invented Notional Faith and my pretence and hopes of Justification thereby was overthrown so that all that I had builded for several years in my Profession after the days of my Youth in which tender stirrings was in me after acquaintance with the Lord and the knowledge of him and peace with him was seen to be but a Babel-Tower which God brought Confusion upon and so that which could never be perfected to reach to Heaven being out of the Faith of his Covenant and that which never could bring truly to trust in his Word and rely thereupon but led out into the Invention willing and self-acting though another thing talked of and then seeing all my Works confounded by the visitations of God and by the springing of the day from on high which discovered things as they were seeing them all end at Babel and the God of Heaven bringing Confusion upon them I was amazed and fear beset me on every side and I began sometimes to fear I was undone for ever for that had entred my heart that had turned the fruitful Field into a Wilderness and made that which I thought had been as the Garden of Eden a Forest and so the Day of God discovered all to be Desolation Driness and a Heath and so brought my Soul to a deep Lamentation to the beginning of such Sorrows as had never been known by me before then did I lament and bewail my self many a time and wish my self in a Wilderness where I might neither meet with Temptation nor Provocation from without my weakness was such to withstand in my spirit for all my Notion I had to talk of my Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ being but my own which by his Spirit I had no seal for and so but a Presumption I saw clearly it was my own Invention and so but like Adam's Fig-leave Apron in which he could not abide God's coming O the wo that overtook me O the distress that seized O the horrour and terrour that sprung in my Bosom O the poverty and want that my Soul saw it self in through the springings of the discovering Light towards which the Eye thereof was turned And as this Light did spring which the Apostle of old had wrote of it manifested all things not only the want that I was in but also the reproved things and then sin became exceeding sinful and the load and burthen of it became exceeding grievous and all the pleasure of it was taken away from me and many more in that day and then we began to mourn after a Saviour and look for a Deliverer and cry for a Helper and a Healer for the day of the Lord that made desolate had overtaken us and the Fire and Sword that Christ brings upon the Earth by which he takes away Peace had reached unto us and yet we knew not from whence it came though the Burning and the Judgment thereby was begun by which the Filth was to be taken away And now in this Distress deep was our Groanings and our Cries unto the Lord which reached unto him and he was pleased to hear and shew mercy for we often assembled together as the Lord's Messengers whom he sent amongst us had exorted us and minded the Light of Christ in our Hearts and what that discovered and in our spirits through its assistance warred and watched against the evil seen therein and according to that understanding received waited therein upon the Lord to see what he would further manifest with a holy Resolution to obey his will so far as we were able whatsoever it cost us for this I know was the Condition of many in that day we valued not the World nor any Glory nor Pleasure therein in comparison of our Souls redemption out of that state and freedom from that horrour and terrour under the Indignation of the Lord we were in because of the guilt of sin that was upon us and so being given up to bear the Indignation of the Lord because we had sinned we endeavoured to wait till the Indignation would be over and the Lord in mercy would blot out the guilt which remained that occasioned wrath and sprinkle our Hearts from an evil Conscience and wash us with pure water that we might draw near with a true Heart in a full assurance of Faith as the Christians of old did Hebr. 10. 22. but alas we had not boldness for the living Faith was wanting and a true heart we had not
Jesus Christ And if we grow in the Knowledg of him as we have known him to save us from Sin and to destroy the evil one and so to be our Sanctification and Redemption even so we must Wait to know him to be made of God unto us Wisdom that he may be our Wisdom and the Fountain of it unto us may be the gift of his Holy Power in our Hearts And so then as it did mightily work in our Hearts to Prepare us even so will the same Gift be felt to work mightily to furnish us with Wisdom and to enable for every Good Work and so you will know him to be made of God Wisdom unto you For the Holy dread of the Power upon the Heart in Righteousness being felt guides him or her in Wisdom that Speaks the same Holy Fear and Dread upon the Heart guides him in Silence that in Silence sitteth whose mouth is not opened and so he is made still and Christ your Head who is one in the Man and in the Woman Wisdom unto you and so here all will be kept in your places as you keep in Subjection unto him who is the Head the Husband of the true Wife And dear Friends mind his Heavenly Power and keep under a Holy Reverence unto it and that will keep you Savoury and Reverent in your Meetings and clear and in a good understanding and Subject one unto another and so you will be Co workers together and helpers one of another and so you will come to have the benefit one of anothers gifts And thus as Members will you supply in a Blessed Unity every one your Office in the Body And therefore my Counsel as a Brother in Love unto you is Let all be Subject None in whom the tender Life in a Heavenly Reverence doth move for Counsel Advice or otherwise to quench it or to stop the Service for in so doing others may be wronged as well as the particular unto whom the Lord intends benefit by thy gift For it is not good to Stop only let all take heed that their own Spirits may be Subject that Christ may be head in all and he may be your Wisdom And be open and ready in your Hearts to Receive Counsel Help and Instruction one from another and keep down the forward heady and rash Spirit that would run without Reverence and speak without the true Fear from that none will rightly understand nor have a true sense of the Weight of the Service of this Day O! it is fresh in my Heart the Dread the Reverence the Fear that our Hearts were filled with in the beginning in which we went about Truth 's Concern this same is still to be Felt and Minded and then all will be kept Savoury and in this will all your Meetings your Care and Labour of Love be a sweet Smelling Sacrifice unto the Lord. And Friends let your Monthly and Quarterly-Meetings be kept orderly for the Service determined and aimed at that you may be retired from the World and such not concerned in the Service Proposed for such Meetings that so all that come may be either Capable of doing Service in a Reverent Mind or to Learn that which may be for Truths Honour their own Good and your Comfort and then will all you who are concerned get into your Service without Straitness and so will be a help one unto another in your particular gifts and the Spring of Life will be opened among you and your Meetings will be Delightful unto you and you in that will be a Delight one to another and then with one Consent in the Pleasant Unity you will do the Lord's Work together as his Servants and Hand-maids and a part of his pleasant Heritage which he hath Chosen and upon whom he rains down his 〈◊〉 daily And so the God of Peace and Love fill your Assemblies with his Presence Life and Love that you may Flourish as the Plants of his Right-hand-planting and be faithful through your whole Day is the desire of my Heart and Soul who Remain Your Brother in the Lord Jesus Christ I. B. To the Women's Meetings in Cumberland From London 20 th of the 4 th Month 1678. Dear Friends YOU whom the Lord hath visited and reached unto by his own holy Arm of Heavenly Power for that blessed end for which he hath visited many Nations and appeared unto many People that he might shew Glory again unto Mankind which through Sin they were fallen short of that so in his Visitation he might renew that Heavenly Image whereby he might be glorified again among the Sons of Men and now in this great Day of Visitation which hath dawned upon the Nations you in these Countries have been visited and reached unto and graciously saved and delivered from the Snares of Death and opened unto the way of Life so that you have both seen into that hidden Glory and tasted of and been enjoyers of the power of that Life which hath no end And now that care which always ought to dwell upon your Hearts is this that you may keep in possession that which you have received That as was said of old None may take your Crown from you nor none may fall short of that Rest which is prepared for the visited and redeemed of the Lord. The way you have known God hath shewed it unto you and called you to walk therein and the mark you have seen the Lord hath set that before you that you might press towards it as the antient Christians did for the Price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus And now dear Friends that which I desire all may be concerned in is how there is a pressing forward towards the Mark and a going on in this way which the Lord hath cast up or revealed and called you to walk in for it is he that travels on that shall come to the blessed End and obtain the Crown of Glory and not such as lingers or sits down by the way either to take up a Rest or look for another Inheritance besides what God hath promised shall be the possession after the War is over and the Conquest obtained For Iordan must be gone through and the Canaanites utterly subdued before any Man of War sit down in his Inheritance Therefore those Tribes that had their Lots on the other side of Iordan were to go through Iordan and continue in the War till all was subdued And thus is the saying true He that continues unto the end shall be saved and he that 's faithful unto Death shall have the Crown of Life And therefore let a concern be always upon your Minds in this weighty matter that you may see how it is with you and whether you are still in your Journey upon your Travel towards the Mark for the Price And as you must mind whether you are in your Travel pressing forwards or no even so you must mind also that you press forwards toward the Mark or else you
and so taught of the Lord according to that New Covenant promise They shall be all taught of the Lord Isa. 54. 13. Iohn 6. 4 5. Then was our Hearts inclined to hearken unto the Lord and our Ears which he had opened to hear was bent to hear what the Spirit 's Teaching was and what he said unto the Church who was the chief Shepherd and Bishop of the Soul And thus were we gathered into a right Gospel Exercise and Gospel Worship by him and through whose Name we had received Remission of Sins past and whose Blood had sprinkled our Hearts from an evil Conscience and who gave the pure Water that washed and made clean so that with true Hearts many began to draw nigh unto God in the full assurance of Faith as the ancient Saints did and was accepted and had access by that one Spirit by which we came to be baptized in one Body and so came to drink into one Spirit and was refreshed and greatly comforted and grew up together in the Mystery of the Gospel fellowship and so worshipped God who is a Spirit in the Spirit received from him which is the Gospel Worship according to Christ's appointment Iohn 4. 24. And then we came to see over all the Worships in the World which were set up either by Imitation or man's Invention and saw it to be in vain to worship God and teach for Doctrines the Commandments of men as our Lord had said Matth. 15. 9. and therefore were we constrained to withdraw from them and also many of us to go and bear witness against them in their invented and traditional Worships where they were ignorant of the Life and Power of God And thus being gathered by the Lord Jesus Christ that great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls we became his Sheep and did learn to know his Voice and to follow him and he gave unto us Eternal Life and manifested the Riches of his Grace in our Hearts by which we were saved through Faith and delivered from that wrath fear and terrour which had been so weighty upon our Souls and in measure from the power of that Death that had reigned and made us miserable and wretched and came to partake of that Life wherein the blessedness doth consist and so then the Lord becoming our Shepherd he taught us and led us forth into green Pastures where we did feed and rest together with great delight O the Joy the Pleasure and the great Delight that our Hearts was overcome with many times in our reverent and holy Assemblies how was our Hearts melted as Wax and our Souls poured out as Water before the Lord and our Spirits as Oyl Frankincense and Myrrhe offered up unto the Lord as sweet Incense when not a word outwardly in all our Assembly has been uttered And then did the Lord delight to come down into his Garden and walk in the midst of the Beds of Spices and he caused the North-wind to awake and the South-wind to blow upon his Garden and the pleasant Showers to descend for the refreshing of his tender Plants that they might grow still more and more And now unto them that had known the Night of Sorrow was the joyful Morning come according to that ancient experience of David Psal. 30. 5. and such as had been in the foregoing deep Afflictions Tossings and Distresses came to witness the fulfilling of that great Gospel Promise O thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted behold I will lay thy stones with fair colours and lay thy foundations with Saphires and I will make thy windows of Agates and thy gates of Carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant Stones and all thy Children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy Children In righteousness shalt thou be established thou shalt be far from oppression for thou shalt not fear and from terrour for it shall not come near thee Isa. 54. 11 12 13 14. Thus then came we by him to be gathered into Covenant with God and to witness the fulfilling of the Promises of God in whom all the Promises are Yea and Amen and so come to sit together in heavenly places in him and so come to feed upon the heavenly food the Bread of Life that came down from Heaven which Christ the heavenly Shepherd did give unto us who had gathered us from amongst the Shepherds that fed themselves with Temporal Things from the Flock but knew not how to feed the Flock with Spiritual Food for they had it not And now we coming to be acquainted with the Power of the Lord Jesus Christ in our Hearts became great Lovers of it and Delighters in the Enjoyment thereof having already counted all things but as Dross and Dung in comparison of the Excellency that we saw therein and therefore was willing to suffer the loss of all that we might win him as it was with the Apostle of old and blessed be the Lord many obtained their desire they found their Beloved met with their Saviour witnessed his Saving health by which their Souls was healed and so became his Flock and Family or Houshold of Faith And thus then as his Children and blessed Family we still did continue to meet together twice in the Week or oftner and in his Name and holy Fear being gathered together his Promise we did witness according to Matth. 18. 20. he was in the midst of us and did honour our Assemblies with his heavenly Power and Presence and that was our great delight and the sweetness of it did wonderfully engage our Souls to love him and our Hearts to wait upon him for we did find the ancient experience of the Church true as testified in the Scripture because of the savour of thy good Ointments thy Name is as Ointment poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee And growing thus into this Experience of the Goodness of the Lord and of the Sweetness Glory and Excellency of his Power in our Assemblies we grew in Strength and Zeal for our Meetings more and more and valued the benefit thereof more than any worldly Gain yea it was unto some more then our appointed Food And thus continuing we grew more and more into an understanding of Divine Things and Heavenly Mysteries through the Openings of the Power that was daily amongst us and wrought sweetly in our Hearts which still united us more and more unto God and knit us together in the perfect Bond of Love of Fellowship and Membership so that we became a Body compact made up of many Members whereof Christ himself became the Head who was with us and did rule over us and so further gave Gifts unto us by which we still came to be enlarged and further opened that we might answer the end for which he had raised us up and so far blessed us and sanctified us through his Word that dwelt in our Souls and so we keeping still in our Zeal and unto our first Love and
keeping our Meetings and not forsaking the assembling our selves together as the manner of some was of old whose Example the Apostle exhorted the Saints not to follow the Lord's Power still continued with us and was renewed daily in our Meetings by the Openings of which our Understandings was still more enlarged into the Mysteries of Life and hidden things of God so that many through the favour of God grew in their Gifts and had their Mouths opened and so became Instruments in the Lord's hand to bear witness unto the World of the Day of the Lord that was broken forth again even of the great and notable Day that Ioel had prophesied of and Peter bore witness unto and also they were sent to bear witness against the World and its evil Deeds with all the false Religions with which Mankind had covered themselves withal in the Darkness and Apostasie which had spread over them and now was seen and discovered by the Light and Day of God And thus the Truth grew and the Faithful in it and many was turned unto God and his Name and Fame and Glory and Power spread abroad and the Enemies Work and Kingdom was discovered and struck at by the Lamb and his Followers which made him begin to rage and stir up his Instruments to oppose the Lord's Work and with all subtilty to hinder People from following the Lamb or believing in his Light and so with Pen and Tongue and Hands also the Beast and his Followers began to war and to whipping and scourging and prisoning and spoiling of Goods with reproaching belying and slandering the way of Truth and all that they could do to hinder the Exaltation of the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ blaspheming his Light and his Power calling his Light natural insufficient false Guide with many reproachful Names and calling his Power Diabolical and the operation and blessed work of it which was both to the renewing of the Spirit of the Mind and also to the reformation of the Conversation from Debauchery Wickedness Unrighteousness and Witchcraft even like them of old who said Christ cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince thereof But by this time they that kept faithful to the Lord and his Light and Spirit in their Hearts who had come forth through the deep Tribulation as before related was confirmed setled and satisfied and in the Life that was manifested established in which they saw over Death and all mens profession in it and where they were and what they sed upon that cried out so against the Light and Power of Christ that was thus with us and wrought thus in us in our Meetings and how they were but mocking at the same that those mocked at spoken of in the second of the Acts when they thought the Apostles were full of new Wine and so drunk for the high Professors of our days being ignorant of the Holy Ghost through their resisting of it blasphemed the Life and Power and in the Death at the best did but feed upon the Tree of Knowledge For this I still right-well remember that in my waiting upon the Lord in the deep Distress and weighty Judgment that was upon my Soul to see if he would appear and break through and open and give relief from under that which kept me down as Bars of Iron that I could not arise nor asscend nor have access although out of the Deep I cried unto him for deliverance I say I can remember that in the first notable inbreaking of the Power of God upon my Soul or pouring forth of the Holy Ghost upon me the first opening in the same unto me thereby was a true discovery of the Tree of Knowledge in the Mystery upon which I saw I had been feeding and all the Carnal Professors of Religion and how we had made a Profession of that which we had no possession of but our Souls in the Death feeding upon the Talk of that which the Saints of old did enjoy and then I saw there was no getting to the Tree of Life that our Souls might be healed by the Leaves of it and so feed upon the Fruit thereof that we might live for ever But as there was a coming under the wounding slaying Sword that Christ brings by which the Life of the Old man comes to be destroyed who would still live in sin and serve that and yet profess Faith in Christ and to be his Servant which is impossible according to Christ's own saying No man can serve two Masters c. Matth. 6. 24. and therefore I saw there was no remedy either I must be buried by that fiery Baptism of Christ's with him into Death or else there could be no rising with him into newness of Life there might be a rising into newness of Profession Notion and Words but that would not do it was newness of Life I must come to the other I had tried over and over I saw I must dye with him or be planted with him in the likeness of his Death that is dye unto sin if ever I came to be planted with him in the likeness of his Resurrection and so live unto God according to Romans the sixth Then when things thus opened in me I clearly saw we had all been deceived thinking while we did live in the Flesh and after the Flesh and so in the Death feeding upon the Tree of Knowledge which was forbidden for Food we might make such a Profession as might bring us to reap Life everlasting but I soon saw such as a man lived after such as a man sowed such should he reap and not what a man professed or what he talked of and then I was willing to bow to the Cross and come under the fiery Baptism of the Spirit and let that which was consumable be destroyed that my Soul might be saved and come to possess that which would endure and abide and could not be shaken Thus were the Heavens shaken also as well as the Earth that that which was not shakeable might remain according to Hebr. 12. 27. and so that which condemned the evil Fruits of the Flesh as they were owned by us so to be in our Profession both in our loose Conversation and also in the desires of our Hearts and fleshly Lusts that therein sprang unto the Judgment of which we did assent even so did that same Light and true Witness discover and condemn our fleshly Profession of Religion in that same Nature and Mind which brought forth Evil or in which Evil did dwell and Rule and so came our Heaven to be shaken and our Covering and Garment to be taken away and we left comfortless and naked destitute and without a Habitation and then we saw our sacrificing and our sinning to be alike in the sight of God for our Prayers was rejected and all loathed because both was done in one Nature and from one and the same Seed and corrupt Heart and therefore it came to be with us as with Iudah of
rest quiet under his disposing and ordering Hand by which he will in his Wisdom and Power over-rule all Men and Things who knows best how to Execute Iustice and Iudgment upon all according to their Works or Deserts For before him all things are naked and bare therefore he cannot miss in Iudgment We resting here and waiting upon him it quiets our Spirits and sweetens them and also I can say it makes many bitter things sweet and so sanctified that we meet with Comfort in Tribulation And though it be both Natural unto and Lawful for us in Affliction reverently to pray for and desire Deliverance and also when obtained to rejoyce therein and bless the Lord therefore yet still our Happiness is to mind his Providences and wise Ordering of all things and therewith to be Content without either murmuring at or strugling against what he seems good to bring to pass And so here we shall all rest in one Fold and Covenant and seed in one Pasture together and so have a Fellow-feeling of one anothers Ioy or Sufferings For our Resting-place is but one in the Truth and our Salvation stands therein for ever and therefore we need look at no other Iohn Burnyeat SEVERAL EPISTLES WRITTEN By J. B. to Friends from divers Places Dear Friends IN the dear and tender Bowels of Love and Life do I dearly salute you all who are faithful to the Lord without respect of Persons in whose Life and Love I feel you and enjoy you wherein my Heart is opened towards you my dearly beloved ones with whom I am daily refreshed and comforted in Christ Jesus the Fountain and Well-spring of Life and living Refreshment who is our Rock and daily Refuge unto whom we fly and are safe in the day of storms and tempest when the floods arise and the raging Waves of the Sea do swell and beat yet in the Light have we a safe hiding-place and a sure and peaceable Habitation against which they cannot prevail As faithful to the Lord we abide therein whose Love towards us hath abounded and will abound as we abide in that unto which his Love doth reach which is his own Seed which he hath raised in us by his own Power and outstretched Arm wherein the Issues of Live and Love are known and received Therefore my dear Friends keep to it and feel it continually that fresh and lively and open-hearted ye may always be in the Life that nothing may enter that would vail the Seed and oppress it for that will stop the Issue of the Love of God which is shed abroad and shedding it self abroad in the Hearts of all the Faithful whereof we in the bountifulness of his Love have richly been made partakers of Therefore as one who with you have been partaker of the rich and endless Love of God I do exhort you my dearly beloved ones to continue in his Love and all to abide faithful in the Life that Death again may not pass over any one but that the Life which God hath raised may be felt and that may rule over him that hath the Power of Death in every one of us to his own Praise and Glory who hath redeemed us wherein the comfort strength and refreshment is re-received daily from him who is the Life and Strength of all that wait upon him and who is near to preserve all them that are upright in their Love towards him And herein have we boldness believing that neither Tribulation nor Affliction Persecution nor Distress shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which we enjoy in Christ Iesus although he may suffer great things to come upon us as it is at this day to try us nor yet to separate us one from another nor to break our Unity in the Spirit wherein we feel and enjoy one another In which my dear Friends I feel you and have you often in my remembrance to my great Joy and Gladness of heart for ye in the Lord are my Ioy and Rejoycing many times when all other Comforts are taken from me but only that in which I feel and enjoy you wherein our Unity Life and Love doth stand wherein I remain Your Brother in my measure received J. Burnyeat Postscript Dear Friends I Wrote a Letter in the Eleventh Month before I went out of these Parts and sent with one who did intend to pass through Cumberland but I hear it was left in Yorkshire which did something trouble me because that I did not obtain an Opportunity to send again so soon as I could have desired in regard we travelled into the West towards Galloway and Cork But at Dublin when I was there I wrote a Letter which I partly believe may be come to you So being in haste I cannot give you an account as I would desire only Times are very troublesome in regard of the Distractions of the People in this Nation We were taken Prisoners after we came from Dublin at Ardmagh and kept three days It is very hard to Travel in this Nation for us but for the Seed's sake we are freely given up into the Will of God Clanbrasel in the County of Ardmagh in Ireland the fourth day of the fourth Month 1660. Dear and well-beloved Friends in Cumberland BRethren and Sisters in the holy Covenant of Life with you is my life bound up in the unspeakable Bond of perfect Unity and unfeigned Love wherein I feelingly reach unto you in this day of weighty Trial wherein every ones Faith and Patience must come to be tried and every ones Foundation made manifest whereon he stands blessed are they whose Foundation and standing is in the Power of Christ Jesus the Rock of Ages and Foundation of many Generations such shall stand immoveable on the Rock in the day of Tempest and shall be at Peace and kept in Safety in the Power in the hour of Temptation and time of trial Therefore my dear Friends as if I were present with you my Bowels are opened towards you and my Life reacheth unto you in pure love even desiring that every one of you may truly feel and abide in the feeling of the pretious Life and pure invisible Power of the blessed God which he hath made manifest in your Hearts whereby every mind of them that hath been faithful to the Lord is changed and renewed and redeemed and made pure and sweet through the vertue and goodness of the same whereby our Souls continually are refreshed as we abide in the sensible seeling of the Lord's Presence O! therefore my dear Friends ye who have tasted of the Lord's goodness and have been nourished by his mercies inwardly who have felt the weight of his love and the value of his truth in your inward parts Mind that as your chiefest treasure my dear Friends that the sweet Consolation and the pretious Spring of the Father's love ye may feel opened in your Hearts from day unto day and from time to time For truly Friends large is the Lord's
you may grow in and be guided by it in your further Travels in the Heavenly Journey towards the blessed Heavenly Canaan which is still before you as the Price of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus And therefore observe the true Mark and still press forward towards the same as the Apostles and ancient Saints did And take heed I intreat you unto your selves and the exercise of your Minds lest your Eye inwardly be drawn forth to look at another Mark for if you do then will not the Price be the same that was theirs who was faithful unto Death and so continued unto the end and obtained the Crown Therefore be you all watchful to keep the Enemy of your Souls out of your Hearts that he may reign who is your Friend for ever who seeks your good and brings Life and Peace unto your Souls under whose Government and peaceable Dominion you will find Rest and Pleasure for your inward Man And now my dear Friends since it is the Lord's Truth you have received and his Holy Power that you have felt in these Countries even as his People in other parts dwell you with it and in it with careful Minds that you may therein live unto God as such that have a part in the first Resurrection that you may reign for ever and ever over the Power of the Second Death And all take heed of the mysterious Workings of the wicked one who works in Deceit by Guile in every transformed Appearance to draw the Mind out of the pure Center in the true Power to the Likeness and Image which hath no Life in it where there can be no stedfastness nor true reigning over the Will that is unruly and foolish Therefore my dear Friends keep your Watch every one in your own Hearts continually that you may not be betrayed from that pure Life that yields vertue unto your Souls and nourisheth up to Eternal Life For I know that the wicked one in his deceitful Workings you have been acquainted with and his evil Design the Lord by his Power in his Light hath discovered unto many of you so that you by the same have escaped his hurtful Snares and yet lives in that which must reign at last over all And therefore keep your Habitation in the Power that is unchangeable wherein you may live for ever without fading for the Power fades not but abides in its Glory for ever so that the first is the last the Root and Off-spring Blessed are they that have kept their first Love and have stayed in their Righteous Habitation into which the Power did redeem them they do still witness a growing from Grace to Grace from Strength to Strength and from one degree of Holiness unto another until they come to be purely like him who is their Redeemer who shall change them and bring them from Glory to Glory till they bear the Image of the Heavenly Man and be like him that is altogether glorious who is putting of his Glory richly upon his Church which is his People in this Day And therefore you that have received the Spirit of the Lord and are acquainted with it do you follow it in all its pure leadings with faithful Hearts for it will certainly lead all the Faithful to know an increase of Glory And take heed of the Spirit of the World which is not of God but leads from him that Spirit where it prevails causeth to wither and sade and brings Barrenness upon the Soul and Darkness and Death and then the Glory is lost and the Image of the Heavenly then is not born nor no Man in that is Heir of the Heavenly Inheritance Therefore it doth behoove all to look to their standing in that wherein the Heirship is that none may come short of that Crown which Paul said was laid for him and all them that loved the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the God of Love and Peace keep you all in his Love Fear and Wisdom that your Dwellings for ever may be in his Peace which the World cannot take away nor rob you of that so with the rest of his Heritage you may shine in the Light of his Glory and dwell in the Richness of his Kingdom for ever and ever Amen Bristol the 9th of the 10th Month 1675. This is the Desire of my Soul for you all whom I truly love and in the Life Salute wherein I am your Friend and Brother J. B. Taunton the 7th of the 2d Month 1677. My dear Friends in Cumberland UNto you my Love and Life reaches and purely flows forth in that which Lives for ever wherein I do in the Innoceney and Life of Righteousness truly Salute you all whom the Lord hath raised and called to be a part of the first Fruits unto himself in this day of ours wherein the Glory of his hidden Life he hath Revealed unto a Remnant even that which from the Wise and Prudent of this World is still hid and from such as turn back into that Wisdom it comes again to be Vailed so that the Light of the Glory of it they lose again though they had a view thereof And therefore blessed are all who keep their Habitation in that Power which never Changeth nor Decays the Glory of the Heavenly things will be still in their view by which their Hearts will be enlarged towards the Lord both in Love unto him and a Living People to his Honour in all things that his Name may be Exalted and the Testimony of his Truth in its own pure Nature in every thing kept up according to its Brightness and Glory as by the power thereof we were raised up in the beginning as the life of Holiness grew in us dear Friends that which quickned and raised us from the Dead in years past through which we Live unto God and as we keep in the same we shall for ever be accepted by him and be well pleasing in his sight but out of that you know none shall be regarded by him though ye might do much for he did not regard them in the days of old for all they could do that did not keep in the Life of Righteousness though they might go far even to the covering of the Altar with Tears And therefore as I said that by which you were first quickned and raised is that in which for ever we must be accepted so that every one is to mind and wait for an increase and by experience of the growth of that wherein there is a coming upwards from a Child's State to a farther growth and still it is in the same Nature without degeneration from that which was first and so the first is witnessed to be last and ye grow more and more into the fulness of Christ in whom all fulness dwells And therefore my dearly Beloved in all your Meetings upon the Truth 's account have an eye unto and wait for an Injoyment of his Blessed and Heavenly and Heart-breaking Power
that we cannot easily be moved Though the Winds do blow and the Waters swell and toss and the unestablished be driven to and fro and so afflicted in their Spirits yet this Rock abides for a Habitation and Being of Safety unto all them that keep firm thereunto and so do abide near in their Spirit unto the holy Power thereof they find the living Spring of that Grace from the same in their Souls that the World cannot take away whose Treasure the Thief cannot steal nor the Moth waste for its Heavenly and kept by a Heavenly Hand And such who mind this will be ready to offer up their Earthly Substance and also themselves into his Hand and Will out of which no Man is able to pluck And surely in this Day there is no true Rest nor Satisfaction to the Souls or Spirits of Friends but as they get hither in the Faith with their Hearts and Spirits And when we are here spiritually oh this holy Shield how doth it defend Oh the holy Rock how do we sit under the shadow of it Oh the holy Ioy that the Dwellers upon this do feel in their Spirits though the Tempest be great Oh the God of Heaven keep us all in the holy sense of this that our Spirits may be born up from sinking under our Exercises in the Trial that so we may all glorify him in our Day Dearly Beloved you tender suffering Children whose Hearts are tender of God's Glory and therefore are willing to give up your selves and your all for his Name 's sake that you may be of that number who following the Lamb whithersoever he goes and not loving your Lives unto Death that may stand with him upon Mount Sion My Heart and Soul is knit unto you and you are near me and in the unity of the antient Life I feeling Love abundantly to flow unto you you have had a proof of the sincerity of my Love of old unto you And truly you that stand in your innocent Testimony faithfully do ingage my Heart still more and more in Love unto you Oh the tender meltings of my Spirit in the sweetness of the Love of God in which I reach you and rejoyce with you in your Ioy which all the Wrath of Man cannot put a stop unto I know your Hearts are at ease and your Spirits free and the Weights and Burdens from off you who are freely given up to suffer though in these Bonds outwardly But there can be no such spiritual Portion received by any that shrink from their Testimony in this Day of Trial. For the Word is true for ever They that suffer with him shall reign with him He the Captain was made perfect through Sufferings he must be followed by all that come in the fulness to pertake with him of his Glory And such who draw back and would find a place of Safety for themselves to escape their Sufferings for their Testimony though they should fly to the uttermost parts of the Earth the Lord's hand will find them out and there will not only be a holding back of the Portion but a spiritual Pain will overtake where the Heart is tender and because thereof uneasie will every ones place be unto their Spirits And therefore my dear Friends keep in the Faith and Word that Iustifies and then will you reign in the Seed that 's heir for ever wherein you will Overcome and Inherit and be Conquerors and so Triumph with the Lamb that must have the Victory before whose Feet the Crowns of all the Mighty must be laid down unto whom the Kings of the Earth and all Flesh must bow in him we trust his Heavenly Kingdom we wait for and pray for the coming of that even such as are our Enemies by the power thereof may be Converted unto God and so have an Inheritance with us in that Kingdom that hath no End That so Mankind might rest together in that Hope that makes not ashamed where the Love of God might be shed abroad in all Hearts by his Spirit Thus God is filling the Hearts of his Children with good Will towards all The Lord keep us therein for ever Dear Friends by this know that I am well and am now come to have a share with you of the Sufferings that attend for the Gospel's sake I have been three Weeks a Prisoner here in the Marshalsee of Dublin So in the true Fellowship of the Gospel am a Partaker with you both of the Sufferings and Consolation that attend us for the Testimony thereof I remain From the Marshals in the City of Dublin the 25 th of the 6 th Month 1683. Your Brother I. B. Dublin the 19th of the 6th Month 1685. Dear J. Banck UNTO thee with thy fellow-Prisoners who suffer for the blessed Testimony of that precious Truth in which we have believed doth the real and tender Affection and Love of my Heart and Soul flow forth at this time and in the sweetness and peaceableness of that which is our Life do I dearly salute you and in the unity thereof tenderly greet you all whose Hearts are kept up in that and under the holy conduct of it for which you suffer In this have we our unity which in it self lives and reigns over all and shall reign in its own pure Dominion and Dignity even the Power of our Lord Iesus Christ to whom Principalities and Thrones and Dominions must be subject It is for the Testimony of him you know that you suffer to wit the Testimony of Iesus which you have received from him by his Spirit and thereby have it sealed in your Hearts Though many do not understand the weight and certainty of your Testimony for which you suffer and therefore may look lightly upon it yet you who are enjoyers of the Power and so have received the Spirit of Iesus which is the Spirit of Prophesy and so his Testimony therein you feel the Weight of it and know the Certainty of the Testimony for which you suffer and so in your Sufferings have your Peace and Iustification And therefore my dearly Beloved in the Lord see that you all hold that fast in all your Hearts in the inward rich Possession of it for which you suffer that you may feel your Reward with you and your Comforter in you to bear up your Spirits over all your Sufferings and so you will have a Satisfaction in your selves that whatever others say or may think of your Sufferings and the reason thereof you know within your selves that it is for the Truth and its Testimony that you suffer and for the keeping of your Consciences clear in the sight of God And so in the hidden Man of the Heart you rest in quietness in that hidden Life which you receive from Christ and here is your Peace and Comfort which no Man can take from you no nor Man knows of it but such as are in Fellowship with you who live in and love the same Testimony And therefore those that know
a good understanding and seemed to be concerned for many as she said that came to Meetings in Dublin who did not mind their Conditions or the stay of their minds which she feared would scarcely be Saved My Heart I must needs say was greatly affected with her Exercise and Concern and was Comforted in the Sense of that living Presence that was with us at that Season And when we had spent some time together and were Refreshed and I to go away she did most solemnly take her Leave of me in great Affection and signified how kind she took my Visit withall seriously saying Farewel dear John If I never see thee more And so I came away In a few Hours after she was struck with Death In the Evening my Wife and I went again to see her then we found her very Ill but lay quiet under the Extremity of her Pain We with several other Friends sate by and waited on her until she Departed which was about the 11th Hour at Night She went away in quietness as I found before was her Desire And we sitting and standing quietly by her our Hearts were broken and I felt a Glorious Melting Power which tendred my Spirit and a Brightness and Light that did shine and it was sweetly in my Heart when she was Departed She is not gone into Darkness but is in the Light The sense whereof was great Satisfaction to me because I know the Glory is there in the Light for ever And now poor Lamb it is her Gain though your and our Loss For considering her years she was a Modest and Good Example and as she said to me at that Season She was never inclined to Vanity And I perceived her care was sometimes greatly for you fearing your Exercise would be Great Well I must needs consider that the Loss of such a Dear Child cannot but come very near Tender Parents yet you may be comforted in a satisfaction of her Well-being and so rest and even say with David We may go to her but she cannot come to us And so Comfort your Hearts in the Lord and so rest in his Will And Dear R. this may find thee something better in Health than we have of late heard however I am sure my Heart truly desires that it may be so And if the Lord give strength I should be glad to see thee here For methinks all this while thou hast been absent thy place seems to be empty I cannot look upon it that thou shouldst be from amongst us But if the Lord give strength thou shouldst be here bearing and having thy share with us For I look upon thee as one of us and so methinks would not have thee delay as the way opens My Wife 's very dear Love is to thee and thy Wife and our Love is dearly to Ellin Callow and Friends there For further account of things I may leave to other hands We are all quiet and peaceable here So with my true and endeared Love unto thee I conclude and remain Thy Friend J. B. The above is a Copy of a Letter Writ by John Burnyeat to Roger Roberts concerning the Death of his Daughter Ann late wife to Amos Srettel who Departed this Life the 8 th of the 11 th Month 1685 about the 11 th Hour at Night For the Priests in CARLISLE and their Followers YE which stand up to teach the People behold your Flock which ye teach and see what is brought forth among them such Fruits as were never brought forth among them that were taught of God nor by any that he sent But the small Effect your Teaching doth bring forth for God doth evidence to your faces that ye are not sent by him but run and the Lord doth not send you therefore doth the People profit nothing by you but the Fruits of Unrighteousness do still remain among them and they are not turned to God and out of their Sins by all your Teaching For Persecution is found in some and Pride and Drunkenness and Mocking and Scorning and Reproaching of them that fear God doth appear among them that follow you Oh consider of it you that take in Hand to Teach these People did ever any of the Ministers of Christ own such for Christians Consider of it was Persecution found among the Saints Or did they Imprison any Shew one Example in the Scriptures for it if there be any Or did the Apostles own them for Christians that did persecute Consider of these things Were not they Enemies to the Truth that did persecute and imprison And was it not the Saints that the Persecution rose against And did not the Apostles suffer Persecution And were not they Enemies to Christ that persecuted them And are not they Enemies to Christ that persecute now Oh! that you would but consider of it and see what Generation ye are of and what Fruits ye bear and whether ye and your Followers bear the Fruits of the Ministers of Christ and the Saints or ye bear the Fruits of the false Prophets and of the rude Multitude and persecuting Generation that persecuted the Righteous For from the beginning the Righteous were persecuted even from Abel but we never read that the Righteous did persecute any but were always Sufferers So it is evident that they that persecute and imprison are shut out of the Life of them that gave forth the Scripture and are found in their steps which were Enemies to the Truth and did persecute them that lived in the Life of it And so ye that take in hand to Teach the People of this Town look upon your Flock and see what Fruits are brought forth by some of them Yet for all this your Teaching of them you have not brought them to so much Moderation and Love as was in Felix who commanded a Centurion to keep Paul and to let him have Liberty and that he should forbid none of his Acquaintance to Minister or to come to him But we find not so much Moderation nor Love among you who say ye are Christians for we are kept in Prison and our Friends are hindered to come to us Oh be ashamed of your Flock ye Teachers that for all your teaching ye have not brought them so far into Moderation and Love as they were who persecuted the Apostles and Saints and so they must needs be far short of being true Christians But you are bad Examples to them herein for many of you who are Teachers do cause the Innocent to be cast into Prison and persecuted and so do manifest your selves by your Fruits not to be in the same Life the Apostles were in who always suffered and never did persecute any So consider well ye Teachers of this that your Flock is not a Flock of Sheep and Lambs but rather the Nature of Wolves doth appear among them whose Mouths are open against the innocent who live in the Nature of the Lamb. Are ye not therefore of those who run and the Lord never sent you
opportunity for him to clear himself if innocent but it 's like he knowing in his Conscience his guilt made him fly from so reasonable an offer and shuffle as he hath done that he might escape coming to the Trial left he should be further manifested Now as to those three Principles Iames Barry promised to send forth his Arguments in Print to prove the Quakers grand Hereticks in they were in our Answer to one of his said Papers sent him laid down and expressed according to the following Words viz. To the first we affirm That we own the Resurrection and do believe that the Righteous shall rise and ascend into Glory and be glorified in Heaven with an Eternal Reward and that the Wicked also shall rise and come to Iudgment and be turned into Hell to receive an Eternal Punishment But that the same fleshly Body which must undergo Death and Corruption shall rise and enter into Heaven we leave for thee to prove and make good from the Scriptures of Truth being our selves satisfied in believing what the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15. 36 37. when he answers the Fools Question saying That which thou sowest is not quickned except it die and that which thou sowest thou sowest not that Body that shall be c. and further saith verse 44. It is sown a Natural Body it is raised a Spiritual Body c. And in the same Chap. saith further verse 50. Now this I say Brethren that Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God neither doth Corruption inherit Incorruption Thus we laid it down and looking upon Iames Barry's Asserting That it must be the Fleshly Body which must Die and see Corruption for these are his words we did believe he contradicted the Apostle in so saying and also Christ himself who said that the Children of the Resurrection were equal unto the Angels c. Luke 20. 36. And therefore did we offer to Dispute with him in the Vindication of our Faith as to this Principle The second Errour that he charged upon us was That the Quakers deny that Men are Iustified and Saved by the alone Righteousness of Iesus Christ imputed without the Concurrence of inherent Righteousness And in another Paper Condemns us of Errour for Believing that the Active and Passive Righteousness of Iesus Christ is not the only Righteousness as imputed to us by God without any mixture of Righteousness inherent in us by the which Sinners must be Iustified and eternally Saved We Answered That we do own Righteousness to be Imputed of God and God's Imputation thereof to be a Blessing and Happiness unto Man but do not believe that Sinners shall be Iustified and Saved by the Imputation only of the Active and Passive Righteousness of Christ without us without any Righteousness wrought in us by the Spirit of Grace which comes by Iesus Christ. Let all People that are of understanding Hearts seriously consider this which he calls an Errour and charges upon the Quakers for such an Errour as that he will prove us grand Hereticks herein c. for allowing any mixture of Righteousness inherent in us that is cleaving to or abiding in One might think he had never read the Scriptures thus to exclude the work of Grace in the Heart Did not the Apostle say Eph. 2. 5. By Grace ye are Saved and vers 8. again By Grace ye are Saved through Faith not of your Selves it is the Gift of God And was not this Grace a Spiritual Gift And was it not to be in their Hearts Did not the Apostle say Let the Word of God dwell richly in you And were they not to sing with Grace in the Heart Col. 3. 16. And was not Christ in them the Hope of Glory Chap. 1. 27. And did not Christ say Iohn 3. 3. Except a Man be Born again or from above he cannot see the Kingdom of God And vers 5. Except a Man be Born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God For that which is Born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit as v. 6. From all which it is evident that none can enter the Kingdom of God without this Regeneration and being Born again And how can this New Birth be without the work of the Spirit of Christ in the Heart And how can this work of Regeneration be wrought and no Inherent Righteousness Or how can it be that a Man may be Born of the Spirit or from above and have no Righteousness abiding in him And without this work of Regeneration and New Birth you see Christ saith he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven This being rightly understood let Iames Barry tell us what manner of Justification and Salvation that is which he means that is without any mixture of Righteousness wrought in a Man by the Spirit of Grace or abiding in him for he saith By the alone Righteousness active and passive of Christ imputed without any mixture of Righteousness inherent must Sinners be justified and eternally saved But it is evident from Christ's Words that by this eternal Salvation of Iames Barry's a Man cannot enter the Kingdom of God for they are not prepared for it Behold Christ saith John 15. I am the Vine ye are the Branches abide in me and I in you And verse 5. He that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much Fruit Without me ye can do nothing Now can it be possible that any should be in Christ and Christ in them and yet no Righteousness Inherent that is sticking to or abiding in them and yet they as Branches bearing Fruit and if they do not bear Fruit they are to be taken away then not Saved and Justified if they be taken away and if they bear Fruit Christ is in them and they in him Then if it be so Righteousness is Inherent both by sticking to and abiding in So let Iames Barry make out how any can be in Christ and Christ in them and no Righteousness Inherent Or otherwise how any can be Fruitful and consequently Justified and Saved and Christ not in them and they in him seeing Christ saith it cannot be And verse 6. You may see the end of all that abide not in Christ As withered Branches cut off they are gathered for the Fire So that they that abide not in Christ bear no Fruit and are neither Justified nor Saved agreeing with the very Parable Christ speaks Matth. 9. 17. Neither do Men put New Wine into Old Bottles else the Bottles break and the Wine runneth out and the Bottles perish c. Which plainly demonstrates there must be an inward work of renewing for it is not the Old that must enter Therefore the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature And in 1 Cor. 5. 7. The Apostle exhorts them to purge out the old Leaven that they might be a new Lump c. and in Gal. 6. 15.