a hint of what certainly is and will be And so having cleared my Conscience to God and paid my debt of Love to you in this matter I leave all to him who is the righteous Judge and the true Pleader of the Cause of the Innocent in all Generations and the Avenger of all Wrongs that are done upon the Earth and rests his Servant in whose Love is my Souls Life who am a Sufferer for the Testimony of the Everlasting Truth amongst the Despised People of God whom the World in Scorn call Quakers yet the Reproach of Christ to us is great Riches Thomas Taylor An Exhortation to remember the Judgments of God HOW long O ye People of this present time will ye grieve and burden the Spirit of the Lord with your Works How long shall he suffer your Manners unpunished Is it not high time for the Lord to lay to his Hand seeing you have so covered his Law with your Traditions and vain Customs that the poor People can hardly find any one thing you do savouring of Pure Christian Doctrine or the Apostles Practice But the Hand of the Man of Sin is the Worker in you and by the power of the Earth is your Building upheld But Wo to the Building which the Lord hath not builded and Wo to the Builders of that House wherein all the Wicked of the World inhabit lye down and are at ease and bring forth their Young Is this the Church of God Nay nay this is the Synagogue of Satan and not of the Living God for the House of God is Holy and nothing but Holiness dwells there nothing that defileth can enter this day into God's Temple for Holiness is the Ornament of God's House for ever So Wo to the false Builders and Daubers that cry Peace to People in their Sins the Lord speaks no Peace to any Sinners but Judgments Plagues and Woes to Priests and People who live in their Sins and plead for a Continuance in Sin as long as they live as at this day Wo to the unspiritual Men that bind heavy Burdens upon others and will not touch them with one of their Fingers that bind the poor Men whom they call Wardens of their Church by Oath to do impossible things and punish them that make Conscience of their Ways and dare not Swear nor Forswear but would keep their Hearts clean to Christ in whose Church is neither Swearing nor Forswearing this day but the Yea is Yea and the Nay is Nay in all things in Truth and Righteousness But Wo to the wicked World that takes God's Name in their polluted Lips the Lord is arisen to judge thee in Flames of Fire for the day of the Lord is dawned upon thee and thy building will he thrown down and a visible downfall shall Babylon have upon the Face of all the Earth for the Pastors have not gathered in nor visited with Truth the good Seed but with Force and Violence over it do they Rule and therefore is the Lord arisen to plead the Cause of the Poor and Innocent as the Mouth of the Lord hath said So be it And let all the Earth fear and tremble before the Lord this day fâ—r our God the true God is a consuming Fire and will by no meaâ—s acquit the Guilty Thomas Taylor To the Unclean Communicants YOU that tell of a Communion and say you eat Bread and drink Wine in remembrance of Christ's Death and yet live in your Sins confessing with your own Mouths that you daily leave undone that which you ought to have done and do what you ought not to do and that there is no Health in you Consider of your Ways and see in what your Fellowship and Communion stands Doth it not stand in Sin and Disobedience And examine your selves what you eat Do you not eat Damnation to your selves not discerning the Lord's Body For the Lord's Body is Holy but you are Unholy and live in Unholiness as your selves confess and as is manifest in your Lives and Conversations so you have cut your selves off from being of Christ's Holy Body you that live in your Sins and do your own Wills and leave undone that which he wills now to do for no unholy or unclean thing can be joyned to Christ's holy Body Again Christ's Body is a sound and healthful Body and no Leper in it but you have no Health in you as you confess and so you are of that Body and Number who have not as yet so much as touched the Hem of Christ's Garment with a true Heart but are in the Mud and Filth and Diseasedness of this sinful lost World through which the wholsom Waters of God's Sanctuary have not run to cleanse you So all you do in this your sinful State is unclean in the sight of God and he can take no pleasure in your seeming Services because of your Sins For as the Leperous Bodies under the Law were shut out of the outward typical holy Place so the Spiritually Defiled are altogether unfit in this day to enter into or have Communion with any thing of Christ's Kingdom Thomas Taylor God's Virtue and Goodness Extolled O Thou pure God of all Heavenly Glory Virtue and Goodness how Holy are all thy Ways and Righteous all thy Judgments O how plainly and clearly hast thou manifested thy Mind and Will to Mankind in all Generations and especially since the first publishing of thy Gospel and in this of ours and yet alas with grief of Heart may it be said never was the Earth more burthened with the Evil of her Inhabitants than at this day never was there more provoking of God by evil Customs and bad Doings than now They spend their Days in satisfying the Lusts of the Flesh and of the Mind that is Earthly Sensual and Devilish and say in their Hearts unto God Depart from us for we desire not the Knowledge of thy Ways The strait way of Christ they perfectly hate and the broad way of the World which leads to Destruction they willingly chuse because their Hearts are evil and to Christ's Light they will not bring their Deeds because they be so evil that the Light will utterly condemn them And thus in the Blindness of their uncircumcised Hearts they heap up Wrath against the Day of Wrath and Revelation of God's just Judgments upon them And though the Trumpet of the Lord hath been plentifully sounded amongst them yet they will not hear nor awaken to Judgment but say in their Hearts Yet a little more Sleep yet a little more folding of the Hands to Slumber the Judgment is far off we will not forego our present Pleasures and worldly Delights for Glory to come Where is he that 's come from the Dead to tell us what 's in another World Let 's Eat and Drink and take our Fill of Pleasures for to-morrow we Dye and are not say they O the Wretched O the Atheistical Hearts of the Men of this present evil and adulterous Generation The Lord
at the Branches but now Christ's Axe is laid again to the Root of the Evil Tree Glory to his Name to cut it up Root and Branch that the right Heavenly Root and Branch of his own planting may bring forth Fruit to his Glory and Endless Praise who is worthy who is over all God Blessed for Ever So be it The next thing after the Children are grown up to Men and Women at least to Sixteen Years of Age or upwards and have passed the Bishops Hands as is before-mentioned they are invited to the Communion which they call the other Sacrament wherein they eat Bread and drink Wine in remembrance of Christ's Death as they say until he come But here you must understand a great Mystery of Deceit which hath crept in amongst the People called Christians since the Apostles time in the Apostacy and great Darkness of Antichrist to wit that though they tell of remembring Christ's Death till he come yet they do not believe nor would have any others ever to believe that this coming of Christ shall be whilst People are in this Body upon the Earth but they must be eating Bread and drinking Wine as a Sign and never come to see it fulfilled to them in the coming of the Substance to wit Christ in Life and Power to dwell with them and in them as he promised to them that looked for him as Christ said concerning the Fruit of the Vine that he would drink it new with his Disciples in his Father's Kingdom And as Christ taught them amongst other things to pray that the Father's Kingdom might come and is not this to be known in People whilst here Yea yea and so to feel Christ supping with them and they with him and being unto them their daily Bread as he saith in the sixth of John I am the Bread of Life thus I say they remain out of the Faith of Christ and so without Faith it 's impossible to please God Also here is to be noted another grand Deceit of the Enemy in this their Sacrament so called in that he makes them believe the Bread and Wine is not holy enough and sufficient for that Business unless the Man-made Priest have said some words over it which they call Consecration and so Consecrated it as they speak with his unholy Hands unholy I call them and that appears from their own Confession for they daily say they have no Health in them by reason of their grievous Offences but if they had not in words confessed it yet their Lives makes it manifest that they are of unclean Lips and defiled Hands which whilst so are not fit to meddle with Holy Things no more than the Lepers under the Law were fit in their Leprosie to enter into the Temple or meddle with any Holy Thing And for those words they use unto all that Communicate Hand over Head which say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve thy Body and Soul unto Everlasting Life It is demanded where they had them for I never read any such in Christ's giving that Bread and Wine at his last Supper nor in Paul's words to the Corinthians afterwards speaking of it where then had they them Surely they have either Invented them out of their own Heads or had them out of some Popish Book or the like For it is certain from the Lord Jesus they came not seeing they are such a Burden to the Souls of his Redeemed Ones this Day But again these words Preserve thy Body and Soul signifies the Blind Priest takes it for granted that all that he gives this Bread unto are in a good and safe Condition at present though the Lord knows and they themselves confess they remain Miserable Offenders and have no Health in them O what sad work is here amongst them O what grievous daubing First they tell them that by their sprinkling they were made so and so as is before-mentioned and in their Bishoping confirmed in it and now therefore by this eating and drinking they are preserved though to the Grief of the Spirit of God they live in their Sins and in the broad way of the Old and Evil World where the true sprinkling of the Blood of Christ is not known for saith the Apostle If we walk in the Light as he to wit God is in the Light them have we Fellowship one with another and the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1.6 7. Then it must needs be that such as walk in Darkness know not Christ nor the cleansing of his Blood for he is only the Author of Life to all that obey him but the unclean World eat and drink Damnation to themselves whatsoever to the contrary they may Imagine But whence came this Custom of Consecrating Bread and Wine if not from those of Rome who falsly imagine the Real Presence as they call it to be after their Consecration For Christ's giving of Thanks at his last Supper before his giving of Bread and Wine is nothing to your Custom Also seeing you pretend to give all the Vertue to the Thing signified and not to the Signs you spoil your own Doctrine of Consecration But Popery is easilier gotten out of the Profession than out of the Heart It would be long to tell of all the bold and strange Passages they have in this their Communion as in the other of their Observations But this one more only may be mentioned and so pass on and it is this Therefore with Angels and Archangels and with all the Company of Heaven say they we laud and magnifie thy Glorious Name Evermore praising thee and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of thy Glory Now all People whose Minds are tender towards God I Appeal to God's Witness in you whether such words as these do any way suit or agree with the Condition of the Parishes of England who thus use them For what Fellowship have such Miserable Offenders and Unhealed Souls with Angels and Archangels and all the Heavenly Company Nay nay no more than Light and Darkness hath But here the Whore that fits upon many Waters which by Exposition of the Spirit are Multitudes of People hath lifted up their Minds into a Conceit that they are Real Christians and so of the Heavenly Company because of Words when Alas they are for the most part such as the Apostle wrote unto weeping Who so walk as that they are Enemies to the Cross of Christ whose God is their Bellies and glory in their shame minding earthly things Phil. 3. And what shall I say of their Ring and plighting of their Troth and Worshipping one another in their Form of Wedding when they say With this Ring I thee Wed and with my Body I thee Worship but even take up a Lamentation for the People whose Eye is so blinded by the God of this World that they will not see the things that belong unto their Peace in this the Day
The Scripture intimates that the Children of Believing Parents are Disciples Acts 15.10 I say to the Children of Light this Scripture intimates no such thing at all but plainly holds forth the contrary for the words there are Why tempt ye God to put a Yoke upon the Disciples Necks which neither our Fathers nor we were able to bear Now these Disciples here spoken of were not Natural Infants but grown Men Christian Believers as the First and the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Verses of that same Fifteenth Chapter do plainly shew and so if thou hadst not beeâ— a Blind follower of the Blind Guide Richard Baxter whose Argument this is thou would'st not it 's like have offered to bring this for this purpose for it shames you all for ever But this Argument being too weak for thee thou endeavourest by another Argument as little to the purpose to prove the Natural Infants Subjects of Water-Baptism because say'st thou they have received the Holy Ghost or else how could the Kingdom of God consist of such To this I answer and say But which of the Natural Infants which you sprinkle hath the Holy Ghost and which not How come ye to see this difference Or you will say that all have it if so then may People have the Holy Ghost ordinarily by Natural Birth without hearing then where is your great Glorying of your Words or Sermons But to proceed thou say'st Can we imagine that God will give them the Kingdom and deny them Water-Baptism I answer God will give the Kingdom of Heaven to whom it belongeth and it consisteth not in outward Observation or Washings as Dipping or Sprinkling or so but in Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And thou that with the Papists attributes so much to Water-Baptism how comes it to pass that after all your Sprinkling the Children as they grow up in Years many grow up in so much Wickedness and Vanity as is every where manifest And as concerning Children of Believing Parents we deny them to be Believers that hate the Light and believe not in it but say it is Insufficient as before is declared But as for that Mat. 28. which thou and thy Brethren usually bring for your Custom of Preaching and Sprinkling of Infants I say it makes nothing for you who sit down in some Fat Benefice or other as times favour you and there Divine from the Letter as is said an Hours Discouse or two in a Week to the People for Mony Why go you not into all Nations as they did and Disciple the Turks and Indians if you will be warranted by this Scripture But whereas you take the Apostles for your Example I query first When did ever the Apostles go to the Schools of the World so many Years to be made Ministers Did ever the Apostles seek to the Magistrates to compel People to pay them Wages as you do or compel People by their Sword to conform to Christian Doctrine Or when did they sprinkle Infants receive Tythes of the People or Sing David's Prayers Quakings in Rhime and Meeter as you do When were they called Master as you are And many the like things wherein you differ as much from the Apostles as Darkness from Light whereby you shew your selves to be Guided by a contrary Spirit to wit the Spirit of Error So for ever be silent and stop your Mouths for you are both out of the Apostles Doctrine and Practice as your Fruits make you manifest Qu. 18. Thy Eighteenth Query is concerning the Supper and thou askest Hath not Christ Jesus given us his own Example for the Celebrating of his Last Supper And hath not the Apostle Paul delivered it to the Church and Commanded the Saints to do it in Remembrance of Christ and thereby to shew forth the Lord's Death till he come again Answ The Lord's Supper we own for Behold I stand at the Door and knock saith Christ and if any Man hear my Voice and open to me I will come in and sup with him and he with me And for the Doctrine of Christ his Eating and Drinking with his Disciples so we own it in its place and for its time but what is that to you who are both out of the Doctrine and Practice of the Apostles as by your Fruits is manifest And so you Eat and Drink unworthily and thereby are guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ and so Eat and Drink Damnation to your selves and do not discern the Lord's Body And so in witnessing against you and your Practices in this State we neither Vilifie Men nor Jesus Christ And thou say'st What a vain pretence is it to say We Eat Christ Spiritually I say it it vain if it be but in Pretence but if it be in Truth it is the greatest thing for it is Eternal Life and he that thus Feeds upon Christ's Body is Alive to God But you in all your other Eatings and Drinkings are Dead whil'st you Live And so of you that would keep People always in the Figures and Signs saying The coming of Christ spoken of 1 Cor. 11.26 is never to be witnessed here I demand Whether that Cup which the Apostle said The Cup of Blessing which we Bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ And the Bread which we Break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Body and one Bread for we are all Partakers of that one Bread 1 Cor. 10.15 16 17. I say Whether was this outward Bread and Wine yea or nay Qu. 19. And in the next Query thou comest over with these things again saying How can those Persons be Faithful to Christ Jesus and Obedient to his Gospel that refuse to Pray and Sing Psalms and Baptize with Water and reâ—eive the Lord's Supper I answer and say If any disobey God in any thing he commands them unto whether in any of these things or in any other they are not Faithful to Christ and his Gospel but those People thou here secretly shoots at are taught to obey God in all his Requirings ☜ and so to Glorifie him in their Bodies and Spirits which are his and so are we clear before the Lord from this thy Charge and also from that which follows for we Revile none much less those that in Conscience of their Duty to God observe them or any thing else And so the Reviler must lodge in thine own Bed who fears not to Revile and speak Evil of such in these days as in Conscience to their known Duty to God Worship him in Spirit and in Truth But you whose Fear towards God is taught by the Precepts of Men in vain is all your Worship for I Testifie for the Lord that whatever you do though it had the very Form of the Saints Practice of old which yours have not and not led thereinto by the Motion of the Eternal and Infallible Spirit of Life it is nothing but the Precepts of Men and Will-worship
Testimony lives with me to bear for my Dear Father Thomas Taylor that True and Faithful Servant of the Lord who was Born near Skipton in Yorkshire and was brought up a Scholar and sent to the University and in process of time he came to be a National Minister and so continued for some Years but in those Days he had not many Equals for he was a Man of a Tender Spirit seeking after a further Attainment of the Knowledge of God and his Holy Way whom to know is Life Eternal which the Lord in his own due time made known unto him After he had heard the Word of Life declared in the Demonstration of God's Holy Spirit through his Faithful Messenger George Fox he was then evidently Convinced of the Blessed Truth as it is in Jesus he never after turned his Back upon it many Days and Nights of great Sorrow and Anxiety of Spirit he underwent until the Old Leaven was purged out by the Spirit of Judgment and then he became a Vessel of Honour fit for the Lord's Service and left his Benefice which he then had at Richmond in Yorkshire not consulting with Flesh and Blood what he should do for a Livelihood but trusted the Lord that he would provide for him and his Family he having then a Wife and Five small Children whom he afterward through the good Providence of God lived to see brought up to be Men and Women Now this Faithful Servant of the Lord not distrusting of the Mercies of God gave up freely whatsoever was Dear and Near unto him that the Lord required of him that he might win Christ the Lord who had Visited him with his Day-spring from on high and Ruled him by his Grace and gave unto him the Word of Life to declare unto the Sons and Daughters of Men Warning and Admonishing them to turn from their evil ways and to seek the Lord whilst he might be found and great was his Labours and Travels in those Days being moved often to go into Market-places and Steeple houses to declare the Word of the Lord to the People where he often met with great Opposition and Sufferings from the Hands of Unreasonable Men but the Lord by his Mighty Power delivered him wonderfully out of their Hands and many long and tedious Imprisonments this good Man underwent in his Day but with great Patience and Contentedness of Mind knowing it was for his bearing his Testimony to the Lord's Blessed Truth and not for evil-doing And this I have further to say for this Worthy and Honourable Servant of Christ who loved not his Life unto the Death that he might serve the Lord in his Day who was a Faithful and True Minister of the Everlasting Gospel and laboured mightily in Word and Doctrine and many in this Nation were Convinced by that powerful Word of God that run through him and they have great Cause to Bless and Praise the Name of the Lord even as I may say on his behalf for he was a Zealous Man for the Truth in his Day and was one of the Worthies in Israel who went through many Combates both with Professors and Prophane and by the Assistance of God's Holy Spirit oftentimes put them to silence and the Truth prevailed over all Blessed be the Name of the Lord for Ever And now not being willing to be too tedious to the Reader else I could mention many more things concerning my Dear Father who was a Faithful Follower of the Lamb wheresoever he led him through good Report and bad Report for he valued nothing so much in this World as the Propagation of the Truth for his Life was hid with Christ in God at whose Right Hand there is Joy and Rivers of Pleasure and that for Evermore And a little before my Father's Departure out of this World as he lay upon his Sick-bed several Friends that came to Visit him standing by him he being very sensible to the last spoke on this wife I am going to my Father and your Father to my God and your God and so departed like a Lamb and is gone to his Everlasting Rest to receive that weighty Crown of Glory that is laid up in store for all them that loves the Appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ and keeps their Garments unspotted of this World Thomas Taylor Jun. Middlesex the 3d Day of the 3d Month called May 1697. A short TESTIMONY OF Hannah Taylor Concerning her Dear Father Thomas Taylor THis I have to say concerning this dear Servant of the Lord who followed the Lamb through many Tribulations and wash'd his Garmens white in his Blood That he served the Lord with a perfect Heart and that he was endued with the Spirit of Wisdom and of Understanding in the Truth which he did value above all the World and all the Preferments thereof For he counted all as Dross and Dung in Comparison of that Pearl of Price which he Laboured for both Night and Day Yea for Sion's Sake he could not rest and for Jerusalem's Sake he could not hold his Peace Because the Spirit of the Lord was upon him and he had Anointed him to be a Preacher of Glad-Tidings to the House of God's Israel But he was a Reprover of the Vngodly yea his Testimony was against all Wickedness and Evil-doers Yea he was clad with Zeal as with a Cloak and with the Righteousness which God had put upon them as with an Helmet Yea he was a Valiant Soldier indeed he fought a good Fight he kept the Faith and from henceforth for him was laid up a Crown of Life which at the time appointed he did receive with all the Redeemed of the Lord who rest from their Labour and their Works follow them Hannah Taylor Robert Barrow's TESTIMONY Concerning Thomas Taylor HE being a Man with whom I was Acquainted and Conversant for the space of Thirty Years some part of our Acquaintance in the time of our Notion and Outward Profession of Religion in the form thereof but the most of our time was after God in Mercy had opened our Understanding and revealed his Son in us by the Word of Life and Spirit of Truth to know Christ in us the Hope of Glory He was Educated and Bred up at one of the Colledges of Oxford and became a Parish Preacher and had a Place in the County of Westmoreland yet in those Days he was a Seeking Man having Real Desires to understand the Things of God and the Mysteries of his Kingdom and was a Man of an Honest Life and Clean Behaviour and in his Preaching and Judgment was more Refined than the rest of his Neighbouring Priests and many of his Hearers were a People commended of the Common Hireling Priests of the World which Priests Nick-named his Hearers Roundheads and Puritans and many of those so called came frequently from the next Parish and Town of Kendall to hear him amongst whom I was one and he used to let John Audland and Francis Howgill sometimes Preach in his
to Unity and Concord amongst Friends which while he lived he was Careful to preserve he had a great Delight in it and laboured much for it In a word he was a Man of Peace and as he Delighted in it now is a Possessor of it and of that Joy that is Immutable in which he lives with his God a Possessor of that Blessedness and Reward which through the same Faith and Patience we that are yet behind shall assuredly obtain as therein we keep in the Lord's time Many good things he wrote in his Day if thou read this Book thou wilt perceive and meet with good Exhortations in it which will I hope tend to thy Strength and Incouragement William Fallowfield A short TESTIMONY Concerning that Faithful Servant of the Lord Thomas Taylor Whose Memory is Blessed DEAR Tho Taylor he was a Man who loved the Truth with a sincere Mind and sought the Honour thereof and not himself He was ready at all times to speak a word for God as there was occasion to inform the Minds of People to that which would stand them in stead when time here shall be no more He was a very good Instrument amongst us and a blessed Example in his Conversation which did bespeak him to be the Servant of Christ Jesus He loved the Prosperity of Truth more than all other things whatsoever and for that was he given up in Soul Body and Spirit to serve the Lord and his Generation Faithfully Travelling from Place to Place for that end and as he lived in the Truth so he finished his Testimony in the same And though his Body be removed from us and gone to the Earth from whence it came yet his Spirit lives amongst us and his Life shall never die Truly I am not without a living Sence upon my Spirit what a Loss we have of him amongst us who was always ready to serve the Truth and the least in it and Sorrow is ready to seize upon me in the Consideration thereof yet when I consider that it is according to the Will of the Lord I am therein well content knowing that he hath this Advantage of us that are left behind viz. Is freed from Danger of falling into the Snares of this World which we are liable to whilst in this Body except we keep in that which is only able to keep us whilst we remain here And I do believe that the Lord will raise up the same Life in others to Testifie to the same Truth which he lived in and that the Testimony thereof shall never fall This is great Comfort to me and all who love the Lord to whom be living Praises Honour Glory and Obedience given for ever and for ever more from my living Soul which he hath quickned to himself by his Living Power and Heavenly Life to him I say be all the Glory given now and always Amen Mary Comberford The 26th of the First Month 1681. Thomas Taylor 's EPISTLES TO FRIENDS MY Dear Friends and longed after in the Lord whose Minds are turned in by the Light of Jesus Christ from the Worlds Worships and Ways in measure to wait upon God that you may learn by the Teaching of his Spirit in you how to worship him in Spirit and Truth who is the Fountain of all your Soul's Happiness prize his great Love to your Souls every one of you in particular and wait to receive the Law from his own Mouth to the quickning and reviving your Souls out of the Death and for the daily watering and refreshing that which lives of himself in you for if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he shall by that Spirit quicken your Mortal Bodies for all whose Hearts are purisied through the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ are in the Covenant of that Everlasting Love of the Father which gives to all that waith on him a full Possession of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light but Wo and Misery from the Lord to the Unclean in the Earth And therefore mind your Soul's Guide which is pure Light of Jesus Christ and be Faithful unto the Lord in whatever he makes manifest in you to be his Will and let not the Worlds Frowns or Smiles cause you to draw back from the Truth in any thing which the Saints have so great Recompence of Reward in but be simple be pure be harmless be innocent be Lambs and walk as Lights amongst a Generation of crooked and devouring Minds and think not strange concerning any Trial but imbrace the Cross which is the Saints Rejoicing and in Patience wait to see the Fleshly Mind Crucified with it which would have ease below God and do all things in the fear of God and let not the Ear be open to the Enemy but mind that which shows you the strait way continually and learn to love one another more and more for Love is of God but none can love as Brethren of Christ but those that love God and keep the Commandments and as you follow Christ in the way of his Cross and Sufferings you will Delight in one anothers Fellowship but as any depart from the Light and Iniquity abounds in any the Love in that Person waxeth cold So God Almighty Bless you with his Everlasting Mercy to set free your Minds from all your Sins to run the way of his Holy Commandments so rests Thomas Taylor TO FRIENDS AT Stickland-head DEAR and precious Friends of God who into the Fellowship of the everlasting Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God the Light of the World that Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World are called and who have tasted of that Heaventy Gift and upon that true Bread do feed Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be among you and in you all every where in every place multiplied with the Increases of the eternal Power of the Holy Spirit in all your Hearts Amen Thomas Taylor your Brother and Companion in the Patience Sufferings and Kingdom of Christ unto you all sendeth Greeting and by the Spirit of the Lord God doth hereby give you all to understand That it is the true Grace of God and Power of Life into which you are called and which you have received and wherein you stand and whereby you are inlightned and have been given to see the old dead way of Sin and Formality to avoid it and the good and living way of Truth and Righteousness in Spirit to embrace and follow it to the Praise of our Holy Heavenly Father World without end And this Grace of God that hath thus brought Salvation to us and is our Teacher and Guide in the good Way is the same that would teach all and would have all Men to be Saved and to that purpose hath appeared to all Men to leave all without Excuse So Dear Hearts all in the Light and Power of this Pure Truth of our God made manifest in us
evil part and a full Resurrection of the spiritual over it so rests your Dear Brother in the Unity of the same Blessed Living Victorious Faith Thomas Taylor From the Place of my Confinement for the Everliving Testimony of Jesus in the Fifth Month 1664. TO Friends in LONDON OYE my Dear Friends and Beloved of the Lord in the City of London my Love in the Lord Our Life is drawn out at this time to salute you with an Epistle of pure and unfeigned Love because you are Dear and near unto my very Heart in the feeling Life which hath given us the Blessed Victory over all Sin and Works and Words of Death to serve the Will of our Heavenly Father with all Fervency and Perseverance in our Day Age and Generation to the Praise and Glory of his Grace in Jesus Christ our Lord whom our Souls can never cease to love because the Savour of his good Oyntment is ever fresh upon our Souls and his Law of Life it is that we daily seel to have set us free and to keep us free from the Law of Sin and Death Praised be the God of our Salvation for his unspeakable Gift though the Enemy of one hand say we are no Christians and on the other hand call us a Form and bark at our Holy Unity and Blessed Agreement in the ever-living Truth and exercise of it for the good one of another and Service of all Yet over all these unclean and unrighteous Spirits and all others of like nature we are more than Conquerors and like a Rock unmoveable which the Enemy may split himself with dashing against Yet Praised be the Lord our Rock stands sure for it is Holy Pure and Everlasting and the Gates of Hell shall never be able in the least to prevail against it nor us as we upon it continue rooted and grounded in the Love of God and one of another in his Seed where all the Promises of Life and Salvation are Yea and Amen for ever And so you my Dear Friends and much longed after in the Lord when I consider the many Tryals and great Contradiction of Sinners of all sorts which for the Love and Zeal of our Holy Lord God and his unchangeable Truth you have endured from the beginning my Heart is greatly affected with the Glory and cannot but Praise the Lord for you that you are even become as a Bullwark of his Truth in the midst of a crooked degenerate and Back-sliding Nation who though like Sampson's Foxes they look with Faces several ways yet in Heart are one every one with Firebrands and Stings in their Tails like Scorpions to do Mischief by stirring up the bad part in People against the Simplicity of the Gospel of Love and Life of our Lord Jesus Christ which would gather unite and heal all of all their Soul-Maladies for ever if they did not make themselves unworthy of But O how the Truth to you doth still abide in its Lustre and Glory without Alteration knowing that you as we your Brethren in the same every where are set for the Defence of the Gospel The Lord hath set his Love upon us and it is from Everlasting to Everlasting and therefore in his Name and perfect Goodness may we safely trust and Storms will be over and his unspeakable Peace and Joy which is with us and hath so unspeakably refreshed us shall be with us for ever We need not go to the Egyptians for help as the Wicked do for in the God of Israel is our Hope and Help who keeps Mercy and Covenant with his Dear People for ever and ever And when I also consider how the Samballat and Tobias of this Age say on one hand What will these silly returning Captives do And on the other when I see the little Horn with a Countenance more stout than his Fellows in his very Words of Reproach and Work of Scattering tell of your Scattering whom God hath gathered I cannot but say O Lord Bless thy People whom thou hast so powerfully delivered and govern and keep their Hearts in perfect Peace with thee through all and over all even as thou dost this day for ever and ever that many may come to the Brightness of our day and Glory of our Kingdom which is not of this World but of God eternal our Father who is over all Blessed for ever So under the Shadow of his ever-blessed Wing my Dear Brethren and Sisters dwell and here is the true Munition of Rocks where the Living Bread is sure and the Living Waters never fail rests your Dear Brother in the Patience and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ at present in outward Bonds for the Testimony of his Truth in this place Thomas Taylor Stafford 21st of the 12th Month 1667. And I desire that this may be communicated as the Nature of it requires to the whole Flock of God in and about the City in the precious Wisdom of God with Bowels of Love unto you all So be it TO Friends of SUDBURY Side DEar Friends and Well-beloved in the Lord Brethren and Sisters in the Holy Covenant of his Everlasting Love my very Heart and Soul doth dearly salute you all and often do I remember you in the Dearest Affections of unfeigned Love as is meet knowing your Love and Tenderness to God's Truth and me your Dear Friend and Brother for the Truth 's sake from the beginning and how the Lord of his Infinite Love in Christ Jesus hath separated us from the present evil World for himself to hold forth his Vertues before the Children of Men in a pure Life and so to feed at his Table as the Faithful do in the unspeakable Fellowship of his Eternal Spirit of Life and Peace whereby O how often yea how continually he hath and daily doth refresh feed and strengthen our pure Minds as in the simplicity of our Hearts together or asunder as to the outward we have and do daily wait upon him and in his Light are staid upon his Power in our inward Man to the Praise of his Glory which makes us that we cannot but love him and one another in and for him and so we cannot but remember him and one another and so pray for and rejoice in one another's welfare as living Members of his Heavenly Body who is over all God Blessed for Ever who is the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls and therefore we shall not want nor miscarry as we abide in his Love and this we know Dear Hearts that as we keep his Commandments we do abide in his Love and are at Rest in his Power Many from the Letter may say God is their Shepherd or so and therefore they shall not want but truly Friends there is none can say this in Truth but who are led by him and subject to him in Heart and Life they are the Sheep of Christ who hear his Voice and follow him in the Regeneration not losing their first Love but growing and continuing in it
His limitless Nature to a creatural Form like thy self as the Wicked do who know him not And so of that Beast and mysterious Babylon thou art who this day with their many Heads and Horns and Forms of False Knowledge and Worships and Churches so called do all with one Consent push and fight against the Lamb the Light and Son of the Incomprehensible and Infinite Father and his Faithful Followers but the Lamb both hath and ever shall have the Victory and the Mouth of all Iniquity shall be stopped saith my Soul And so well had it been for thee if thou hadst continued Faithful amongst us but a Wanderer and Unfaithful in Heart hast thou been many a day and so the Whore that watched in the Evening for the unwary young Man hath caught thee in her Net and there thou art a Slave in the Bands of Darkness to the great Wounding of thy poor imprisoned Soul Thomas Taylor TO George Ward And those that had Fellowship with him GEorge Ward to thy self and those in Fellowship with thee whether Speakers or Hearers a few Words from the Movings of God in my Heart You are weighed in the Ballance and are found wanting and the Glory of the Holy Kingdom of God you are fallen short of in your Unbelief and have not a Heart as yet to walk in the strait and narrow Way that leads unto it You have not suffered your Minds and Souls to be guided by the pure Light of Jesus Christ that hath Visited you in great Love in these Days but have rather chosen to follow your own Thoughts and wrong Expositions of Scripture to your great hurt And because you have Preached and Professed that washing the outward Water is the only Gate in the Christian Fellowship you are both to loose your Credit amongst Men by owning the more Excellent and Everlasting Way though it be most plainly declared and by the Spirit demonstrated to you in these Days And so you go about to Establish that which makes nothing perfect in Opposition to the Power of God which only makes Perfect And so you resemble them of old who stuck in the Shadows of the Law in Opposition to him that was the End of the Law and came to fulfil it Christ Jesus over all God Blessed for ever And so if I could have found in you a true Desire after God's Kingdom may be I might have gotten a little Liberty to have Reasoned with you at this time of the things thereof But seeing there hath been so many Endeavours and Desires in us after your Eternal Good and ye will not come to Christ to know him in you that you may have Life for this time I thus rest in Peace with my God the Righteous Judge believing that in his own Way and Time he will Silence every Tongue that moves against his Blessed Truth the Light and those that love it and follow it in the Regeneration in this Day of his Power wherein the willing People are brought up through the Death of the Flesh to serve the Lord in the Land of the Living in new Jerusalem as our Souls do this Day ever Praised be his Name the Arm of his Holiness for it is worthy And now where is the Disputer of this World who pleads for seen things which Quicken not the Souls and will not have the Invisible God who is the Resurrection of the Life to Rule in them but are glad when they can get any thing seemingly that makes for them in their perishing Way But our Work is Praised be God to hold the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints in a pure Conscience and in the Ability that God giveth us to help to bring People to God where is the true Rest for ever And those that will not submit their Minds Hearts and Souls to the Light of the Eternal Word which is nigh in the Heart shall never be Established in Righteousness and Peace but shall weary themselves in the very Fires for Vanity and this we have Learned through many Tribulations Blessed be God for his Unspeakable Gift and so if you be Wise be Wise for your Souls and Learn with us to sit in Silence at Jesus Feet to know what he requires of you and cease your running and doing without him for you have spent too much time in Vain already seeing the Spirit of the World is unfallen in you Rests your Souls Friend and a Lover of the whole Creation of God being become a willing Sufferer for the Holy Seeds Sake And whereas you or some of you seem Offended that Widdow Cock hath left you and come amongst us and say she hath done it and yet given you no sufficient Reason and Satisfaction for her so doing I say that Reason I suppose she hath shown sufficient to some of you but to give Satisfaction to you in it that is hard seeing you Speak Evil of the Good Way of God which she hath tasted of amongst us for of a Truth the Lord and his Power and Presence is with us Blessed be his Name for ever And she stayed too long upon the barren Mountains where your Flocks Feed Thomas Taylor TO A Plundering Priest YOUNG Man all thy Prayers Preachings and Praises are Abomination to God so long as thou keepest the Just in Bondage Thou being but newly as it were come on to the Stage of the World begins thy part very badly if thou hadst been as an old over-grown Tree in Customs of Covetousness less could not be expected from thee than what some in Swaledale have sound But thou being as I hear a young Man under the Notion of a Schollar nay more of a Minister of the Gospel to fall on a Suing People at Law and putting in Prison upon account of Hire quite stains all thy Glory and blasts thy Reputation with the Odium of a Hireling and Fersecutor Thou might consider if the God of this World had not blinded thy Mind what thou daily as it were reads in the Scripture Whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you even so do unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets And if thou be not come so far as the Law and the Prophets thou art most unfit to take the Gospel into thy Mouth For without all question if thy Condition had been Michael Râ—w's thou would have accounted it hard Measure to have been so dealt withall as thou hast dealt with him A Man with a Wife and ten or eleven Children depending much upon his Labour for their Maintenance and this Man to be put into Prison and there kept from year to year for nothing at all but because for Conscience-sake to God he cannot put into thy Mouth What a Cry this hath and will have in the Ears of God it concerns thee deeply to consider for he is well known not to with-hold Right from any where it is due But though his Sufferings for time be long yet thine if thou repent not will be very
the Lord must be cast out and have their Portion with the Hypocrites where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth for Ever And now that Christ Jesus the True Light is arising the Children of the Night Who love Darkness rather than Light because their Deeds are evil are inventing all manner of false Covers and false Arguments to hide their Nakedness and Shame withal but the Judgment of this Light they cannot avoid for it is to give to every Man according to his Deeds And now therefore all ye Teachers of the People awake and arise to Judgment and bring your Deeds to the Light and you Principal of the Flock come forth for the words of the Lord by Jeremy his Prophet Chap. 25. Ver. 34 35 36. are now to have their perfect Accomplishment upon you And these are the words Howl ye Shepherds and cry and wallow your selves in the Ashes ye Principal of the Flock for the Days of your slaughter and your Dispersions are accomplished and ye shall fall like a pleasant Vessel and the Shepherds shall have no way to flee nor the Principal of the Flock to escape A voice of the Cry of the Shepherds and an Howling of the Principal of the Flock shall be heard for the Lord hath spoiled their Pasture Now he that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit of the Lord hath here commanded to be left in writing And see and consider all you that are under the Wo of these words even all you who are called of Men Masters with your Elders and Officers and Repent for where will you hide your selves And where will ye leave your Glory For the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is arisen and it is God and not Man Spirit and not Flesh that is pleading with ye and the Powers of the Earth and the Wisdom of the Beast will not shelter you nor secure you from the Wrath of him that sits upon the Throne and of the Lamb. For now though you be changed as to the outward form somewhat from the way of your Forefathers yet in the same Nature and Steps as to the substance of Things are ye found for were they justly cast out for feeding themselves and not the Flock Ezek. 34. And is it not so with you And did not their House become desolate because they stuck to the Shadows and denied yea Crucified the Lord of Life the Substance in his Appearance Luke 13.34 35. And is it not so with you And was not the Spirit of the Lord grieved then to see that filthy and horrible thing committed in the Land to wit to see the Prophets prophesie falsly and to see the Priests bear rule by their means and to see the People love to have it so Jer. 5.30 31. And is it not so found now with you And was it not the Spirit of the Lord that moved to Cry against such then as stood for Watchmen over the People and yet were Blind and Ignorant yea as Dumb Dogs and greedy which could never have enough such Shepherds as could not understand who all of them looked to their own way every one for his Gain from his Quarter Isa 56.10.11 And is it not with you so now And were not the People a prey to the Enemy of the Soul when things were thus with them then as it is now And was it not for the Covetousness and Cruelty of the Teachers of the People that the Lord brought his Judgments upon them so that they had no Answer of God Micah 3.5 6 7. As it is now And what was it that made the Priests contemptible and base in the Eyes of the People but their horrible Breach of God's Covenant Mal. 2.8 9. As it is now And therefore ye Proud Men called Ministers and Teachers of the People in the High Places in England and elsewhere who have made a Covenant with Hell and Death as those of Old did in Jerusalem earthly hearken and give ear for the Lord hath a Controversie with you as he had with your Fathers who were in Covenant with the Powers of Darkness to keep the People in Blindness and Ignorance from the true Light and Life then as is your continued Custom now for saith Hosea in his Day by the Spirit of the Lord As a Troop of Robbers wait for a Man so the Company of Priests Murther in the way by consent for they commit lewdness Hos 6.9 And is it not so with you now See and try and let that of God in all Consciences give Judgment and both your selves and all your Congregations see and consider and fear the Lord and be not Mockers lest your Bands be made strong Is it not so with you now as it was with them of Old which the Lord sent Isaiah his Prophet to declare against Chap. 29. to whom these words were sent Ver. 9 c. Stay your selves and wonder c. Here the words to the 15th Verse were written at large and after them see and consider is not this your Condition And are you not worshipping in the oldness of the Letter and the earthly Spirit and not in the newness of the Spirit of Christ and the Heavenly Wisdom which is pure peaceable and full of the Fruits of Righteousness without Partiality without Hypocrisie And therefore will the Fire of the Lord be hard to endure by you for now the Sinners in Sion are afraid and fearfulness surprizeth the Hypocrites because of the Everlasting Burnings see Isa 33.14 And take warning while time is for this is the Day of the Lord's Visitation and witnessed by his Spirit in his Servant Thomas Taylor To William Thornton called Justice at Hipswell in York-shire Divulged for the Information of other moderate Enquirers after the Lord. FRIEND I have received thy Lines in answer to those I sent thee and thou dost rightly conceive of the ground of my writing them to thee for it was indeed out of pure Love to that which lieth in the Death in thee thy Soul unto which I spoke though in the Death to hearken to the Light of God that shines in thy dark Heart for the Gospel is Preached to the Imprisoned Souls who are dead in Sins and Trespasses that the dead may hear the voice of the Son of God even of Jesus Christ who is the Gospel it self the true Light and Life of Men who shines in Darkness though the Darkness do not comprehend it and so live And if thou hast an Ear within open thou may'st hear what here is spoken and so there will be no contradiction in directing thee to a pure Principle to attend to the pure Light of God within freely given to guide to himself but thou wilt if thou be'st once indeed turned to the Teachings of that Light of God in thee which shows thee thy Sin and Death daily and calls to Repentance and Faith see clearly that the Contradiction lies in the disobedient Nature within in thy self as in all others without Exception of what
who are in their own Wills doing the Will of the Flesh which is Enmity to God And so Wo to the Climbers over the Door who are gotten into a Prosession of Christ without his Cross without the Lord's Law which is Spiritual without the knowledge of that Flaming Sword to cut down the Man of Sin that in the Birth which is Holy one may come to the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Garden O ye People harken a while who have been feeding upon the Tree of Knowledge and never came through God's Judgments the Flaming Sword to the Tree of Life your Food is Death your Works will burn and your Fig-leaf Covers will fall off and you be left naked and bare to the Shame of your Nakedness as in the day that you were born For what is any Covering worth unless it be that of the Spirit of Christ The Lord God who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity will bring your Deeds to the Light of his Judgment and before him will nothing stand but that which is pure your defiled Preachings Prayings Singings Hearings Readings will all be rejected and cast out as Dung from the Presence of the pure holy God that consuming Fire You have multiplied Words without Knowledge you have not been neither yet are ye Doers of God's Will to God's Witness in your Consciences I speak therefore in vain do you say Lord Lord and he will not hold them Guiltless that take his Name in vain Your Garment is not of the pure white Linnen which is the Saints Righteousness but Linnen and Woollen is your Covering the Linsey woolsey Garment a thing forbidden by God's Law Your Field is not sown with the one Heavenly kind of Grain the good Wheat but another Seed have you mingled with it and the Mixture is so great that the Earthly hath almost covered and quite choaked the Heavenly in you If you will work you must into God's Vineyard and be exceeding Diligent and Laborious in plucking up the Weeds by the Roots in you the Light of Christ in the Conscience waiting in it will give the Understanding But Wo will be to them that call Light Darkness and put Darkness for Light and so suffer the Good in them to wither and nourish the bad part which is like the Grave that never hath enough always Learning but never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth But both Teachers and Hearers all in Sin and laden with divers Lusts all their Lives long And Wo to the Fleshly and Selfish Workers on this Holy Sabbath day of the Lord wherein he hath given his People Rest from all their weary Labours and Burdens The outward day the First day of the Week shall not cover you nor be a Sabbath to you but in the Breach of God's Holy and everlasting Sabbath you being found you must bear his Judgment And you feed upon the airy Words of Man's Wisdom raised up by the Crafty Spirit to please the Itching Ears of Fallen Man and whose Faith stands in the Wisdom of these Words and not in the Power of God a day of Scattering cometh upon you it cometh and a grievous Whirlwind from the Lord and though a Famine of the Word of the Lord is upon you already yet you will not know it nor he humbled for it but the pleasant Breasts of Mystery Babylon which you so much delight in will be dried up that you will get no Suck nor Food for that unsatiable Mind in you that is like the Grave that can never have enough always learning and never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth which sets free from Sin and the Songs of your Temple shall be Howlings in that Day because of the Vine of Sodom that will bear no more Grapes for all the Earth hath drunk so deep of the Wine of the Fornication of the great Whore that the Nations are Mad against the Appearance of the Lamb who is arisen to set up his Kingdom over all for the Lamb must have the Victory and Reign so be it for Evermore And you that talk so boastingly of your Faith and Suffering Mind you know not what Spirit you are of for the same Mind that you think to suffer in is it which hath formerly caused Sufferings to the Righteous and would do the like at this Day if Power were in your Hands and so if you could give your Bodies to be burnt in this Uncharitable and Persecuting Nature it would profit you nothing at all Thomas Taylor To the Presbyterians O Ye People called Presbyterians you have fully manifested your selves this Day to be of the Spirit of Cain the first Persecutor of God's Righteous Seed and as for your threatning of me and hawling me out of your Synagogue towards the Mayor because in Obedience to God I came to speak in his Name to let you see your Sins and to warn you of the Judgments of the Lord God that will certainly come upon you for them if you speedily Repent not and humble your selves for all your Pride and Hypocrisies and false Accusations and Persecutions of the Righteous Seed of God which he hath raised up this Day in the Earth to witness for him against all the false ways of fain Man that so all may come to the Power Christ Jesus to know him in them to be their Light and Life and alone Teacher to Salvation And this is my Witness for God this Day that except you come hither you will never be Established Thomas Taylor But what are you grown so high already that one must not come amongst you though in never so peaceable a manner to speak a word though in the Name of the Lord This is not only contrary to the Order of the true Church in the Apostles Days but also contrary to the King 's Late Declaration which saith That the Places of Toleration must stand open for all to come into But this Persecuting Spirit is but the same that hath been in you of Old notwithstanding all that hath come upon you in these Late Days To the Blind Teachers WO to the Teachers that have Eyes and see not Ears and hear not and Hearts that will not understand who can put no difference betwixt the Precious and the Vile but give the things they account Holy to the manifest Unholy Wicked and Prophane and so dishonour the Lord and deceive the Souls of the People and so they not discerning the Lord's Body nor the Members thereof which are holy they speak Peace to the Wicked who are Members of the Wicked One for his Servants and Members People are to whom they do Obey so Wo is to this present evil and wicked World who in words profess Christ but in their deeds do grievously dishonour him the Day hastneth wherein the Scripture must be fulfilled upon you who will not that Christ should Reign rests a Mourner in Zion for all the Abominations that are done amongst you Thomas Taylor For
you have greatly provoked the Lord God against you by these doings And the old Heathens did never more manifest their evil inside in setting up their Idols than you have done in setting up this dead Stick and adorning it with Garlands or so and sometimes Dancing and Rejoycing about it as your Brethren in the Wilderness did about the golden Calf And now upon this particular Stick what may be judged by the Flag that stands on high upon it but that you have bid defiance to all Good O the Pride O the Self-willedness O the Naughtiness of your blind deceived Hearts How long will you strive against God with your Doings How long will you provoke the Eyes of his Jealousie against you A sad day is coming upon you from his provoked Throne O Repent Repent the dreadful and terrible Day of the Lord God is at hand And what will you do in that day Will you cry to the May-pole which you have so long danced about for help O the Blindness and Wretchedness of your deceived Hearts when will you a wake when will you consider and when will you remember your latter End This dead and dry Stick is a true Figure of your dead and barren Hearts to God and Goodness So whilst you have Time prize it for this is the Day of your Visitation from the Spirit of the Lord in his Servant Thomas Taylor To a Dancing-Master TO hear a Dancing-Master plead for his Kingdom because of the evil Gain that he reaps from his evil Work is no strange thing but to see him plead for it from the Example of Holy David's Dancing or Rejoycing before God's Ark in Ravishment of Joy for its return is abominable in thee and the same which the vain Fidlers and Pipers of the Country condemned by the Law do who will plead David's Musick to bolster themselves up in their unholy Work and so there is no more Agreement betwixt David's Dancing and thine than there is betwixt David's Musick and the Fidlers If David's Dancing before God's Ark were seen by your Eyes who plead for your Heathenish Herodian Dancings in these days it would be accounted no less than Madness and Folly to you as it was by Michael in the former days O the Blindness of thine and all such Hearts who are not afraid thus to wrest â—cripture to your Destruction And whereas thou wouldst excuse Hecodias thou shouldst have said Herodias's Daughter her Dancing Heel from being a cause of the Baptist's Death to cover thy Work withal thou maist know this Cloak is too short for though Herod's Heart was evil not only for marrying Herodias but also in Imprisoning John for reproving him for it as many in these days both do Evil and Imprison the Servants of the Lord for telling them of it I say though Herod's Heart was evil and temptable yet her Dancing Heel as thou calls it was as a Devil to tempt him to that rash Vow at that time for it 's manifest by his Unwillingness of answering her Demand for John's Head that he had no desire of his Death at least at that time though he had put him in Prison And so my Exhortation to thee in Truth and not Hypocrisie is to give over thy Dancing work for as I said before so I say again it is not of God and so it cannot prosper nor that Gain or Pleasure that comes to thee or any others from it And hate good Counsel no longer for it will be hard for any to kick against the Pricks of God's Reproof Thomas Taylor To the Fruitless Vineyard of England OH ye Blood-suckers which hunt after Blood which lay Tracks and Snares to slay the Righteous Oh what a Profession is this that you live in that are so full of Fury and Rage some Mocking some Beating some Stocking some Stoneing some Plotting and laying wait to shed the Innocent Blood and yet you do make a Profession of God and Christ which Christ never taught that Doctrine and there you shew your selves to be as Bloody Persecutors as ever the Jews were who Crucified Christ and sought to slay the Apostles Oh England England Is this the Fruit of thy Ministry Is this the Vineyard which thou hast planted Howl ye Vine-dressers Oh how is the Vineyard full of Briars Oh how is the Vineyard full of Thorns Oh how is the Vineyard full of dead Trees which cumber and bring forth no Fruit Oh how are the Springs stopped that should Water it with the Philistines Oh how full is the Vineyard of Serpents Oh how is the Vineyard full of Thistes Oh how is the Vineyard full of Weeds Oh how full is the Vineyard of Nettles Oh how full is the Vineyard of wild Beasts and of Trees that bear wild Grapes and sour Grapes which sets the Childrens Teeth on edge A time hath been and is that the pretended Dressers and Lookers to the Vineyard are blind and do not know one Tree from another and cannot distinguish a Lamb from a Dog a Sheep from a Goat a Dove from a Kite full is the Vineyard of Wolves strong Horses neighing and the Horses of Pharoah and his Chariots whirling up and down And the Vineyard is full of Thieves and Robbers and the pretended Watch-men are blind and cannot discern betwixt a True Man and a Thief but they call the Thief true Man and the true Man Thief they call Light Darkness and Darkness Light They call them who have come in at the strait Gate to Life and so come in at the Door these they call Thieves and Robbers and those who have never received the Word of the Lord from the Mouth of the Lord but are climb'd up another way and live in the broad way Pride and Covetousness and the Lust of the Flesh these they call the Messengers of God Oh how full is the Vineyard of Drunkards Drunk with the Wine of the sour Grape The Land is full of Oaths and mourns because of such that their Flesh is defiled the Land is full of Respecting of Persons which is a Transgression of the Law of God But now the Lord is risen and rising who respects no Man's Person and lays the Axe to the Root of the Tree Every one that brings not forth good Fruit must be hewen down and thrown into the Fire For now is the Lord sending Sons and Daughters and Servants into the Vineyard Spears are broken and turned into Pruning-hooks and Swords into Mattacks and Plow-shares Some are Plowing up and some are Hacking up and some are Pruning and some are dividing the Sheep from the Goats and the Lambs from the Dogs making a distinction and putting a difference and some are bridleing their Horses which have been wild and some are distinguishing the Kites from the Doves and putting a difference betwixt the Precious and the Vile betwixt the Holy and the Unholy Tremble Tremble Tremble ye Mountains and Hills before the Lord for out of Sion doth the Lord utter his Voice Wo Wo unto all
of Kings and Lord of Lords and dreadful over all whose Eye is as a flame of Fire who came not to send Peace on the cursed Earth but a Sword and whose Sword never returns empty from the Battle unto you all I say saith the Holy One the Lord Jesus Christ Do not I see your ways and your doings both what you have done and what you do yea do not I search and see your Hearts and Reins and know what you would do O! consider consider do you know that I am near when you sit in Council and work all your Works even your darkest Works and take notice of them and treasures them up in my remembrance to give to every Man according to his Ways and the fruit of his Doings Do not I know that you all in Words profess me and call me Lord Lord and say I am your Saviour but alas alas you will none of me to Rule in you and over you nay nay you ask not Counsel at my Spirit and so are not for my Honour in what you bring forth Only sometimes when my witness is reached in you a little is done by some of you for my Babes but then your Goodness stays not but passeth away like the early Dew and then your evil Hearts turn back again from me and then you take Counsel one at another how to establish your own Kingdom Wills Glory and Greatness which is of this World and regard not my Honour my Glory my People who fear before me and with Moses and all my Saints do quake and tremble at my Word but suffers them to be a Prey to many and lets mine Enemies go free amongst you What shall Drunkards Sweaters Morrice-Dancers Stage-players Gamesters of all sorts and Hypocrites of all sorts have liberty to meet together to dishonour my Name without danger and fear and my Babes only who meet together to wait upon me to glorifie my Name sand to edifie one another in the most Holy Faith be threatned stocked and haled before the Judgment-Seats and be Imprisoned as though they only were the burden of the Land Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my Soul be avenged on such a Nation and People as this O! how hath the Enemy of the Soul deceived you in making you believe that you are setting up my Kingdom and Gospel when you are fetting up your own Nests on high and going about to establish your own Traditions My Kingdom is not of this World but that which you set up is of this World My Worship stands in Spirit and Truth yours in Form and Shadows and outward Shew which the Hypocrites for self-ends can fast enough run into My way is in a daily cross to all Flesh yours in the Will and Liberty of the Flesh O the burden the burden that I bear of you O the weight that you are unto my Spirit O the cry the cry and deep Groans of my oppressed Seed amongst you because of your Iniquities O! consider consider what is lately come to pass concerning Oliver Cromwel and his House and his Friends and Flatterers and shall not my Hand find out you if you be found in their Ways or worse Did I visit amongst other things for the several Excesses committed about him in the time of his Life and Greatness and especially for that at his Death and shall I not visit for the several Excesses and Wastings of my Creatures about thee O Charles Stuart in these late Months especially about that of thy Proclamation and Coronation saith the Lord God Lay things to Heart ye forgetful and stout-hearted Children What can you say that was Evil and Oppressive in their Days and is not as yet amended in yours I the Lord look for Judgment and Righteousness from you I look that you should make use of my Power for the encouragement and help of them that love me and fear my Name in the Lands and not of their Oppressors I will call you and all Nations quickly to account for all things I will not be always saith the Lord as one that sleepeth or winketh I will arise I will come in mine eternal dreadful Power amongst you O Sinners and Hypocrites in these Islands and in all the Earth I have been long as a gentle Lamb and little oppressed Child amongst you I will now arise I will put on Zeal as a Cloak and will cloth my self with Garments of Vengeance and will roar from my Holy Hill and will be as a Lyon and as a fierce Lyon amongst you to take a Prey And all your false Shepherds and pretended Watchmen with their false Instruments shall not frey me nor in the least dismay me nor deliver the Prey out of my hands Neither will I hear their false Cry and Prayers nor regard their deceitful Fastings to do them good who now in this day of my Visitation will none of my Counsels but at naught set all my Love and evil entreat my dear Servants who mourn amongst them and in much tenderness warn them to Repentance But oh oh ye Muâ—â—â—de of tall Cedars ye strong Oaks I will raise up a strong Wind amongst you and your high tops shall dash against and split one another and with your fall shall the great multitude of Bramble Bushes Briar-Trees and low creeping Shrubs who admire and adore your Height and Greatness and tremble at you but not at me saith the Lord shall be crushed down together with you in your Fall But Israel shall do Valiantly and your Fall shall be as a Resurrection to my dear Seed and I will do Valiantly saith the God of the Spirits of all Flesh for all that wait for me and love mine appearance For Time is mine and Place is mine and I will not be limited saith the Lord and my Servants shall serve me World without End and that which hath not been seen shall be known in the Earth and Iniquity shall stop her Mouth And Israel's Liberty shall be proclaimed over all the Earth And all Holy Praises by the Lord's Redeemed and Ransomed ones shall be founded forth unto his Name for ever as it is by the living in Jerusalem at this day Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly saith my Spirit Thomas Taylor Thus much the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who desireth not nor delighteth not in the Death of Sinners but rather that they might amend their Lives and live was willing to have the King and his Servants to know which might according to its date have come sooner to your hands if it had been so ordered but if it yet be ordered to come I beseech you in the Bowels of Love as a Servant of God not to slight it but weigh it well in the true Love and Light that searcheth all things and it may be yet serviceable to you for truly Wrath from the Lord is gone out against you and how can it be turned back but by a speedy Repentance of those Evils for
the Kingdom of his own Son over all to whom every Knee shall how and every Tongue confess for he is worthy The Springs of Life gush out apace from the Presence of the Lord into the Hearts of the Righteous and Righteousness runs down like a Stream through the Valleys of Israel to bring forth the Heavenly Fruits of Righteousness to the Glory and Praise of the Great and Good Husbandman who is over all God Blessed for Ever of whose Holy Reign Kingdom and Government there never shall be end But of the Kingdom of the Man of Sin and all Antichrists there shall be an utter end and Death and Hell shall be cast into the Lake of Fire and the Judgment of the Living and Everlasting Truth of our Heavenly Father shall go forth more and more for the discovering and consuming the false Hope and lying Refuges of all Hypocrites who have covered themselves and not with the Spirit of the Lord the Zeal of the Lord of Life will perform this that his Name over all may be exalted who is worthy whose Appearance in Glory this Day the Children of the Night have greatly withstood and the Dragon hath made great War against the Lamb but praised be the Lord the Lamb hath got the Victory and the Lamb's Followers are this Day with their Feet upon the Holy Mountain where none can make them afraid rejoicing in this that they have found the Lord whom their Souls loved and do love for Evermore So be it Thomas Taylor To some of T. Hicks's Friends YE Hicks's Hearers of Tixall-hall and elsewhere who Read his Defiled and Defiling Book called A Dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker Fear the Lord God of Heaven and Earth for I do affirm in the Truth of Christ that it is a meer Work and Invention of the Wicked One in that Servant of his called T. Hicks who goes under the Name and Profession of an Anabaptist as they are termed I say this Man was put on by the Wicked One who is called the Devil and Satan who was a Lier and False Accuser of the Brethren of Christ from the beginning to Render us the Servants of the Lord called Quakers Odious to the World For the very first Words and Title of his Book is an absolute Lie for never was there such a Dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker but it is a meer Fiction of his own naughty Heart and Head for Rendring us and the Truth we hold Odious and it is a False and Wicked Representation of us and our Religion to the World for the which God will severely Judge him And indeed by this manner of way that he takes who or what kind of Profession is there that he can miss grosly to abuse Seeing he takes upon him like a Prevaricator or Stage-player both to ask the Question and give the Answer so as may serve most for his own wicked End and Purpose and make his Opposite infamous O the Wickedness of such Actors and their Work but Praised be the Lord we are out of the reach of his Malice for under the Holy Wing of God's Power and Protection are our Souls gathered by the Eternal Power of his Living Word in Christ Jesus our Lord And you that Read this Book whether called Papists or Protestants if this Hicks had a Mind to Render you Odious could he not this way he takes do it as Plausibly as against us and so I would not have you hurt your selves so as to strengthen your selves against us and the Truth which we Live in by such bad Books and Endeavours as this Hicks hath come forth in for if that your Minds stand open to receive them you will never want them for the Enemy of your Souls and ours yea of all Mankind will never be wanting to furnish you with Lies for Strengthening his Kingdom in you and hindering you from entring into the Kingdom of God And if you would know the Reason of his thus rising up against us I say it is because through the Grace of God given us we Preach the Mystery of the Kingdom of God even the Wisdom of God in a Mystery as Scripture speaks And that Striking at his carnal Conceptions of things and his Idolatrous Thoughts of outward Water-Baptism hath stirred up the Venom in him which by this his Book he hath Vented but the Lord is the Pleader of his People's Cause which is our Joy and our Armour against all the fiery Darts of all wicked Ones for the Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascention Glorification of Christ and his Coming again to us according to the Scriptures of Truth and Heavenly Promises through the Power of God to our Souls Eternal Salvation and Comfort we Witness Glory to the Lord for ever whatsoever this Book or any thing of like nature can or may say to the contrary so as Christ said to one of our Brethren in times past The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against us And so in the Peaceable Habitation of the Love of God in Christ Jesus do we lye down together with all Holy Souls and Spirits of Just Men made Perfect Hallelujah for the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth in Mount Zion and before his Ancients Gloriously And so let the Mouth of all Iniquity be stopped for ever saith my Soul Thomas Taylor Something concerning that called the Common-Prayer AND Now all People that you may see we do not without cause Cry against the Priests and deny to joyn with them in the present Common Service now in use amongst the Parish Teachers of England which you are enjoyned upon several Penalties to submit unto I shall in the strength of Truth unbowel it a little unto you that you may at least in part see the true inside of it and not be deceived with the outward Appearance any longer for the Lord is arisen in his mighty Glorious Power to scatter all those Clouds of Ignorance and Error that have long vailed and covered the Minds of People and to be himself the Teacher of his People how to Worship him For his Spirit is greatly burdened with the Manners of the People who take his Name so continually in vain as such do as are only Confessors of their Sins but never forsake them but all their Lives long doing what they should not do and so instead of lessening their Sins are daily adding Sin to Sin covering with a vain verbal unfeeling Confession of Sin but not with the Spirit of the Lord. And so in the very entrance into their Work their Foundation is seen for they manifest themselves not to be in the New Covenant of the Spirit of the God of Life but in the Old Covenant of the Letter saying The Scripture moves them to confess their manifold Sins and Trespasses But when will it be seen that the Scripture moves them to forsake them for a Confession of Sin in Words we hear amongst them but the time of forsaking them never as yet come to be seen
of the Lord wherein he is so lovingly caâ—â—ing them out of their Darkness into his Marvellous Light And as for the Visitation of their Sick and Churching of their Women as they call it that Mosaical Rite there is such bold calling of every one who can but say a few words by rote the Servants of God and putters of their Trust in God and the like it even burdens the Spirit of the Lord to bear it And to hear a poor wretched Man who hath run and God never sent him to say That by the Authority of God given him he Absolves the Sick Man from all his Sins Such had need take heed lest the Judgments of God fall on them as it did upon those Presumptuous Jews the Priests Sons mentioned Acts 19.13 c. And for their Burials as they do in the rest so do they in this and are most grievous Daubers and Takers of God's Name in vain and they are not afraid to say indifferently of one as well as another that they have a Hope yea a sure and certain Hope of their Resurrection to Life Eternal though they have been never so Notoriously Evil in this Life yea though they have said but a little before in their Commination Cursed are the Vnmerciful Fornicators and Adulterers Covetous Persons Idolaters Slanderers Drunkards and Extortioners and both Prieft and People said Amen to it And though they be found living and dying such yet now at their Burial all must be daubed over with a Resurrection to Life Eternal But here is the Device by which the Hireling lives for what by their Doctrines and Words in their Sprinklings in their Confirmations in their Communions in their Burials yea in all their Doings there is such a Bewitching of the People and strengthning the Hands of Evil-doers that none returns from their Evil Ways but all lyes in Death and Darkness without remorse none smites upon his Thigh and saith What have I done But with Death they make a Covenant and with Hell are they and their Multitude at Agreement but with the Over flowing Scourge of his Wrath will the Lord sweep away all Lying Refuges and the Lord is begun to make a Blessed Separation between the Precious and the Vile Glory to his Name for Ever So be it so be it O! the set Wages and Hire in every Parish seconded with an Outward Law to compel it and the many stinted Forms of Words and Actions in their Services made ready to their Hands and Enjoined upon them upon Pain of being uncapable of the Wage and Hire appointed for those Doings is such a Bait to the Mercenary Minds of the Men of this World that it even draws and drives by heaps into the Ministry such as God never sent nor would never come of themselves but for the sake of that filthy Lucre. But God is shaking his Hand against such Dishonest Gain and the Lord hath and is restoring to us the Ancient Ministry as in the Apostles Days where all was done by the Ability of God's own Spirit in such as had freely received the Gift thereof and therefore could and can freely give Glory to his Name for Evermore Amen and Amen Thomas Taylor A Testimony for the Lord the good Shepherd and true Minister of the Sanctuary and true Tabernacle which God hath pitched and not Man against all the false Shepherds and Hireling Ministers and Teachers of the World under what Name or Notion or Form soever who have run and God never sent them and therefore cannot profit the People at all HEAR the Word of the Lod God that is gone forth against you like a Flame of Fire in this the mighty Day of the arising of the Almighty Power of the Lord God Almighty who is jealous of his Honour and who is tender of the poor Souls whom you have deceived and do daily make a Prey of for filthy Lucre your End is come 2 Pet. 2. 2 Cor. 3.13 Dan. 5.26 27. the Day hath Revealed you and in God's Ballance are you weighed and found altogether wanting and therefore is your Kingdom departed from you and now the Lord God is setting up his own most Heavenly and Everlasting Kingdom in the Hearts of his People Dan. 7. who in the Leadings of his Light are come out from amongst you and who through the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of their Testimony have gotten Victory over the Beast the Whore and false Prophet who have desiled the Earth with their Abominations Lies and Lewdness Dan. 7. and he will yet gather more from amongst you And now the Kingdom under the whole Heavens is and shall be for ever the Portion of the People of the Saints of the most High God whose Kingdom is an Everlasting Kingdom and all Dominions shall serve and obey him who liveth for ever who is arisen in this his Glorious Day not only to reveal but even to destroy to the uttermost the Man of Sin that Son of Perdition in all the Earth 2 Thess 2. which hath sate in the Temple of God as God saying he was God and hath long Exalted himself above all that was called God which alone ought to be Worshipped but the Lord is arisen to dethrone him even that Wicked One who would not suffer the true Seed the true Heir Christ Jesus the true Light to Reign but hath always like an enraged Beast pushed with his Horns against the Lamb in every Appearance whereby the tender Buddings of Truth in many People have been often hurt and the Growth of the good Seed often hindered and some of the feeble Ones even in their comings out of Egypt have been out off by this Spiritual Amaleck the Dragon upon which the Whore the false Priesthood and Ministry Rides whom God will have War with for ever and will destroy him to the End for now is the Ancient of Days upon his Throne and the Thrones of the Wicked are cast down and One like unto the Son of Man Acts 9.10 11. to wit the Lord Christ Jesus in and with his numberless Number is come with the Clouds of Heaven for as sure as he went up so is he certainly come again and broughâ— near to the Ancient of Days Dan. 7.26 27. and is in the actual Possession of that Kingdom Glory and Power given him of the Father that all People Nations and Languages should serve and obey him for his Dominion is an Everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and now the Judgment is set and the Books are opened Glory to the Lord for ever and now is the Revelation of all Things Rev. 16.19 and fulfilling of all Things which hath been spoken of by the true Witness since the World began And now the Tything Hireling Priests and Merchants of Babylon who by their Works deny Christ come in the Flesh run to the Powers of the Earth and Cry out Rev. 18.15 16. and
void the Covenant of God with his Elect in Christ Jesus the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven for as is the Heavenly so are they that are Heavenly And so whosoever is Born of God and abideth in Christ sinneth not for he that sinneth hath neither seen Christ nor known Christ as the Apostle saith expresly in 1 John 3.6 9. And herein is that saying true 1 John last If we say we have not sinned to wit in the First Adam or Flesh we make God a Liar but now being Translated out of that Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of the Dear Son of God the Light we put on Christ's Nature which is Holiness and Righteousness without which none shall see God Blessed be God for his Unspeakable Rich Gift And so though in the First Man 's faln Nature there is Sin and Death yet in Christ Jesus there is Life Righteousness and Everlasting Peace And if thou wouldst not have Death the Wages of Sin thou must come out of the Flesh into the Spirit of Christ where Life and Everlasting Peace is witnessed This is the Day of the Lord 's Mighty Working wherein he is separating the Sheep from the Goats and making the difference plain and manifest betwixt such as serve God and such as serve Sin And for that other Scripture 1 Kings 8.46 which saith There is no Man that sinneth not it must in like manner be understood as the former to wit of Man in the First Adam or faln Fleshly Nature where all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God and in which state of Sin and Unbelief whosoever abide they do sin daily But this toucheth not at all the sinless and perfect state of the Children of God in Christ Jesus where Sin which is the Devil's Work comes not as was said before for the Prince of this World hath no part in me saith Christ And therefore who art thou that lays Sin to the Charge of God's Elect Thy own words shall be thy Burden but Peace on God's Israel for Evermore And for that third Scripture Prov. 20.9 Who can say I have made my Heart clean I am pure from my Sin I say No Man can say that he hath made himself so though in Christ Jesus he is so for not of our selves but of God's alone Mercy and Free-gift in Christ Jesus it comes to pass that the Elect Vessels are cleansed and made pure in Heart according to that well-known place Eph. 5.25 26 27 Christ gave himself for his Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word that he might present it himself a Glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Is not here a Company made clean indeed yea clean at Heart and pure from Sin in and by Christ Jesus Therefore let all the Enemies of Christ and his perfect Work be silent for ever So be it But above all it seems strange what he sets down in that Defiling Book called The Looking-glass where he saith That Philpot Bradford and Cranmer confessed That they were vile sinful and wretched Hypocrites even at the State when to be burnt for their Religion I say either he or the Printer or Relator of the History or all of them do greatly wrong them Sufferers or else their Condition is greatly to be lamented who had so much Zeal and Boldness as to Suffer for the sake of their Conscience and yet had so little Knowledge and Understanding of the Mystery of God and Christ as not to know the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost no better But we leave this and so proceed to see what there is in those Scriptures which he saith the Quakers make so much use of to prove Sinless Perfection The first is Psal 37.37 Mark the Perfect Man and behold the Vpright for the end of that Man is Peace The second is Heb. 6.1 Therefore leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on to Perfection The third is 1 Cor. 2.6 Howbeit we speak Wisdom among them that are perfect The fourth is 2 Cor. 13.11 Finally Brethren farewel be perfect To all which I say It 's most plain to every pure Eye that these Scriptures with many more that might be brought to the same purpose prove sufficiently a Sinless Perfection otherwise it is no Perfection at all if not Sinless of God's working for every Work of God is Sinless and Perfect for that Perfection which is in or with Sin is the Work of the Man of Sin and is that Perfection which pleaseth his vile sinful hypocritical Members so well And so whosoever marks and beholds this imperfect and unbelieving Generation shall plainly see their End is Trouble and Misery and therefore it is that our words which we speak this day from the Lord concerning the great things of his Kingdom are accounted no better than Folly and Error amongst these sinful Opposers of God's Work of Sinless Perfection in his Saints and so these Opposers are never going on to God's Perfection but backwards from that of God in them which should lead them to God and so their Back and not their Face turned to God they are ever learning but never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth as it is in Christ Jesus which perfects to God all that come to it And so how can they for shame exhort their Hearers to Perfection who are themselves the great Opposers of God's perfect Work in his People above all others To conclude That which remains at present to be spoken to that filthy Looking-glass is to wipe off a heap of Lies and Dirt which he hath falsly charged upon the Innocent and Harmless People of God called Quakers as in p. 249. where he saith That we disown the Ordinances of Christ and his Gospel the Word preached by his Ministers Church-order Baptism and Supper of the Lord Prayer Singing of Psalms the Publick Ministry as no Ministry of Jesus Christ Albeit saith he God hath set his Seal thereto in the Conversion of many Souls To all which in a word I answer and say The Lord both hath and yet will rebuke that Lying Spirit by which this Book was written And in particular to the several parts of this false and notorious lying Charge against us I say That the Ordinances of Christ and his everlasting Gospel we dearly love and own and the Word preached by his Ministers but not the Ministers of Antichrist we dearly own and delight in for the Word of God which the Ministers of Christ which he sends preach is Spirit and Life not the dead Letter for the dead Letter which the Hirelings preach for filthy Lucre we know to be no better than Chaff compared with that living Word which the Ministers of Christ preach for the Letter of the Hireling killeth but the Spiritual Word of the Gospel of Christ gives Life the Word of the
Scripture is fulfilled which saith They hated me without a Cause Thomas Taylor To the People at and about Stafford a Testimony for God and his Truth and against Deceit and Deceivers especially the Hireling Priests as a Warning Information and Instruction in Righteousness to them and all People elsewhere concerned by the Spirit of the Lord in his Suffering Servant Thomas Taylor Hear O People and Fear for the LORD hath spoken THE false Teacher the Hireling who hath run and God never sent him but Preaches for Hire and Divines for Money can never profit your Souls O People at all but with their selfe Dreams and lying Divinations and empty Sounds they deceive your poor Souls For what can the dead words of a dâ—â—d Man dead in Sins raise up your dead Souls from Death to Life No they cannot they have no Life in them and such who have no Spiritual Health nor Soundness by their own Confession in them but are Miserable Offenders can they minister any healthful or sound Doctrine to your Souls Nay these cannot for what is their Chaff to the Wheat their frothy Words to the powerful Word of God For sow a Field with Chaff and what a Crop can you expect But as the Prophet saith They sow the Wind and reap the Whirlwind So cease from them you that love God and your own Souls and turn to God for I Testifie for God That the True Ministry the Soul-saving Ministry of Christ Jesus is not with the Parish-Hirelings of these Days for neither their long Black Robes nor long White Surplices nor their Humane Learning nor the Ordination of Man Men of like Nature with themselves doth any more conduce to the making of them able Ministers of the New Covenant the Gospel of Christ the Everlasting Covenant of God than the Grey or Brown Coat of the Plow-man or Artificer or the Skill of the Husbandman in Husbandry or the Cunning of the Cunning Worker in Wood Brass or Iron doth furnish them for Gospel-service for the Vision of God's Kingdom to all the World this Day both Wise and Foolish is like a Book sealed as the Prophet saith which is given to the Worldly-wise to read and he cannot read it because it 's seal'd and to the Foolish and he cannot read it because he is unlearned Isa 29.10 11 12. so though in the World there is a difference betwixt the Wise and Foolish yet as to the Kingdom of God there is none for the Wisdom of this World is foolishness with God 1 Cor. 1.10 c. for that which lyeth hid from all Flesh God reveals to his by his Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.6 7 8. And People the time of quickning and raising up of many that were dead in Sins is come again after a long Night of Darkness and the Dead this Day hear the Voice of the Son of God not of main Man and they that hear do live John 5.25 So People look to your Souls for though your Parish-Teachers who Preach for Hire and Divine for Money and love to go in their Long and White Robes do boast of their being come out of Popery yet upon the Popish Maintenance of Tythes Glebe-lands Easter-reckonings Mortuaries and Moneys for Preaching over and Burying the Dead and such like things they live and make a Prey upon not willing to come to Christ to this Day as the first Christians did for a thorough Reformation and so not a little but a great deal of the Old Soure Popish Leaven being yet found amongst them both in Doctrine and Practice how should their whole Lump but be very sour As appears by their Fruits and the Fruits of such as follow them And so for witnessing in Christ against them for these evil things 〈◊〉 suffer Imprisonment yet through God's Mercy inabling me thereunto I rejoice and can truly from my Heart praise the Lord that hath deliver'd my Soul from that horrible Pit that these ungodly Men yet remain in and will not be helped out of And ye People of Stafford for your sakes it was that the Lord by my Mouth rebuked the Hireling that you might not always be deceived and kept in Death with such Dreamers but that you might turn to the Lord God from all such to know his Word and Spirit that made you in you to teach you and to lead your Immortal Souls to the Springs of Living Waters for you have too long dwelt in the Wilderness of Sin Ignorance and Vnbelief and now it is high time for you to Repent and come to know the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire which is Christ's proper Baptism Mat. 3.10 11 12. for alas you have but hitherto been carried on by the Pharisees in the outward Shadows and Figures of Things which reach not the Soul to purifie and perfect it unto God and therefore is the Lord come in Mighty Power this Day to break in sunder all the Graven Images of the People whether under the Profession of the Popish or Protestant Religion for the Lord is on his Throne to make all things new again as in the beginning when all the Sons of God in Holiness sung for Joy and rejoiced in the Lord for the Blessed Victory they had got through the Blood of the Lamb over all their Souls Enemies But Wo and Alas for you the Poor People of Stafford and of many other Places who are under the Teachings of Worldly-minded Men Miserable Offenders like your selves always doing what ye should not do and leaving undone what ye should do and so without all Spiritual Health in the Miserable Captivity of Sin my Soul mourns for you and my Sufferings are for you and my Soul prays for you that you may be recover'd out of the Snare of your Soul's Enemy by which ye are led Captive at his Will for many Days and Years hath my Soul mourned for you and been oppressed and the Lord hath called to you early and late to Repent and lay things to Heart but O the hardness of many of your Hearts and the carelesness of the rest O why will ye Die Why will ye linger and remain still in Spiritual Sodom and Egypt where the Witnesses lay slain Rev. 11. So whilst ye have time prize it left the Lord lay you upon a Bed of Sorrows where no Ease is and say unto you in his Wrath I gave them time to Repent and they Repenâ—ed not In the Year 1679. Thomas Taylor HEAR the Word of the Lord all you that fear to offend the Lord and who breathe after Righteousness in any measure and yet in your Ignorance are seeking the Living among the Dead the Living God in Dead Observations which by Tradition you have received one from another and not from the Lord Jesus The Day is come wherein by the Spirit of Jesus it is witnessed in and by his Living Members That he that was dead is now alive and lives for Evermore and is
coming in the Clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory The Disciples in the beginning of this Chapter asked him What should be the Sign of his Coming And here he answers them Not a wooden Cross or any such thing but the fore-goings of Judgment terrible Judgments as is here mentioned which go immediately before this his appearing And for the outward Cross being a special Memorial of the Passion The Apostles had other ways of remembring Christ's Death than by outward Crosses of Wood Gold Silver or other Metal or Stone or so for they were buried with him into the likeness of his Death and they bore in their Bodies the Marks and Dying of the Lord Jesus and the Vertue of Christ's Passion they felt daily to Crucifie them to the World and the World with all its Evil to them And as they died and were dead to Sin they were made alive and lived to God and so Christ lived in them and they in him How could they forget one another And thus it was not only with the Apostles but with all the true and living Members of Jesus standing thus in the Faith in those Times as Scripture plentifully declares and neither need nor mention made of any outward Cross to put them in mind of Christ's Passion seeing they daily suffered and reigned with him But People retaining only the Name of Christians but falling from the Faith of Christ which the true Saints lived in then came up this Invention of outward Crosses and Pictures and such-like Smoak out of the Bottomless Pit for Memorials and Teachers to the poor Carnal-minded People which were out of the Faith and so at Enmity against God But Praises to the Lord saith my Soul for this day of his which after a long Night of Darkness is restoring to many the ancient everlasting Truth which all Holy Men of God lived by And now Mystery Babylon with all her Lovers must into the Lake prepared for her But says this Dreamer farther The Cross was that blessed Altar on which Christ offered his Bloody Sacrifice And to prove it brings Gal. 6.13 Phil. 3.18 Ezek. 9.4 In which last Scripture he says Such as were signed with the sign Tau which was a Picture or Figure of the Cross were saved from the exterminating Angel and only such Now to this I say it is meer Deceit And adding to the Scripture this Saying of his for there is mention made only of a Mark Vision-wise but nothing at all what Mark it was neither was it needful for to mark them there signifies God's special Care of his in time of Judgment and not an outward Cross as these Dreamers Dream And for those other Scriptures Gal. 6. Phil. 3. they speak not of the outward Cross of Wood or so but of the inward Spiritual Cross the Power of God 1 Cor. 1.17 18. But this Man by calling the Cross the Altar maketh it greater than Christ for saith Christ Matt. 23.19 Whether is greater the Gift than the Altar that Sanctifies it And thus it appears how near unto Blasphemy are all Superstitious and Idolatrous Minds In his Exposition of the Fifth Article of the Creed he saith That his descending into Hell meaneth That so soon as Christ was dead his blessed Soul descended into Limbo to free the Holy Fathers who were there And for proof brings Acts 2.2 24 27. and Eph. 4.8 And then asks Did he not also descend to Purgatory to free such as were there He answers It is most probable he did according to 1 Pet. 3.19 20. I Answer That these dark Imaginations are poor Grounds for People to place Faith and so Salvation on It is probable saith he that he descended to Purgatory And what is it more than probable that he went into Limbo Nay nay it is not so much as probable that he went into either for those Scriptures he brings speaks neither of Limbo nor Purgatory and so there being no such Place as either Limbo or Purgatory as Papists Dream how could he descend into either For the true Place of Purging is through Sanctification of the Spirit in the Belief of the Truth as it is in Jesus in this Life time and not afterwards And the Heil which Christ's Soul was not left in is understood when he said My God why hast thou forsaken me And for his Body it was raised out of the Grave and so the true Christ saw no Corruption as the Scripture there speaks But your imagined Breaden Christ will Corrupt But for this Man's Dream of Interpreting the Prison to be Purgatory which Christ by his Spirit went to Preach to them in in Noah's time that were Disobedient and that not till after he was Crucified is so gross that it needs little other Confutation than the very mentioning of it for Christ by his Spirit in Noah Preached to them in that Day when they were in the Prison of their Sins and by the Spirit that raised Jesus from the Dead have the Wicked been Warned and Preached unto in all Ages And he saith That the print of Christ's Feet are to be seen to this Day upon Mount Olivet from whence he was taken up I say what if it were will you go to Worship it as you do a Wood or Stone Cross But I do no more believe that there are such prints than I do your other Unscriptural Superstitious Imaginations and Inventions But to Discredit this I have very great ground considering that Christ said to Mary that she should not touch him in an outward natural manner or so because he was not yet ascended John 20.17 because there is danger in such things how much less would he leave prints of outward Feet for Superstitious Souls to Idolize And it 's probable for this very Cause was the Body of Moses hid from the Jews lest they should Idolize it Therefore saith Paul a Spiritual minded Man for himself and his Brethren Henceforth know we no Man after the Flesh yea though we have known Christ after the Flesh yet know we him henceforth so no more for he that is in Christ is a New Creature 2 Cor. 5.16 17. When will Christendom so called learn this Lesson And this Book saith That Christ as God is equal with the Father but as Man is in the highest Created Glory I answer the Scripture saith that Christ sitteth or sat down at the Right Hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 Is this Created And he asks Is there any Merit in our Works Yea saith he as in Apoc. 22.12 I say that Scripture doth not say for the Merit of Man's Work but only they shall receive according as their Work is But pure good Works are rather God's than ours and then where is the Merit And he saith The Place of the general Judgment shall be in the Valley of Jehosaphat betwixt Jerusalem and Mount Oliver I answer how knows he that How is it he mentions no Scripture for it So it is meer Imagination But what Must People
Christianity for saith Christ to his Followers when they were telling of who should be greatest of them he Convinced them of their Error by setting before them a little Child and saying who will be greatest of all must be Servant of all and least of all and that not in Words only but in Deed and Truth say I. But what is any thing that is said of Peter in the Scripture to the Pope O yes saith he he is his Successor To which I say it is as false as any thing is true for Peter was a Holy Man of God of Christ's sending but the Pope an unholy Man of the wicked World's sending chusing and setting up witness the Men chusing him and the manner of their chusing and setting him up the very relation of which in all the Foolish and Antichristian Circumstances of it would even make a truly Honest Spiritual Man's Heartake to hear or read it Again Peter was a Humble Man clothed with Humility as he exhorted others not a Lord over God's Heritage but an Example to it of Faith and Goodness as he exhorted others but the Pope is a Proud Man set up at Rome like a Worldly Prince Ruling and Lording it over God's Heritage not only with his wicked Curses and Excommunications of all that will not bow to his Superstitions and Abominable Idolatries but even Persecuting to Death with worldly Power and Force where he can do it either by his own or others whom he can stir up and perswade to act his wicked Will all such as deny him and against him bear withess though otherwise they be never so dear and near to the Lord God and so instead of being an Example of Goodness to any he is become an Abhorring to Nations and therefore is the Wo come and coming upon him and his Seat and Upholders and Lovers from him who is a Consuming Fire and this Babylon with all its Strength and Glory shall be burnt in his Fire and Zion shall not take one of her polluted Stones to put in her Holy Building It is so Thomas Taylor There is more by me of this kind as in Answer to more Passages of that Bad Book herein mentioned which in due time may come forth and it is this Again as concerning the Pope's succceding Peter and all Successions relating to the Church of God truly so called I say it is meerly Spiritual as the Lord said concerning his Prophet The Spirit that I have put upon thee and the Word which I have put into thy Mouth shall not depart from thee nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed nor out of the Mouth of thy Seeds Seed from henceforth and for ever And so we finding both the Spirit and Word of the Pope to be quite of another Nature than that which was in Peter and the other Apostles we deny him and his Succession together with all other Pretenders to the like Succession who want that Heavenly Spirit Life and Doctrine that they were in In the Ninth Article this Bad Book saith But why may not a well-meaning Man be saved in any Religion He answers First from Ephes 4.5 and Heb. 11.6 where mention is made of one Faith and that without Faith it is impossible to please God Then I say well meaning in the Popish Way without true Faith will not save no more than in any other But then saith he Secondly because as in a natural Body that part which hath not a due Connexion to the Heart or Root presently dies for want of Continuity So in the Church the Mystical Body of Christ faith he that Part or Member that hath not a due Subordination and Connexion unto the Head and Commen Councils thereof that is the Pope and General Councils thou shouldst have said Christ as in Ephes 4.15 16. from whence under Christ we have our Spiritual Life and Motion as we are Christians must needs be dead nor indeed can be accounted a Member of that Mystical Body O Profound Antichristian Doctrine indeed For here thou hast pulled off thy Vizard with thy own Hand and any one of a very mean Understandstanding may see that by this Popish Doctrine Christ the Living Fountain is thrust out of Doors for it must not by this be known what saith Christ and his Spirit to my Soul but what faith the Pope and his Councils to mine Ear. And afterwards this Pleader for Baal to wit the Pope and his Councils accounts them Novelists Hereticks and Idle Brains that will not submit to this Tribunal of Christ he should have said Antichrist on Earth to wit the Pope and his General Councils and makes this alone to be the Cause of all Heresies and Sects as he calls them whether Protestants or other For saith he they will not be tried by this Tribunal but by their own idle Brain and the dead Letter of the Scripture To which I say God will judge this Man and all such for their Wickedness in coupling an idle Brain and the Letter of the Scripture together for though the Scripture be but as a dead thing to them that will neither understand nor believe it yet to an Inlightened Understanding Believing Soul it is of such Service that the Apostle is not afraid to say That the Scripture is given for our Learning upon whom the Ends of the World are come And the Scripture is of such force in the Hand of such Inlightned and truly Understanding Ones that Christ made use of it against the great Wrester of Scripture to wit the Devil and by the right use of it in the hands of the Faithful through the Spirit which gave them forth all the Mud-walls of Popery and Paper Bullwarks of the whole Antichristian Kingdom of False Professors both have and daily are beat down and therefore doth the wicked Popedom keep the Holy Scripture from the poor Slaves under them But the great King Christ Jesus upon his Heavenly Tribunal is bringing his great Work to pass in these latter days against the Beast Whore and False Prophet under what Name or Notion soever and by his Spirit according to Scripture to pour Judgments and Plagues upon all their Tribunals Glory to his Name for evermore Again this Popish Book asks Is not this to wit the want of a Popish Tribunal the reason why the Protestants and other Sects are so divided c. He answers Yea a principal reason For how can different Fancies says he upon different Principles be united I answer No The want of this Tribunal is not the cause And ask What was the Reason of Differences amongst the Jews that had their Tribunal of the Law outward and High Priests and Sanhedrims or great Councils for ordering Matters of Religion Yea and what was the reason that there was Divisions and Dissentions amongst the first Christians when even Peter and other Apostles were living Yea saith the Apostle There must be Heresies among you even you that all profess Christ and he gives a Reason that these that
that he saith A New Covenant he hath made the first Old Now that whichâ—d cayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away This is the Apostle's Conclusion from the former words as is to be seen in the last Verse of that 8th Chapter to the Hebrews Now mind whoever thou art that reads these words that the Covenant which here he calls Old was that which God made with the Fleshly Seed of Abraham at their coming out of Egypt which is mentioned in the Writings of Moses as you may read and part of this Covenant was the Two Tables of Stone which the Lord by his Angel delivered Moses for that People to observe and keep with the rest of what Moses had in Charge for them and set down in the outward Book to be done and which the Children of Israel did Promise and Covenant that they would observe and do but they broke Covenant with God as all Flesh ever did and doth at this Day and so the Lord regarded them not for no Flesh can do what the Pure Spiritual Lord God commands them having no more help thereto but what a Law or Letter without can furnish them withal and therefore the Lord God in love to Man's Soul sent Christ into the World to be his own Arm and Power to and in Man to bring forth that Righteousness and Holiness which he required and therefore saith Paul after he saw his own utter unableness to do the Will of God with all the outward Helps that ever he had he concludes that they that are in the Flesh cannot please God let them turn which way they can for the Enmity against the Law whilst in that Principle and in that thou T. H. art still remains against the Spiritual Law of God as he saith Rom. 8.7 For the Carnal Mind is not subject to the Law of God nor indeed can be And therefore as Paul so must all come to Christ the Lord that Spirit to know him in them to destroy the Enmity out of them that so the Will of God and Law of his Mouth which is Spiritual may be done in them and so come to witness as Paul there in Rom. 8.2 did That the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made them free from the Law of Sin and Death And the Ground or Reason of the Lord 's gracious Dealing with Man in the next Verse e sets down saying For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful Flesh and for Sin condemned Sin in the Flesh And the end of all this he shews in the next Verse saying That the Righteousness of God's Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And thus he stops the Mouths of all the Enemies of Christ who with Tho Hall would object That with Preaching of Christ and his Light and hi Spirit in Man to be all in all they make void the Law Answ Nay nay I say By Preaching Christ we establish the Law to the Glory of God in Christ over all And so thou Tho. Hall hast been he which hath not hitherto either truly heard Moses nor the Prophets nor Christ nor his Apostles or his Spirit in these days and so canst not in that wretched Mind believe though one come from the Dead And so for the Truths sake and to stop the Errors and Blasphemies of this Thomas Hall who ceaseth not to pour forth his Ignorance against the Lord Jesus Christ and his blessed Spirit of Light and Life in Man the only Teacher of God's People in these Gospel days have I writ these Lines that the Truth of the Gospel against his and all such Unbelieving Jewish Persecuting Spirits in these days may stand cear over all their Heads and triumph for ever in the Hearts and Consciences of all tender and honest-minded People whose Desires 〈◊〉 continually after the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof whose Kingdom is everlasting and the Righteousness thereof is Pure Spotless and Undefiled of God and endureth for ever And this is our Righteousness and the Righteousness of all Saints Praised be God for ever and for whose Name and Truths sake and for bearing Testimony thereof in this World do we suffer Reproach and Persecutions from the present evil World not only of the Prophane but even of many such unreasonable professing vain Talkers as this T. Hall who would be Teachers of the Law not knowing what they say nor whereof they affirm as Paul the Apostle of Christ witnessed of such in his days who would never be quiet from opposing the Gospel with their False Interpretations of the Law until God cut them off and cast them away for their Wickedness But we know saith the same Apostle in that place to wit 1 Tim. 1.5 6 7 c. that the Law is good if a Man use it lawfully I nowing this that the Law is not made for a righteous Man but for the Lawless and Disobedient for the Vngodly and for Sinner c. So say we and so the Law of God we love and honour â—s God's Ordinance for good to restrain limit and condemn such ungodly and unreasonable Spirits as this T. Hall is for those that will not believe nor obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ must be ruled and bruised and condemned with the Iron Rod of God's righteous Law which whatsoever it saith it saith to them that are under it that every sinful Mouth may be stopped and all the World of wicked unbelieving Men may be found guilty before God Glory to his Name for ever who giveth us the Victory by Jesus Christ our Lord who is our Light Life Wisdom Righteousness and Salvation for ever whose Grace alone is able to keep us and preserve us and present us and all that believe in his Light and know him in them unto himself without Spot and Wrinkle and unreprovable in everlasting Peace Rests a Lover of the Soul of Man which is in great Captivity until it come to the Liberty of God's Sons and who in a patient quiet Suffering way do wait to do it good as a Servant of God wherein I may be known amongst Men by the Name of Thomas Taylor but in the New Name which is of God and not of this World which the Father hath given me doth my Soul rejoyce And though I be set a-part for Sufferings amongst the reproached despised People of God called Quakers by the World yet we are Happier than our Persecutors in that the Lord is on our sides and justifies us in his way which is Christ while his Holy Spirit testifies against our Adversaries because they are his Adversaries He that hath an Ear to hear let him hear and give Glory to God by believing for these words are Faithful and True Thomas Taylor FINIS A Testimony for the Lord God and His Work in the Earth HEar O EARTH and hearken ye
that but thou addest a great and wicked Lie and Slander in saying we condemn the most Eminent Saints and Martyrs for thou say'st they were not of our Minds and thou seemest much Troubled that thy self also whom thou hast so high an esteem of could not pass the Censure of those thou scornfully calls Quakers have any of them called thee Deceiver and the like I say see if it be not true that might be thus spoken unto thee for it is no Derogation to the Honour of Truth to say the Truth it self may call a Deceiver false Accuser and Reproacher by their proper names For in Matt. 23. and John 8. see Christs Language to the Hypocrites of those Days so the Error was not in Christ his calling them so that were so but in those Pharisees there calling Christ a Deceiver and Devil when he was not so nor could be and for the most Holy and Zealous Christians amongst you that thou say'st had the like Names from us I answer if any under the Name Quaker called thee or any of thy Company otherwise than they in the Light saw true or could make good they were to blame but if any in Truth have declared your Inward Condition to you though under such Tearms you ought rather to repent than to kick and spurn at it in your hard Hearts for it will be hard for you to kick against the Pricks and for Spewing you may take that to your selves whose Throat is an open Sepulchre wide opened against all that are Holy and Zealous in Christ to separate from you and witness against your Deceit And so if those thou callest Holy and Zealous Christians amongst you together with thy self be weighed in the Ballance of Truth it will appear you are as far from that State as the East is from the West But I demand how thou knowest the Saints and Martyrs were not of our Perswasion and Practice for thou dost not judge with the Light that is Pure and Spiritual as is manifest nor see with a single Eye but only judgeth with thy Evil Thoughts and False Imaginations for we say in a few words that our Mind and Practice is to believe on the Name of the Son of God that true Light that Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and to love one another and to labour to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and all Men And I Read that the Saints and Martyrs were of this Perswasion and Practice with us and so we have a Cloud of Witnesses both Ancient and Modern of the Truth of this our way and so if thou hast Books that tell of other manner of Saints or Martyrs I deny both them and thee in calling them Saints who are not for the Saints of God and Martyrs of Jesus are one Body in all Ages not loving their Lives to death that so they might always keep to God's manifest Truth in them without denying it before Men and this is that which the Lord God hath wrought in us poor Despised People to the Glory of his Grace in this his day that no Flesh might Glory but as it is written Let him that Glorieth Glory in the Lord who alone is worthy Qu. 7. But in thy seventh and next Query thou thinkest thou hast gotten something against us because say'st thou we use to cry against you as Hirelings and that you would Preach no longer than People put into your Mouths but now say'st thou it 's manifest that many of these are ready to lose all for the Testimony of Jesus and to Preach the Gospel freely though it be in danger of Imprisonment Answ To which I answer and say That the Testimony of those thou scornfully callest Quakers against you stands firm and true for all these thy high swelling Words of Vanity for we know none of you Preaching freely as yet and the reason why you talk in the form you do it because you cannot keep your fat Benefices O Hypocrites What Whining and Complaining is there by you in these days for your Belly But for Preaching the Gospel you have manifested your selves to be Ignorant both of Christ and of the Gospel by denying the sufficiency of the Light which Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World John 1.9 and then put the Letter for the Light and so fight and strive with your Brethren about your form and several Imaginations of the Letter one cries up a Bishop another a Presbyter and both of you Ignorant of the true Bishop and Elder But John Reynolds would'st not thou and thy Brethren be at the Gain from your Quarter again if Common-Prayer could be dispensed withal Oh if you be brought into such a suffering Frame How is it that we have no more of your Company in Prison Nay nay your old Heart is in you yet and ye would be sucking Lambs Blood still if you had Power and that the God of Heaven sees and will take Vengeance on you for it and that which you cannot do with your Hands you are doing with your Tongues and Pens as is manifest But I have often said if you could Preach freely that is without a set or forced maintenance in the state where you are that would not at all commend you to God or his People For you have run and God never sent you and therefore you remain so ignorant of him and profit not them that follow you for when did Christ bid you go to the Universities of the World to learn him there And when did he bid you go to such a place and such a place and there sit down and Eat the Fat and Cloath with the Wooll and Preach the Thoughts of your vain Hearts as you have done and would do and be guarded by the Magistrates Power that none should speak to you in your high Places nor going nor coming from thence O call to mind the day of your fulness and of your Pride the same measure you mete to others is God measuring to you you must be broken to pieces because you turn not to the Lord for all this And to the despised thing the Light in your Conscience you must come and bow before it as others have done before you be healed and if it give you a word to speak you may speak it otherwise you must be silent or you perish The Lord is arisen and so if indeed you can kiss his Rod you may find Mercy but if you still go on justifying your selves in his sight you shall certainly moulder to nothing the Lord hath said it who is daily gathering his Lambs out of the Mouths of all Devourers Glory to his Name for ever But what Testimony of Jesus can you either give or suffer for who have so Vilified and Reproached the Spirit of Prophesie in Sons and Daughters in Servants and Handmaids in these Days For the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophesie And now all People I shall lay before you a little more the Condition
thee who wilt not have it to rule in thee the Lord hath no respect nor to thy Offering So prize your Time O all ye Strangers to the Life of God and make supplication to your Judge Christ Jesus that Lights every Man that comes into the World for this is the condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men Loved and do Love their evil deeds and hate the Light for every evil Doer hates the Light saith Christ yea it is so whatsoever the Hypocrite the Evil-Doer with his Mouth may say to the contrary And all ye Children of the Light walk in the Light and be thankful for the Lord is Arisen in Mighty Power to Crown you with his Glory his Glorious Righteous Wisdom Holiness and Salvation he is come indeed to fulfil all his Promises in you and for you to the Glorifying of the Arm of his own Power and for your Souls endless comfort and why should any of you be afraid of what Man can do against you seeing you fear God and love the Children of Men and you are not of them that seek to destroy Mens Lives but to save them as much as in you lieth Arise Arise break forth into singing ye Sons and Daughters of the Heavenly King the Lord our Righteousness for thy Light is come and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee And thou shalt no more be termed desolate for thy Maker is thy Husband and thy Land is married indeed And thy Plants grow and thy Gardens cast a Sweet Smell Oh! Happy are they who Believe in thy Light and walk in the clear Sun-shine of thy Day No Stumbling nor ocasion of Stumbling is on thy Mountain nor in thy Valleys but on the Dark Mountains whereon the Haters of Christ walk is all the Stumbling of this present World Thou who art come in at the true Door Christ Jesus the Light of the World thy Kingdom is not of this World but is a Kingdom without End which cannot be shaken wherein dwels Righteousness indeed and thy Pasture is Fresh and green all the Year bong being wet with the Dew of Heaven yea in thy Happy Lot are both the upper and nether Springs and Bread of Life for evermore where rests with thee in the Purest Love thy Brother in the Joys and Sufferings of the Gospel Thomas Taylor In the 12 of the 6th Month 1669. A Message of Truth to Professors WO to the Teachers of the People that daub with untemper'd Morter and cry Peace Peace when the Lord hath not spoken Peace For the Lord speaks Peace to none in their Sins but they Teach for Doctrine That none can Live out of Sin whil'st on this side the Grave and so they Minister for Antichrist the Man of Sin and not for Christ who is without Sin in Gods Righteousness And he that keepeth Christ's Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him and his Commandments are not Grievous saith John And again He that is Born of Christ Sinneth not for the Everlasting Father of the Vnspotted Generation it he And herein saith the same John and all the Living Members of Christ is our Love made Perfect that we may have Boldness in the Day of Judgment because as he is so are we in this World But the Masterly Teachers of this world cry out O the Commands of Christ who is God are hard none can keep them we must â—ive in Sin whilst on Earth no Perfection here no Victory over all while on this side the outward Grave These have their Eyes abroad and Judge after the Flesh and the things of Gods Spirit are Foolishness to them The Grave of Sir 〈◊〉 lie dead in and know not the Resurrection from it and so 〈◊〉 norant of Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life And the â—â—r in such is shut as yet that should hear the Sons Voice whose Vâ—â—â—e raiseth the Dead O Foolish and Slow of Heart to believe all that Christ and his Prophets have spoken Doth not Christ say The hour is coming and now is when the Dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall Live For as the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have Life in himself John 5.26 And in another place He that Liveth and Believeth in me shall never die for God is not the God of the Dead but of the Living for the Dead cannot Praise him And And I will Ransom them from the Power of the Grace I will Redeem them from Death O Death I will be thy Flagnes O Grave I will be thy Destruction Hos 13.14 And again Ezek. 27.12 c. Thus saith the Lord God Behold O my People I will open your Graves and cause you to come up out of your Graves and ye shall know that I am the Lord and I will Place my Sanctuary in the midst of you for evermore These Words are Faithful and True and the Israel of God who are risen with Christ know them and in the Birth Immortal being passed from Death to Life do set to their Seal That God is a Faithful Performer of his Promises this Day For Life and Immortality is brought to Light through the Gospel which is the Power of God to Salvation in all that believe in God and know his Christ in them who is the Death of Death and Destruction of Sin and Life Eternal to enjoy Glory to his Name for ever And against this Living Faith and Quickning Power the Gates of Hâ—ll shall never be able no prevail But as any said before Wo to the Teachers of the People who Daub with Untempâ—â—ed Morter who look outward and judge of things according to the Flesâ— and outward appearance of things and plead for the Life of Sin during the whole time of Mans being upon Earth and look at the Grave without and Death without and so lie Dead in Sin and Buried in the Grave of their Spiritual Wickedness themselves and so leâ—d about a People filly as Women in Matters Spiritual laden like themselves with divers Sins and Lusts always learning but never able to come to the Knowledge of the Truth For who know the Truth as it is in Jesus are set free by it For if you be set free by the Truth then are ye free indeed saith Christ This is more than all outward Knowledge and Profession to be so free as not to be under the Power of any Sin Lust Temptation Will of Man nor any of the Powers of Darkness whatsoever but Free as Christ is Free who is over all God Blessed forever But now that Christ is come to set up this his Holy Glorious Kingdom in the Hearts of the Children of Men where is this Faith to be found on Earth But the Multitudes of Earthly Professors cry the Kingdom of Heaven hereafter the Kingdom of Glory hereafter no Perfection on this side the outward Grave none can overcome or put off the Body of Sin whilst here and the
be hated of all men whether Professors or Prophane who are out of that Life and Holy Worship even for Christs very Name and Life's sake because it is a Cross and Offence to all the World who are in their own Wills under what Form or Profession soever who are gotten into a Profession of Christ without Christ and the daily Cross which his Followers bear Therefore all who are climed up into the Tree of an outward Profession without the true real seeling and Spiritual acquaintance with the daily Cross and fiery Law of the Lord and flaming Sword which Guards the Tree of Life which is in the Hand of the Angel of the Covenant for the cutting down of the Man of Sin that the Birth Immortal which is Holy may onter in and possess the Inheritance must come down again I say they must come to the beginning from which in their fallen Wisdom they are wandred to learn of him in Silence who speaks from Heaven whose Word is nigh in the Heart before ever they be established for except you become as little Children not in Talk but in Truth ye cannot enter God's Kingdom O ye People hearken awhile whether Teachers or Hearers You who have been feeding upon the Tree of Knowledg and never came through Gods Judgments the Flaming Sword to the Tree of Life Your Food is Death your-Works will Burn and your Fig leaf-Covers will fall off you and you be left Naked and Bare to the shame of your Nakedness as in the day that you were Born For what is any Covering unless it be that of the Spirit of Christ The Lord God who is of Purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity will bring your Deeds to the Light of his Judgments from which you cannot flee and before him will nothing stand but that which is Pure Your defiled Preachings Prayings Singings Hearings Readings will be rejected and cast out as Dung from the Presence of the Pure Holy God that is a consuming Fire You have multiplied words without Knowledge Ye have not been neither yet are ye Doers of Gods Will to the Witness of God in your Consciences I speak therefore in vain do you say Lord Lord and he will not hold them Guiltless that take his name in Vain Your Garment is not of the Pure White Linnen which is the Saints Righteousness but Linnen and Woollen is your Covering a thing forbidden by Gods Law Your Field is not sowen with the one Heavenly kind of Grain the Good Wheat but another Seed have you mingled with it and the mixture is so great that the Bad hath almost choaked and covered the Good in you If you will work you must into Gods Vineyard and be exceeding Diligent and Laborious in Spirit in plucking up the Weeds by the Roots in you the Light of Christ in your Conscience waiting in it will give thee Understanding But Wo will be to them who call the Light Darkness and put Darkness for Light and so suffer the Good in them to wither and nourish the Bad Part in them which is like the Grave that never hath enough but is always learning at Man without and not at Christ within and Ministring from the outward Dead Spirit of the World and not from the measure of the Living Spirit of Christ and so not taking heed to the Word of Faith which is nigh in the Heart the Word of Christ which is Spirit and Life they never get Victory over their Sin as is manifest but go laden Teacher and Hearer all their Life long with divers Sins and Lusts as was said before So Wo to the selfish Workers who speak their own words and think their own thoughts on this the Holy Sabbath Day of the Lord God wherein he hath given his People rest from all their weary Labour and Burdens The outward Day the first Day of the Week shall not Cover you nor be a Sabbath to you but in the breach of Gods Holy and Everlasting Spiritual Sabbath of Rest you being found you must bear his Judgment Behold all ye that kindle a Fire this Day and that compass about your selves with Sparks walk in the Light of your Fire and in the Sparks that ye have kindled yet know that your reward from the Lords Hand is to lie down in Sorrow I say all you who feed upon and whose Faith stands in the wisdom of Vain Mans words raised up in the subtility to please the itching Ear and not in the Power of God which washeth the inside a Day of Scattering cometh upon you it cometh and a grievious Whirl-wind from the Lord and the Pleasant Breasts of Mystery Babylon which you so much delight in shall be dried up for the Lord hath rejected your Confidence because you have rejected his Good Word and Counsel and chosen your own Delusion and evil entreated his Servants whom he sent rising up early and sending them time after time to warn you to come out of all your Dead Forms and Dead Faith into the Living Virtue and Power of his eternal Spirit of Truth to Worship him there and to know it in you but you would not therefore the Lord will yet do that Great Work and Wonder amongst you he will confound the Wisdom of your Wise and bring to nought the understanding of your Prudent Men and they shall be as Women weak and feeble the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and the Songs of your Temple shall be Howlings in that Day because of the Vine of Sodom that will bear no more Grapes but so many as have drunk of the Wine of her Fornication must Drink of the Cup of Gods Wrath. And all you who talk of your Faith and suffering Condition and yet Live in your Sin you know not what Spirit you are of for the same mind that you think to suffer in is it which by Transgression grieves the Spirit of God and stands against the setting up of his Kingdom in your selves and the Testimony thereof in his redeemed Ones this Day And so if you could give your Bodies to be burnt in this your Unsaved and Unsanctified Condition it would prosit you nothing at all Wherefore come out from amongst them all you that would be happy and touch no unclean thing but give your Hearts to the Lord to know his Light in you to teach you and he will receive you and hide you from the Wrath that is to come upon all that are not in him as saith his Spirit in his Servant This is a Message of Truth to all you in and about Stafford and those of like Spirit with you elswhere who go under the Name of Presbyterians Teachers and Hearers to Read and Ponder in the cool mind that you may know what the Lords Mind is concerning you in this his day wherein he is manifest with his Fan in his Hand to purge the Floor that he may gather to himself the good Wheat and burn up the Chaff For we knowing the Terrors of the Lord