your good works brought forth in your own wills in that nature in which the enmity lodges is a lame and a blind Sacrifice and of Cain's nature which God accepteth not you are in the liberty of the flesh and the daily Cross of Christ you do not know but lives daily to the World and dies not to it and your knowledge of Christ is without you by what such a Prophet and such an Apostle spoke of him and the witness of the operation of his Spirit and Power you have not in you nor his sufferings you do not know in your life but by your life make him to suffer in you in his Life the horrible filthy thing is commited amongst you and your Teachers are perfect in the false Prophets steps and some of you are as bruit Beasts in their knowledge gathered in by vain study and humane learning through Phylosophy and vain deceit and have large Quarters from which they seek their Gain and through Coveteousness with feigned words make merchandise of souls and are compleat in Balaams way of Idolatry following his Error loving the Wages of unrighteousness teaching for filthy Lucre devouring souls for dishonest Gain by trading with the Scriptures and selling their Imaginations upon them for money gaining many thousand of pounds a year thereby having stolen the Saints words into their unclean hearts uttered forth by them for advantage to themselves when the Lord hath not sent them nor spoken unto them nor ordained them for his service but their Call and Ordination have been by man and their work and testimony of themselves and have not profited you at all and yet you have loved to have it so but what will you do in the end thereof Even you that have been helped and they that have holpen shall both fall together in the Day of the Lord's Recompence which will fall grievously upon you and none shall be able to deliver you but miserable Comforters and Physitians of no value shall all be unto you and your long applyed Promises shall suddenly fly away No Peace from God is to the Wicked neither do I sow Pillows under your Elbows but to the Light in your Consciences I commend these things which Christ hath enlightened every of you withal which shines in Darkness and you cannot it comprehend nor in it believe but at it stumbles and by it shall be broken which if it you loved it would teach you in the Spirit the Living God to worship and would condemn all your set forms of worship in the imaginations the Light is given you of Christ Jesus unto Life Eternal or unto condemnation everlasting when the Hand of the Lord is upon you remember you had Warning and when you are in the Lake and in the Pit remember you had a day of Visitation upon Earth The Light in all your Consciences shall witness Gods Judgments to be just and your mouths shall be stopped To all you that are called Anabaptists WIth you also is the Controversie of the Lord for you are Children of the same seed more purged in the Fire of blind Zeal and begotten in the transforming of the Serpent into more secret hypocrisie and deeper subtilty your covering being larger the greater deceit and abomination lodges under Death reigns among you and your Kingdom is scituate in the Mountains of exaltation and you feed aboundantly in the Valleys of pride and vain glory and are nourished with the bread of prosperity you are grown high and great in your number and have joyned your selves for advantage and glory in your strength having through Policy and Craft and bowing to the beastly power highly exalted your own Horn and by Flattery have gained much of your dominion which you hold in possession by the Law of guile many simple Ones have by your curious colour and bed of fair pretences been deceived to commit Adultry with your Image brought forth in the likeness of the Saints God by imaginations from the Saints words you worship the Practice and exercise of the Saints with the same mind that the Papists do worship their Names and dayes You allow not Idols without nor a vain conversation in the World but you are stricâ—t in observation in your outward conformity in your self-righteousness which is your greatest sin you are cloathed with the Saints words and practices which you have climed up in your own wills to obtain not having entred in by the Door and while you say you eat and drink the Flesh and Blood of Christ in the Saints manner shewing forth his Death till he come to Salvation you kill him as the Heathens do till he appear unto Condemnation and you shew forth daily that you cruciâ—e him in the World eating and drinking to your selves condemnation you say Christ dyed only for you as Elect but your works make manifest that he dies by you as Reprobate You take up a command from the Letter and imitate the Apostles some of you in a lower and some of you in a higher degree in that mind and nature which in the Apostles was crucified and you say Christ commands it when the Letter doth but declare it and you are not led with the same Light which gave forth the Commands declared to observe them but say in such a Verse of such a Chapter such a Command is not having received the Command by the same Spirit Here you are proved to be them which use your tongues and say he saith it when God hath not spoken unto you but as you read it without you as the false Prophets may do the words of the true Prophets and thus you are in the Witchcraft as they were Gal. 3. who take on things in your own wills and observe Commands without from the Letter thereby drawing from the Teachings of God within by the Spirit you are zealous as they were for the Traditions and Figures and cannot see him which is the end of all that which perisheth with the using so you are not dead with Christ from the World who are yet subject to Ordinances which are of the World They that obeyed Christ and followed him were led by the Spirit and not by the Letter for they were not Ministers of the Letter but of the Spirit and such were judged to be in error and this is your condition who say such are Breakers of Christ's Commands and Makers void of the Scripture and Destroyers of the Ordinances who witness Christ the Substance and him to be King and Judg and Law-giver and in whom and upon whom the Scripture is fulfilled and so it established and the Commands of Christ kept which are in Spirit and his Law daily walked in which condemneth sin And this is not contrary to the Scripture but a fulfilling of it in Principles in Doctrines and in Practise and in Conversation The Apostles were sent to preach the Gospel to every Creature and they were all led by the same Spirit and did not go before it in their own wills
them like to the Beast none upon Earth hath bought or sâ—â—d or judged or given evidence or been respected in all the World that 〈◊〉 not had the Mark of the Beast and the number of the names of Antichrist rich and poor small and great have receive his Mark as a Seal of their subjection to the Beast whose many heads and many horns have subjected all by the force of his arm and he hath blinded the eye lest men should see him and cast darkness over all faces and the false Prophet hath deceived many a Christ hath said and all the Earth hath been wandring in the Wildernâ—… of Wickedness and the Long-suffering of the Lord hath been wearied and he continually provoked to destroy the Nations who have followed Antichrist who hath shewed himself in the Seat of God to be God and hath sat in the Seat of God in the Seat of Justice Righteousness and of Mercy and the Abomination of desolation hath long stood in the place where it ougâ—â— not for many Ages and length of Times and his many Heads and many Horns hath swayed the World through the terror of the Beast who haâ—… made all worship him and they that would not he hath killed who hath carried the great Whore who hath made all men without exception and all Nations without respect to any wholly drunk with abomination and all hath staggered and fallen into grievous iniquities and the Dragon hath stood ready continually to devour the Child of Righteousness as soon as it was born and the Woman hath been forced to flee into the Wilderness that hath brought iâ— forth and hath fed there for so many dayes and for a long season hath the Lâ—â—d been blasphemed even the Name of God and his Tabernacle and them thâ—â— dwell in Heaven But now hath the Lord considered and looked down from his Habitatiâ—n and of a truth he is risen and hath taken to him his great Power that he may reign and put all things under his Feet and subdue the power of the Beast and Antichrist and all their Government and Rule and Laws and Decrees shall be overthrown and confounded all their worship shall be broken for great Babylon is come into remembrance before the Lord to render her according to her works the Lamb is now risen and advanced with his Bow and his Sword and he is going forth Conquering and to Conquer the Beast and all that have worshipped him and they that are with the Lamb are called and chosen and faithful they love not their lives unto death and they shall overcome him by the Blood of the Lamb and by the Word of his Testimony the Dominion of the Lamb is setting up and his Power is made manifest and the Stone cut out of the Mountain without hand is a dashing at the feet of the Image and against the Beast and his Power and against all his Laws and Decrees is he risen and he will change Times and Laws and Powers and the Kingdoms of this World shall become the Kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever for now the Spirit of Life from God is entred into the Witnesses which have been slain and they begin to stand upon their feet and great fear falls upon the great men of the World and the Devil is cast out into the Earth who hath sitten in Heaven in the Temple of God and deceived the whole World and his wrath is great against the Saints and against the Lamb because he knoweth his time is but short and the Man-child shall grow and shall rule the Nations with a Rod of Iron if any man hath an ear to hear let him hear he that leadeth into Captivity shall go into Captivity he that killeth with the Sword must be killed with the Sword the Purpose of the Lord shall stand who is now gathering and bringing back such as have been driven away and deceived by the Generation of false Prophets who have deceived the whole World and all that dwell therein and the Lord will take vengeance upon them upon the Beast and upon the false Prophet and great Babylon shall be thrown down and shall be no more at all but shall be made desolate and the voice of Harpers and Musitians shall no more be heard at all in her but her Glory shall wither and fade away in a moment for he that hath a true Weight and Measure is appeared to divide and to give due weight and measure unto every one and all the wicked who will not come from under the worship of the Beast shall have their part in the Lake that burnes with Fire and he that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is righteous let him be righteous still here is the dividing of all things as they were in the beginning the Glory of the Lord is risen whose name is called the Word of God and out of his mouth goeth a sharp Sword and with it be smiteth the Nations and he shall rule them with an Iron Rod for his Name is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and he is gathering his Saints together to the Supper of the Great God to eat the flesh of Kings the flesh of Captains and the flesh of Horses and them that sat thereon the Purpose of the Lord shall not be disannulled though the Beast and the Kings of the Earth gather together their Armies to make war against him that sits upon the Horse who is already gone out to conquer and the numberless number of the Saints are gathering together before the Throne of the Lamb and they have no guile found in their mouthes And the day is now dawned and the night is far spent Wo unto the World and to all the Inhabiters of the Earth who have worshipped the Beast the Lord is coming to plead with you and ye that have partaken of the sins of the great Whore shall partake of her Plagues and she shall be rewarded double according to her works for her sins have reached unto Heaven The Day of great tribulation is at hand of Anguish and Destruction men shall seek death and shall not find it but it shall flee from them when the Lord ariseth and the Lamb standeth upon Mount Sion and his Saints with him who shall tread down the Heathen and cast them out even as they have trodden down the holy City and the Worship thereof and the Kingdom of the Beast and his Seat and his great Authority which he hath received from the Dragon shall all be thrown down and the Kingdom of the Son of God with his Government Scepter and Rule shall be established in all the Earth and the utmosts part thereof shall be given him to possess this is the Promise and this shall come to pass and through the whole World Laws and Decrees Ministry and Orders shall be changed and renewed the Law and Decree of the Most High shall rule over all and the
moved of the Lord God of Heaven and Earth to be written for thy Instruction from Him THere is a Great and Mighty and Innumerable People come and coming up out of Egypts Land travelling towards the Land of Rest promised of the Lord 〈◊〉 them to be obtained and enjoyed by them and they do and have sojouâ—ned Strangers in these Nations over whom thou are called to Rule and appointed â—â—ief Governour this seven years and greatly are and have they been afflicted and oppressed and even trodden down through unjust Judgment and unrighâ—… Dealing by the Rulers and Inhabitants of the Land and all the dayes of thy Father the late Protector they were held in great Captivity and Bondage and unrighteous men made them a Prey and laid heavy Yoaks of cruel Sâ—â—â—â—rings upon them and daily increased their Task and something thy Father did for them in their Journey of great Distress yet but a little of what the Lord required of him and what the Lord looked for that he might have done for Pâ—â—er was in his hands given him of the Lord but he was not fully obediâ—â—â— and therefore was the Lord's Hand stretched out somewhat against him 〈◊〉 his Family and he was smitten of the Lord and suddenly taken away in Judgment for he hearkened not to the Counsel of the Lord concerning that People neither did fully relieve them from Oppression but slighted many Warâ—â—â—â—â— from the Lord and the Day of his Visitation passed over and Death took 〈◊〉 away in Disobedience while this People were yet under great Oppressions for he left above a hundred of them in Prisons unjustly suffering for right eousness sake and not for Evil-doing and in this he fulfilled not the Will of God but left his Name and Glory somewhat stained because of these things and though the Lord chose him and shewed Love unto him gave him Power over his Enemies and made him an Instrument in his Hand to break down great Oppressions yet he was not obedient to the end to do my Will saith the Lord but left something â—â—â—one which he was truly called unto Now this innumerable People that is come and coming up as aforesaid are them called Quakers and this Egypts Land is that great Darkness Ignorance and Wickedness and false Wayes and worships in the Apostacy and fleshly bondage to sin and death which all the World and Kindreds and Multitudes that are unconverted to God live and walk in and that Land of Rest promised to which they travel is the peaceable and quiet dwelling with the Lord free from the heavy oppression of Sin and Iniquity and cruelties of men and free in the exercise of their pure Consciences by the Spirit of the Lord as it shall move and lead them into all Truth and their sojourning as Strangers is their denying and despising the World and all its glories and walking in the daily Cross of Christ whereby they are crucified to the love and respect and renown and honours of the world and are come â—â—t of Kindreds Tongues and People counting the reproach for Christ great Riches not respecting men but the Lord altogether in all things and also their suffering unrighteously false imprisonment and spoiling of their goods for Righteousness sake this is their sojourning as Strangers And that something that thy Father did for them is he released many of them divers times out of Prifons where they were unjustly cast and he signified sometimes his displeasure against them that made them suffer and shewed love to them in hearing their Innocent Cause with some respect thereunto and that which he did not which he might have done is He took not away Tythes that Cause of great Oppression to many nor the Unrighteous Laws wholy as he ought to have done and as the Lord required of him And know thou from the Lord That this same People are the People of the Lord and beloved of him and as dear to him as the Apple of his Eye and his Presence is with them and he leads them as a Flock by his Spirit into all Truth and who shall Bless them shall be Blessed but he that acts against them shall not prosper but be smitten of the Lord for their Cause will the Lord plead in his Judgments and avenge them of their Enemies and the Dread of the Lord God shall fall heavy upon the heads of their Persecutors and though they are hated of all men and under great Afflictions yet are they a Just People and Innocent seeking the Good of all men and are Peaceable towards all and receiving all manner of Wrongs and Evil and Speakings against them by Ungodly Men but they render to no man Evil for Evil but bless them that curse and do good to their Enemies and bear all things from all men in Long-suffering and Patience for they are learned in the Practices in doing and suffering of the Holy Apostles and Prophets and are of the Seed of Abraham who was the Friend of God and they were thy Father's Friends and are not Enemies to thee nor to righteous Government but wish well unto thee in the Lord and that thou mayst not be destroyed in Wickedness but be established in Righteousness and Peace in thy Government to rule in God's Authority over all Wicked Men that may seek thy hurt And we desire for thee that the Lord may give thee Wisdom and a perfect Understanding and the Spirit of just and sound Judgment to judge Righteously in all things and to settle the Government in true Judgment that the Principle of God in every man may answer to it in defending preserving and protecting all that walk in Truth Righteousness being a Terror to all Evil-doer for for that end is Rule and Government ordained of God amongst men to be a Praise to all that do Well and a Terror to all that do Evil. And now the Lord having suffered it to be brought to pass that thou art set up in thy Father's stead to be chief Ruler amongst men this the Lord God Almighty requires of thee as thou hopest to prosper and be blessed in this Life and to enjoy Life Eternal when this World is passed away and this is the Word of the Lord God unto thee Be Humble Meek and Lowly in Heart and exalt not thy own Horn nor seek not this World's Honour but seek the Lord with thy whole Heart and let Justice and true Judgment and Righteous Government which is according to the Law of God be set up and exalted in the Nations and come to know in thy self the Dominion and Authority of the Lord God over Sin and Transgression and to keep down and condemn all that which is contrary to God in thy own Heart and that will make thee a Dread and a Terror to Men and Nations and then the Lord will be thy Crown and his People will rejoyce in thee and lift up their Hearts to God for thee If thou throwest down and abolishest all Unrighteous
could not be believed if it were spoken of the several and particular Operations and Manifestations of the everlasting Spirit that was given us and revealed in us but this is the sum Life and Immortality was brought to light Power from on High and Wisdom was made manifest the Day everlasting appeared unto us and the joyful Sun of Righteousness did arise and shine forth unto us and in us and the holy Anointing the everlasting Comforter we received and the Babe of Glory was born and the Heir of the Promise brought forth to Reign over the Earth and over Hell and Death whereby we entered into everlasting Union and Fellowship and Covenant with the Lord God whose Mercies are sure and infinite and his Promise never fails and much might be spoken but this is the sum we were raised from Death to Life and are changed from Satans power to God and gathered from all the dumb Shepherds and off all the barren Mountains into the Fold of eternal Peace and Rest and mighty and wonderful things hath the Lord wrought for us and by us by his own out-stretched Arm. And thus we became Followers of the Lamb whithersoever he goes and he hath called us to make war in righteousness for his Name sake against Hell and Death and all the Powers of Darkness and against the Beast and false Prophet which have deceived the Nations and we are of the Royal Seed Elect Chosen and Faithful and we war in Truth and just Judgment not with Weapons that are carnal but by the Sword that goes out of his Mouth which shall slay the Wicked and cut them to pieces and after this manner was our Birth and bringing forth and thus hath the Lord chosen us and made us an Army dreadful and terrible before whom the Wicked do fear and tremble and our Standard is Truth Justice Righteousness Equity and all that comes unto us must cleave thereunto and fight under that Banner without fear and without doubting and they shall never be ashamed nor put to flight neither shall ever they be conquer'd by Hell or Death or by the Powers of Darkness but the Lord shall be their Armour Weapon and Defence for evermore and they that follow the Lamb shall overcome and get the Victory over the Beast and over the Dragon and over the Gates of Hell for the Lord is with us and who shall be able to make us afraid Then having thus armed us with Power Strength and Wisdom and Dominion according to his Mind and we having learned of him and being taught of him in all things and he having chosen us into his Work and put his Sword into our hands and given us perfect Commission to go forth in his Name and Authority having the Word from his Mouth what to cut down and what to preserve and having the everlasting Gospel to preach to the Inhabitants of the Earth and being commanded in spirit to leave all and follow him and go forth in his Work yea an absolute necessity was laid upon us and wo unto us if we preacht not the Gospel for when we looked abroad and beheld the World behold it was altogether Darkness and even as a Wilderness and desolate and barren of good Fruit and Death reigned over men and no good Fruit was brought forth to God but Leaves we beheld upon every Soul and all men and people were made drunk with the Wine of Whoredoms and the Whores Cup they had drunk and was committing Fornication with the great Whore and she reigned over the Kings and peoples of the Earth and the Antichrist was set up in the Temple of God ruling over all and having brought Nations under his Power and set up his Government over all for many Ages even since the days of the Apostles and true Churches hath he reign'd while the Woman hath been fled into the Wilderness and the Man-Child caught up to God Christ said Antichrist should come and put on the Sheeps cloathing and be inwardly a ravening Woolf and Iohn saw that Antichrist was come in his dayes and he went forth then from the true Church and went into the World and deceived the World and ever since his Kingdom hath reigned over Nations for then he begun to exalt himself and it is sixteen hundred years since all which time Antichrist that hath had the Sheeps Cloathing but inwardly a Ravener and hath ruled and reigned and this we saw and perceived in the very time of our birth and bringing forth and we behold Nations as a Wilderness untilled and mens Hearts as the fallow Ground unbroken up and not plowed nor sown with the good Seed of Gods Kingdom so that we saw all states and orders of men corrupted and degenerated from what they ought to be and from what God had once ordained them As for the Ministry first we looking upon it with a single eye in the Light of the Spirit of God which had Anointed us we behold it clearly which formerly we had been stumbling at and much doubting of that it was not the perfect Ministry of Christ for many years before not to be of Christ nor sent of him nor having the Commission power Authority of Christ as his Ministry had in the days of the true Churches but in all things as in Call practice maintenance and in every thing else in fruits and effects we found it disagree and be wholly contrary to the true Ministry of Christ in the days of the Apostles and likewise we truely beheld it to be in Call practice and Maintenance and all things the very same in fruits and effects with the false Ministry and false Prophets and false Apostles and Deceivers of old and this I do testifie and am able to prove in the Spirit and Authority of the Lord that the publick Ministry as now it stands generally is wholy degenerated from what the true Ministry of Christ once was and differs and is contrary in all things to what Christ's Ministers were and agreeth and is equal in all things with what the false Prophets and Deceivers were thoughout all Ages and this I charge upon it in the face and view of all men to whom this may come for this we saw concerning it in the beginning and our first assurance And as for other Places and Orders of men and Callings we saw them also corrupted and degenerated and evil and iniquity abounding among all sorts of people and blindness and darkness covered the face of the Earth and of the World and all people were in their Transgressions and making void the Law of God and that it was time for the Lord to work and to arise to ease himself of his Adversaries and as for all Churches so called and Professions and Gatherings of people we beheld you as all in the Apostacy and degeneration from the true Church not being gathered by the Spirit of the Lord nor anointed thereby as the true Members of Christ ever were but to be in a
Heathen and under the barren dry and empty Ministry of Man which stands in the will of man and have proceeded out of the carnal inventions and imaginations of fallen man and is not according to God nor to the practice of the Saints in former Ages and Generations To you all do I clear my conscience in the presence of God by declaring to you in writing being that I cannot have freedom through the subtilty of the Serpent who doth work alwayes to prevent the living Truth to be declared and the deceits of himself to be discovered and made manifest to declare in word among you I have been sent by the Lord moved of him to come and to declare to you the Word of the Lord to the directing of your minds where to wait to attain the true Knowledge of the Lord and to that one Thing needful the Eternal welfare of your souls and to lay open the deceits of the Serpent who doth work in the cursed deceitful Ministry which is upheld by you whereby your souls are kept in the death and only your dark minds fed and nourished by the painted and Serpent-like expressions and declarations coming out of the carnal wisdom and brain knowledge of your Hireling who walks in the way of the false Prophets of Israel which the true Prophet called greedy dumb Dogs four several times hath the Lord by his Eternal Spirit working in me moved me to come into the Congregation and Assembly he himself is the Witness that I came not of man nor by the will of man but contrary to the will and desires of man wherein stands the true Ministry of God now as it was ever the true Prophets Ieremiah and Ionah witnessed the same and the Apostle Paul and as it is known to you unto whom I speak that I could not have liberty to declare to you the Truth from God who came not to you with entising words neither what I had gathered out of Scripture from without me neither to speak my own imaginations and conceivings as your false Hireling doth but to declare the Word of the Lord to the convincing your dark understandings that you might see the deceits by which you are and have been led that your souls might have been redeemed up to God out of the imagined worships of the World to worship in Spirit and in Truth Hear ye the Word of the Lord ye people all your carnal traditional Ordinances and Observances is abomination to the Lord all your praying and praising is odious in his sight for all your worship is an imitation and an imagination of the dark mind of man and was never commanded by God therefore consider all ye people what you are doing and reject not the Lord nor his Everlasting Truth but prize your time and now seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon his name while he is near Your souls are kept in the death under your dead Minister and under his dead Doctrines dead Reasons Points and Uses which he speakes from the Saints conditions and experiences but is an enemy to the substance and to them in whom the same conditions are made manifest in the power of Truth and he doth make manifest himself to be in the same generation of them who had the form of Godliness but denies the Power having the Letter as the Pharisees had but persecuting the substance as they did All people consider whether he be not in the generation professing God and Truth in Word as the Scribes and Pharisees were but persecuting the Son of God who is the Substance of Truth where he is born and made manifest he is in the generation of them who professed Abraham's freedom and that God was their Father but were of their father the Devil for his workes they did they said and did not as he doth as it is made manifest he is a whited Wall a painted Sepulcher which Christ the Son of God cryed wo against who was and is the Light by which all Deceivers Hirelings and false Teachers are discovered and cryed out against The Light which is Christ do I witness to be made manifest in me from God the Father of Light daily leading me up to him to live in Purity and Uprightness praises be to him for ever in which Light I see your Teacher to be a Hireling a greedy dumb Dog seeking for his gain from his Quarter one that God never sent but hath run and was not sent therefore doth he not profit you at all and from this Light which is Christ do I declare against him as knowing him that he hath not the Word of the Lord but the Letter Freely do I declare against him as knowing him to be a Deceiver and an Antichrist being once I was deceived by him but now through the rich Love of my Father who hath made himself known to me hath shined by his Eternal Light in my heart do I see him and all such to be Antichrist and no Minister of Christ from the mouth of the Lord I do declare it that you are led blindly by him your blind Guide and you are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the Living Truth by his Ministry He layes heavy burdens upon you He is in the generation of them who had the Law and Prophets but persecuted him who came to fulfil the Law and who hath the substance of the Prophets He hath the Conditions and Experiences of the Saints in the Letter but who are brought to witness the same Conditions and the same strait Way in which they walked He is an enemy to all people to you from God I do declare it he is one that God never sent to speak his Word to you he calls good evil and evil good and puts Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light and therefore wo is his Portion and wo is the Portion of all that upholds him What will ye do in the end thereof He doth bewitch you to observe That calling is an Ordinance of God which he never commanded Poor people your souls lies in the death under the power of darkness and corruption under your dead Minister and under his dead carnal Observances and your dark Minds your Wit and Reason is only fed and so the enemies of the Lord are strengthned by him and you remain in ignorance and in blindness and cannot attain the true Riches for Christ only is the Way to the Father the Light in every man which leads to the Father but this Light he denies as having enlightened every one that comes into the World as several times he hath done to me in Argument Here he makes Christ a Lyar and doth not know the first Principle of Religion nor the Light which leads unto God but is a Heathen and knows not God for this is the Light which all the Servants of God in all Generations witnessed and which Light we do now
The Seed of the Woman is but one in all generations and the Seed of the Serpent is but one which ever was is ruling and reigning in the Children of Disobedience who are disobedient to the Light of God within them and betwixt these two Seeds is Enmity the one against the other each Seed is known by its fruit the old bottle pours out old Wine the new bottle new Wine therefore all people sink down to within and call in all your wandring thoughts imaginations and affections and desires and see which seed is head in you and see what your desires and affections goes out after for where your hearts are there is your treasure see what you do possess of God in your Souls and what you are made witnesses of for he that believeth hath the witness in himself and Faith is the Victory over the world he that can receive it let him Dear people I have freely Declared to you the Truth and from the love of God shed abroad in my heart to your Souls and for the Seed sake in you which lieth in death captivated under your Wisdom and Reason have I spoken the Word of the Lord which if you own it and abide in it shall be the savor of Life and in eternal joy shall you witness me to be true in what I have Declared but if you harden your hearts and kick against the Truth and against what I have Declared shall be the savor of death unto Death and in eternal torment and misery shall ye witness me in what I say for to that which should exercise the Conscience do I speak in every one of you and to that in you have I cleared my Conscience and have freed my Spirit this is the day of your Visitation the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Remember that you have been shewed the Deceits which you live in and have been warned of the misery and desolation that shall come upon you except you lay these things to heart and turn to the Lord. Farewel By him who is dispised and had in derision among you who is not greater then his Lord and therefore is contented to be called a Blasphemer and a Seducer as he whom I serve was by them of your Generation E. B. TO all you my Country people of every degree who are Inhabitants in Underbarrow have I cleared my Conscience and have freely Declared to you the Word of the Lord and have laid open the Deceits of your Deceitful Ministry and Ministry and have directed you to that in every one of you which leads unto God and which is the way to the Father which is the true Light which hath enlightned every one that comes into the World which light all who loves and follows walk not in darkness but walks up to God out of the Fall from under the Curse into the Being but all who hates this Light and follows the imagination of their own brains and of the divination of their Hirelings and Pharisees this Light shall be their condemnation because they walk not in it even this Light which is come into the World in every man even the witness in the Conscience which is placed by God shall for ever witness against you and against all your false worships and Hirelings and shall bear testimony to what I have in this little Volume declared to be true when the Book of Conscience shall be laid open for to every mans Conscience am I made manifest in what I have to you declared as concerning your Hireling whom God hath never sent but is in the way of the false Prophets and Pharisees for he that abides not in the Doctrine of Christ hath not God 2 Iohn 1. 9. but is an Antichrist and of the Devil And as concerning the Light within you that Light will bear witness to it self that every one of you to whom I speak hath this Light which shews you sin your lying swearing pride and wicked wayes covetousness and wantonness to be sin this is the true Light which is as ever was foolishness and a stumbling block to the wise ones This is the Light which your Pharisee denies to have lightned every one and this Light shall for ever witness me to be true and shall witness this poor people among you who are despised and contemned by you and scornfully called Quakers to be the servants of God whom I do own as my Brethren in the sufferings of Jesus who are my joy in the Lord. Now all people every where to you all a word from the Lord though I have spoken in this small Volume as moved by the Lord of Heaven and Earth to the Inhabitants of Underbarrow as declaring against their false Teacher and false Worships which they uphold now freely and plainly do I declare against all thy Teachers O England who are one in the same generation with him in the Seat of Christ and of his Apostles professing themselves to be sent of God but walking contrary to his commands in the same footsteps which the Scribes and Pharisees walked in which were persecutors of the Son of God and which he cried wo against they who said and did not as all these thy Teachers do who are called of men Masters as they were and have the chiefest places in the Assemblies as they had and prayed standing as these thy professed Ministers do Now the same Light which ever was which is Jesus Christ is now born and made manifest which is witnessed among the Saints in which Light I see all thy Teachers O England to be drunk with the Wine of her that hath deceived the Nations who sits upon a scarlet coloured Beast and is arrayed in purple and scarlet colour and decked with gold and precious stones and hath the golden cup in her hand full of abominations whose name is written in her forehead Mystery Babylon the great the Mother of Harlots and abomination of the Earth And in this Light to I declare against them all which are in the generation of the false Prophets of Israel which seeks for their gain from their Quarter and which steals the word from their neighbor and have taken the words of the Prophets of Christ and of his Apostles and selleth the divination of their own brain upon the Scriptures which the holy men speak forth freely to the poor blind people and teacheth for the Fleece and if ye stop not into their mouths they prepare War against you and which are called of men Master which Christ forbids Against all these freely as from the Lord I do Declare to be no Ministers of Jesus Christ but are Seducers and blind Guides and are Antichrists and leads the poor blind people in the wayes of death and destruction for they are no Ministers of Christ that abides not in the Doctrine of Christ these have run but have not been sent by God and therefore is not your Souls profited by them but are in the dark heathenish nature as by
of knowledge and there thou art till thou art become a Fool and dead to that reason thou shalt never eat of the tree of Life and therefore Flesh be silent and thou sayst thou dost not allow that reason that gets only a conclusion or an argument instead of Christ and after thou sayst the day is yet to dawn and the day Star to arise and thou cryes violently for it and here what hast thou more for an assurance of thy salvation then an argument and a conclusion instead of Christ for thou confesses the day is not dawned and then thou are yet in the night and in darkness for the day dawns and the day star arises before Christ be witnessed but thou knows no such thing as either Christ or the dawning if thou had not others testimony and that is without and thou art one Christ spoke of Since Iohn the Kingdom suffers violence and many thrust into it and thou art striving and are violent but I say thou shalt not be able till thou layst down thy contending in thy carnal wisdom and striving and resisting but thou must become a Fool and sit at Jesus feet but thou art full and rich and whole and need no Physitian and therefore thou must be sent empty away and when the Book of Conscience shall be opened thou shalt be judged for what thou hast done against the Innocent Now something in Answer to the Fourth Particular which thou sayest is a Tenent held forth by the Northern people which is A denying of the Ascension and Beeing of the Body of Christ. Answ. O thou Enemy of Righteousness when wilt thou cease to pervert the right Way of God who uttereth thy Lyes and Slanders against the Innocent God shall judge thee and between thee us whether thou hast not uttered Lyes and false Accusations in the Name of the Lord and put forth in Writing unto the World for truth that which is absolutely contrary unto the Truth God will reward thee thou full of subtilty according to thy deeds who takes part with the Dragon against the Lamb goes about by thy lying Slanders to render the Way of Truth which thou canst not comprehend in thy serpents wisdom odious unto all men but God taketh our part against thee and will dash thy Lyes and Slanders and thy Impudent Forehead in pieces even by that Power which makes the Earth to quake tremble which is become a reproach unto this Generation many who have heard us since we came to this City though our Enemies shall witness against thee and for us in this particular for we have oft witnessed forth and I do here again witness forth in the sight of God and men that Christ Jesus is risen and ascended far above all Principalities and Powers and the same which descended into the lower parts of the Earth is also ascended and raigns over all subjecting all unto himself that he may be Lord over all and in all and may be glorified by all and Members of his Body we are who thou enviously raylst against and Witnesses of the Body we are whereof Christ Jesus is Head and because of the Resurrection of the dead Body which is ascended we are called in question and all Sects Opinions are troubled and on an uproar concerning us and I tell thee plainly we are so far from denying the Ascension and Beeing of the Body of Christ that because of being called to witness it as being Members of it we are persecuted and reviled by such as thy self whose carnal conceptions and imaginations of Truth we do deny and do testifie unto you all that through death is the Resurrection and Ascension witnessed and every one that reads the Scripture is not witnesses of the resurrection of the body of Christ and all whose witness is onely without them other mens words which had the Witness within them we deny to be true Witnesses but are found false Witnesses of the Resurrection and of the Ascension and knows not Christ nor his body but by hearsay and whereas thou bringst many Scriptures to prove his Resurrection and Ascension I answer the Scriptures we own to be a true Declaration of the Witness which was in the Apostles of the Resurrection and of the Ascension of Christ but thee we deny who are found a Lyar and a Slanderer and thy resurrection will be unto condemnation and thy ascension will prove a descending into the Bottomless-pit for ever to be tormented except thou repent and from the Life of the holy men of God thou are razed out who art found in the way of ungodliness and thou hast nothing to do to profess their words who art out of their life nor no inheritance in their words but as thou steals them adding thy own imaginations upon them and wresting them to thy own destruction being one unlearned in the Way of God and in the Doctrine of Christ. And whereas thou sayst And thus you see how these men deny the Lord that bought them if they deny the Body that was crucified for them I answer We deny not the Lord that bought us for by him can we say we have received the end of his coming and of his Death and Ascension even he hath purchased us and set us free from the Power and Kingdom of the Divel of Lyes and Slanders and false Accusations of us by whom the Man-child is brought forth and this shall stand for thy own condition who art a wandring Star and hath no habitation in the Heavens God will plead with thee thou who hast set thy self against the Lord in Slandring and reviling his servants Now to thy fift Particular That we deny the Ordinances of Christ in which thou sayest We also deny the Lord that bought us Answ. The Way unto God and unto Everlasting Life which is Christ Jesus we do not deny but are true Witnesses that same Christ alone which was crucified at Ierusalem and which God hath raised from the dead and which is ascended in him alone is Salvation and by him also alone are all justified that believe in him and this we declare freely unto all people that Christ is the Ordinance of God ordained by him for the Salvation of all that believe and for the Condemnation of all that believe not in him and that the Way unto this Christ is not any outward visible thing but even that which is manifest from him leads up unto him even the Light by which he hath enlightened every one that cometh into the World which is Spiritual as Christ is Spiritual and whereas thou sayest there is nothing that Christ commanded but we deny it mentioning only your Baptism and Breaking of Bread which is your Idol and your Image you bow unto the one Baptism which is by one Spirit into one Body into the Death of Christ we are Witnesses of and the Bread which we break is the Communion of the Body of Christ and we being many are one Bread but the beggerly
calls them deceitfull Principles she hath chosen the way of Death rather then the way of Life and hath taken her self to follow shaddows and likenesses and neglected the Substance which is Christ within the hope of glory her latter end is worse then her beginning and the Parable is fulfilled upon her And she speaks in the 126. pag. of Satan being discovered under his vail and in particular as to that of being saved by a Christ within and not by a Christ without and the Lord was pleased to shew her it was quite another thing differing from the Gospel and that it was attended with this evil consequence to overthrow the whole Gospel and to deny the Lord that bought them I answer I charge her here as in the presence of God with belying the Lord and with horrible Basphemy who saith That that which the Saints and servants of God witnessed who Preached the Gospel and established it Christ within manifested is quite another thing differing from the Gospel and that it is attended to overthrow the whole Gospel O horrible Blasphemy and belying the Lord who saith that the Lord was pleased to shew her it did ever he shew any Lyes all take notice of this wicked and horrible Blasphemer the Lord rebuke that unclean spirit of Antichrist in her She goes on and saith then secondly as to that of waiting for a power to Pray and that here was no command but from within concerning both these the Lord was pleased to shew that it was not according to his minde but a meer invention of Satan and that it was attended with this evill consequence to slight Scriptures and Commands of God and to expose the soul to Satans deceivings to walk by the imaginations of their own heart instead of the motions of the Spirit I answer The Saints waited for the moving of the Spirit which was power in them to help them to pray they knew not to Pray as they ought without it and this command and help they had not without them but within them And I again here charge her with belying the Lord and with notorious Blasphemy who saith that that which the Saints witnessed waiting for the power of the Spirit to Pray is not according to the minde of the Lord but an invention of Satan and she is not ashamed to say the Lord shewed her and the same which they witnessed who spoke forth the Scripture and which walked in the Commands of God tends to slight Scriptures and commands of God and to expose the soul to Satans deceivings this is Blasphemy and Error and corrupt Principles and she which hath denyed waiting to be led by the motions of the Spirit is led by the imaginations of her own heart is under the power of Satans deceiving and speaks contrary to what the Scripture speaks and so slights it and the Commands of God she hath Blasphemed the God of Heaven and accordingly will the Lord requite her And thus have I for the simple ones sake declared the truth and every single eye may see who it is is led by corrupt principles and what I have written shall she eternally witness to be true and all her co-partners And I pass by the rest of her Book as not worth answering for it is nothing but airy imagination and confusion and death yet raigns in her and in her Book is spoken out by her and she knowes not the Baptism of Saints nor Communion nor the true Church of Christ to that witness in her conscience do I declare and when it shall arise it will eternally witness me Whose Name in the Flesh is EDWARD BURROUGH The Copy of a Letter c. FRiends for so I call you I was moved of the Lord to come into your Assembly to declare the truth from him concerning you as by the eternal Spirit was revealed to me and I do acknowledge it it was a mercy from the Lord that I had that small liberty which I had to clear my Conscience amongst you and to discharge my duty in obedience to the Lord and to every ones Conscience am I made manifest whether you will hear or you will forbear truely Friends there is somthing among you which I own and which is owned of my Father but yet many things hath he against you and as I said I now again say from the mouth of the Lord that your Covering is too narrow to hide your shame and your bed too short to stretch your selves upon Now friends the Ordinances of Iesus Christ which you act in you say in obedience to him I do not speak against but do witness them in life and power neither do I judge such amongst you who have entered in at the door by the Principle of God to the Ordinances if any such but you I do declare against and do judge by the infallible Spirit who have in your own wills thrust in your selves and acted by imagination and immitation from the Letter without and not having received the Command from Christ into your selves such I judge to be in deceit deceived by the Serpent which deceives the simple by the likeness of a thing and you that limit the Lord to any outward visible thing that without such can be no Salvation you I judge again to be in deceit and my judgement shall stand for nothing is available that which God once commanded nor that which was not commanded but the new Creature which is born of the immortall Seed contrary to the will of man Truely Friends you are acting in darkness and there is no seperation in you betwixt the precious and the vile betwixt the clean and the unclean for that which did convince you of false Hirelings and of their deceitful worship which is owned of my Father in you hath not been obeyed by you but your minds have been drawn forth from within to obey a thing without and herein have you been bewitched from the obedience of the truth within to obey the letter without as they were which the Scripture speaks of and you are acted in another form and likeness then you were before and which some are acted in yet but by the same spirit and you have a zeale I beare you record but it is not according to knowledge I declare against that spirit by which you are now acted as knowing it to be the spirit of Antichrist and that which is owned by my Father in you is oppressed by you by your wisdom and reason which stands above and is head and rules amongst you which is for destruction and for the Lord to accomplish his wrath upon and happy were you if you knew the day of vengeance which is the acceptable year of the Lord but you are yet full and rich and think you have need of nothing and have a name that you live but you are dead and empty and miserable your form is corrupted and you seek the living among the dead and you act in the form but walks at liberty
all deceit and your present condition and that which would lead aside and temptation as it ariseth it will discover and resisting in the Light here temptations come to be escaped and the pits and the snares which they who err from the Light fall into Dear Friends great is our care one every side and we are jealous over you lest you depart from the simplicity of the Gospel and so the deceit lead and guide and so you will come under condemnation and therefore all in silence wait be swift to hear slow to speak and all wait upon the Light in diligence and take heed of forward minds and wills which would go before the Light and run before the Guide there is the Deceiver and false Prophet within the same that is without and therefore we charge you all in the Name and Power of God to take heed of forward wills in speaking lest your minds be drawn out from the moving of the Pure within to hearken to words without which are spoken from that which is above the Light and this feeds the carnal reason and the earthly wisdom and lets in the Inchanter and so your minds being turned without you feed upon the husk and not the Life and therefore that nature that cannot live without words is for the Plague and for the Famine and must be famished and stopt And therefore now as the Power ariseth in you dwell low in it and sink down in the same and as things open in you speak not forth there your minds would run out and speak that which is opened by the Spirit this is the Prodigal but as things open treasure them up in your hearts and all keep in that which separates between Light and darkness and be not hasty to do any thing lest your wills betray you and all keep in Patience there the Crown is obtained and flee not from the trouble nor from that which judgeth but dwell in it and pray that your flight be not in Winter if you do you are Vipers And despise not the Cross even the death of the Cross that all your iniquity may be nailed to the Cross and so the righteousness may be set up within and so the Land is kept in Peace And therefore all dear Friends whose hearts the Lord hath touched meet together in silence wait and you will see the Lord present among you and his power made manifest among you and the earth broken up and the fallow ground and a passage for the Seed and we charge you all take heed of many words or feeding upon that which is torn and dies of it self and we charge by the Lord that none speak without Eternal Motion for if you do the false Prophet speaks and his words eats as a Canker and darkens and vails them that hearken to it And therefore all wait to have Salt in your selves and savour and discerning that you may come to know the voice of the Lord from the voice of a Stranger and so you may be kept out of all deceit for there Thorns and Briars and the cursed fruits are brought forth but in the Light of Christ dwell and wait and grow up in it and walk in it that you may come to know your Redeemer and what you are redeemed from and see him near you and in you else you are Reprobates And so the Lord God of Life and Power preserve you all for we have kept nothing back but are free from the blood of you all and of all that hears us but our desire to the Lord is that what hath been sown in weakness may be raised in power and that you may grow up in the Truth and walk in the Truth that we may see the Travel of our Souls and be satisfied and if the Lord give us to see your faces again we may rejoyce in you and with you and so the Everlasting God of Life and Power keep you all in his Wisdom and Power to have victory over all your Enemies that you may serve him in uprightness of heart and be faithfull to that of God made manifest in you all Your dear Brethren in the Gospel of Christ committed to our charge E. B. F. H. To be read at Meetings of Friends in London FRiends of God called by him out of the dark World into his marvellous Light to all you who by the Power of God are kept faithful to walk and abide in the measure of the Gift of God received Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father of Life be multiplied in you and amongst you that you all may grow up in the Power of God out of Darkness and the shaddow of Death wherein you have been held captive in a strange Land Dear Friends our souls are poured out for you that you all may abide in that which you have received and heard which is the Way and Path of Life and Righteousness and Peace eternal therefore all dear Friend walk worthy of the calling whereunto ye are called and wait in the Light by which you are enlightened that all deceit in particular and in the general may be comprehended seen and judged we bear you record there is a Witness of God manifest in you and true desires which flows to God from you Therefore take heed to the measure of God that by it you may hear the Voyce of God and see his powerful Presence for by that which is manifested of God in man God speaks moves and acts and is known unto man and all that neglect the measure of God to walk in it all their Knowledge Experiences and Profession is for condemnation by that which changeth not so all dwell in the measure which is the Light in the Cross which keeps under and judges the fleshly man so the understanding will be kept open to receive the Mercies of God and to walk worthy of the Mercies received but turning aside from the Light you neglect the Mercies and follow lying vanities and err from the Way of Righteousness and bring your selves under condemnation for no longer is God enjoyed by man then man abides in his Counsel in his Fear where the secrets of God are manifest and received by the Light which is the first entrance unto God and the fulness of the enjoyment of God Beware of the World where all the temptations lie to draw away your minds into the carnal and visible things out from the Light by which the Life is enjoyed and so death passeth over you and condemnation cometh upon you and the Life be lost and misery be revealed against you Large is the Love of God unto you in calling you and chusing you and therefore forget not this Love but walk in it up to God from whom free Redemption is manifested unto that which hath lain in Death overcome by the Darkness follow not your own wills nor the voice of the Stranger and false Prophet which draws out into visibles into here and there but have salt and discerning in your selves
self and the living God who is Light above all who hath begun his work in you and among you with his right Hand will finish it And dear Friends keep nothing back nor the best nor the fat let not be spared from slaughter but let the Sword pâ—ss upon all that you peace may be for ever and your righteousness may never perish Oh how doth my Soul long to know and understand of the growth and unmovableness in the Truth manifested among you and gladly received by you even your Crowns you laid down at the feet of the Lamb and your glory and renown in the World Ye dispised for the Lights sake but your Reward shall be everlasting and your Inheritance shall never wither I speak not to puff you up but that you may the rather be kept low in subjection to the Light of the Lord Jesus by which self and that which would be exalted must be crucified and this is the victory and precious Faith which will purifie you and sanctifie you throughout from all filthiness of flesh and spirit in that Faith to stand as Witnesses for the Lord God in that great City and against all its pollutions and Idol gods which neither do hear see nor taste in wisdom as examples one to another in love and unity walk as children of the Day being past through he dark night where the works of darkness were committed but now being separated from the World joyn not your selves any moâ—â— to strange women which enticeth from God but sit under your own vine in peace dwelling with the Lord who is Light of whom you are become the Temple anâ— Tabernacle and watch in diligence one over another that as the day appears yoâ— may edifie one another and may be made one in the Light which is Christ upoâ— whom you have believed which unto you is precious but a stumbling Stone and a Rock of offence to all the World The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ preserve you that by it you may be preserved to walk in the pure Religion where your owâ— will is not to be done the Power of God Almighty fill your hearts with joy ad peace and love in him and this is the desire of my Soul who is a Labourer amongâ—â— you in the Work and Travel of the Gospel of Christ E. B. A General Epistle to Friends in London MY dear beloved Friends and Brethren in the Everlasting Unerring Trutâ— of which you are made Partakers who are called of God his Witnesseâ— to be of his Name and of his Truth with my dear love I do salute you dearly and tenderly and all the rest of the Begotten of God in that City whom my soul longeth after your growth in the inward man the Everlasting Father strengthen you and refresh you with the living Streams from his Presence and his Love and Power and Grace be multiplied among you unto whom he hath opened a Door and made an entrance into the true Rest which remaineth for you unto which the Lord of Glory is gathering you and leading you and carrying you as Lambs in his Arms into the Fold of everlasting Refreshing my dear hearts walk woâ—thy of the love of God wherewith he hath loved you and let your Light shew ye Children of Light forth into the World that your good Works they may see who over you watch with an evil eye Dear Friends to you that believe he who is the Light of the World is precious therefore in the Light wait that your Understandings may be opened and your Feet prepared to walk in the Wayes of the Lord which to all the Children of Light are pleasant Wayes and be not entangled with any yoak of bondage which may burthen you from running the raâ—e that is set before you but in the death of all mortal stand and there the Life of immortallity you will see and witness and the daily Food you will receive to that Life which the love of the World doth crucifie for do you not know that the friendship of this World is at emnity against God but you are called not to serve the World but God who is the Light and the World must serve you so take heed lest your affections and desires and hearts be drawn aside from the pure Way of Life into that which is visible which will not endure forever for that life is death and that glory is shame in the Light I read you and do behold many pleasant Plants springing up in the Garden of God and I bear you record some of you have laid your Crowns down at the Lamb's Feet and have scorned the glory of Babylon and Aegypt surely your Reward will be everlasting and your Câ—ps will the Lord fill in the sight of your Enemies and your Glory shall be above the glory of the Earth and your Crowns shall never wither therefore press on and look not back nor spare not the fat nor the best from slaughter but to the Sword bring all your Enemies which have been they of your own house which over you have prevailed but now the Lord is arising among you and the day you have seen of the shaking of the Earth and the Heavens and of the darkness of the Sun and of the falling of the Stars therefore wait to the end that the Crown of Immortallity you may wear and with the Instrument of the Lord the Mountains you may thresh and may give the Whore double reward into her bosom for all her wayes The day among you begins to dawn therefore put of every work of the night and walk all in the day for ye are the Light of the World and a City set upon a Hill which cannot be hid the Lord prosper you and preserve you and be with your spirits and establish you Amen Edw. Burrough Dublin the 14th of the 5th Moneth 1655 THE VISITASION Of the Rebellious Nation of Ireland And a Warning from the Lord proclaimed to all the Inhabitants thereof to make their Peace with him before his Long-suffering come to an end With a Lamentation over its Unfruitness and Rebellion after so many Visitations And an Exhortation to all the honest-hearted to meet the Lord by repentance while the patience of the Lord continues Or the Sealing of the Lord's Testimony unto all sorts of People in that Land by his Servants after their several moneths sore labours and travels and sufferings therein who loved not their lives for the Seed sake Also some particular Papers written in that Nation to several sorts of People I. An Information to the Heads and the Ground of the Law laid down to the Iudges and Iustices and to all that handle the Law through that Nation II. An Exhortation sent to the chief Commander and his Councel and the just cause of the Innocent laid before them III. The unjust Sufferings of the Iust declared and their appeal to the just Witness of God in all mâ—ns Consciences IV. A Challenge to the Priests of Dublin to try
as you do neither did one go from the Command which had been given to another using anothers words and excercising themselves in anothers practises when the Lord had not commanded but such they bare witness against which did use their tongue and transform themselves into the likness of true Prophets and Apostles as you have done and are in the love of the World and only separated in the appearance and not in the ground You stumble at the â—ight and therefore know not the Door of entrance nor where the Commands of Christ are to be received and the Will of God to you is to be known and so your obedience is the conformity in your own wills to that which was the Will of God to another this Sacrifice is also lame and blind and God saith to you Who hath required this at your hand For if you have observed and done all those things which the Declaration of the Law and Gospel doth require you are unprofitable Servants and yet one thing do you lack the dying with Christ and the Sufferings and Cross of Christ is not known but in the liberty of the flesh you are and not in the condition of the Promise to Life Eternal Friends you have ruâ— into the form of Godliness without the Power into a Church which is not in God but of the World into a Baptism which doth not wash away sin for you live in sin and plead for it while you live upon Earth into a Communion which is not with God which no unclean thing can enter into for the Proud and Coveteous partake with you and while some of you have said they that preached for Hire have been Antichristian you your selves are fallen into the same abomination taking Gifts and Rewards and large somes of Money and upholding such who do it Here you are unjust to your own Principle and are for condemnation with the Light in your Consciences Let shame cover your heads ye Hypocrites your covering will not hide you nor your high talking of Christ without you so long professed by you will not justifie you while you are found disobeying this Light in your Consciences which Light is one with God with Christ and with the Spirit in its measure and it doth convince you of sin and is a command to you and would lead you if you walked in it from all iniquity which is the Will of God to you and to that mind which is carnal which ruleth in you the Commands of Christ which are Spiritual are not given nor can be received but say Lo here and Lo there Christ is to be found with the Light you are comprehended which if the least measure of it you did own it would lead you to the Baptism inward of the heart and to the Church which iâ— in God whereof Christ is the Head in every Member and into the Communion with God and to follow the Lamb of God wheresoever he goeth and out of your imitations and liknesses and strife and contention about the words given forth from the Spirit who are in your own unity in Division and several Meanings and divers Constructions and Judgments and several wayes of Obedience and Worships and Belief which by your imaginations you draw from the Scripture which is the Declaration but of the one God and one Truth of one Obedience and of one Faith and thus you exalt the great Image of many mixtures your selves being a chief Member of his body You say the Scripture is your Rule but are divided into Opinions and Conceits contrary to the Scripture every one worshipping that which you imagine from the Scripture not being in the Unity of the Spirit which gave forth the Scripture which is one and not divided in Obedience Worship or Faith and while you say the Scripture is your Rule your lives are squared by the spirit of the Divel and hewn out into Pride and Hypocrisie and love of the World And to you who are called Free-willers who say Christ died for All. HErein you affirm that whereof you are ignorant which may be true in Christ but a Lye unto you for you are not dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the World but are alive against him in the World they for whom he died are dead and they who yet live put him to death Free-will unto the wayes and fashions and vanities of the World stands in you you know not the daily Cross of Christ which is unto man's will nor what it is to follow Christ and obey him which is contrary to man's will You say He that is condemned it is because he will not believe this is true in Christ but not in your carnal apprehensions of the natural man in whom there is no power to believe He that hath an ear let him hear There are some true desires among you but your minds are not truly informed to the fulfilling of your desires and your minds are outward and apply peace to that which is for condemnation Your reason and wisdom is corrupted and cannot receive Truth but call it error and this is your sin Death over you hath passed and reigns over you as over all men and your knowledge is in time and you cannot hear of things which were before the World was your wisdom is sensual and your comprehension is strong and the little simplicity in you is betrayed by the subtilty which hath dominion in your Governour Your Crown must be laid down and Fools must you become before you be truly wise or can be crowned with the Lamb. And among the rest Remember you had warning and a Day of visitation before you were destroyed and this shall be by you witnessed in the day of the Lord. To all you who say you wait and believe for the Coming of Christ to Reign in Person upon Earth HEre you the Lord's Controversie which he hath against you The Way of his coming is not prepared but Rocks and Mountains are standing and Valleys are not filled up and rough and crooked is your present way your hopes and expectations in that ground wherein they spring will wither and fade away as the Grass for your hope of his comming hath no whit purified you as he is pure for you are in the flesh and in the liberty of it which is Rebellion to his Reign and Christ is kept in Prison in exile with that mind and the Divel is yet at liberty working in your earthly members and leads you captive into his covenant in his government in seeking your selves and to strengthen your selves in the Kingdom of the World and murmur that any should be above you and that is he which put Christ to death and will not have him to reign in his Power over the Earth and to you what purpose is it to desire the day of his coming for with wrath will he come and with vengeance will â—e appear and will break your Kingdom like a Potters vessel for suddenly will he come but your
Love undefiled was your Conception begotten by the Word of immortal Life unto the Inheritance incorruptable whereof you are Heirs of the faithful Promise made free by the Son through the slaying of the enmity upon his Cross whereby you are nourished up into Immortallity to reign over Hell and Death and the Grave for evermore With thoughts of eternal Love are you remembred and read in the Lambs book of Life recorded by the eternal Spirit and of the Lord cannot be forgotten Your Mother is a Virgin unspotted and your City is new Ierusalem come down from Heaven and glorious and full of Pleasure is your Dwelling place there is no need of a candle for the Lamb is the Light thereof and the Temple therein Your God is no Image nor your Worship no Imgination nor to the great Image you do not joyn nor his power hath no dominion over you but the Yea and Amen is your Covenant and the I am whom there is none besides is your God and he that lives forever is your Rock and sure Defence and Salvation is appointed your VValls and Bulwarks Gladness is sown for you yea everlasting Mercies shall you reap and your long mourning shall be turned into everlasting Rejoycing and your present Heaviness into durable Joy your VVaters shall be sure and your Bread shall never fail your Fulness shall abound and your Plenty shall be enlarged never more to hunger nor thirst but your little Seed shall become a great Nation and the whole Earth shall be replenished thererewith and your despised Government shall rule over Kingdoms and your Laws shall all the Nations of the Earth become subject unto Ye are no part of the Image of Idolatry but your beginning is the little Stone cut out without a hand and it shall fill the Earth and become a great Mountain whereupon the Fowls of the Heaven shall be refreshed eating the flesh of Kings and Captains You are found faithful in your Tryals and the glory of the VVorld cannot steal away your Hearts you cannot be moved for your feet are set upon a Rock Satan you scorn and the glory of his Kingdom you utterly disdain upon his power you tread and your feet trample under foot his majesty and renown Your King reigns for ever and of his Government and Dominion there shall be no end but the uttermost parts of the Earth shall be given for a Possession to him his Scepter is Righteousness and his Law is Equity and his Statutes are full of Justice and Judgment And thus saith the Lord of Hosts your God and King Because you have been found faithful and have not loved your lives unto death for his Names sake and for his Glories sake but have continually abased your selves and laid down your Crowns that you might honour him therefore you will he honour and exalt and will establish your Kingdom in peace forever and all that riseth up in judgment against you shall be consounded and condemned and his Hand will be against all your Adversaries to their overthrow and dishonour everlastingly You have loved Righteousness and Judgment upon Earth and your Path hath been in Equity and you have born the Affliction and Storm with patience and have endured with joy the Burden of the Oppressor you have been tryed to the bottom and have been found Innocent and without Guile before the Throne of God clothed with the Garments of Uprightness your Light is the Candle of the Lord and your Life and Glory is the Possession of the Most High Babylon is given you for a Prey and the riches of Aegypt is given you for a Spoil and you are free-born Children of the Seed Elect the first Fruits unto God and unto the Lamb your Purchase is obtained through death and your Crown of honour is purchased through suffering and the glory of Babylon is no whit equal for thou excellest in Beauty and Vertue Whereunto shall thy Beauty be compared O thou fair and comly Virgin unto whom shall I liken thee O thou choice and free-born Daughter of Sions King thy long travel of sorrows in the womb of Anguish hath brought forth Children of a comly stature thy Babes are truly lovely upright and faithful-hearted thy Young-men are noble bold and valiant chosen of thy God and Victory is with them thy Virgins are perfect in Beauty pure and undefiled and no spot in their Garments thy Old men are lively and honourable and stedfast in the Path of Righteousness and their gravity shall be truly respected thy Body is perfect in the Lords Record and Remembrance and with an eternal Crown of infinite Glory shall the Righteous Judge honour thee because you have delighted to do his Will and have kept his Covenant undefiled which abides with you for ever sealed and signed unto you by the Spirit of Promise decreed before the World was All Nations shall call you blessed and of your fulness shall they partake Who is like unto you A People saved by the Lord elect and chosen and redeemed out of Kindreds Tongues and People and have a name better then of Sons and Daughters Praise ye the Lord and Glorifie him for evermore Young-men and Maidens Old-men and Children and all that breath Praise you the Lord for thereunto are you called and for this cause are you brought forth Clap your hands and sing for joy of heart your Redeemer is the holy One and your Maker is your Husband I know you and to you am I known and I read you within the Vail and do behold you the Train of the Most High filling his Temple Follow him forever and let his Name be testified of throughout the Earth Make War in Righteousness and prepare your selves to do his service Let not your hands be slack neither be you sloathful in our Lords Design but wound the Head of your Enemies and mannage War against Gog and Magog throughout all Generations Ride on and prosper tread down the fenced Cities and enlarge your dominion and let the Children of Strangers of the Seed of Esau be your Slaves and Bond-men and fill the Earth with your precious Seed and sow it in the morning and in the Evening with-hold not your hand though you are despised of men yet the Lord hath made you truly honorable in his Glory you appear and his Righteousness is your clothing which will never wither and though some of you for a moment suffer Bonds for his Names sake yet you are free everlasting and are not ashamed of your Testimony before the Princes and Nobles of the Earth O Sion thou art desirable because of thy Beauty and thy Dwelling-place is scituate in a very fruitful Hill and thou feedest in the Valleys of fat Pastures of eternal Pleasures where nothing that defiles can enter nor no Devourer treadeth on thy Mountain nor no Lyons Whelp treadeth in thy Path it is the Way of the Ransomed of the Lord who hath blotted out thy Transgressions never more to remember thy Sins thou Seed
enmity and all mans works are brought forth in that nature which is evil and out of that ground which is cursed his good works are not accepted and his evil deeds are condemned all which springs forth of one root of bitterness and enmity which is in the displeasure of the Creator Oh Earth be awakened and all ye Sons and Daughters of Adam call to mind your state and condition and repent and return before Destruction when no time of repentance can be found Hearken to Instruction and let your Ears be open to hear here you may all hear and understand the Way to Restoration to be restored and recovered out of this condition and out of this enmity and from under this curse of misery and destruction for a Way hath God prepared unto all mankind and is making it manifest unto the whole Earth that the Sons and Daughters of Adam may again know their Maker and have fellowship with him and this Way is but one which is ordained for all People upon the face of the Earth of what Tribe or Nation soever And all that come to the knowledge of the Creator must walk in this Way which is called Christ Jesus who is the Son of the Creator the second Adam the Lord from Heaven the Power and Wisdom of the Creator and by him all things were made and without him was not any thing formed that was brought forth he is the Restorer the Redeemer and the Deliverer for he cannot be overcome of the evil but overcometh and treadeth down all the Powers of Darkness and Death and the Devil which rise against him in all the World and the Creator hath so loved mankind though he hath transgressed against him and grieved him yet he hath given his Son into the World into all Nations without respect of Persons or People to be the Saviour of all that believe in him and receive him that they may come out of Death and Darkness from under the Devils power and may be translated and changed and renewed out of sin and death and ignorance and rebellion and out of the Kingdom of the Devil into Truth and Righteousness and into the Kingdom of God And this Restorer and Saviour the Power and Wisdom of the Creator hath lightened all mankind every one that cometh into the World is lightened by him that every one may follow him and be guided by his Power and Wisdom and every one that doth receive him sin and iniquity and transgression is condemned and the seed of the enmity is cast out by his Power which is revealed against all unrighteousness and he subdues it and works it forth of the hearts of all men and so reconciles man again to his Maker to have fellowship with him And this Restorer the second Adam comes to be revealed within every man who executes true Judgment upon the Transgressor and bindeth under the rebellious nature and death and condemnation passes upon the seed of enmity and all its fruits upon the Devil and all his works upon him that is born of the flesh and all his wayes his joy is turned into mourning his pleasures into sorrow his glory and rejoycing into sadness of heart and the life which he hath lived comes to be crucified and the wayes which he hath walked in comes to be hedged up and no more followed and his strength is turned into weakeness and all his wayes and pleasures fade and perish and the Birth which is Immortal comes to be brought forth which is not of this World but Heir of the Creators Inheritance who hath no glorying under the Sun nor no pleasure in the glory of this World which passeth away but lives unto God in all things and brings forth fruit unto the Father and is replanted into the living Vine and is leavened into a new lump and placed in the Garden of God all the old Garments are put off and old things are passed away the Devil is cast out the blind Eye is opened and the Vail is taken away which hath been spread over all and the deaf Ear is unstopped and man is again returned unto his Maker and hears and sees and understands the things which are eternal which belong to his peace the Fear of God is set up in his heart and Gods Secrets are revealed unto him he is become the Glory of his Maker to praise him to glorifie him and to magnifie him for evermore being restored again unto God's Image and guided with his Power and Wisdom and hath received dominion and authority from his Maker to reign and rule over all Creatures and to be exercised in all things to his Glory by whom they were made he is not in bondage to any Creature but in liberty over it and the Creatures are become his Servants and he servant to his Maker and the Earth yeilds its encrease unto man the Curse is removed and the Blessing restored in the Covenant of Peace and Righteousness where all Creatures come to be injoyed the covenant of Death and Hell being broken and disanulled where the curse stood and standeth in all the World where the restorer of the second Adam is not received who moveth by the measure of his Power against the evil in the hearts of all men and he knocketh at the door of the heart that he may be received and come in and dwell with the Children of men whose delight is with the Sons of men and every one that openeth to him and hearkeneth to his Cry who calls by the Light and moveth by his Power by him they receive Life and Peace and Fulness from the Father and are raised from Death to Life and redeemed from under the power of Satan to the Power of the Creator all evil in the ground and in the fruits judgment goes upon it all and condemnation And thus mankind comes to be restored again to God his Maker to be the Children of God and Heirs of his Inheritance and is no more of this World but redeemed by Jesus Christ out of Kindreds Tongues and People out of respect of Time Place Creatures or Things and sees through all Creatures to be before the World was beyond all the glory of this World to the Glory of the Lord and here is the praising and singing and rejoycing the living and walking in that Life which cannot change and in the World of which there is no end and here a greater Glory is known then the first mans glory a greater State then that which was overcome of the Devil a greater Dominion then that which was lost this Dominion never can have an end Death is swollowed up of Life all sorrow and anguish is swollowed up of rejoycing all tears are wiped here and there is no more sorrow the quickning Spirit is felt and witnessed which hath quickened again to God God's Tabernacle is with men and his Dwelling-place with the Children of men and that is felt and seen and tasted which was before the World was before
avenged on my Oppressors And Vengeance belongâ— to him and he will repay and will destroy the Vineyard with the Plants and Frâ—… thereof and the Bryars and Thorns shall be consumed and he will lay waste anâ— devour and confound all his Enemies in a day when his Indignation goes sorth and his Sword is made bare and his Purpose cometh to pass in rooting out tâ—â— oppressive seed of Evil-doers which have filled his Habitation wherein he sholâ— dwell with cursed Children and a brood of evil Births In the dayes of Christ and his Apostles was the Hand and Power of the 〈◊〉 felt and the Lord gat himself a Name and a Glory and he caused his mâ—…lous Light to spring forth and his Day to dawn and the Day was manifest thaâ— many Prophets and Wise-men had desired to see but was not in their time feeâ— by them and his Power was made known and his Arm was made bare in the sight of many Nations and in that day his Glory was spread abroad and â—is Truth and Way was exalted and his glorious Gospel was declared through 〈◊〉 Earth and the sound of his marvellous Works went forth into all the World Judgment and Mercy was known and Righteousness and Peace was witneâ—… among men and Life and Immortallity was brought to Light through the Gospel and the Word of Life by which all things were created and by which they stand was handled seen felt and tasted and the Lord God in that Age was known to dwell with his People and to walk in them and his Covenant was established with many and his Promises were fulfilled Redemption Deliverance and Salvation was revealed even Christ Jesus the Son God the Prince of Peace And Righteousness was made manifest in the Sons of men and revealed in many who saw God's Glory and were Witnesses of his Majesty and Dominion and were gathered unto him in the Bond of Peace and were his Sons and Daughters and were led by his Spirit in all his Wayes of Truth and Righteousness And many went forth into the World and declared through Nations the things of Gods Kingdom which was come to them and was discovered within them and the Lord God spake from Heaven by his Son unto them and they were filled with the Holy Ghost and with Power And the Lord was with them whom he called and made them Wise and their Word powerful and their Message effectual and their Weapons were mighty through God and strong Holds were subdued and the Powers of Death and Darkness were subjected and the Hearts of thousands were turned to God and the Gospel was preached in power through the World and many were brought to God out of Darkness into Light and from Satans Power unto God And the Earth was filled with Light and the mighty and the wise were confounded and the bonds of cruel oppressions were broken and they that set themselves against the Lord and his Way were confounded and scattered and brought to nought though they were many in that Generation How did all the chief Priests and Scribes and Pharisees Elders of the People and Rulers and Governours lift up themselves in the Pride of their hearts and took counsel together and persecuted the Innocent and put to Death and Imprisoned the Children of the Most High How did they in the dayes of Christ persecute and seek for his Life till they had taken it from the Earth by their subtilty and wickedness The Apostles and Ministers of Christ were persecuted some were put to death and others suffered grievous things for the Name of Christ and were made a Prey and a Spoil unto Destroyers whose wickedness encreased against the Way of God till it was fulfilled in its measure and the Wicked with their work were dashed to peices and the Lord gave his Way and Truth and Servants dominion and power over all his enemies and whole Nations were brought to the knowledge of God and his Wayes and his Name was glorious and his Kingdom was exalted in the Earth and many were his People who were gathered by him and his powerful Word through the mouth of his Ministers whom he ordained and called who were Fisher-men and such like who were chosen to fulfil his Will and to do his Work and not many Wise-men of the World were called but God chose the foolish things to confound the wise then as he doth now and such were honoured by the Lord and Bearers of his Name and of his Message and Glad-tidings though they were contemned of men yet unto such he gave the authority to overturn the wise and to out-reach the wisdom of this World for they were learned of the Father and had the knowledge of his Wayes though they were unlearned in the Arts and Crafts of men which stand more in pollicy and subtilty then in the Fear and Wisdom of God and in that day the Lord was with his People while his People were with him and he loved them while they stood in his Counsel and he gave them dominion over all their Enemies and they were a Terror to the whole World while the Churches stood in the dread and terror of the Lord of Hosts yea all bowed under them and their feet trod upon the high places of the Earth and they were blessed of the Lord above all People even till they waxed fat and were increased in treasures and thought they had need of nothing and then they forgat God and rebelled against him and became perverse in their wayes and grew into strange Idolatries and Errors and left the Way of Truth and cast God's Law behind them and the Power of Godliness ceased and the form grew and it was exalted more then Power and love waxed cold when iniquity abounded and men became Lovers of themselves more then of the Lord and the Lord and his marvellous Works which had been brought to pass were forgotten and hardness of heart and unbelief entred and then false Prophets and Antichrist came in which Christ had prophesied of and established the form of Godliness without the Power and subverted many even whole Houses and Countries from the simplicity of Christ Jesus so that many became insensible and grew past feeling of the Power and operation of God and their minds became blinded and their ears stopped and God was grieved who had brought up Children and they forgat him and rebelled against him for the Churches became corrupted and lost the Life and Power of God and the Holy Ghost and became Idolaters and Worshippers of Idols and as you may read Paul prophesied that many should depart from the Faith and give heed to seducing spirits and the doctrine of Devils and grievous Woves should enter not sparing the Flock but seeking to devour it and would make havock and merchandise of Souls through coveteousness and filthy Lucre and perillous times would come wherein there should be a Form of Godliness and not the Power and in that Generation before and sooâ— after his decease this
self-separate Congregations and wait upon the Lord that you may know him to be your Teacher who is the Teacher of all his People and he teacheth in the perfect Way of Peace and Truth and giveth Peace unto all that wait upon him and causeth the heart of the Upright to rejoyce he taketh away sin and removes it from his People and he forgiveth all their iniquities and healeth all their backslidings and blessed are all they that put their their trust in him for he is a God near at hand for he dwells with his People and he is worshipped only in the Spirit and in the Truth He dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is he worshipped in outward Observations his Soul hath no pleasure among any self-separate People who cry I am holyer then another neither is he well pleased with the Sacrifice of the Proud all their Baptisms and Fellowships and Meetings is but a weariness to the Lords Soul and he hath no pleasure in any of their works who follow their own spirit and are not led with the pure Spirit of God alone but unto every one of sâ—ch will he look who is poor in spirit and of a contrite heart and of a single and upright mind he giveth regard unto every one that fears his Name who thirst and hunger after him in Truth and Righteousness and this is of exceeding great price in the Sight of the Lord yea more then all Offerings and Oblations whatsoever even more then thousands of Rams and ten thousand of Rivers of OYLE Therefore hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord and seek him with an upright Heart and thirst for him as for your daily Food loose not your precious time but call upon his Name while he is near for he is come neer unto many he stands at the door if any will open he will come in and will dwell with them for evermore All sorts of People be Awakened be Awakened How doth the Lord wait to be gratious unto you He even tarrieth for you till you return to him 〈◊〉 his Soul may have pleasure in you who hath long been grieved by you Therefore search your own hearts and see how you stand prepared to meet the Lord by following of his Counsel who hath so loved you and all Man-kind that he hath given his Son into the World to be a Light unto you all and every onâ— of you is lighted by him and with the Light you will know your evil deeds and are convinced of them and reproved for them and with this Light Jesâ—… Christ calleth you Sinners to Repentance to turn from your evil that you may be restored If you love this Light you love Christ who will save you from all your 〈◊〉 and from condemnation If you hate this Light you hate Christ and you â—â—main in your sins to be everlastingly condemned And thus is the Way of Life aâ—â— the way of Death set before you all if you follow the Light of Christ Jesus it will teach you to deny this World and all the vanities of it it will teach you to deny your own wills and the counsels of your own hearts and whatsoever is contrary to God in thought word or action and in all things it will teach you to follow Jesus Christ that you may be justified by him But if you follow not tâ—… Light then you choose your own wayes to follow your own wills and yoâ— own lusts and all temptations and you deny Christ and the Way of Truth and 〈◊〉 the Wrath of God abides upon you for you continue in unbelief and in hardness of heart and are the Servants of sin unto death if you follow not the Ligâ—â— which Christ hath enlightened you withal who lighteth every man that comes â—â—to the World that they may believe and be saved Therefore take heed to the Light if you be guided by it you shall not transgress against God but you wâ—… receive the Power of God to overcome all evil all sin and iniquity will be condemned in you and your hearts will be made clean for the Lord to dwell in whoâ—â— dwelling is in his People and you must all cease from professing of what you 〈◊〉 not possess and from talking of what you do not enjoy for that is Hypocrisie anâ— to be judged So all ye Professors be Awakened Christ without you will not justifie you exâ—… ye know Christ within you the Profession of him will not take away sin not â—â—stifie in the Sight of God except you come to witness the operation of his Spirit 〈◊〉 you to teach you to depart from all evil and to lead you into all good Therefore come to the feeling of the Spirit of Jesus in you and the workiâ—â— of it which changeth reneweth and sanctifieth and bringeth to witness 〈◊〉 same Truth to be manifested in the heart which the Scriptures speak of without and as you receive the same Spirit which gave forth the Scriptures so you will uâ—derstand the Scriptures and by no other means For all your preaching anâ— talking of the Scriptures without the Spirit is but vain babling and that moutâ— is to be stopt for God is not known where the Operation of his Spirit is noâ— felt in the heart nor he cannot be worshipped in Truth but where his Spirit leadâ— and guides Much vain Profession there is in thee O City in which the Lord hath no delight and this is the Testimony of the Lord which I give concerning thee and do yet once more call unto thee as often I have done and do seal the Lords Testimony against thee even against all thy righteousness and against all thy sin which are both alike unto God and both to be condemned Thou hast been warned and thy People and the day of a glorious Visitation hath passed over thee the Lord hath reached unto many and stricken many who have not grieved but carelesly walked and slighted the day of their Visitation and have not hearkened to the Lords Call Unto thousands hath the word of the Lord been declared and the Kingdom of God preached nigh at hand and the very Way of Life and Death hath been set before you for the Lord hath sent to thee to warn â—hee and to shew unto thee what the Counsel of the Lord is and thousands have been reached with the Power of God and convinced of the Way of Life â—nd Peace who yet continue in hardness of heart and disobedience following the â—ounsel of their own hearts and the desire of their own minds which are wholly evil â—ontinually and the condemnation of such will be just in the day of the Lord and greater then theirs to whom the Way of the Lord hath not been known And yet â—mongst thy Thousands who are in the way to destruction the Lord hath a Remâ—ant a Few among so many which are precious unto him and whom his soul deâ—ighteth in who are despised in thee and set at nought and cast out of the saâ—our
of England planted or what Flocks do they keep Their Vineyards prove not tender Grapes but wild â—ower Grapes wild Vines and not Vines to bring forth acceptable fruits and their Flocks prove not Flocks of sheep but wilde rude people who are in the nature of Wolves and Lions and if the Magistrates Law were not their Vineyard noâ— the flock would hardly yield them any maintenance the Apostles planted first a Vineyard and gathered the â—â—heep before they reaped or eat any of the fruit but the Teachers of England differ from them in this for they know what they must have before they plant or before they feed their flock and differ from the Apostles practice who first planted a Vineyard and gathered a flock before they could receive any crop and they would 〈◊〉 then use their power but kept the Gospel of Christ without charge so that this Scripture will not prove the Priests actions lawful in preaching for sums of money â—nd some other Scriptures they bring to prove the lawfulness of their preaching for â—ire which may all be answered as these are and whatsoever they can object will â—ot justifie them for their reaping carnal things and their hire and their eating â—f the milk of the flock is quite of another nature as is proved then the Apostle â—ractices were and were the people wiâ—e they would see and understand these â—hings and not be deluded through perverting of Scriptures and through wresting of them to other ends then wherefore they were given forth and this is written â—o answer some of their objections whereby they would defend themselves for â—hat though Paul took of other Churches to supply his necessities as sometimes he did yet â—his will not prove the lawfulness of their hundreds of pounds by the year most of which they spend in pride and idleness so that still this Judgment is true â—pon them which I have given all objections being answered and all defences â—eing made yoid and hereof they are guilty as I have charged them and proâ—ed it out of the Scripture They disagree to the Ministers of Christ and agrees with the Deceivers and in some particulars exceeds them for I believe all the falsâ— Prophets in Israel did not destroy any whit near a Million and a half of Money in a year considering all things it must come to little less their Funeral Sermons their great Tythes and small Tythes and Marriages and Sprinkling of Infants and Churching of Women with other such Penuries claimed by the Church of England with what is given to them out of the Nations treasure which is many hundred pounds a year also considering how much in a year is spent and consumed at two or three Colledges in this Nation in relation to the Ministry as in bringing some up to the attainment of the Ministry is they call it and upon the Educators of such with a very great abundance of such like charges consumed out of the Nations treasure which is wasted as in relation to this Ministry spoken of I do not speake against good education and learning which is in its place a vertue as for Travellers and many others neither do I account such money vainly wasted and spent but onely as to the Ministry of Christ natural learning is not there admitted to make Ministers or to enable them thereunto but that money which is thereupon spent is wasted and consumed and how much is spent in this way and for such an end onely I leave wise men to judge which will make up a large sum in the whole considering all things I say their yearly maintenance may amount to fifteen hundred thousand pounds a year which is a thousand thousand and half a thousand thousand pounds Men of weaâ— understandings can hardly reach to know how much it is and that makes me thus plainly expound it Kingston upon Thames the eighth moneth 1657. A description of the true Ministery of Christ and its Maintenance THe day hath appeared that makes all things manifest and the light is arisâ—â— that gives to discern between truth and error between the true and eveâ—â— false way and between the true worship of God which is spiritual and every falâ—â— worship of the world which is Idolatry and the true Ministry of Christ is knoâ—â— from the false Ministry by their several fruits and signes for hidden things are brougâ—â— to light and secret things are revealed but now the people of the world both tâ—â— wise and the foolish thus they object and say Seeing that you do so much coâ—… our Ministry and Ministers in their call in their practices in their conversation â—â—d 〈◊〉 their maintenance what Ministry do you own and what Ministers do you allow of 〈◊〉 whether would you have any Ministery at all seeing you throw down and declare against sâ—â— as the Law of the Land sets up and such as we have looked upon to be able Ministers 〈◊〉 after this manner are the people of this Generation begun to reason among themselves sâ—… what would this people do if they had power what Ministers would they approve of and 〈◊〉 maintenance would they allow them To all this I do answer and say The true Ministers and Ministry of Câ—… we do allow of and we would have set up and established and we wait patiâ—… ly till it be brought to pass even such as are ordained by power from on 〈◊〉 and who have received the gift of the holy Ghost who are called of God into the 〈◊〉 of the Ministry such we do approve of to be Ministers of Christ in whom he is reveâ—… and who have received him and are changed by him from death to life and out 〈◊〉 darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of God and who are born of the Spirit and 〈◊〉 led and guided by it into all truth and are called by it to follow the lamb whither sâ—… he goeth and who are taught by it in all their practices of Religion and in 〈◊〉 whole worship of God and such we own as have felt the operation of the spiâ—… in themselves and who have tasted handled seen and felt of the Word of life whiâ—â— abids for ever and such who goeth in the name of the Lord to Minister and declare freely what they have freely received of God by his Spirit and who preacheth Christ freely as the onely way and means of life and salvation unto all people even such as ministereth him the way the truth and the life the onely justifier and sanctifier and deliverer of them that believe and the condemner of them that believe not and such as Ministereth Christ onely the teacher and leader of his people and nothing else besides him and such we allow as onely seeketh and laboureth in the wisdom of God to bring people out of the wayes of sin and death unto the knowledge of God and to the things that belong unto their peace such who have no respect to large places or great benefits to seek after
in the day of the Lord Is your answer ready or will not your mouthes be stoped and you speechless when righteousness it self pleads against you And what can you plead for fining men and imprisoning them for not respecting your persons and bowing with hat and knee and because they could not swear this hath some of you done will you have any thing to say in the cause of these things when Christ Jesus comes to reign and his Saints with him unto whom the government and the authority and rule shall be given though now they are persecuted and as the refuse of men accounted by you unto whom they are become a prey to act your oppression and cruelty upon and because they render nor evil for evil therefore is the impudency of some men the more encreased and their hardness of heart enlarged and because judgment is not speedily executed therefore are the hearts of some men set in them to do evil O! what a sad reckoning in that day and what large indictments and verdicts for your oppression will be read against you and proved to be just in the sight of God and men a sad thing will it be upon you when laid to your charge by the Lord for causing men to suffer because they could not swear nor respect persons nor uphold the deceits of false Worships and Teachers nor cease to cry against sin in your Towns and Steeple-houses O! be stirred up out of your security you Heads and Rulers and Judges and Officers even all you be awakened who have turned your sword against the peaceable and been a terror to righteousness as much as you could which you ought not to have been and so your power you have abused and subverted it to another end than wherefore it was committed to you instead of defending the upright you have offended him and instead of being a terror to the wicked his hand hath been strengthened through your wicked presidents this is the truth as the Light in all your consciences shall witness in the day of the Lord O! how hath justice and true judgment been neglected and oppression and cruelty abounded the like in Generations past hath not been known but the Lord is now arisen and hath said I will ease mâ— of my Enemies and take vengeance upon my Adversaries who have done wickedly against him and his people till the patience of the Lord is near an end and his long suffering finished and his judgments will he make known upon his Enemies in this Generation that Ages to come forever may be warned not to oppress the Innocent as these have done by false accusations and unjust judgments and wicked proceedings and because of it the wrath of the Lord is kindled and his viols of indignation shall be poured upon the Beast and upon the false Prophet and all their power shall be smitten in one day And O what wickedness hath abounded in the people also to help up the measure of the Rulers sins that they may receive their recompence together how have the people of all sorts abused the innocent lambs of Christ whom he hath called What beatings and stonings and bruisings and other abuses in Towns and High-ways and Steeple-houses its hard to be expressed and large to be declared some have been wounded nigh unto death others bruised till blood have gushed out and others cast down in the dirt and punched with feet and troden upon and many have been in danger of their lives some have been knocked down with staves and their cloaths-rent and their hair torn off their heads and some have been pursued after with throwing stones and dirt at them and many haled and tumbled and lugged and hurried up and down in cruel manner to the danger of life and oppression of the creature and others have been whipped and lashed and put into cruel torment of their Bodies by Engins framed of purpose to torment the Bodies of the harmless as Chester and Carlile may witness and others have been haled before Rulers and falsly slandered to the taking away of life if the Lord had not prevented more than the mercy of men and having been unmercifully and unjustly sent to prison there have they suffered cruelties from the Goalers or their servants by beatings or punishings or threatnings or cruel words and casting into Dungeons and great abuses shamefully acted upon them and other Prisoners have made a prey upon them by taking away their cloaths and meat and beating of them and abusing them divers ways Murtherers have had more priviledge of freedom in prisons and in tryals than these who are Innocent and those things thus acted contrary to their own Law have passed without reproof from many in Authority though it hath been brought to their Door and in this manner have the Children of God the Lamb and his Followers been persecuted without cause or any evil works brought forth by them and legally proved against them but for well-doing and not for evil have the wicked vented their malice against them that the more the Beast and his power hath fulfilled wickedness the sooner may be his destruction And O what scorning and reviling and lying and slandering and evil speeches with mockings and cruel words of envy and tearms of cruelty against the Innocent hath this Generation brought forth in this day wherein the Dragon with his Angels hath joyned battel against the Prince of Righteousness and they that follow him and whole Gog and Magog is gathered together to compass the Camp of the Saints about and to fight against the beloved City the Judges and Rulers with their train of subservant officers as Bayliffs Clarks Goalers Constables with all that to those belonged have with a high hand persecuted and laid oppressions by hard-heartedness upon the backs of the poor and distressed and the Scorners and â—iers and prophane wretches have bent their tongue against the Just in uttering lies slanders reproaches back-biting nick-naming and false-accusing and all manner of evil speeches and false reproaches and the just have been burthened by all this and thus they that have been departed from iniquity have been a prey to Rulers to act their injustice upon and to the people to utter their slanders and to do cruelty against and the teeth of evil-doers have been set on edge to bite and devour and to satisfie their maliciousness upon the sufferings of the upright people and from the Judge upon his throne to the begger upon the high-way all have had their hand dipped in this cause of cruel and unjust persecution and the Lord hath considered and harkened from his holy Habitation and numbered up the sum of all your iniquities that he may repay and recompence upon your heads wo unto you unjust Judges and corrupt men who have abused your power And wo unto all that do oppress by hard dealing who have offended the just and defended the unjust Wo unto all you scorners lyers back-biters and repoachful tougues the Lord is
other things which are good and just and pure but the fruits of the seed of the Serpent are of another nature as Lying Theft Murther Dissimulation Drunkenness and Whordoms Hypocrisie and all Unrighteousness which is not according to God but contrary to him and by these several Fruits proceeding through the Creature do we know every Creature and so judge of him to be the Child of God or the Child of the Devil in the election or in the reprobation for through whom the Fruits of the Seed of God doth spring forth we know such are not of the Devil and through whom the Fruits of the seed of the Serpent do spring forth we know such are not of God And these two Seeds are now striving in the Earth the one against the other and they in whom the Seed of God rules are persecuted by them in whom the seed of the Serpent rules for they in whom the Seed of God rules are born of God and of his Spirit and they in whom the seed of the Serpent rules are born of flesh and minds the things of the flesh which shall not endure for ever and so every one that is born of the flesh is of the seed of the Serpent or the seed of the Serpent rules in him and every one that is born of the Seed of God the Seed of God rules in him such are persecuted for righteousness sake by the seed of the Serpent which is at enmity against the Seed of God which cannot fulfill the will of the Serpents seed nor be subject to his laws for the Seed of God cannot be subject to the Serpents seed in any thing but is subject to God and not to any thing that is contrary to him but rather suffers imprisonment and cruelties and bonds under the Serpents seed than in the least to bow to it So this is the ground of all persecution and enmity which is betwixt the two seeds which seeks the overthrow each of other but who are of the Seed of God knows that they are of God and that the whole World lyes in wickedness under the government of the seed of the Serpent and such where he Seed of God is brought forth hath the testimony in themselves that they are of God and have believed in the Son of God who is the Light of the World and knowes him to be the Foundation and the Rock of Ages and the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against him nor the enmity of the Serpents seed overcome him nor they that are Builded on him and this is a Testimony for the Seed of God and against the seed of the Serpent in all the World that it is persecuted of the seed of the Serpent and spoken all manner of evil of by the World according to the words of Christ which are fullfilled upon us to our rejoycing who are of the Seed of God and to the trouble of all our Enemies who are of the seed of the Serpent And otherwise it cannot be but that they who are born of the flesh must persecute them who are born of the Spirit for because of the enmity that is placed between the two feeds the one cannot love the other nor have fellowship the one with the other and which of our Fore-Fathers the Prophets and Disciples of Christ which were of the Seed of God were not persecuted hated and reviled and reproached by your fore-fathers who were of the seed of the Serpent and they no more then you could receive the Knowledge of God and his wayes but ever despised the path thereof and counted the Wisdom of God foolishnesse and stood in the enmity against God and his people and all their ways and they that were of the seed of the Serpent ever called truth error and the way thereof heresie and blalphemie Ieremiah Amos and the rest were called deceivers and mad-men and seducers of the people and evil was done unto them Ieremiah was put in the stocks and in the dungeons by the Rulers of that Generation who were of the seed of the Serpent even the Prophets of God who were sent of God and were witnesses of his Name in truth and righteousness were accounted and called deceivers and were persecuted by imprisonments and some unto death as you may read in the Scripture Ieremiah 20. Amos 7. These with others who were sent of the Lord to bear testimony of God and against the Rulers who executed not true Justice and Judgment but were oppressors of the poor who judged for gifts and rewards and against the false Prophets and Priests that ran and had not been sent who used their tongue and said the Lord said and the Lord had not spoken to them who prophesied falsly and preached for hire and bare rule by their means and made a prey upon the people these were of the seed of the Serpent and did persecute them that bore witness against them that were of the Seed of God The Word of the Lord was even a reproach unto Ieremiah daily and they smote him with the tongue and the chief Governour of the Lords house smote him and put him in the Dungeon And Amos who had been no Prophet nor the son of a Prophet but a herdsman he was persecuted by the Priest of Bethel and was commanded not to Prophesie in the Kings Chappel And Amaziah the Priest complained to Ieroboam the King against Amos the Prophet And Ezekiel the Prophet could not be received of the people for saith the Lord they will not hear thee for they will not hear me and they were a rebelious house and impudent and hard-hearted and would not receive the Prophets words And thus it was in the time of the Apostles and Christ Jesus they were persecuted and some of them put to death for bearing testimony unto the Father whom they were witnesses of and against the World what Reproaches Slanders Beatings Buffetings Scornings Tumults Uproars and all manner of evil did they suffer in their Generation by the seed of the Serpent from the hands of the Rulers and Priests and People Christ was accounted a Deceiver â—nd called a Devil and a Blasphemer and the Apostles were called Hereâ—…icks Deceivers and pestilent fellows movers of sedition destroyers of â—he Law and turners of the World upside down and such like All â—hese were of the Seed of God that were persecuted and the Persecuâ—ors were of the seed of the Serpent which brought forth violence and â—ickedness and false judgement against the Innocent and some were â—ost cruely put to death upon the false account of being Deceivers and Blasâ—hemers If you search through the whole Scripture you may read how the Just â—ere persecuted even from Abel who was of the Seed of God and all â—…at ever were persecuted for righteousness sake were persecuted upon the account of being Evil-doers and the Persecutors judged themselves to be Righteous He was the chief Governor of the House of the Lord that persecuted Ieremiah and the people that smote
the Prophets and Apostles who did zealously give their testimony against such as went for gifts and rewards as the Teachers of England do but this is that which he is offended at and calls it a persecuting spirit which is not so but in love to peoples souls that they may deny the evil and follow the good And that our Ancesters have persecuted to death as he saith This is also a lye and of the Devil for our Ancestors were the Saints who were called of God and were not of the World even as we are not of the World and we are persecuted but seeks not to persecute any and gives our witness faithfully against this Generation and against the sins both of Teachers and people and this I suppose is it even our zeal for the Name of the Lord against unrighteousness which he falsly calls a persecuting spirit 16. His sixteenth Reason is Some Interrogatories saith he What reasonable man should turn Quaker that sees the common fruit of their Doctrine whâ—â— good do they do where-ever they come but saith he hate both godly Teacher and people c. Ans. To this I answer The fruit of our Doctrine is begetting people to the Knowledge of God and a converting them from sin and death and from the wayes and works of unrighteousness to be the Servants of the Lord and every spiritual man doth see this to be the fruit of our doctrine It doth condemn unrighteousness and bring war and a sword upon Earth as Christs Doctrine did And this is the good where we come many are changed from wickedness rudeness and ungodliness to live soberly righteously and purely in this present World without offence towards God and men For to say We make people both to hate godly Teachers and people this is utterly false for we endeavour to bring people to the true Teacher Christ Jesus and to have fellowship with the Saints It 's true in the World our Doctrine doth make division and doth set a man at variance and doth set Father against Son and Son against Father even as Christ did and his Doctrine so he saith we do But again he belyes us in saying We bring people into confusion and abominable error or that we cast people into a malicious mood or tincture of bitterness this is also false and this is my Answer He that doth the will of our Father knows of our Doctrine whether we weâ—â— of God or of our selves and to all the World besides we are unknown and desires to be manifest to every mans conscience in the Sight of God and not to that wisdom which is of this World And though he scorn at such who are made to cast off their Points and Lace yet is not this more then any fruit that his Doctrine hath brought forth for as 〈◊〉 do so did the Apostle exhort against all superfluiâ—â— of naughtiness as Points and Lâ—… are and it seems that such as depart from iniquity become a prey to such wicked menâ— slandering and scornful Tongues and a matter to makes Books of to send into the World 17. His seventeenth Reason Saith he It is no great encouragement to us to turn Quakers when we consider who are their followers very few experienced sober Christians turn to them saith he but such who are ignorant and ungrounded and raw professors c. Answ. To this I answer Let no man take encourgement from without to turn Quakers or to own the Way of Gods Salvation But let every one feel a Measure of God in his own heart converting him from sin unto righteousness and drawing his mind from the vanity and hypocrisie of this World to the truth and singleness of heart And he appears to be of the spirit of the Pharisees who said None but a company of poor people which were accursed followed Christ and so saith he in effect None but such as are ignorant and such like But what if there were not any other but such who owned the Way of the Lord this is a confirmation of it rather then a cause of objecting against it when such who are ignorant are brought to the Knowledge of God But yet his words are false for it is known that very many honest humble sober 〈◊〉 and people who have all their dayes been sincere towards God in what they have known of him have and do own us and indeed all that ever owâ—â— God and Salvation shall own us for we are of God and he that is of God heaâ—… us and the whole World Lyes in wickedness And such as are self-conceited and in pride and wise in their own eyes and in the wickedness of the World such are his followers and not ours though be falsely say it for such as follow Christ have we fellowship with and not with such as walk in darkness 18. His eighteenth Reason Saith he It is an evident Iudgment of God upon these people that turn Quakers and a punishment for their former sins c. Ans. To this I answer The Lord God his Angels and all his Saints and Servants I call to record against thee and they all shall witness that it is Mercy and not Judgement upon them that owns the way of the Lord And them that owned the Quakers in truth and sincerity have and do witness a remission of their former sins and forgiveness of them by Jesus Christ and not a punishment for them And Rich. Baxter may please himself and some others with his reasonless Reasons as these are yet they are not worthy of the name of Reason they be so senceless and utterly false And though he rails against the Anabaptists as well as against us yet any man whose eye is open sees his folly and turns it upon his own head and he may conceit himself in these things for a moment but the day of the Lord will declare it otherwise and that upon us Mercy and Peace shall be and not Judgement nor Wrath. 19. His ninteenth Reason Saith he They are already in division among themselves as the contention between Nayler and Fox and their followers do shew To this I answer Though an occasion may come and be taken against the truth yet wo unto him by whom it comes and to them who do receive it for the Testimony of Truth abids for ever But as about that division he speaks of it hath been answered by writings several times and now I say It happened but as a Tryal to the Lords People and not to destroy them though the Enemy boasts himself because of it yet the Lord knows how to preserve his in the midst of Temptation But these things are now at an end though a Temptation presented it self yet it overcame not and truth is the same and the Testimony thereof doth never change and all these Refuges which the Wicked flyes unto shall not cover them when the Lord appears 20. His twentieth Reason And saith he To make all their delusions more odious wickednesse they father it upon
was a God and they feared him and served him and worshipped him and his Name was precious amongst them who were his chosen People and with whom he dwelt and his Power and Presence was amongst his People that did walk with him under what Name soever they went in the World But the first time that ever the People of the Lord were called Christians or known by that Name from other people it was at Antioch in the time of the Apostles who were Followers of Christ as you may read Acts 11. 26. And the Disciples were first called Christians in Antioch and before that time the People of the Lord were never called Christians and this Name was given to them by the Heathen because they were for Christ and of his part and did follow him and preach him to be follow'd and in all things exalted his Name and did and suffer'd all things for the Name of Christ therefore were they named Christians and that Name was true unto them for they had upon them the express Image and Character of Christ and follow'd his Spirit and preached him unto all people for Life and Salvation and that all people might come to Christ and become Followers of him and therefore they were rightly named Christians to be known by that Name from all other people upon Earth who were not Followers of Christ who could not rightly be call'd Christians because they were not of his part and from thence forth unto this day all people whatsoever that believed in Christ and became Followers of him and that professed him were called Christians from that Original and Foundation of the Name which then was laid Also you may read Acts 26. 28. And Agrippa said unto Paul Almost thou persâ—adest me to be a Christian Here again Paul followed Christ and preached him and was on his part altogether and highly extolled his Name therefore King Agrippa called him Christian and was almost perswaded to be a Christian to wit A Man for Christ to take part with him and to be on his side and the Name interpreted this is the signification and all that have this Character do truly deserve the Name of Christians for they are anointed People and this was the beginning of the Christian Name And before that time as I have said were the People of God never called Christians in any Generation and ever since that time through all Ages all that professed Christ and believ'd in him throughout the whole World were called by the Name of Christians and the Name and Religion of Christians were honourable and greatly beloved of God for that People was the peculiar People a chosen Generation as you may read 1 Pet. 2. 19. and whilst the Life of Christ was manifest and the Spirit of Christ did lead them and teach them in all their Wayes and Practices of Religion And whilst I say they retained the Power and Life of that of which they had the Name the Power and Presence of the Lord was amongst them and above all the people of the Earth were they blessed and more then all people upon the Earth besides had they the Countenance of God shining amongst them and upon them and pure unity with God and one with another had they in his â—ife whereby they were made a terror and a fear to all Nations while they stood in the Counsel of God and were Christians in life and power and practice as well as in name and the Lord greatly encreased them in number for as you may read through the Acts of the Apostles through all the World many believed in Christ and became Followers of him and received the Knowledge of him and became anointed People and received the name of Christians sometimes Thousands at one Sermon were converted to the Faith of Christ and became subject to his Spirit and had his Mark upon them and all such were called Christians and the Apostles went through many Nations and of the Iews and Greeks and of the Heathen and all other people some of each were converted from that way in which they had walked to follow Christ and they became Christians and here was the encrease of Christianity and through many parts of the World they planted Churches and Assemblies of Christians And as I said while they stood in the Counsel of God the Name and Religion was of him greatly beloved But now the Christians are Apostatized and degenerated from the Spirit of Christ and from that which gave them the true Name of Christians and the name is retained only and the Life and Power lost and now many have a name to live but are dead and that is departed from which gave the true interest and title in the Name Hear this all ye Christians That Life Light and Power of God which was amongst the Apostles and Christians once you are departed from and have lost the sence and knowledge of and have the Name and not the thing which was the Reason and Ground of the Name Wherefore all ye through the World that are called Christians look back to your Original look unto the Apostles who were the first that were called Christians from whom you had the Name and see how you are degenerated and fallen from the Life that they were in and though you retain the Name of Christians yet you are not Followers of Christ nor taâ—ght by his Spirit and none in the dayes of the Apostles were truly counted or called Christians but who follow'd the Spirit of Christ and were first converted to him and changed by his Power from Sin to Righteousness and from Death to Life and such as were so were truly called Christians But now all such as are called by that Name and are not followers of the Spirit of Christ nor converted to him neither changed by his Power from Death to Life and from Sin to Righteousness such are in the Degeneration from the Life of Christianity and have a Name without the Life and Power thereof And now it remains to be shewed how and when the Degeneration came upon the Christians and wherein they are apostatized and degenerated from that â—ife and Spirit and Practice which was amongst the Apostles that were first called Christians The Spirit of the Lord spoke through the Apostles and foretold of a falling away from the Truth and from the true Christian-life and Paul said Acts 20. 29 30. said he Grievous Wolves shall arise and enter in who would not spare the Flock and from among themselves should men arise speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them And he also said 1 Tim. 4. 1. That some should depart from the Faith and give heed to seducing spirits And he also said That it should come to pass the people should become wicked departing from the Truth having the Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof and such were led away with divers Lusts and men of corrupt Minds and reprobate concerning the Faith And the Apostle Peter also foretold That
there should false Teachers arise among the Christians who should bring in damnable Heresies and many Christians should follow their pernicious wayes by reason of which the Way of Truth should be evil-spoken of And the Apostle Iohn saw That many false Prophets were gone out then and many Antichrists were then come in among the Christians Now all these do shew and declare of a Degeneration and falling away of Christians from the Life of Christianity and we see these Prophesies fulfilled and Flocks of Christians are devoured from the Life of Christ by devouring Wolves which have entred among them who have led them into pernicious ways and into damnable Heresies whereby the Name of Christianity is become reproachful amongst the Heathens that never were called Christians and many Thousands are departed from the true Faith from that Faith which did purifie the hearts of the Saints and many Christians have given heed to seducing spirits and have the Form of Godliness but deny the Power thereof and they are led of divers Lusts and are become men of corrupt minds and are reprobate and without the true Faith And the Apostles prophesied of the Degeneration which we see fulfilled in these our dayes and even while some of the Apostles were yet living they saw the Christians Apostatizing and falling away and the Spirit of the Lord spoke through Iohn Rev. 2. 3. to the Christian-Churches in Asia who were already departing from the Christian-Life some of them were departed already from their first Work and some of them were given to the doctrine of Balaam and to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing the Lord did hate and others of them were seduced by Iezabel and taught to commit Fornication and to eat things sacrificed to Idols and others of them had a name to live but were dead and others of them were neither hot nor cold and the Lord said he would spue them out of his Mouth Now here the Christians were falling away you may see and as before it had encreased so now the true Christian Life began to decrease and the glory thereof became darkned through all Asia And also Rev 13. 11. 1. 16. Iohn saw one Beast arise out of the Sea and another out of the Earth which set up a Kingdom over the whole World and caused all people upon Earth to worship the Beast and the Beast hath been great in his power and he hath ruled over the World in great dominion and all that would not worship him he hath had power to kill and hath killed them so that the true Christian Life and Religion as the Apostles received it and practised it hath been extinguished for many Generations and People have had the Form of Godliness but denied the Power and lived under the Name and Profession of Christianity but have been without the Life and this is to be considered of and diligently searched into by all you that go under the Name of Christians through all the World for unto you only I direct my words And now it remains to be shewed what the state of Christians is at this day and wherein particularly they are apostatized and degenerated from the true Life and Practice of the Apostles who were the first Christians for wherein the Christians now are contrary and not agreeable to the Apostles in Faith in Practice in Worship in Ministry and in the entrance into Christianity and in any other thing whatsoever I say wherein they are contrary and not agreeable to the true Christians of old to wit the Apostles therein are they degenerated and fallen from the true Life of Christianity and this shall be the Rule of Judgment to try all you that are called Christians upon the face of the Earth wherefore awake and come forth to Judgment for the measuring Rod is laid upon you all whereby you shall be truly measured and compared with them that where the first Christians upon Earth and the Heathens shall see your nakedness and your shame and his at you when they behold how wofully you are fallen from that Life in the Purity thereof of which you do profess the words and shall not they rise up in Judgment against you who never had the name of Christians who are not faln nor degressed from what they have profest in any measure comparable to you who now retain only the name of Christians and are departed from the Life of Christ. First concerning the entrance into Christianity and the way and means whereby people are now made Christians and receives that name In this will your fall and degeneration appear For the Apostles and first Christians upon Earth before they were Christians or were called so they were first converted and changed and translated from Death to Life as you may read 1 Iohn 3. 14. and Col. 1. 13. and they first received Christ and became followers of him and received his Spirit to teach them and to guide them For the Apostle said If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8. 9. to wit no Christians and the Apostle said as many as were the Sons of God were led by the Spirit of God and also it was promised by Christ to all that were his the Comforter should come the Spirit of Truth and he should lead them into all Truth which promise all that were Christians did receive and they were led into all Truth by the teachings of the Spirit of Christ which dwelt in them for all that were Sons God sent the Spirit of his Son into their hearts which Spirit sanctified them through the obedience thereof Now these were Christians and were truly so called For they had the mark of Christ and his Image upon them and he dwelt in their hearts by Faith Ephes. 3. 17. These I say were truly called Christians and none but such at that day of their Original were called Christians or had Fellowship in the Christian life nor were any looked upon by the Apostles to be Christians but by them that were such But look back all ye Christians upon Earth and see your fall and wherein you are contrary and not agreeable to the true Christians in their first and pure Estate I say look to your Original and see how you are Apostatized from them in your entrance into your profession of Christianity for though you have the name of Christians yet you were not made so nor received that name by being first converted and changed and translated from Death to Life and from being the Children of disobedience to be the Children of God through the work and operation of the Spirit of God in you for hereof are Thousands and Ten Thousands of Christians now wholly ignorant and altogether without the feeling of the Spirit of God to change them to convert them and to translate them but are accounted Christians by tradition or natural education and because of being sprinkled with a little water upon the face being Infants or by a
bare confession and profession of the Name of Christ in words and professing of a bare belief in the Scriptures by this way and means were you made and received you the name of Christians without any real change from darkness to Light and from Satan to God as I have said Now here appears to be a woful degeneration in the very entrance of the thing and this is not agreeable but rather contrary unto that way of Christianity wherein the Christians in their beginning were so made and called for then none were Christians or so called but who through the preaching of the Gospel were first converted changed and renewed as I have said but now in these Nations all are called Christians that are spinkled upon their faces with Water by a Teacher when they are Infants or that do but profess Christ in words though they are not guided particularly by his Spirit neither have received Christ to dwell in them and to be King over them and here again appears a wofull Apostacy for none in the beginning of Christianity in the World were made Christians or so called but who received Christ and in whom he dwelt and was in them as you may read 2 Corinth 13. 5. and who were Followers of him and had his Spirit in them the Comforter to teach them and to lead them into all Truth but now thousands upon thousands who have the name of Christians have not received Christ to dwell in them nor to rule them neither is he manifest in them by his Spirit to teach them and they are not led into all truth but live in deceit and unrighteousness and are not Followers of Christ but follows their own hearts desirâ— and their own hearts Lusts and are condemned in their own Consciences and have not received the Comforter the Holy Spirit to be their Guide and Leader out of all Unrighteousness and here appears a woful Degeneration And that you Christians through all the World are revolted and gone backward from Christianity as it was in its Original a Lamentation may be taken up because of this woful Fall into which you Christians are fallen Consider of your own state and return and repent Again The Christians were begotten of God and born of him 1 Joh. 5. 18. And they were born of the Word of God and of the incorruptible Seed 1 Pet. 1. 23. And they were created in Christ Iesus unto good Works Eph. 2. 10. And they were New Creatures and old things were done away 2 Cor. 5. 17. They had put off the Body of Sin and Death Col. 1. 18. And were the Servants of Righteousness and free from Sin Rom. 6. 22. as you may read But now also Woful are you Christians degenerated from this for Thousands upon Thousands of you are not born nor begotten of God though you have the Name of Christians neither are you born of the Word of God which lives forever nor of the incorruptible Seed neither are created again nor become new Creatures nor have put off the Body of Sin and Death neither are the Servants of Righteousness nor free from sin But on the contrary Are the Servants of Sin and free from Righteousness and are in the corruptible state and are old Creatures and are not washed nor purified as the Saints were as you may read 1 Cor. 6. 11. and here is a woful Degeneration of the Christians now from what the Christians were in the beginning The Christians then were New Creature and put off the Body of sin and were washed and sanctified But the Christians now are not so but the contrary to wit Unwashed and Unsanctified remaining in the Pollutions of the World and are of the birth which is born of the Flesh and are in the old nature serving sin and the lusts of their own Hearts and thus are you fallen from that which the true Christians possessed for being compar'd to them you are not agreeable but rather contrary to them in all these things and the Lord is now come to search you and to try you and to all People shall you be discover'd for the Lord is now risen to bring all to Tryal and to Judgment And again Herein will the Apostacy of the Christians appear in respect of Unity and Fellowship for the Christians in their Beginning while yet the Life of God was not darkened amongst them They were of one Heart and one Mind and one Soul as you may read Acts 4. 32. And the Lord promised That he would give unto his People one Heart and one Way And Ezek. 11. 19. the Lord promised To give his People one Heart and a new Spirit Which Promise the Christians received and they that believed were of one Heart and there was no lack amongst them but some sold their Possessions and distributed to them that had need and they were Members of Christ and he was Head amongst them and over them And they were Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bones Eph. 5. 23 30. And all the Christians were of one Faith Eph. 4. 5. and had Unity and Fellowship in the Life which was made manifest in them for they had tasted and handled and seen and heard the Word of Life and they had Fellowship with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ. But all ye Chirstians upon Earth how are you degenerated and how great is your Fall in this For you are not of one Heart and Mind nor in Unity and Fellowship one with another but are of divers Sorts and Sects and are run into many Opinions and Divisions and are of many Wayes and Minds and Hearts Divers sorts there are of Papists and divers sorts of Protestants so called which are all divided in Opinions and striving and contending about Faith and Religion and the Worship of God and are opposing one another and putting one another to Death because of a difference in those things How great is the difference through many Nations amongst Christians about those things which sheweth that the Christians are wofully fallen in respect of Unity and it is manifest such Christians have not received the Promise of God as the Apostles had for now the Christians can suffer one another to lack and to perish and die and starve for hunger and want Behold in all this all ye Christians generally how you are fallen then in the beginning of Christianity no lack nor want was amongst them they that had much sold it and gave to them that had none but now thousands are oppressed through Want while others have too much some are feeding and clothing excessively with their multitude of Dishes and changes of Raiment while others have scarce whereon to seed or to cover their Nakedness and this manifesteth that you are not Members of the Body of Christ neither is he Head in you nor amongst you but you are Members of an Harlot and joyn'd to a Harlot and one with a Harlot for you profess many Faiths some say They believe Christ is
hearts and it was that Light that gave them the Light of the knowledge of the Glory of God but thou hast discovered thy self to be a Stumbler at the stumbling-stone and hath taken offence at the Light like the Pharisees who professed the Scriptures as the Priests of England do but were ignorant of the Life the end of the words and knew not Christ the Substance but the Stone at which you stumble will break you to pieces and grind you to powder even Christ the Light of the World that lighteth every man that cometh into the World That the Soul is a part or measure of God as they speak and not a part of man but uncreated and so is that Light which is in every one Answ. The Soul is immortal and God is immortal for God breathed into man the Breath of Life and he became a Living Soul as saith the Scripture and the Soul is related to God for what a man works against God it is against his own Soul for all Sin is against God and against a man's own Soul And God who hath all Souls in his hand who is the Creator and gave Life into the Soul that is immortal and can never die though Death hath passed over it and hath reigned over all from Adam till Moses and Christ is the Light of the World that gives Life unto the Soul and he raiseth up the Soul out of Death and Misery and brings the Soul to rejoyce in God its Saviour and Christ is the Souls Bishop its Pastor and Feeder and who knows Christ knows him that was before the World was made and sees to the beginning and to the ending and his Soul rests in God that is over all That the Light in the Heathen who never heard that Iesus Christ died at Jerusalem is the same for the quality of it with that which is in the most godly Person onely there is a difference in the quantity And men are reconciled to God by following of it This Light they say is the sure Word of Prophesie and that it is sufficient to lead out of all Sin unto God Answ. The Testimony of Iohn is that Christ is the Light that lighteth every mâ—n that cometh into the World and if every man then the Heathen who hath not the relation of Christ's Life and his Death at Ierusalem yea and it is the same Light that is in the Heathen the same in nature and kind as it is in the Saints for the Comforter the Spirit of Truth is one in it self and the same though it comforteth the Saints and reproveth the World and the Wicked for their sins And men are reconciled to God by Christ for he was in God reconciling to himself and none are reconciled but who walk in the Light and follows it for who walks in the Light the Blood of Christ cleanseth them 〈◊〉 all Siâ— and they are reconciled and none else And the Word of God is in the Heart as the Scripture saith Deut. 30. Rom. 10. and that is the Word of Prophesie and that Word is sufficient to lead out of all Sin unto God if men believe in Jesus and receiveth him and the Spirit of Truth leadeth into all Truth all that follow it That Christ as man is not in Heaven yea that he hath ceased to be man and conseqâ—…ly to be Mediator and when I told them he should come in the Clouds in like 〈◊〉 as he ascended and that at his coming the Elements melteth one of their 〈◊〉 told me that the Clouds were scattered and the Elements melted in him Answ. Christ Jesus is ascended into Heaven and sits at the right Hand of the Father yea he is ascended far above all Heavens as saith the Scripture But that is utterly false whereas thou sayest we say he ceased to be man that is â—y Lye and so I pass it And we believe according to the Scriptures that 〈◊〉 shall come in like manner as he ascended and at his coming the Elements shall melt And it is not error for a man to say the Clouds are scattered and â—â—e Elements melted in him for Clouds are Darkness and covers the face of the Sun many times as thou mayest behold in the Firmament But Darkness is yet over thy Heart and the Elements are not melted away and therefore thou art in thy Imaginations putting Light for Darkness and Darkness for Light and calling Evil Good and Good Evil. That the Bodies of Men shall never rise again after death and that the day of Iudgement is come already and that now the Saints do judge the World Answ. We do believe the Resurrection according to the Scriptures For if onely in this Life we have Hope we were of all men most miserable And we believe that the Dead shall arise again after death and every one shall receive according to the Deeds done in the Body they that have done Evil shall arise to Eternal Condemnation and they that have done Good to Eternal Salvation in the day of Judgement And the Lord cometh with and in ten thousand of his Saints to judge the World and the Saints upon Earth do receive the Spirit of Judgement and do judge the World even all things for the spiritual Man judgeth all things even in this present Age if thou canst receive it thou mayest They are utterly against Water-Baptism and administring of the Lord's Supper with Bread and Wine because they say they have the Substance of all within Answ. As for Baptism and the Supper of the Lord we do own it and it is practiced of us in the Life and Power of God but as for your Baptism that is to say sprinkling of Infants calling it the Baptism into the Faith and that they are made Members of the Church thereby and that it is a Seal of Regeneration as you say in your Common-Prayer-Book and Directory that we do utterly deny and do say it is no Ordinance of God neither was it ever commanded by him or practiced by his Saints but is an Institution of the Whore of Rome and England received it by a Popish Institution and your practice of it is Idolatry and not any part of the true Worship of God And as for your breaking Bread and drinking Wine in that manner and form as it is practiced in the Church of England among the Unconverted and Unregenerated that we utterly deny also to be of God or to be ever commanded of him or practiced by his Saints and this is neither Heresie nor Error in us but true bearing witness against your Idolatrous Wayes and Practices with which the Nations are deceived whom the Whore causeth to drink her Cup even all people have drunk her Cup and she hath drunk the Blood of them that would not and she hath long sate upon Nations Peoples and Multitudes but now she is made bare and discovered and all you her false Ministers And whereas the Author doth say These are some of the
and rumors of Wars what are they to us What have we to do with them and wherein are we concerned in these things is not our Kingdom of another World Even that of peace and righteousness and hath not the Lord called us and chosen us into the possession of that Inheritance wherein strife and enmity dwelleth not Yea he hath broken down that part in us that is related thereunto and being dead in that Nature of Strife Bloodshed and Wars how can we live in strife and contention in the World or have fellowship with any therein And can we have pleasure in the confusion and distraction amongst men or joyn in any thing with them if so be we are quickened in the new life to God which is a life of love and peace and free from such things and if we are crucified in the life to this World out of which all these confusions and strife doth arise how can we live therein and therefore these things are nothing to us neither are we of one party or against another to oppose any by rebellion or plottings against them in enmity and striving with them by Carnal Weapons nor to destroy any mens lives though our Enemies so we War not for any nor against any for the matters of this Worlds Kingdom But our Kingdom is inward and our Weapons are spiritual and our victory and peace is not of this World And our War is against souls enemies and against the powers of darkness even by the Sword of the Spirit which God hath given us and called us to war therewith to convert people from sin and death and from the very occasion of wars and contentions about the things that are earthly and this is our calling and work at this day and these things all the Children of the Lord are to mind and to keep over the spirit of this World in all people which all this enmity strife and confusion that is up amongst men lodgeth in and out of it ariseth for these things are the fruits of the spirit of this evil and sinful World and the fruits of the Spirit of God are of another nature even Peace and meekness towards all and not enmity towards any in which Spirit let us live and walk admonishing all hereunto and Praying for our enemies and not hating them but doing good for evil and not rendring evil for evil but being meek and humble merciful and patient towards all and this is the true Christian life learned of Christ and this life is blessed in this World and in the World to come and them that live here are redeemed out of the World wherein is Troubles and Confusion Wars and Strifes But let us not heed any of these things for they Rise and Fall in their season and are brought forth effected in the changable and erring spirit which worketh not the honour of God but is in the dishonour to him And Friends let us be a people separate from all that live therein waiting for the deliverance of the holy seed in all and believing that through all these things the Lord will set up his Kingdom and thus it must come to pass BABYLON MUST FALL WITH A GREAT NOISE for in strife and confusion was She builded and therein hath She long stood and thereby must She fall and Tribulations must come upon the Earth that People may learn to fear the Lord through his Judgements And he will speedily do great things in the World which cannot be believed by many if it were told them for Hell and Death must be destroyed and both the Beast and the Whore must be taken alive and cast into the Lake of the anger of God But blessed are they that do wait upon the Lord and rest under his shadow and wait in his Counsel and receive his Instructions they shall see the marvellous works of his hand but the wicked and unbelieving shall be turned into darkness and shall not see the countenance of the Lord to refresh them but their sorrow shall be increased And as for me If I were no more this is the Testimony of my Love unto the Seed of God through these Nations who am a Companion to all that travel after Truth and Righteousness and that seek the Lord in their hearts that he may Rule and these things were upon me to send amongst the Flock of God to be read in all your Meetings Oxfordshire the 1st day of the third Moneth 1660. E. B. A VISITATION AND Presentation of Love Unto the KING and those call'd ROYALLISTS Consisting of I. An Answer to several Queries proposed to the People called Quakers from a supposed Royallist II. An Objection answered concerning the Kings Supremacy III. An Epistle directed to the King and those that go under the Name of Royallists IV. Certain Queries returned to them called Royallists to answer An Answer to divers Queries subscribed thus To the Quakers some Queries is sent to be answered that all People may know your Spirit and the temper of it and your Iudgment concerning the Times and Seasons and subscribed let your Answer be directed Tradite hanc Amico Regis AS concerning the Quakers that are scornfully so called We are at this day and have been ever since we were a People a poor despised and contemptible People in the eye of this World and deep Sufferers under the Injustice and Cruelties and Oppressions both of Rulers Teachers and People and we have been a prey to the Wicked and trodden down under the feet of Ambitious men that have been in power in this Nation and have Ruled in force and cruelty over us and this hath been ever since the Lord raised us up to be a People though we have not been offensive to any just Law or Government or to any sort of People otherwise then that we have given our Witness against Sin and wickedness in all People but we have not been Oppressors of others neither have we envied the persons of any but in all good Conscience have we walked towards all men doing no otherwise to any then we would be done unto and this is the very Law we walk by towards all men desiting the good of all and that all may come to Repentance and be Saved and what we are as unto the Lord if I should declare it could not be believed by many But we are his People and he hath chosen us and he is our God and we have believed in him and walked with him in the uprightness of heart and we have this Testimony in our own hearts if we die it is for him and if we live it is to him and though we have been and may be clouded with the Reproaches and Persecutions of an Uncircumcised Generation yet in the Lord's Season it shall be manifest even to the World and to our very Enemies that we are his People and chosen of him and he in the midst of us whom we serve and worship in Spirit in Truth and in Righteousness and
may prove to be a just Judgment from the Lord upon the Unfaithful and Treacherous and Unjust Rulers and Teachers and People which I have mentioned and the Lord may justly avenge himself upon them who have abused his Mercies and not improved his Deliverance to his glory but preverted the end wherefore they were at first raised up I say the Lord may justly be avenged of them by this means of this mans coming in and he may be in the hand of the Lord a very smiting Rod to correct and rebuke and may be a heavy Judgment upon many in this Nation even from that cause and for that end as before I have expressed Quer. 2. Whether you or any of you do adjudge is Reasonable and Equitable that â—e should come and inherit the Nations of which he is born the right Heir Or whether or 〈◊〉 it is just or unjust to God and men that he would Reign King over these Nation If you walk and judge by the Law of God which is Equal then judge of this whether he hath been kept out this many Years and now is brought in again Reasonably and Iustly or Unjustly and contrary to Reason Answ. That he should come in is Reasonable and Equitable because through the purpose of the Lord his coming in is accomplished who effecteth nothing but what is Equal and Reasonable and there is cause in God sufficient wherefore it should thus be and there is Sufficient cause and Reason appearing to us in this matter and upon the very account as laid down in my Answer to the first Query it is Equal as in the Lord that he should be restored who hath been removed and cast out by such as have pretended to Govern and Rule better than he but have ruled in Oppression and Injustice and not answered the cause wherefore he was cast out and that he should come in to be a Scourge upon these this is just and in this particular doth lye the Reason and Equity of his coming in to inherit this Nation And as for Reigning justly over this Nation that may better be answered when we have had experience of his Reign for if he Reign and Rule in Truth and Righteousness in Mercy and in Justice and by and according to the Just Law of God if thus he Reign then he Reigneth justly and it is just to God and men that he should Reign and this the Law of God which is Equal judgeth by which we walk in all things and do judge of all things And as for his being kept out this many years we do judge that the hand of the Lord is in these matters and they were done and suffered to be done by him in which he will be glorified yet thus far I say they that have kept him out in pretence that they would Rule better than he and yet have ruled in Oppression and Injustice as much more may be then he would have done they have dealed unjustly and contrary to reason both to him and much more to the People of these Nations while they have made and had new Names and Titles of Government and Governors but have continued the old oppressions and not releived the oppressed according to their own vows and promises which they have broken and it is but just they should be punished for it but if he render not evil for evil he doth well Quer. 3. Whether or no ye can judge that his Reign and Government shall be blessed to himself and these Nations or the contrary Or whether shall Peace or Trouble be in the Land in his days And shall his days be many or shall his time be short if this be revealed to you let us know Answ. We do judge that his Reign and Government may be blessed to himself and these Nations or not blessed and peace may be in the Land or trouble in his dayes and his time may be long or it may be short according as he walketh in the fear of the Lord or as he walketh wickedly and according as his Reign and Government is in Righteousness Mercy and Truth or in Oppression and Injustice accordingly do I judge may he be blessed and may have Peace and long dayes or the contrary if he walk in the way which brings contrary effects and we take not upon us to judge any thing before the time but as thorow time he discovers himself so we may judge of him for we desire well for him and all men thâ—â—â—e mâ—y so Reign and Govern as to be a blessing to himself and these Nations that Peace may be in his dayes and his Time may be happy And this we certainly know that there is an eternal God who is over all and that can do whatsoever he will even set up and pull down whomsoever he will and though his strength now be great and his number very many yet there is an Eternal God above all who is mighty to save and mighty to destroy and if he please not God in his ways and in his Reign but be an Oppressor and walk in evil wayes we certainly believe he cannot be blessed nor have Peace nor long time but the Lord may bring to pass the contrary for as the Scriptures say it is by him that Kings Reign he makes Kings blessed or miserable the Scriptures gives much evidence concerning the good and the bad Kings of Israel they that were good men and Ruled well they were blessed and had long dayes and people were happy under them and to the Kings that were Idolaters and Oppressors and walked in wickedness and vexed the Lord it was contrary for the Lord cut them off and destroyed them and delivered the oppressed and God is the same now as he was then as powerful to save the Righteous and as mighty to destroy the wicked and we rather desire that he may follow the example of the good Kings of Israel that the good effects may follow and that he may not follow the evil example of Tyrants and Oppressors But and if he do the effect and reward will certainly be upon him and the Lord will rebuke him and this we know by the Spirit of the Lord. Quer. 4. Whether may be justly forgive or avenge himself of his and his Father's Enemies and if he do avenge whether or no can that be called persecution and if any or many suffer death or otherwise on that account because they destroyed his Father and sought to destroy him also do such suffer for righteousness and good conscience or no if some of you suffer for that cause shall you have Peace with God in it or is it for the name of Christ as ye often say Answ. He may justly in the sight of God forgive his and his Father Enemies and he will be the more blessed if he do it for it is a happy thing to forgive Enemies and it is Christ's Doctrine also to forgive Enemies and it would be a good report unto him among his Friends and
God of which you have tasted in a good Measure and in the Meek and Peaceable Spirit of the Lamb be at Peace and in Unity with him and one with another even as Members of one spiritual Body that the Head may be honoured through you and that each Member serve one another in Love and Respect not any exalted above what ought to be nor striving for prehemenence above one another but that each Member may know his Service into which the Lord hath called you for that is a blessed Thing to dwell in Love and Unity and to know and to be known to one another in the Lord and the contrary bringeth the Curse where Strife and Enmity lodgeth that is excluded out of the Body and is of the Kingdom of Death and not of the Lamb but is of the Body of Antichrist and not of his Body who is exalted at God's right Hand And see that you walk in all Wisdom wait that you may be wise and that Wisdom it self may be justified of you by walking therein and then you will answer the divine Principle of Equity in your Enemies and you will cut off that which seeks ' occasion against you and turn backward the slanderous Tongue and confound the Destroyer which seeks occasion every moment Oh how pretious is Wisdom it s a Pearl it s better then Strength or Riches Wisdom is the chief of the Gifts of God it comes from the Fountain and it leads answerable unto him who is the Giver thereof Oh wait for Wisdom that she may possess your Hearts that she may go in and out before you and may be the beginning and end of all your works and so shall your Enemies have no occasion against you but you shall be preserved in perfect Peace for Wisdom is a preserver of Soul and Body even that Wisdom that is from above which is pure and peaceable and leadeth into all the Ways of Peace Truth and Righteousness and take heed that none be led aside into Snares and Temptations of the Wicked and thereby make shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience and the whole Work of God and so lose your Joy and Peace in God and come short of an Immortal Crown to which you are begotten but be faithful to God in all things and deny not your Principle nor the perswasion of God's Spirit in your Consciences in any thing neither for the Love nor Terror of this World for that is honourable to be faithful to a heavenly Principle even whether in death or life to be found walking answerable unto the Will and Mind of God as you have received the knowledge thereof but if any turn aside in the day of Tryal the Lord will have no pleasure in them but his displeasure will be against them unto their Destruction and such shall not be reckoned among the Righteous but they are blotted out of the Book of Life even such who are Hearers and not Doers of the Will of God whose Hypocrisie the Lord will judge in the justness of his Judgments And live in Patience in all Tribulations and in a still and quiet Spirit for the Lord is there his Presence is enjoyed in a still and patient spirit and such receive of his Mercies even of his hidden Manna and heed not the Tribulations that are in this World but mind your Peace that is in Christ that is everlasting and be settled in your minds and fully perswaded to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes whether in Death or Life and let nothing separate you from that Love of God which you have received not Powers of Darkness neither Love nor Terror of this World but keep in the Dominion of God that his Spirit may be lifted up in you as the Standard even when floods of Temptations and Persecutions ariseth against you which are but for a moment and they will pass away but Truth and Righteousness will remain and cannot be shaked and the Purpose of the Lord is Good unto us and not Evil not to destroy us nor suffer us to perish for we are his and he hath chosen us and he hath placed his Name with us and for his Name sake which we bear he will do great things for us he will visit his Heritage and defend it with his mighty Power and therefore be in Patience concerning all things whatsoever that cometh to pass And the Lord having brought us out of Egypt and often appeared unto us in great Love and Favour and his Eye is over us at this day and he hath not thus far delivered us now to destroy us if we live and walk in the Power of the Lord God and feel his Life and Vertue and heavenly Authority in our own Hearts the Lord will not suffer our Enemies to prevail against us so as utterly to extinguish us from off the Earth though some of us may be tryed far if not to seal our Testmony with Blood but if so it shall hasten the Glory of the Lord and cause it to shine forth abundantly and it will fill up the Measure of Iniquity to the utter destruction of Antichrist and for this cause our Lives are not pretious unto us nor do I desire further to give Testimony by words if the Testimony of our Blood be required for I know though power may be given them over the outward Man yet we have a Life which they cannot touch and a Peace and Victory in the spiritual Kingdom which no man can spoil us of and we are given up already whether to glorifie God in the Body or out of the Body so he is glorified we have our reward for what is our reward but this That we may see the Name of the Lord exalted and but that our Confidence is sure and our Faith and Patience stedfast that we shall behold the Glory of the Lord and his Kingdom and the overthrow of Sathan and Antichrist the Beast and the false Prophet our dayes would be sorrowful and our Life a Death and our Labour and Travels a Vexation and a Grief but our Faith is confirmed by many Witnesses that the Kingdoms of the World must become the Kingdoms of Christ and Mystery Babylon must fall in whom the Soul of the Righteous hath been slain and the Purpose of the Lord must certainly be effected and no man upon the Earth shall prevent it and this is our Faith and therefore our Travels Labours and Affliction are not grievous to us even because the Presence of the Lord is with us And as for me the Salutation of my dearest love is to all the Saints every-where even with that love wherewith I am beloved of the Father do I love all them that are begotten of him but unto you more especially my love is abounding amongst whom I am known in faithful Labour of the Gospel of Christ who never sought yours but you and I hope you have the Witness of me in your own hearts even as I have of you and that in the
the World might condemn him and every sober Subject would cry in their Consciences against him for unjust judgement and cruel proceedings if he upâ—â— report of others through prejudice should act against any people and the Heathen King Agrippa would rise up in judgement against him who would not â—â—â—demn Paul from the Accusation of others without first hearing the Accused â—imself and a Christian King ought to shew as much Mercy Justice and Reason in what he doth as the Heathen Kings have done in the like case And let the King consider this 3. Let him also consider what Enmity and Malice and Rage is in the hearts of these men these Priests I mean of whose Fraternity and Alliance this our Accuser is one and how they seek after innocent blood who are thus ready and â—â—â—â—ard at his first enterance into the Land to present the King with Accusations of Falshood and Reproaches against an innocent people to move his heart if possible to destroy and devour the harmless The spirit and nature of these men are to be considered whose works are often tending to shed blood but if he shall be guided and counselled by such they will lead him into the ditch for they are of the spirit of Envy and Mischief and Mischief rests with them even against all who will not bow under their Authority and submit unto their false Worâ—â—ips And let the King beware of that Generation of men lest they be a snare â—pon him and wound him And I shall now proceed to some other things in his Book to that where he â—aith He doth upon his bended Knees most bumbly beseech the King and the Honourable Parliament that they will first Cut off false Prophets Hereticks and perverse and incorrigible Seducers and â—â—â—â—phemers for these are the Pâ—st saith he of both Church and State 〈◊〉 Answ. I answer to this Many things are considerable to the King and Parliâ—ent and whole Kingdom 1. It is to be considered who these false Prophets Hereticks Seducers and â—â—â—â—phemers are which the Petitioner would have cut off and destroyed â—â—â—m his meaning is of is doubtful for that there are false Prophets Heâ—… Seducers and Blasphemers in these Nations and that very many â—â—is is not doubtful but certainly believed and known but what sort of men 〈◊〉 perfectly who these are distinguished from all others this requireth 〈◊〉 debate and large tryal especially seeing that each sect and sort of â—â—ople cries against others as if they were such and such and this is usual with â—â—â—â—sts Protestants and others to cry for their own Liberty and Toleration a such who are in the right way and each one sort almost desiring and petitiâ—â—â—â—â— the Powers of the Earth against others that are not of their way to deâ—… and cut off such as differ from them as Hereticks and Deceivers but such â—â—â—â—it that seeks to destroy menslives on that account is of Antichrist and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God 2. And if false Prophets Hereticks Seducers and Blasphemers were cerâ—… known and distinguished from others that are not so yet the King 〈◊〉 â—â—â—liament ought not to destroy such and to cut them off from the Earth 〈◊〉 â—…lling of them or executing outward punishments and afflictions upon 〈◊〉 for God hath not committed such power and authority to them neiâ—â—er to be Judges infallibly who are false Prophets Hereticks and Blaspheâ—â—â—â— â—or yet to execute death and outward sufferings upon such as are for these are spiritual matters and Causes to try and judge who deceivers are and to proceed towards Hereticks and Blasphemers and these Cases belong to the Jurisdiction of Christs Spiritual Kingdom and not to any earthly Kingâ— and Rulers at this day 4. And if King and Parliament were able to judge of false Prophets and â—lasphemers and who they are that are such from others that are not yet how contrary to the way of God would it be even to the example of Christ and his Apostles to destroy and cut off by death the lives of such false Prophets and Blasphemers for if men be in an evil way even in the way of Heresie and Error and Blasphemy and be deceived and deceivers of others yet it is not a time to destroy and kill such like as if such should be sent straight to Hell being cut off in their wickedness and in their Error This is not God's way I say for he desires not the death of sinners not to cut men off in their Errors and evil wayes but it s rather the time to instruct and exhort such and to correct and reprove them by sound Doctrine and to win them to the Truth and out of their errors that they may be saved and this Christ and his Apostles gave example for for there were many in their dayes that were false Prophets and Hereticks Seducers and Blasphemers and that were perverse and incorrigible that did Blaspheme against Christ and called him Devil and that did oppose the Gospel and scorned the Apostles and such were Blasphemers and Hereticks but did Christ and his Apostles at all desire that such might be killed and cut off by death Nay they forgave their Enemies and did instruct them by sound Doctrine and sought to win their Persecutors and not to have them killed as this Petitioner would whose Spirit is manifest to be of Antichrist and the Dragon and not of the Lamb and if the request were granted and the lives of such as this Petitioner calls false Prophets cut off then the King and Parliament would rather provoke the Lord against themselves to destroy them then to give unto themselves blessings and peace 5. But they being ignorant who the Deceivers and Blasphemers are and not being equal and just Judges in that case but also divided among themselves about it and it being not committed of God to them to destroy by death of body such as may err in their minds by killing such whom they may suppose false Prophets and they wanting infallible judgement to know who are false Prophets how soon may they destroy and cut off the lives of true Prophets and Christ's Ministers and men that Fear God instead of false Prophets and Blasphemers even for want of true judgement and discerning and because of their own division in judgement in that case for iâ—s possible that some of the Parliament may judge such to be Deceivers whom others of them may judge to be true Ministers and whose judgement then shall stand and also thus it hath often come to pass in the World the true Prophets and Christ himself and the holy Apostles and Ministers of Christ were accounted Deceivers Hereticks and Blasphemers and such like by thâ— Kings and Rulers of the World in former Generations and thâ— true Prophets Christ and his Apostles were persecuted as such and destroyed as such some of them even by the Kings and Rulers of this World till they 〈◊〉 provoked God against them to destroy them and some of them he did bring wrath upon
hath redeemed us into Peace and Comfort with God and one with another And as concerning our Principle about Magistracy and Government and obedience thereunto this I do declare 1. We do own and acknowledge Magistracy to be an Ordinance of God instituted of him for the punishing of Evil-doers and for the praise of them that do well and we acknowledge all subjection to Authority Magistracy and Government This is our Principle and hath ever been our Practice known through these Kingdoms that we are subject by doing or suffering to whatsoever Authority the Lord pleaseth to set over us without Rebellion Sedition Plotting or making War against any Government or Governors 2. That Government and Authority which is justly according unto God in all its Statutes and Ordinances we are and do engage to be subject thereunto by full Obedience to all the Commands and Injunctions of such Authority and Government whose Laws Ordinances and Commandments are grounded upon right Reason and Equity which leadeth to do to all men as we would be done unto and punish the contrary to such Government and Authority we are readily subject in all things and cases and we are for the Order and Assistance of such Government in all Righteousness 3. That Government which is contrary unto this which is Injustice commanding and requiring things contrary to the Law of God and imposing upon People in Matters and Cases contrary to Right Reason and Equity whose Commands are different to the Will of God yet to such Government we acknowledge subjection by patient suffering under all Penalties inflicted for disobedience to the Commands which we cannot perform by Obedience for Conscience sake And this is our Principle though an Authority and Government were never so Unjust in it self and in its exercise yet we may not plot nor contrive or make turbulent Insurrections to redeem our selves from such Government and Authority but we must commit our Cause to the Lord in such case of suffering under any unjust Commands of Men. 4. As concerning Church and Ministry and the Exercise of Religion We believe and acknowledge that Christ hath a Church upon Earth and a lawful Ministry and we are not Enemies to Church and Ministry and Gospel-Ordinances as we are falsly reputed by Men ignorant and slanderous but we only bear witness against the corruption and degeneration of the Church of Papists and Protestants so called wherein they are different and contrary to what the Churches of Christ were in the Apostles dayes they are different and contrary I assert to what the Churches of Christ once were in Ministry in its Call and Maintenance in Ordinances and Worship in Discipline and Government in all these things there is difference to what these things were in the true Churches in the Apostles dayes And our Principle is for the reforming of Ministry Church Government Discipline and Worship and not to destroy them 5. As concerning Imposing of Faith and Doctrine and Practices and Worship in Religion by the force of Laws and Penalties in the ignorance of mens Consciences or contrary to their Consciences We do say This Practice never was in the Apostles dayes but is an Intrusion of Antichrist and we bear Testimony against it not to be of God but contrary to him And that outward Government and Authority in Kingdoms and Nations is to be exercised over the outward man in things between man and man and not over the inward man in things between God and mans Conscience in spiritual Matters and Worship and Duty to God-wards No King nor Ruler upon Earth hath Power given him of God to exercise such Authority over the Consciences of Men in the Matters of God's Kingdom And further Religion and Church Government so set up and established by force upon Pains and Penalties can but reform a People into Hypocrisie and false Conformity and not into any real Performance of Religion or Duty to God And such Performance of Religion Church-Fellowship and Ordinances is not unto eternal Life but to the making of men two fold more the Children of the Devil 6. We do believe That it is the Convictions and Teaching of the Spirit of God that doth make men and People only truly Religious It is that only that perswades the Conscience from all Evil unto that which is Good and true Religion and the Worship of God and Duty towards him is not truly learned by Traditions of time Commandments of Men or Custom of Countries or the like but it is the Spirit of God and its Teachings in the Consciences of People that leadeth into all Truth according as Christ hath said so that the Way of forcing Religion and Duty to God upon People by force and outward Penalties this was never known among the Saints and Apostles of Christ. These things are presented to your Considerations The Lord give you a right Understanding of them and that you may walk in the way of your own Peace with God and Man E. B. Written in the 10th Moneth in Ireland 1660. SOME CONSIDERATIONS Presented unto the King of England c. Being an Answer unto a Petition and Address of the General Court of Boston in New-England presented unto the KING as is said Feb. last the Eleaventh Day 1660. Subscribed by Iohn Indicot the chief Persecutor there thinking thereby to cover themselves from the Blood of the Innocent OH King this my Occasion to present thee with these Considerations is very urgent and of great necessity even in the behalf of Innocent Blood hoping that my Work will find such Favour with thee as to induce thee to the reading and serious consideration hereof My Occasion is this Because of a Paper presented to thee called The humble Petition and Address of the General Court at Boston in New-England In which is contained divers Calumnies unjust Reproaches palpable Untruths and malicious Slanders against an innocent People whom they scornfully call Quakers whom for the Name of Christ's sake are made a Reproach through the World and by these Petitioners have been persecuted unto Banishment and Death It is hard to relate the Cruelties that have been committed against these People and acted upon them by these Petitioners they have spoyled their Goods imprisoned many of their Persons Whipped them cut off their Ears Burned them yea Banished and Murdered them and all this I aver and affirm before thee O King wholy unjustly and unrighteously and without the Breach of any just Law of God or Man but only for and because of difference in Iudgment and Practice concerning Spiritual things and without any Transgression of the Law of God or their own Laws saving that they made Laws against them on purpose to spoil their Goods imprison Persons cut off their Ears yea and kill them which Laws were made by them without any Power truly derived from the lawful Authority of England contrary to their Patent And now O King these same men have presented thee with a Petition in which is asserted very many
extream Reproaches as I have said in Contempt and Derision of that People and all this as if those People were guilty of heinous Crimes that it might appear to thee as if these Petitioners had done nothing but Iustice in what they have done and they seek to cover themselves and to hide their Wickedness before thee in what they have unjustly acted and this seems to be the Current of some part of the same Petition already presented unto thee like as if they had done no Evil though they have Unjustly Banished 〈◊〉 off Ears Whipped inhumanly and taken away lives as aforesaid And they would have thee believe they are Innocent towards thee and towards us whenas it is evident as the Sun at Noon-day that they are our Persecuters and that they have â—â—justly persecuted us unto Death for the Name of Christ and that also they are not unto thee as they Hypocritically feign themselves And therefore O King for the clearing of our selves and the Name of the Lord which we profess and for reproving of their bold impudent Insolencies both in what they have already done to us and now in seeking to cover themselves unto thee And also if there be any doubtfulness in thy Heart of these Matters for these Ends and Causes with Respect to the Fear of God and Honour 〈◊〉 the King I hereby presume to pursue their said Petition even unto thy Court and to wipe away the Slanders and Reproaches of Ungodly Men as much as possible hoping thereby thou wilt receive due and just Information in this matter of proceeding between us and them that thy just Judgment may be given accordingly And I shall transcribe some few of their own words presented to thee and thereupon spread some few Considerations before thee also and I pray God give thee an Understanding to judge justly in this and all other cases The first thing that I note is whereas they say That they have chosen rather the pure Scripture-Worship with a good Conscience in this poor remote Wilderness to â—it New-England among the Heathens than the Pleasures of England with subjection to the Imposition of the then so disposed and so far prevailing Hierarchy which we could not do without an evil Conscience c. say they The Considerations presented unto the King upon these words are divers 1. The Worship Doctrine Discpiline and Constitution of the Church of New-England is different and contrary and not purely according unto the Scriptures in the Administration of the Gospel nor in a pure Conscience purely guided by the Spirit of God though they seem to justifie their own Way and Case before the King and this may justly be made appear in his Presence upon good Occasion only at this time I assert the Case and if ever God gives oportunity I may prosecute it with Proofs and Evidences and that to the great Reproof of the Church so called of New-England who are not only in Doctrine Worship and Conversation contrary to the Scriptures but impudent and too presumptious to affirm their own Self-justification and Innocencâ— before the King when as it is manifest as the Day is from the Night that the Pastors and Members of the Church of New-England want the Spirit of God that gave forth the Scriptures and follow the spirit of Persecution Violence and Cruelty and are void of a Good Conscience both towards God and Men. To prove this there needs no greater Evidence than their own Deportâ—…nt towards the Harmless Quakers for these five years time who as I have said have spoiled their Goods and imprisoned their Persons cut off their Ears Banished them and inhumanely put them to Death and all this because of difference in Iudgment and Practice in Religious Matters when as no manner of Evil could be charged upon them in the things between man and man And if these be not works contrary to the Scriptures and the Spirit that gave them forth and contrary to a Good Conscience I am yet ignorant and must leave it to the Judgment of the King before whom this Matter is brought to receive his Judgment 2. Let the King consider how they have ignorantly condemned themselves in the same things for whith they have judged others for while they seem to complain of the Impositions of the Bishops which they stile prevailing Hierarchy if it was Transgression in the Bishops in dayes past to impose upon these Petitioners and to Persecute them for Non-conformists how much more are these men guilty of Imposition and Persecution of tender Consciences Nay they have exceeded in the same Transgression and become seven-fold guilty of the sins themselves which they complain against in others for they have gone further in Cruelty and Persecution towards the Innocent Quakers than ever the Bishops proceeded against them even so far further as the murdering of a man is more than cutting off his Ear And the Cause of the Quakers towards these Petitioners hath been as Innocent as ever theirs was towards the Bishops Oh hypocritical Generation who are condemning of others for that whereof themselves are guilty and imposing upon others in a far higher degree than ever the Bishops imposed on them witness their Law in New-England which judgeth every man to pay 5s per day who come not to their Assembly and imposing Fines of 40s and 50s apiece on such as meet together to worship the Lord which are evident signs of an evil Conscience as themselves speak The next thing that I note upon which the King ought to consider the Petitioners say concerning the Quakers Open Capital Blasphemers open Seducers from the Glorious Trinity the Lord 's Christ the Blessed Gospel and from the holy Scriptures as the Rule of Life open Enemies to the Government it self as established in the hand of any but men of their own Principles malignant Promoters of Doctrines directly tending to subvert both our Church and State By way of Answer to this let the King consider 1. The envious and detestable spirit of maliciousness of these Accusers and how vehement and fervent their persecuting spirit is drawn forth with reproachful Tearms in the highest degree like as if they could not utter sufficiently the Envy of their Hearts or as if they wanted words to demonstrate their Malignity and devouring Malice against that People whom they in scorn call Quakers and all this to present us Odious and Abominable before thee O King I say but this of them unto thee The Lord forgive them if they have not sinned unto Death and Unpardonably I have no desire of Revenge towards them but I leave Vengeance to the Lord who will recompence in his season neither do I desire to provoke or incense the King against them only Duty to God and the King teacheth me and Love Constraineth me and an absolute Necessity presseth much upon me to spread our Denyal of their Bitter and Malicious Accusations against us before the King unto whom we are thus foully accused And I say I
Guiltless Brethren than they were before no more safe I say but more lyable to the Justice and Terror of the Almighty and to the Justice of the King and the good Laws of England for and because of their Barbarous Cruelties But as I have said we leave Vengeance to the Lord and commit them to the Justice of God's Hand which we doubt not but it will pass upon them in his Day and Season 3. Whereas they would seem to extenuate their Crime of putting to shameful Death the Lord's Servants they tell the King as if they only kept the Passage with the Point of the Sword held towards them as if they had no intention to hurt them and this the Magistrate did both in conscience to God and man I say It is to be considered what occasions were given them to stand in the Passage with the point of the Sword towards this People Was it for any Cause on their parts but as aforesaid for reproving their Sin and crying against their Wickedness whenas their Lives Conversations were Harmless and Innocent amongst them I say This was no just Cause for the Magistrates to stand in the Passage with the Point of the Sword and therefore they were Unjust in so doing if they had done no more and proceeded in the way of insolent Usurpers For what Reason had they to stop the Passage with the Point of the Sword for hindring of as good Subjects as themselves to pass through the King's Dominions Is not this derogating from the Honour and Authority of the King for the sub-ordinate Magistrates of New-England to usurp such Authority over free-born People of England as to prevent them from Egress and Regress in lawful Occasions in any part of the King's Dominions And I suppose this will be found contrary to their Patent and Prescription delivered them by Charles the first even this standing in the Passage with the Point of the Sword towards the Innocent and imposing great Fines upon men that came â—o their Harbour to sell their lawful Commodities if they had but the Name of Quakers though no other thing could be charged against them yet they were imposed upon by Fines and Imprisonment and the Point of the Sword was held out against them and all this I suppose is contrary to their Patent and in Derogation and Dishonour to King Charles the second 4. But to extenuate their own Fact of putting to shameful Death the Innocent they charge their Death to be a wilful Rushing and their Death was their own Act and their Blood was upon their own Heads Concerning which let it be considered they no more wilfully rushed upon their Death neither is their Blood on their own Heads more then the Prophets and Apostles that were slain for the Testimony of Jesus But these Petitioners do plead These Quakers so call'd knew there was a Law proclaimed against them Sentence of Banishment upon pain of Death but they would not keep away but came again and run themselves upon the Sword point And after this manner of arguing they would make it appear their Death was of themselves and their Blood was on their own Heads but these poor Evasions and favourable Interpretations of their own Cruelties ought not to cover them from the Justice of God not from the Justice of the King for it s to be considered That where God commands one thing and men another God ought to be obeyed rather then men and it is fully believed by us That these Sufferers did not go into New-England in their own cause but in God's Cause and in the Motion of his holy Spirit and in good Conscience towards God they did rather suffer the loss of their own Lives for their Obedience towards God than to disobey him to keep the Commandments of men And this was the Apostles Case when they were commanded to preach no more in the Name of Iesus Did they at all obey it for fear of Man And when the three Children were commanded to bow to the Image did they do it for fear of Man or If they had dyed for their Disobedience of the Kings Commandment could it have been said That their Blood was upon their own Heads and that they rushed themselves upon it and this is in part the like Case that our Friends suffered under the Injustice of these Petitioners who would now cover themselves like men of guilty Consciences But the God of Heaven will let them know one Day and the King may justly do it That the Blood of our Brethren lieth upon the Heads of the Magistrates of New-England and they are guilty of their cruel Death for they put them to Death not for any Evil doing between man and man but for their Obedience to God and for Good Conscience sake towards him Again The Petitioners say The Quakers dyed not because of their other Crimes how Capital soever but upon their super-added Presumptions and incorrigible Contempt of Authority breaking in upon us notwithstanding the Sentence of Banishment bad they not been restrained there was too much cause to fear that we our selves should quickly have dyed or worse and they would not be restrained but by Death Nay had they at last but promised to depart the Iurisdiction and not to return without leave from Authority we should have been glad to have said they should not dye In Answer to this it is considerable 1. What these other Capital Crimes were which the Sufferers were guilty of here is a secret Charge of Crimes without Nomination and this is the part of Slanderers to Accuse in general without particular Proof but this is still to extenuate their own horrid Fact of putting the Innocent to Death and that the King may believe better of them than indeed he hath cause and the super-added Presumption and incorrigible Contempt of Authority what was it any more than that Unjustly and without Reason they commanded them to depart or if they did not they should be put to Death whenas no Reason could possibly be rendred for such Law Commandment but because they were called Quakers and were different in Matters of Faith and Iudgment concerning spiritual Things for as I have said No Sedition Evil-dealing Drunkenness Lying nor any of these thingt could be charged against them and therefore the Law and Commandment of Banishment was unjust and could not be actively obeyed by our Brethren but they returned again not in contempt of Lawful Authority but as they were moved and upon their Occasions which was lawful and just in the sight of God and Men deporting themselves Harmlesly towards all people and this is stiled Super-added Presumption and incorrigible Contempt of Authority but they must needs put a Good Name upon their bad Work and render the Innocent as high Offenders as Excellency of Speech can demonstrate 2. There can be no just Cause rendred wherefore they should fear our Brethren except the Guiltiness of their own Consciences for as I have said They
Separation from GOD being in the State of Enmity against Him till the Lord Jesus Christ the good Shepherd of ISRAEL found you out in the Estate of Darkness and brought you Home from your strayed Condition even unto the Sense and Feeling of his Power and Spirit in you which called you out of the Wayes of Sin and Death and also changed you and regenerated you into the Inheritance of a better Kingdom and Glory than that which is of this World And ye now know Christ Jesus to be your Shepherd his Spirit to teach you his Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification to dwell in you being Partakers of the same through the Eternal LIGHT which once shined in Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it but now it is risen in much Glory and Power and Death and darkness is swallowed up of Life and Light and the Fruits thereof subdued These things are True and Faithful unto many let all such Rejoyce and be Glad in the Lord who have thus seen his Day and tasted of his Power and are Witnesses That the Kingdom is come which never fadeth away 2. Consider what the Tender Dealings of God towards you and his Gentle Leadings have been since he hath called you out of your formeâ— strayed Estate Hath not his Light shined upon your Tabernacles with much Clearness perswading your Hearts fully of his WAY and TRUTH Have not your Hearts often been Refreshed and Souls truly Comforted by the Refreshing Presence of the Lord Hath not the Way of Life been made so clear unto you and the way of your Peace so perfectly discovered that no Occasion hath been left of Unbelief or Stumbling unto the Upright in Heart Surely the Lord hath not been wanting to you in any of these things but he hath so reached Home by his Word and Spirit to your Hearts and Consciences with such full Convictions and perswasions in the Wayes of Salvation that no sincere Heart can doubt or waver concerning the Things pertaining to his Soul's Peace and Comfort 〈◊〉 For so Large and Evident hath God's Testimony been unto you even since he first called you by his Grace that no Man having Sense and Experience thereof but must bear witness That the Lord hath been Good Long Suffering full of Mercy and Righteousness towards all that feareth him I am perswaded ye know these things and that the Taste and Vertue of the Lord's Mercies and Power remaineth stedfest in your Remembrance and Enjoyment even his Mercies and Loving-kindness that have been made manifest to you since ye have known the Lord who hath â—â—d you by the Hand as a Father doth his Children and carried you in his Arms of Preservation and born you on his shoulders in all your Afflictions insomuch that through his Power and Wisdom only we are yet alive and the Adversary hath not prevailed against us though his Attempts have often been great to Destroy us 3. Consider what iâ— now your present state and standing How is it with your inward Man In what Life and Strength and Dominion is he Is he â—â—â—ong over all the Corruptible or is he Weak under Corruption Is he in â—â—e growth of a Perfect Man of the Stature of Christ Jesus Is he so begotten and born in you that Life hath swallowed up Death Hath he Victory over the Grave And doth he Raign in you even the New Man the Spiritual Man the Immortal Man Christ iâ— you Is he come in Power and Dominion to dwell with you Deâ—rly â—â—loved mind each particuâ—… in what state you are and what is your present standing to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ye had Faith in God and Love to God and Boldness for God And are ye firâ—ly continued therein Or Is any such Weakened and Decreased in these things Is your Love grown cold and your Zeal lost and your Confidence decayed If it be thus with any their present state is not â—â—ght before the Lord but they must Repent and return to their first Love and return again to the Witness of the Spirit of Christ 〈◊〉 in them that their Strength may be renewed for they only that dwell with the Lord in Faithfulness and abide in Covenant with him 〈◊〉 see his Glory and be fed daily with the Bread that comes down from Heaven and refreâ—… with the Fountain of endless Mercies if so be ye be perfect with the Lord after your inward Man Strong and Lively and Zealous Faithful and constant having a clean Heart and a pure Conscience guiltless and undefiled before God this is to be perfect with the Lord and if ye are thus blessed are you if ye be encreased daily in the Love and Life of the Father if your inward Man grow in the Wisdom and Power and Knowledge of the Creator if ye receive the assurance of Eternal Life in your selves if this be your present State Oh happy People Who is like unto you because ye are saved of the Lord 4. What is the present work of God in your own hearts Ye must alwayes feel the Word of God abiding in you even the Word in the heart hear that Word and do it alwayes and your souls shall live by the Word of God that Word beats down whatsoever tempts and draws from God which would defile you and load your Consciences and vex the Spirit for if any obey the Temptations they become darkned unbelief enters and the fruits of it grows and then there is a falling from the Lord and a departing from his way of Salvation therefore mind the Power and Spirit of Christ in you and be constant and faithful therein that you may be Preserved unto the finishing of the WORK of the Lord in you that at last ye may sit down in the Heavenly places in Christ Jesus in places of Peace and Comfort and Assurance for ever where the Lord is enjoyed all in all which you must wait for to be accomplished in you according to the promise and you must witâ—â—â—s the work of Christ in you he must work in you by his Spirit Regeneration Reconâ—…on Sanctification Justification and all good things 〈◊〉 it is not sufficient to profess that Christ in his Person hath 〈◊〉 the works of God but every one in particular must witness at thâ—â— day the work of the Spirit of Christ in his own heart even the Work of Reconciliation and Salvation that ye may in each mans particular receive the Knowledge and Experience of the Lords Work of his Love and Life and Salvation and Redemption in particular for though never so large Testimonies in general should be given to you or received by you concerning Christ Jesus and his Salvation yet the particular feeling of 〈◊〉 Love and Power of the Lord God in your own hearts must you staâ—â— by in the Day oâ— Tryal for that alone can uphold in the Day of Trouâ—… even the Testimony of the Spirit of Christ unto Salvation felt in each particular heart And seeing the Lord hath brought you to the knowledge
Punishment pertaining to Hereticks as such for such Heresies held by them Being first convicted truly thereof as aforesaid by the true Church of Christ in whom there is infallibility of Judgment Knowledge and discerning in that case for in the true Church of Christ doth infallibility of true Judgment and Knowledge dwell and every true Member of the true Church hath its particular Measure of the infallible Spirit of Christ whereby he is certainly perswaded of the Way of Truth in which he walks and knows and believes the infallibility of the Truth he professeth and is certain and secure of the Way of his Peace and Assurance in God which he hath received and believed and also hath certainty and infallibility of Judgment and Discerning who are out of the Truth and in the Way of Error and are Hereticks such are infallibly known and discerned by the Spirit of God in the true Church of Christ and by every Member of the same according to his measure of the same Spirit and Gift of Knowledge and Discerning by it And to such as are so convicted by the infallible Spirit of Christ for such their Heresies there is a Punishment pertaining for Hereticks were to be punished in the Apostles dayes according to Paul's Instructions 1 Cor. 5. 5. which was That such a one as had erred from the Truth which once he knew should be delivered up unto Satan for the Destruction of his Flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the Day of the Lord Here was a Punishment described by the Apostle for this Heretick that had erred and gone from the Truth and acted against it though once he believed in it and knew it And again Tit. 3. 10. he exhorts and advises That a man that is a Heretick after the first and second Admonition should be wholy rejected and turned away from and judged with the Holy Spirit of God And thus it is clear there is such a thing as dealing with men that are Hereticks and punishing them for such their Heresie according to the Apostle's Doctrines and Instructions And without all controversie such as do err from the Faith which once they have received and turn from the Truth in principle or practice must not escape unpunished but must receive the sentence of just Judgement from God and from his Saints that continue faithful 7. But what kind or nature this punishment is of in what way and manner such as are Hereticks may be and ought to be punished is doubtful to many and is a case at this time to be inquired into for that way and practice of punishing such as have been supposed to be Hereticks as among the Christians so called for many generations to wit the way and practice of burning banishing killing imprisoning and afflicting corporally the persons of them that have been called Hereticks for their heresies and laying forfeitures and penalties on their bodies and estates as hath been the practice of Papists and Protestants towards one another since the Apostles dayes this way and practice hath not been of God nor by any example or precept of the Apostles or first Christian Churches established in their dayes they did not practise or prescribe such dealing towards them that were truly Hereticks and were erred from the Faith and Truth of Jesus Christ not Killing Burning Banishing and Prosecuting the Persons of Hereticks this was not the way of the Spirit of God among the Primitive Christians they did it not nor gave institution for the doing of it at any time but this way of dealing towards Hereticks in such cruel proceedings as hath been in practice for many Ages is of Satan and Antichrist and is down-right Murder Robbery and Wickedness in the Eye of the just God while one Sect or Sort of Christians so called have punished and enviously persecuted another Sort different from them as Hereticks with grievous Afflictions in Body and Estate even unto Death and Banishment this hath not been of God nor true Christian-like but of the wicked one and Cruelties and Murders before the Lord neither are the same proceedings at this day in any part of the World where they are extant any just legal Righteous Christian-like way of proceeding according to Apostolical example but are of Antichrist and of the Wicked one as I have said And this Way and Practice of proceeding towards Hereticks hath been so far from effecting the return of any to the Way of the Lord that have been erred from it as the end of proceeding toward Hereticks should effect that the way and practice of Killing Banishment and Persecuting by violence Hereticks so called hath hardned men in their evil way and made such as have been Hereticks more bold confident and obstinate in their Way Heresie and Errors and many that have been more righteous and clearer from Heresie then such as have so judged them have been destroyed by cruel dealing and many others have been destroyed in their Iniquities and Errors by being so proceeded against And thus true Judgment and Justice in this case have been perverted and turned backwards and because of Ignorance and Cruelty the Righteous have suffered unjustly as the Wicked and the Wicked have suffered by unjust proceedings and thus the Way of Righteousness hath not been known in the Earth but Error upon Error one evil upon another hath come onesin added to another among the Sons of men in the Apostacy amongst the false Christians 8. But the perfect Way of the Lord in proceeding towards such as are truly Hereticks so discerned and infallibly judged to be by the true Church of Christ is this Let such first be admonished advised instructed and warned again and again to beware return from and renounce such false Principles Doctrines and practices held by them and this in the spirit of Christ Jesus in perfect love and in meekness and in the wisdom of the Lord God such I say as are erred from the way of the Lord and from the faith of Christ once received into error ought thus in the first place to be dealt withal by the Way of Admonishing Instructing Warning and Reproving that there may be a Returning and Repentance towards the Lord and his Truth again from whence they have erred and if such shall not receive the Instructions Reproofs and Admonitions of the true Church of Christ then such Hereticks shall be rejected and cast out according to Titus the 3. 10 11. saith the Apostle A man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonition reject knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself here is the Description of the punishing of an Heretick if he will not receive Admonition after being given him again and again but doth harden his heart against the Church and against the truth of Christ and will not repent but persicts in his errors and heresies and that after reproof and admonition then he is to be rejected rejected what is that but a casting out from
Luke 6. 2. Mat. 25. 20 21 24 25. Isa. 30. 1. 1 Cor. 11. 7. Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Gen. 3. 15. Mat. 12. 34. 1 Ioh. 5. 10. and vers 4. 2 Tim. 2. 10. Tit. 1. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 2. 1 Pet. 2. 6. 1 Pet. 5. 13. 1655 This was also subscribed by F. H. This was also subscribed by F. H. This Exhortation was written by E. B. on the behalf of himself and Fra. Howgill who was then with him in Ireland This was also subscribed by F. Howgill This was also subscribed by F. Howgill 1656 Isa. 56. 2 Pet. 23. Ezek. 34. Mich. 3. 5 Tit. 1. 11. 2 Tim. 34. 5 Iohn 8. 34. Isa. 56. Mich. 3. 5 Ezek. 34. Ier. 5. Tit. 1. 11. Heb. 12. 21. Ier. 23. 9. Psal. 88. 15. 1697 Act. 1. 8. 4. 31. Matt. 10. 8. 1 Iohn 1. 1. Sal. 1. 5. Act. 16. 4 7 11 12. Acts 17. 17. 1 Cor. 4. 11. 〈◊〉 Iohn 1. 3. Iohn 1. 9. Act. 26. 18. 2 Cor. 13. 5. Rev. 19. 13. Eph. 2. 20. 1 Cor. 2. 6. Phil. 3. Col. 1. 28. Rom. 8. 37. Rom. 6. 22. 1 Thess. 5. 15 2 Thes. 3. 8. 1 Cor. 11. 26. 22. Acts 2. 4. and 20. 7. 1 Cor. 14. 31. 1 Pet. 4. 10. Acts 21 9. Ier. 23. 28. 1 Ioh. 1. 1. 2 Cor. 10. 16. and 4. 2. Mat. 4. 19 29 21. Mat. 9. 9. 2 Cor. 12. 14. Rom. 8. 14 1 Iohn 2. 27. Acts 4. 17 18 19. Heb. 11. 37 38. Ier. 23. Chap. Mic. 3. Chap. Ezek. 13. Ezek. 34. Matth. 23. Act. 24. 1 2 4 6. Mat. 26. 3 4. Amos 7. 10. Ier. 20. 19. Tit. 1. 11. 2 Pet. 2. * At Reding * At Ware 1 Iohn 4. 5. Mat. 24. A 20. 29. 1 Tim. 4. 2 Tim. 3. 2 3 4 5 6 9 8. * One Million and five hundred thousand-pounds perannum Luke 10. 7 8. * About a 100 or more as may be proved inparticular need requie * Several Lies and Slanders were proved against him in that Book which he cannot clear himself of mark that * Lying perverting Scripture is an evil life * Lyers and Slanderers is of the Dragons party * I said that desolate Zion is compassed about with enemies to make her a destruction c. These are some of the words which he sayes flung into the wind * This is a lye * That the Ranters and Quakers deny all teaching but the teaching within and yet condemnes principle by practice * In my first Book * in my first Book I said Read the Scriptutes and mark the sence betxist before and from * viz. that which you said there was nothing in any men to be taken notice of this is a denying of him within * the truth is he is in their steps and among them * viz. that the Quakers undervalues the Lord Iesus and doth not lay him for their foundation * The children of God were ever counted De cenvers by this Generation but the way which he called delusion do we worship the true God c. * Or in themselves * Till he could prove the light John 1. 9. to be contrary to the Spirit of Christ when he proves this I may shut my mouth * The Witness is as good as the Iudge in measure * The words seems to be are left out by him which cause the strength of my words * In my first Book * Page 10. of my first Rom. 10. * Page the 14 of my first To this is two witnesses Iohn 14. His own Book holds this forth * Compare this dostrine with Heb. 13. 8. and his doctrine is proved to be damnable * Contrary to John 1. 9. * Mark 41 2. Luke 5. 3 * Act. 20. * Phil. 4. 3. * 1 Kings 19. 19. 1658 1657 1658 〈◊〉 1659 His first Particular His second Particular His third Particular His fourth particular His fifth particular His sixth particular His seventh particular His eighth particular His ninth particular His tenth Particular His eleventh Particular * This was meant that he should deny to be made King that was in agitation when this Letter was written Is meant here chiefly the new Committee of Safety so called 1660 See G. Fox his Paper directed to the Parliament and Army so called * But this is not meant of the King's Death 1661