the Jews have Hebrew as well as the Priests and Pilate which knew not the son of God the originall but set Lattin Greek and Hebrew atop of him when they had crucified him John 19.19 20. So for a season these Merchants of Babilon I traded with receiving and bying their wares hoping it had been good durable stuffe I had got of them being it was prised so high and people cryed they had the originall and could give the meanings of the Scriptures and none else and the Beast upheld or carried the Whore and all the World wondered after them as I did then at length something in me began to be more and more awakened and hungered after true bread yet thought I should be still fed at their Table and did untill I was neer starved with the huskes that the swine did eat for a stirring word in me was give me food or else I perish and went to hear them even with teares for hunger many times untill I perceived they spake not out of the mouth of the Lord the word of life the true bread that came down from heaven but had studyed and patcht up something from the Scriptures without them mixing their meanings and Babilonish whoreish wisedome and Serpents subtilty with it and bid us hear the word of God and so we lookt for light but behold darknesse and dust we were fed with and that was made sad in me by them which the Lord God proclaimed joy and liberty to as the Deceivers and false Prophets in ages past did whom God was against And upon these Crafts men and Merchants of the great Whore will the perpetuall plagues and vengeance of the Lord God be poured down without mixture and as they have done so shall it be done to them and God will fill double to her and she shall know that he is the Lord that search the heart and shews unto man his thought and that God is light and in him is no darknesse or mixture at all and the day is hastening in which they shall howl and lament for no man byeth her ware any more that is taught of the Lord and the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of his power as the waters cover the Sea and in that day the thiefe shall be ashamed that have stole the word from his neighbour and the false Prophet which deceived the Nations shall be ashamed of his vision and Diviners will be mad and the Beast will hate the Whore and burn her flesh with fire and there will be dissolation widdowhood and losse of children come upon her in one day he that readeth let him understand And this I can truly say and doe testifie in the Lord That when a true hunger and thirst in me did arise after the living God it was often hurt darkened and spoyled by the earthly wisedome Philosophy and vain deceit which came out of the Priests mouth which beguiled me of my reward drawing out my mind from the pure measure of God within insomuch that the simple honest and meek principle which stirred in me was weary to hear them any longer and from no other ground did I at first deny them but as that of God in me discovered and witnest against them as such as should never profit the people at all being out of his councell not able to turn any from their evill wayes but strengthening the hands of the wicked and making the righteous sad this is their work as by their fruits is made manifest whose reward shall be accordingly So in those dayes my soule was awakened by the witnesse of God feeling the burthen of sin and was ofâ—en afraid of death and misery without end but knew not how to get out from under the power of sin and death nor to escape the wrath to come being ignorant of him that saveth from it which is Christ the power of God that lighteth every man which cometh into the World which condemnes sin in the flesh but now I see that people perish for lack of knowledge and that the leaders of the people cause them to err and they that are led of them are destroyed Isa 9.16 for nothing will help or satisfie the longing soule immortall but the eternall true bread of life the power of God which he giveth to as many as â—â—â—ives him that condems for sin and destroys the works of the Divell who hath the power of death for the sting of death is sin so he delivers them from that which is the ground of bondage and feare of death who beleeves in him that is the resurrection and the life over whom the second death hath no power glory to the Lord for ever and ever So now having in measure began to leave the Priests I kept at home not desiring for a season to hear any but to be private and quiet alone which was a great crosse to my Parents Wife and Relations and also to something in me and to my Companions and acquaintance which loved me with that love which quickly turned to hatered so I found it hard to break the customes that I had lived in and to become contrary to all my neighbours and acquaintance and to loose the love of them all as that I saw I should if I followed that which let me see the Priests and the vanity of the World and the Scripture speakes not in vaine Jer. 13.23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin no more can they do good that are accustomed to do evill hear this ye carelesse ones that live in the vanity of your mindes pleading for your customes vanities traditions and fashions of the World that lye in wickednesse and for the fleshly lusts which wars against your own soules the Lord God will plague you with it and that will become the greatest torment to you in which you have most delighted in the day of your visitation then you shall know you were warned in your life time but in the middest of these my tryals and temptations within and without a word was very nigh me even in my heart though I then know not what it was saying seek first the Kingdome of God and mind eternall life yet not knowing where to seek or find it but the deep consideration of it did much strengthen me towards God and some times even breathings and cryes would ascend up from the prisoner of hope in me and my heart was even broken and melted by the power of the word of life which I felt therein hammering down the hardnesse thereof and renting the vaile that seperated me from peace with God but not knowing Christ within the hope of glory which lighteth every man that cometh into the World whose name is called the word of God the Male in the flock which opened the Womb holy to the Lord the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World which lies in wickednesse the first and the last the holy one in the midst whom my soule loveth which had been peirced wounded and as
made themselves wings and thereby to be beguiled of an eternall Crown of rest to my immortall soule my former condition came fresh into my remembrance and I began to feele something stirr in me for life which lay in death and bondage under Pharaoh in spiritually Egypt and as it were a cry ascended from the Prisoner groaning afar off for deliverance and then I began to be troubled and condemned in my selfe and my peace in the earth was broken and the flaming sword turned every way upon it then being afraid of shame I strived with Gods spirit in me not knowing what it was all this while nor some time after and would passe away the trouble as much as I could sometime and even wisht I could be meek like others for I often witnessed Solomons words in the midst of laughter the heart is made sad and was neerer weeping then mirth many times in such Company so I had no rest to my soule in those dayes being ignorant of my Teacher the true Shpeherd of Israell which gives his sheep that follow him eternall life meek and low in the heart But now my soule being like one awakened from sleep and hungery after that which satisfieth I began again to seek for food and rest and to injoy life and peace which changeth not then I thought in my mind what shall I doe remembering the Priests which were discovered by the same witnesse of Gâ—d again to be miserable Comforters and such as daub with untempered morter as all the World shall witnesse in the day at hand when the wall is no more nor they that daubed it and Phisitians of no value but rather robbers and murthers of the innocent and just principle in poor ignorant people that cryes for deliverance Then not knowing what to do for life being gone foâ—th hunting abroad like Esau and all his stock of Priests and Professors in the World for food I went among the people called Baptists to see if I could obtain rest and peace there among them thinking if they be the people of God I had right to have fellowship with them and to partake of their promises and priviledges for I often felt something in me which was beloved of God so concluded that I was one of the elect not then knowing and discerning things that differ that it was a seed in man which may be by him oppressed and trod under foot to which the promises and the blessing is and the elect is before the foundation of the World and the whole World lies in wickednesse Read this if thou can that cry the election of a perticular people and the rest left to themselves and beware of the Doctrine of Divels and remember that God is no respecter of persons and Christ the true light lighteth every man that cometh into the World in whom is the election and redemption and he that knows not Christ in him is a reprobate as saith the Scripture 2 Cor. 13.5 So then I became a constant follower of them and at length was in that fellowship with them and Brother-hood which the naturall carnall visible water was the ground off for before I was dipt in water they call'd me not Brother but suddenly after they did yet I was the same every way as before no more bettered nor satisfied by the water after I came to Gods witnesse in me in the coole of the day which let me see my soul lay in death though the comprehending mind had got a lâ—fe and food in a profession in which I had no true peace when all was performed and done by which I thought to obtain But it still fled from me as I tuâ—ned to that in my heart which let me see my state and condition even the light of Christ though I knew not then what it was so now I know there is no peace to the wicked and that the woe is to them that are covered with a covering and not with the pure spirit of God which reproves the World of sin neither should I ever attained it in that way if I had walked therein 100 yeares for we came not to Christ but denyed him whose flesh is meat indeed and is the true bread which gives life to the World neither were we joyned together in the unity of the faith of the Lord of glory which is without respect of Persons and is a mistery held in a pure conscience giving victory over the World being all from the light which we were lighted withall that is to give people the knowledge of God in which the Saints inheritance and fellowship is But we were building a Tower hoping the top would have reacht to Heaven in our imaginations like the confounded Builders of old like Nimrods stock the beginning of whose Kingdome was Babell that hunted before the Lord who is that spirit which will confound all your wisedome who build without his light the Corner-stone the sure foundation though you may say Lord Lord this availes not while yee are workers of iniquity you are shut out so we were professing and talking of the truth which makes free Christ the light the way to the Father but we were in bondage darknesse and falshood in the broad way wherein many hipocrites deceitfull workers envious proud and covetous may walk keeping their covering of their profession and talking of him that leads to life out of death darknesse and all unrighteousnesse in which you hold the truth of God his witnesse the light that you be lighted withall which lets you see you have not the true bread of life that gives peace rest and satisfaction to the soule but feeds on the husk notwithstanding your great noise of him that is the substance of all which ends the shaddowes but expects his Kingdome and glory and reign without you ô yee fooles and blinde is not the Kingdome of God within you and is not the Kings daughter all glorious within and did not the King say goe not forth when they shall say loe here and loe there believe them not But in this state I was once with you untill the Son of God opened his eyes that was born blinde whom the Pharisees cast out as they have many in this age that tremble at the word of the Lord but the Lord God of power hath appeared to their joy and you shall be ashamed though you may say the Lord be glorified in whose eternall light I then saw in this profession without life I was never like to have peace to that which was awakened in me breathing for the pure righteous power of the living God which all men had been erred and estranged from by transgression the middle wall that seperates which by the higher power is broken downe where the salvation is wrought out with feare and trembling which the professor denyes casting out such as tremble at the word which is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart and the time is come that they cannot endure sound Doctrine
this is to you all Priests Baptists and people that be from the light which you be lighted withall that lets you see your ungodly deeds and hard speeches what shall I say more of you Why you passe over judgement and so the love of God you know not this is from the Lord God to you as shall be witnesse on your death bed So after a season in this my breathing and longing condition in which I desired that God would make an alteration and change among us being in all we performed dead to the pure simple life of God for which my soul thirsted it happened that I heard a book read of the sufferings of some of the people of God who were called quakers in a dungeon at Suesham whose name and sufferings was strange to me at that time yet at the hearing of it something in me did arise with much tendernesse and pitty toward the innocent suffering people which drew tears from mine eyes believing they did suffer for conscience sake and the same thing in me even said that God would avenge them on the bloudy persecutors which hath been performed by his mighty hand of power on some of them even to the cutting them of the earth as briars and thornes for the fire but did not know all this time what it was that let me see these things and knew not light from darknesse as is the state of thousands who professe Christ as I did in words who lighteâ—â— every man that cometh into the world and leads his sheep out of darknesse into the fould of eternall life and peace from which the wise and prudent withall their knowledge comprehension and imaginations are shut out for ever Then I heard Jacob Behements bookes and began to read much in them and to gather something of that into my comprehension and imaginations in the braine but this and all the other gave not pâ—ace and rest to the immortall soule which still lay in death and bondage by reason of transgression and sin but not long after came one a Minister of the word of life whose name few know and preached to the spirit in prison which rejoyced much at the sound of his words to which I gave diligent heed and was eternally convinced that it was the very truth he declared and that there is no other way to know God or to be saved but as I walked in the light which I was lighted withall which did let me see all my ungodly deeds and hard speeches that ever I had committed which light comes from Christ the Saviour and leads all that follow it out of the evill that is in the world unto him that was before the world was by whom it was made gloryfied with the Father the substance of all the types figures shaddows ordenances of which might be spoken many things but he is the sum that redeems man by his blood the life out of the earth into which man was driven in transgression up unto God againe before transgression was to the beginning and the end So as to the true light in my heart my mind was turned many Scriptures came fresh unto me confirming the truth of which he spoke and the povver of the vvord in my heart of God vvhich the light comes from began to stir and vvorke and condemnation vvas administred upon all my former profession and a svvord vvas comming upon the earth vvhich had sate still in peace and open vvar vvas proclaimed against the beast vvhore and false prophet by the lambe that vvas slaine vvhose svvord came out of his mouth and the prisoner of hope rejoyced at the begining of this day of vengeance believing the yeare of redemption vvas come so that here vvas a change began and that vvhich seemed strangâ— to me vvas happened vvhich vvas quickly perceived by the baptists vvho vvere then my companions in profession but not in tribulation for I vvas made to vveepe and lament seeing all the religion in the vvorld to be but as a fading Leafe vvithout the pure life and povver of God vvhich saveth from sinne and brings into unity vvith him so that I could no longer be satisfied nor live in a talke of God and Christ and not enjoy the eternall rest even the sincere milke of the immortall vvord of life vvhich my soule breathed after even from a Childe though I knevv not vvhat it vvas nor vvhere to find it but in this my troubled condition many baptists follovved day and night to persvvade me out of it looking upon me to be deluded and some vvith prayers and some vvith flatteryes and others of them vvith envious vvords strived to get me back to them telling me that I vvas fallen from grace and vvas become under the Lavv and makeing the blood of Christ of none effect but I not knovving then the blood to be the life and that the life is the light of men though I vvas convinced in my conscience of the eternall truth yet my understanding God vvas confounding and the day of the Lord vvas darknesse and not light to that part which had held the truth in unrighteousnesse as they shall all one day vvitnesse vvhere their covering is rent of them and their inside made more manifest vvho by their many tattling vvords drevv out my minde from Gods vvitnesse in me and from the Law vvritten in the heart to vvhich I should have kept and been faithfull even the sure word of prophecy which let me see all that ever I did for Moses vvas faithfull as a servant in all his house but this mistery I knew not then and so to get ease turned out my minde from the truth which is required in the inward parts and gave heed to seducing spirits and words which darkned councell in so much that I joyned againe vvith them in more zeal then before and encouraged others to follovv their strong imaginations from the letter of Scripture looking for a Saviour vvithout us though the Scripture saith Christ within the hope of glory and know yee not that Christ is in you except yee be reprobates c And for his comming without us though he said when they shall say loe here and loe there believe them not and goe not forth and for his Kingdome and glory vvithout us though the Kings Daughter is all glorious vvithin and the King said the Kingdome of God is within you and for his resurrection and life and reign without us when as the King said I am the resurrection and the life and am come a light into the world who lighteth every man that commeth into the world these things we imagined and builded one another up in contrary to the Scripture and to the Saints which builded up in that which is a miistery held in a pure conscience so we past over judgement like the Pharisees and hipocrites of old which did professe and say but doe not climbing up an easier way then by the doore Christ who condemnes sinne in the flesh like the