the right hand and the left the Sheep and the Goats him that serveth God and him that serveth him not between the righteous and the wicked between him that sweareth and him that feareth an oath So then ye will not put darknesse for Light and Light for darknesse nor call evil good nor good evil nor put bitter for sweet not sweet for bitter nor call that which is corrupt holy nor the proud happy as they did in former times who wereblind and as they do now who deny the Light of Christ and teach people that it is but a natural light c. These are they now who are blind and without discerning and tasting and savouring of the things of God and their hearts are hardned through the deceitfulnesle of sin and they are without feeling Now the Light of Christ wil let you see what is in your hearts and in your minds and in your thoughts and what ye think and what ye speake For a good man saith Christ out of the treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evill man out of the treasure of his heart bringeth forth evill things Now whose minds are turned to the Light of Christ within it will let you see what treasure you have in your hearts and what ye do bring forth or whether ye be the good men which brings forth good things good words and good deeds good desires good motions good thoughts and good affections or whether ye be the evil men who out of the evil treasure of your hearts brings forth the evil things as evil thoughts evil words and evil deeds c. This will let ye see whether the good things be there or the evil things be there at all times if ye do minde it and shew ye what ye bring forth and what ye keep in secret which ye would not have seen for that is the evil doer who doth not doe truth that would not have his work seen and so doth not love the Light because the Light will reproove him but the good man who doth truth he loves it and brings his deeds to the Light to be proved And the Light will let ye see if there be any deceit or hypocrisie in your hearts or desperate wickednesse there and it will reprove for that and will search your hearts and try your Rains and let you see what rules there and what Reigns there in your hearts and in your minds and desires and affections and whether ye have any Rains to hold in your desires and affections that they should not run into the lusts and vanityes of the world and of the flesh yea or nay And it will let ye see whether ye have the girdle of truth to girt up the loins of your minds to God or whether they are at liberty and loose and tossed to and fro as the raging Sea yea or nay And it will let ye see whether ye have a Bit and Bridle for your tongue which otherwise will be unruly and thereby you will offend if ye use it as your own I say the Light will discover this unto every one whose minds are turned to it and wait in it and who hearken diligently to it and beleeve in it and obey it they shall come to know their souls to live For obedience to it is life and disobedience to it is death And now whilest men who have been in power to govern the Nations have been making laws without to bind mens consciences and to limit them and compell them to this or that worship and have been talking long of Reformation and Church-Government and have gathered-Churches as they have called them and made Leagues and Covenants and Assemblies of Divines so called to make confessions of Faith Catechismes and set-Forms of worships as Directoryes c. to worship God by and to settle Church-Government and have Laws that all that would not worship God in such a way and such a Form as they had set up to fine them imprison them and whip them and stock them and banish them and hang them or cut oft their ears c. These have been the Reformations in the world in the Apostacy among the Apostate Christians since the dayes of the Apostles ' Among the Protestants and Papists with their Laws and Statutes and Customes and Ordinances without and carnal Weapons and Goales and Whips and Houses of correction and Inquisitions and Fires and Faggots and Courts and Pennance and Stools of Repentance so called now all these things have been and are in order to their Reformation and worshipping of God and to bring people to the Kingdom of God But now mind People what hath all this produced For they have all this while begun at the wrong end of the work and their labour hath been in vain hitherto and will be and little Reformation hath been wrought among people all this while for many himdreds of years past but one Generation hath exceeded another in wickednesse pride and covetousnesse drunkennesse uncleannesse deceit and hypocrisie c. I say what hath it brought sorth but to make people hypocrites not Saints false Christians not true Christians and Wolves in Sheeps cloathing to professe God and Christ in words but in works to deny God And professe the Scriptures to be their Rule and yet they are walking as contrary to that which they call their Rule as if they had no Rule at all nor no Scripture at all nor no Law at all to bind them to this or that form of worship These are but Babels builders whose work the Lord is comingto confound throw down their languages is already confounded and they are all on heaps still After all their bustle and stir which the many builders have made for many hundreds of years about Religion and worship and Reformation and they are as far from the true worship as they were And people do not yet know the Truth nor the true worship of God which is in the Spirit And the Lord is seeking such to worship him as worship him in the Spirit and in the Truth for God is a Spirit But all the world Teachers and the Priests and Professors therein do not know the Spirit of God nor know not the truth yet and so were not like to worship God in it or to find him in their outward worships and carnal Ordinances and Doctrines and Commandements or in the outward Observations and Forms which men have prescribed Nay God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth Now all this while people have been erred from the Spirit of God and the Wolf hath been covered with the Sheeps cloathing and the Wolves nature still retain'd and lived in and not the Sheeps nature They have been all inwardly ravening Wolves and not in the true Christians nature which is the Divine Nature Innocent and harmlesse and separated from sinners Now it hath been contrary
agreement with hell and to keep people in the death and in the darknesse and errour which they called Light and Truth and none must remove from the place where he sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death this hath been the Priests work for many years past to keep people there in spiritual Aegypt and darkness So the Leaders of the people have caused them to erre and they have told people that these Laws were the Discipline of the Church to keep out errour and to preserve the Gospel and to keep Heresie from spreading Now this hath been their cry and their pretence whilest they have been keeping out Truth thereby and limitting the Spirit of God to this or that form so that Truth hath not had its liberty which is only able to keep people from Errour and Heresie And what Errour and Heresie and wickednesse is there that can be named that is not amongst them And you Oh ye Preists and Teachers notwithstanding all your outward Laws who have had all these fair pretences to keep up your Forms of worships withour the power even by your outward Laws and carnal weapons as Stocks and Whips and Prisons and Courts and Leagues and Covenants and Oaths and Protestations and Assemblies of Divines so called and Confessions of Faith and Directories to worship by c. All this hath been but to hold up your Trade to preach for hire and filthy lucre and for your bellyes and to bear rule by your means over the people and to keep them still in the house of bondage and darknesse in AEgypt to labour in the Brick and so have been as the Taskmasters over them who would have their tale of brick and would allow them no straw but they must go abroad to get it and so have oppressed the people and have been cruel so that ye have made them to groan under their burthens and there was none to help them And now the Lord hath heard their cry and is risen and come to deliver his people from under you even from under the mouths of such devouring Wolves who have made a prey upon them And have cryed peace to people in their sins and wickednesse and have had mens persons in admiration because of advantage and have kept and do keep many there Now ye that have done so have not been the Ministers of Christ but of Antichrist not of righteousnesse but of unrighteousnesse and Messengers of Satan though ye have transformed your selves into several forms and shapes but your end is seen and your reward will be according to your work For though the strong man armed have kept the Palace and so the things therein hath been in peace yet now a stronger then he is come who is in us even stronger then he who is in the world And this is he whom we preach Christ Jesus the true Light who hath enlightned every one that cometh into the world which convinceth them of sin and reproves for sin and speaks not peace to them there but sends a sword to take it away and leads them out of sin who beleeves and obeys him and this is he who saves his people from their sins and destroys the work of the Devil And he is come and appeared in his Servants and Ministers as of old To call sinners to repentance and to turn from sin unto God and from the darknesse to the Light and from the power of Satan unto God that so they might receive remission of sins and an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified Which many who have been turned and are turned by them can witnesse the inheritance and an entrance into it Glory be unto the Lord God of Heaven and Earth for ever Therefore do I exhort and warn every one of you in the fear of the Lord to turn in your minds to the Light of Christ Jesus within you Who is given for a Light to the Gentiles and for a new Covenant to the house of Israel where the Law is written in the heart that so ye may come to read there what is in your hearts to know Good from evil and the just from the unjust and Truth from error the right way from the wrong For the Light will shew you if your minds be turned to it For the Law is Light saith Solomon and it is a Light unto my feet and a Lamp unto my paths saith David And again he saith The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soule The Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart The Commandements of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes The fear of the Lord is clean and endureth for ever The Judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether By them thy servant is forwarned and in keeping of them there is great reward And again saith he Oh how doe I love thy Law it is my delight it is my meditation day and night Whereby he became witer then all his Enemies and more understanding then all his Teachers And this is it which gives the knowledge of sin and convinceth of sin and reproves the world for sin and condemneth for sin them that beleeve not And this Law is Spiritual Holy Just and Good and this will let you see that ye are carnal sold under sin and found in the sin and transgression of it and in the corruption whilest ye have been promising of your selves liberty and saying ye are justified by Christ and so would have made him the Minister of sin Gal. 2.17 while yet ye are under the Law and the Law hath dominion over you and condemns you for your sins and evil deeds As the Apostle saith Know ye not for I speak to them that know the Law how that the Law hath dominion ever a man so long at he â—â—â—eth For Paul saith Rom. 7. I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came sin revived and I dyed That slew him and so that which was ordained unto life became death unto him he being in the transgression of it and so dying unto sin he was dead to the Law not under it for then he faith I through the Law am dead to the Law but alive unto God So that which slew him and made him dead unto sin brought him unto Christ Jesus who is the Life the end of the Law for righteousnesse to every one that beleeves So the Law was our School-master to bring us to Christ saith he Gal. 3.24 So who are come to Christ they are come out of the transgression they are come to live unto God they are come to Christ who sulalls it Who is the Way the Truth and the Life and they are not under the Law but under Grace For the law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ And now to the witnesse of God in you all doe I speak who
in the world and is still they that depart from iniquity are made a prey of and have been even the innocent and harmelesse Sheep and Lambs of Christ have been rent and torn by the Wolves who did appear like Sheep in the Sheeps cloathing and had the Saints words in their mouths and have made havock and spoyl of their goods and imprisoned their bodies where the life of Christ hath been made manifest in any measure which is the Divine nature which the Saints and true Christians were made partakers of as ye may read in the Scriptures These I say have been made a prey upon and persecuted in all ages since the days of the Apostles by the Priests and Professors which doth appear that though they have had the Sheeps cloathing on yet they were inwardly ravening Wolves and by their fruits they are seen and now do appear plainly in this our age and day wherein never more profession hath been made since the days of the Apostles then now hath been of late years and yet their fruits have been as bad as the worst Even persecuting the innocent to death without cause devouring of them and making a prey of them and accounting of them as sheep for the slaughter all the day long These are not nor never were the fruits of the true Christians who were called Sheep of Christ for it is contrary to their nature to persecute any to whip or imprison any to kill or destroy any to bite and devour and rend and tear to peeces like Dogs and Wolves as this Generation hath done of Priests and Professors But now this is not contrary to the Wolves nature to devour and rent and tear nor contrary to their nature who come in sheeps cloathing for the fleece and divine for mony and preach for hire and their gain from their quarter and for their filthy lucre and for their bellyes it 's not contrary to these who are inwardly ravening Wolves and these are the fruits by which ye may know them and they are known now by all the Lambs and Sheep of Christ who are his stock which he hath gathered from under their mouths who do deny them therefore they follow after them to devour them and these are children of Light who doe beleeve in the Light of Christ and follow him and know his voyce from the strangers For those who are in the Wolves nature are strangers to Christ and alienated from his life and erred from his Spirit And so whilest we were in the darknesse and in the Alienation from the life of God and strangers to the Covenant of promise as they are now then we did sollow them and their voyce was not strange to us for we were one with them in the same nature but then enemyes in out minds to God and without Christ and without God in the world But after that we came to believe in the Light of Christ and to hear Christs voyce and to follow him then we turned from the strangers and would not hear them the Priests any longer for the children of the Light see them and bear testimony against them but who are not yet come to the Light of Christ in them they are still in the darknesse and in the night and are in Babylon still nor are not yet come to know a separation between the night and the day the Light and the darkness Truth and Error Christs voyce from the Strangers voice between the good Shepheards voyce and the Theeves and Robbers voyce who come not but to kill and teale and carry away see John 10. And these come in the night and so ye being in the nigh cannot see them Now they that steal steal in the night and these doe rob and spoyl ye and dovour the widdows houses and makes merchandize of your soule and ye see them not and so they kill and steale and carry away undiscovered And make ye spend your money for that which is nor bread and your labour for that which doth not satisfie and so keeps you allwayes labouring and never satisfyed and allwayes learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth for who knows the truth the Truth sets them free and gives them ease and rest from their burthens and labours and peace and satisfies their fouls But while people are in the sins and divers lusts and your Teachers tells you that ye must be there as long as ye are here upon earth you know not truth which sets free from sin which loads and burthens the soul and keeps it in death where there is no peace nor rest nor satisfaction to it and so it cannot praise God for its the living that praiseth God the dead praiseth him not nor they that goe down to the pit And so ye are all as a company of weak silly women who are laden with sins and divers lusts all in the transgression and in the death not a living man amongst you to speak and to pray in your Church But its the woman in the transgression and so all is in the disorder and confusion where the woman Rules and Exerciseth Authority over the man He that can receive this let him And thus ye have been and are cheated and deceived by the Deceivers which are come amongst you the blind guids who leads you blind into the Ditch and ye love to have it so and love the darknesse and will not come to the Light because your does be evill least it should reprove them And there you remaine blind and weak under them uncured for they are all Physitians of no value But now the children of the light sees them how they do deceive and cozen and cheat you and they declare against them and they tell you of it and shew you plainly how and wherein ye are deceived by them and yet ye will not beleeve them nor receive their testimony and so if ye will be deceived ye are like to be so and if ye perish your destruction will be of your selves for the Lord will be clear of all your blood and we shall be clear also who have warned you to come out of Babylon the Mother of Harlots the false Church and be separate from her and touch no unclean thing and the Lord will receive you But if ye be partakers of her sins and trade with her Merchants and buy of their Merchandize ye will partake of her plagues that is coming upon her and that speedily and the time is at hand and the Saints shall rejoyce at her fall when her judgement and torment shall come upon her but her Merchants shall howl and mourn for her for by her were they made rich And these things are seen and made manifest to the children of Light glory and honour and living praises be unto the Lord for evermore The hidden things of darknesse is making manifest and coming to be preached upon the house top and all
the hidden things of dishonesty comes to be laid open to the view of all men For the day is come and coming which reveals all things and which will prove every mans work of what sort it is And every man shall receive a reward according to his deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil Therefore all people in whom there is any fear of the Lord or any desire after the knowledge of his way or any love to his truth or to your souls peace and welfare It is high time for you to look about you and to consider your wayes what ye have beendoing and what ye are doing for the times of ignorance God hath winked at but now he calls all men every where to repent For it is not a Profession of the words now will serve you without the possession of the life for that will not be accepted of God But all to repent and turn from the evil of your wayes which ye have long been reproved for by the light of Christ Jesus in you which is Gods witnesse in all your consciences which otherwise will be your eternal condemnation for your profession of Christ will not serve you nor hide you nor your mountains nor your hills where ye have been gotten up high and looking for salvation from them but it hath been all in vaine Come down from them to Gods witnesse in you and hearken to that what that doth testifie to you for that is true and will not lye nor deceive you for that is of God and leads to God And with the Lord Jehovan alone is Salvation and with him is everlasting strength For those mountains will all fly away from you which ye now do trust in and they shall not hide you from the face of the Lamb though ye may call to them to cover you and to the Rocks to fall upon you nay though ye seek death it shall fly from you Therefore I say in time all be warned and hearken diligently that your souls may live And away with all your false and deceitful coverings which are but as so many Fig-leaves sowed together to cover your nakednesse which will not endure long and your profession will wither suddenly and your nakednesse will then appear more to your shame then if ye had made no profession at all to have that pluckt off wherewith ye have been covered all this while which made ye seem to be some body when that is gone then ye will be naked and as it were like no body and have nothing to cover your shame from the eyes of all for Christ Jesus disowns ye who are workers of iniquity and ye must depart from him and not name his Name For it s not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven saith Christ But while ye have been seeking to be justified by Christ and yet lived in sin and are found sinners ye have not been doing the will of God for thereby ye would make Christ the Minister of sin who came to destroy sin and the Devil who is the Author of it and therein he did the will of the Father and plased him And so as many as receive him and beleeve in his name to them he gives power to become the sons of God and to doe his will in earth as it is done in Heaven which ye have been praying so long and saying these words but do not beleeve in your hearts that any shall ever attain to that here which you pray for therefore it s not of faith for with the heart man beleeveth unto righteousness c. and ye are not like to recelve that which ye cannot beleeve so ye are not come to the measure of faith even as a grain of Mustard-seed for he that hath it shall say unto this Mountain be thou removed into the Sea and it shall be so saith Christ But these are all parables to all you Professors in the world unknown as it was to them to whom they were spoken then But who comes to the Light of Christ Jesus to beleeve in it they read the parables and they know the faith that removes the Mountains and brings them down and exalts the valleys and makes the crooked ways straight and the rough wayes plain and prepares the way of the Lord in the Wildernesse and make straight paths for his feet and such knows the kingdome of God to come where his will is done on sarth as in Heaven and where the daily bread is received and sins forgiven and enemies loved And Christ said to those that did not know nor beleeve If I toll ye of earthly things and ye cannot beleeve how should you beleeve if I tell you of Heavenly things John 3.12 And again I speak that which I have seen with my Father and ye speak that which ye have seen with your father John 8.39 Therefore all ye Professors of the Scriptures and Teachers of the Prophets and Christs words and the words which ye have received by tradition from your fathers It s no wonder if the things declared of by the Prophets Christ and the Saints be strange to you that ye neither know them nor can believe them seeing ye me all erred from the Spirit of the Father even that Spirit which was in the Prophets Christ and the Apostles and Saints which shews plainly of the Father and shewed them things to come which was and now is the Saints Comforter which Christ said he would send Even the Spirit of Truth which should lead them into all Truth and should bring all things to their remembrance This the Saints did receive in former times by which they did plainly declare what they had heard and what they had seen and tasted and handled of the word of life And this the Saints do now receive even the same Spirit of the Father which was in the Saints and is now in the Saints and shall be in the Saints to the end of the World as Christ said by which the Saints do now know the Scriptures which were spoken forth by the Spirit of God in the holy men of God and understand them and witnesse the thing they speake of So that they are not a Book sealed to us nor parrables to us who come to enjoy the things they speake of which is freely given to us of God as they were to them who spake forth the Scriptures as the Apostle said 1 Cor. 2.11 12 13. We have not received the spirit of this World but we have received the Spirit which is of God by which we know the things which are freely given to us of God which things we declare in the plain demonstration of the Spirit and not with words which mans wisdome teacheth comparing spirituall things with spirituall But the naturall man perceiveth not
the things of God for they are foolishnesse to him neither can he receive them because they are spiritually discerned And so with this Spirit which we have receiv'd of God the Father the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ doe-we speaks of the things of God which we have seen with him by which Spirit the Saints are now led to declare forth the Truth to the world as it is revealed in them from the Father of spirits as the Children of God did formerly by the same Spirit who said As many as are the Sons of God the same are led by the Spirit of God And so now it is as every one hath received the Gift of the Father so to minister to others and according to the abillity which God hath given from whence every good and perfect Gift doth come from the Father of lights with whom is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning And this we know and declare that if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his which is the gift of the Fathers love and he that hath it hath received it freely from the Father from whence every good and perfect gift doth come Mark Who receives a gift from God they receive that which is perfect that which is heavenly that which is free and that which comes from the Father of Lights and so with that they see and know and can freely declare of the things of God of the heavenly things of that which is perfect of that which is holy of that which is true of that which sins not of that which is born of God which overcomes the World as the Saints did of old who said hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit 1 John 4.13 No otherwise can any one know him now truly but by his Spirit which quickens and makes alive unto God For it is life eternall to know thes the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent saith the Saints and herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldnesse in the day of the Lord for as he is so are we in this present World And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding and we know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternall life and this we have not of our selves but this we have freely received from God as the Saints had and this we freely declare and testifie to the world as they did that so others might come to receive of the same from him in whom the fullriesse of the God-head dwells of whose fullnesse have we all recelved and grace for grace And so we have nothing to boast of or glory in of our selves for it is by grace which is the free Gift of God that we are what we are that no flesh might glory in his sight but that all the Honour and the Praise and the Glory might be given unto God alone from whence every good and perfect gift cometh And now Oh all ye Priests and Teachers and Professors unto whom these things seemes strange which we declare of so that ye cannot beleeve them but get up into rage and envy against us to persecute and reproach us and speak all manner of evill falsely against us as your forefathers did the Scribes and Pharisees who were Hypocrites against Christ and the Saints in former times who did declare of those things then which the blind guides did not know nor could beleeve and therefore did they persecute them and haile them before Magistrates and cast them into Prisons and put them to death though the things which the Saints did declare were true and the same which Moses and the Prophets the holy men of God had declared of which should come to passe and so did come to passe according to their words yet now the Scribes and Pharisees and Jewes who had the words of Moses and the Prophets and were the greatest Professors of Religion then that were in the World they having the words but being out of the power out of the Life of Abraham and Moses and the Prophets that declared those things by the Spirit of God these I say being erred from the Spirit did not know the things which the holy men of God did foretell of to come The holy thing which was to be borne which is called the Son of the living God and when he was come they did unto him as they listed crucified the Lord of Life because they knew him not Though they said they were Abraham's children and knew God and were Moses Disciples and were called Jewes and rested in the Law and made their boasts of God and that they knew his Will and did approve of the things that are more excellent and were confident that they themselves were guides to the blind and a light to them that are in darknesse and Instructers of the foolish and Teachers of babes which had the forme of knowledge and of the truth in the Law Thou therefore saith the Apostle that teachest another teachest thou not thy selfe c. All these were untaught themselves though they were teachers of the Law they were Transgressors of the Law and when Christ Jesus came who was the substance the holy Seed the end of the Law who fullfilled it and brought in everlasting righteousness who was the Way to God the Truth and the Life they knew him not but slew him And so it is at this day the Professors of the World who only have the name of Christians persecute them that are in the true Christians life and nature for they were blind Leaders of the blind as Christ told them and that they were of their father the Devill who was a lyar and a Murderer from the beginning for whom God hath sent him ye beleeve not but seeke to kill him And so though they had the true mens words and the righteous mens words and the just mens words yet they were erred from their Spirit and therefore they knew not the just and righteous One and Holy one of Israel but were in the murtherous spirit and in the lying spirit which is of the Devill who did not abide in the truth and in the envious spirit and in the persecuting spirit which is not of God as all ye Priests and Professors are found in at this day which spirit I say is not of God nor received of God For the fruits of Gods Spirit is Love Meeknesse Gentlenesse Patience Long-suffering Charity c. But the fruits of your spirit is the contrary as the fruits of theirs was coutrary who persecuted the Saints in former times as the Scriptures declares and plainly makes manifest And so now ye come to be tryed and seen and manifest and declared against by the same Spirit as was in
the Saints formerly and the testimony thereof we know is true and your deceit and hypocrisie comes to be laid open as theirs were whom ye have been crying against for many yeares the Scribes and Pharisees and Jewes who crucified Christ and killed the Saints and Prophets and have been envying against them and have a Law made that none of the Jewes should come into this Nation c. and speake against them as they did against the false Prophets and their fore-fathers that slew the true Prophets and said if they had been in the dayes of their fore-fathers they would not have done so but Christ told them not withstanding that they were the Children of them that killed the Prophets and they built their Tombs and garnished the Sepulchers of the righteous And he called them Whited Walls and painted Sepulchers and Serpents and a generation of Vipers c. Therefore come now ye Professors and Teachers and Priests own your fore-fathers the Scribes and Pharisees and Jewes which are gone before you whom ye have cryed against and said ye would not have done as they did And yet have ye not done and are doing many of the same things as they did in persecuting of the righteous for now have ye not slaine the Prophet in you which Moses spake of Saying Like unto me will the Lord raise up a Prophet in the midst of you him ye shall hear in all things c. And are ye not slaying and persecuring the righteous and killing the just who doth not resist you and are painting and garnishing the Sepulchers and building the Tombs of the Prophet and of the righteous And are in your faire outside Worships as they were to be seen of men and crying 〈◊〉 this Forme and the other Forme of Church government and this Ordinance and the other Ordinance and this way of Worship and the other way of Worship and crying up this Learned man and the other Rabbi and are in your Observations as they were and have set up the Jewes Tythes which were to the first Priesthood and so deny Christ Jesus the second Priesthood and have set up Sacraments and Sabboths and Schools and Colledges and Churches which God never commanded and giving them Saints names as the Papists do and call the Papists old Masse-houses Churches and so are crying up dead things and dead Names and Ordinances of men and Doctrines of men and things which may be touched tasted and handled which all perish with the using And by these things have ye kept people in the Death while they have seemed to live and have made a great stirre and bustle in the World for many hundreds of yeares by crying them up and setting them up and your Ministry or Ministers as the Oracles of God and the maintenance for them and have killed some for witnessing against these things and have been ready to kill one another about these things and could not agree about them and one hath built a Wall and another hath dawbed with untempered Morter and so have been dawbing and dawbing to keep it up from falling and whiteing of it to make it appear beautifull to please men and to be seen of men And all this invented Worship and Imitations which ye have set up and brought people into are but as so many Tombes and Sepulchers of the righteous and these have been cryed up by the Priests for Divine Institutions and Orthodox and Canonical and whiteed over with large Pretences and plausible Arguments and undeniable Consequences as they have called them and the poor people have received all this for Gospell and Ordinances of Christ and of his Church as if Christ had been there present who is the true Prophet and the Righteous Seed which the Promise is to when as there was nothing but Tombes and Sepulchers of the Prophets and of the Righteous which they had garnished And so people while ye have been in these things ye have been all in the darknesse and in the Death and have been all as Graves which men goe over unawares being erred from the Spirit which quickens and makes alive which Spirit was in the Prophets by which they Prophesied and declared forth the Truth which came to passe accordingly to the Jewes That in seeing they should see and not perceive and in hearing they should hear but not understand which also is come to passe in these our dayes among all the Teachers and Professors who have been thus dawbing and building and painting the Tombes and Sepulchers and whiteing the Walls the just hath been killed and he hath not resisted you and the Prophet lyes flain in you all and ye understand not nor hear him nor see him neither have perceived nor known his Voyce who is the true Light that lighteth every one that all in the Light might beleeve him whom Moses said was like unto him whom the Lord would raise up a Prophet from the midst of them whom ye should hear in all things And it shall come to passe saith he that whosoever will not hearken unto this Prophet shall be cut off from amongst the people And so Moses saw and declared of concerning Christ that which ye do not know nor see nor hear though ye have long been talking of him and naming of his Name but it was but death speaking of the fame of Wisdome because ye have been erred from his Spirir which is the Spirit of truth which convinceth the World of sin and reproves them for sin but this the World cannot receive which doth reprove them for their sins and evill deeds because they love their sins and evill deeds and not God Now they that love the Lord hate evill but he that loves not God nor receives the Light of Christ nor beleeves in it which is the true Pro and faithfull Witnesse of God he loves his evill deeds but hates the Light which reproves him for his sins and evill deeds and therefore the Light is his condemnation as Christ saith and so this is not their Comforter who beleeve not but love their evill deeds But this is he whom we have received and followed even Christ Jesus who is come a Light into the World and denyed our selves and our own Wills for him and taken up his Crosse and we know the Prophet raised the Spirit of truth come which is our Comforter in all our troubles and leads us into all truth and brings all things to our remembrance and knowledg which were spoken before by the Prophets Christ and the Saints which Spirit is in us which was made manifest in the flesh and dwelt amongst the Saints and they saw his Glory who was the begotten Son of God and did hear Testimony of him who said unto them who beleeved in him I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever Even the Spirit of truth whom the World cannot receive Mark Because it
seath him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Joh. 14.16 17. and now is in all his Saints and so he did come to them according to his Promise Acts 1.4 And he doth come again to all that waite for him in the manifestation of his Spirit which is given to every one to profit withall which is the true Light which Christ Jesus hath inlightned every man that cometh into the World withall that all through the Ligh might beleeve and follow the Light and not walk in darknesse but might come to have the Light of Life and might come to Christ from whence the Light comes But now all ye who have set your selves against the Light and denyed it to be sufficient to lead to Christ and say it 's naturall and so have kept people from it are the seducers which John speakes of 1 Joh. 2.26 Ye are still in darknesse and walking in darknesse and following your own spirits and have seen nothing who have prophesied lyes in the name of the Lord and have been walking in the light of the fire and of the sparkes of your own kindling but you shall lye down in sorrow for that will not bring you to Christ neither hath nor to his Life whose Life is the Light of men with which he hath inlightned them that they might beleeve in it and follow him and so with this they know him and hear him and deny you who are strangers and hear him not nor know him nor receive him and so have not power but are crying out ye want power and the reason is because ye receive him nor nor beleeve in his Name who gives power to become the Sons of God and yet are professing his Name and asking and preaching and praying and baptizing in his Name but none of you are baptized yet into his Name who depart not from iniquity though ye have been crying Lord Lord We have eaten and drunken in thy Presence c. Who have had a Forme of godliness but denyed the Power which was before the Forme and is without Forme and is the substance which shall stand when all your Formes shall end And so ye know not the Life the Power the Substance the Holy Seed which is come who stands and remains and abides and lives for ever ye are all out of that and strangers to it But ye are in that which ends out of the truth who denies the Power and Life but retains the Forme and have a shew of Wisdome in your will-Worships and voluntary Humility intruding into those things ye have not seen being vainly rufft up by your fleshly minds having a Forme and Shadowes of things to come but the Body which is Christ who is the Life and Substance hath been wanting amongst you who have been making a large Profession of Christ and of the Gospell and had a Forme but the Substance being wanting which is the Life and Power which ye are all our of and therefore ye do not know Christ nor the Gospel for it is the Fower of God unto Salvation to every one that beleeves But many have had that which ye have called the Gospell namely the four Books of Matthew Mark Luke and John and yet want this Power and know nothing of it but say they want Power to doe what they should doe and ought to doe and this is the farthest that any of them can come and there they are still in the weaknesse in the flesh ferred from the Spirit and cry out they want power which is the Gospell and so want peace and want Salvation to their soules for the Gospell is still hid from them which is the Power of God which saves the soul So the Gospell had need to be preached to you all againe ye Priests and Teachers and Profestors for it is hid from you and ye are all in the lost State seeing ye are all erred from the Spirit by which it was Preached and is Preached which proceeeds from the Father and came down from Heaven and so it is hid from you you want it ye have lost it lost the Power but retained a Forme in the long night of Apostacy since the dayes of the Apostles and have been erred from the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints which stood not in the wisdome of Words but in the Power of God but the Power you want and so the Faith ye have lost and erred from it and it hath been so long wanting among you that ye doe not know it what it is for it is a Mistery held in a pure Conscience And ye have been in the night all this while and are still and have been eating and drinking with the drunken and beating your fellow-servants and have said in your hearts The Lord deferreth his Coming who hath been in a farre Country from you and ye have not knowne where he hath been for the Man-child hath been caught up unto God but he is come and coming upon you as a thief in the Night and ye doe not see him because ye have not watched for his coming but have been asleep in sin and have been carelesse and thought your selves secure as if all had been well with you and said none can be free from sin here c. And now behold the Son of man is come He doth not find faith in the earth as Christ said When the Son of man cometh shall be find faith in the earth And now the day of the Lord is come and coming wherein every mans work shall be tryed of what sort it is and Truth shall now be known from error and deceit I say the Day-spring from on high hath now again visited us after the long time of darknesse which hath been over the earth Yea such a time hath been that the darknesse hath been so great that it might be felt that none could rise from the place where they sate and is yet upon many Peoples and Nations and Kindreds and Tongues as it was in AEgypt of old see Exed 10.21 22. so it is now and hath been in spiritual Aegypt where also our Lord Jesus Christ hath been crucified And so his Gospel is again to be preached unto all Nations Kindreds and Tongues and People whom God hath given for a Covenant for a Light unto the Gentiles to open the blind eyes and to bring the prisoner out of prison and them that have sate in darknesse out of the prison-house For People have sate in darknesse and have taken up their seat there and the Priests have laboured to keep them there and have been crying out against New-Lights and calling it Heresie and getting Laws made to keep out all New-Light as they called it to keep out Truth from being known any more then it was and so have made a Covenant with death and an
have long been professing Christ and justification by him c. To turn in to the Light which is Gods witnesse and with it try your selves and examine your selves truly and honestly and it will let you all see that ye are not come to Christ yet nor yet known him who is the end of the Law for righteousnesse who fulfillls it but ye are under it still alive without the Law unslaine by it as Paul was in the sin and transgression and so not justisied by Christ neither know him All ye who do deny the Light which he hath enlightned ye withall For none comes to know him but who beleeves in the Light which Christ hath enlightned them withall nor none come into the righteousnesse which is the end of the Law and fulals it but who beleeve in the Light and are obedient to the Light and walk in it Here is the righteousnesse known which exceeds the righteoulnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees who should in no wise enter into the Kingdome of Heaven who had the Law without and read it every Sabbath day but they were sayers and not doers and hypocrites of whom Christ said Go not after them for they had the Form but not the Power They had a shew of righteousnesse and made clean the out-side but the inside was unclean and unrighteous and were but as whited Walls and painted Sepulchers which did appear beautiful and righteous before men but within were noâ—â—ing but rottennesse and deads mens bones and so were as Graves which men go over unawares and what they did it was to be seen of men and thereby did beguile and deceive the hearts of the simple and so shut the Kingdome of Heaven against men as Christ said and neither entred in themselves nor suffered others that were entering Now are not all ye Teachers Priests and professors found here in the Pharisees spirit and in the same generation with them in outward shewes of holinesse and righteousnesse and formes of godlinesse and making cleane the outsides as they did and saying and are Sayers as they were but not doers and so are hypocrites as they were And yee keep people alwayes saying but never bring them to doe what they say but teach them that Christ hath done all for them and if they can but beleeve that then they are well enough and so blindes people by that means that they doe not minde what they doe themselves nor what they say to performe and so are out of the truth and never come to the knowledge of it and so the kingdome of heaven is shut against you and them and so you are ever teaching them and they are ever learning and saying after you and so make a faire shew in the flesh and appeare to be something outwardly and perswade them that they are Justified by the righteousnesse of Christ which he hath wrought for them without and so there they rest as the Pharisees did in the outward observations whilest in the meane time they are inwardly uncleane their hearts uncleane their minds defiled their eyes full of adultery who cannot cease from sin and so are shut out of the kingdome into which no unrighteous thing or uncleane thing must ever enter and are but as Tombes garnished and Sepulchers painted wherein is rottennesse and dead mens bones marke like the Scribes and Pharisees and so your righteousnesse doth not exceed theirs In the same generation with them are yee and their Children are yee who slew Christ Jesus the true Prophet which Moses spake of when he said Like unto me will the Lord raise up a Prophet which all were to heare c. as the Pharisees were the Children of them that slew the Prophets that went before them and are like unto them And are still slaying and have been slaying and killing and persecuting and hailing before Magistrates and out of the Synagogues as they did those who are the true Chriftians in whom the Spirit of Christ is manifest who beare witnesse against your hypocrisie and deceipt now as Christ did and the true Christians did in the primitive times And it is your srultes makes yee manifest now as theirs did then and your faire sayings and not doing now cannot cover you no more then that could cover the Pharisees then who said and did not and therefore Christ calls them hypocrites Moreover as they would not heare him of whom the Father sayd This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased heare yee him and of whom John bore witnesse and sayd He was the true Light that Lighteth every man that cometh into the world And so because they did not beleeve in the true Light therefore they were blinde leaders of the blinde and so it is and hath been with you who doe not beleeve in the Light which Christ Jesus hath enlightened you withall but speak against it and say it is Insufficient and natural c. Therefore yee abide in darkness and are Children of darkness who know not whither yee goe nor know not that yee are walking in the stepps of your forefathers the Scribes and Pharisees who were hypocrites and blinde guides who persecuted Christ and put him to death and persecuted the Saints the true Church and halled them before Magistrates and shut them up in prisous and thought they did God good service in so doing even so it is now with many of you at this day yee thinke so who walke in darkness and know not whither yee goe But the Children of the Light who beleeve in the Light they see the true Way which is Christ and with the Light they see you all where you are in the false wayes in the way of the Pharisees and not in the way Christ and beare witnesse against you now as the Saints did then against them And yee can no longer be hid but your folly will come to be layd open and manifest more and more so that yee cannot proceed much further For now is the Day dawning and the Day-starr arising in the hearts of many people who take head unto the more sure mord of prophecy as unto a Light that shineth in a darke place and such as doe so doe well and when the Day-starr doth arise the Sun is neare approaching which expells all the darkness that men comes to see round about them And then they can see what the holy men of God did and what Christ and the Saints did and what the Scribes and Pharisees did and so see over the Apostacy to the Apostles dayes And what the Apostate Christians have been doing since the Apostles dayes and what they are still doing and what the Saints the true Christians are now doing and who are they and can know them who have done well and who now doe well from them that have done evill and now doe evill for the day is that which tryes every mans worke of what sort it is And all who are come to the day now can
sect or opinion or judgement or Religion soever they be of who deny the Light which Christ Jesus bath Lighted every one withall to be â—ufficient to lead to salvation 〈◊〉 I say they know not that which makes free from sin and death and brings to life no can they beleeve that when it is declared to them but say none can be free from sin on this fide of the grave and account it errour to say that any can be free from sin here or be righteous here without sin and say the most righteous man sins and he that is borne of God sin which is Blasphemy so to say and this is and hath been their doctrine in the world amongst the Priests and profelsors the Antichrists and Anrichristians who are out of the life of Christ and the true Christians that now their nakednesse appeares to thein shame because they have not submitted to the righteousnesse by faith in Christ Jesus that they might be covered with it who is the true Light to beleeve in the Light that by it they might be led unto Christ Jesus from whence it comes who is Gods righteousness and thereby know the righteousness of the Law fulfilled in them and know the kingdome of god within which cometh not with observation as Christ saith and the righreousness in which it stands and the power in which it stands is within and the Law of the Spirit which makes free from the Law of sin and death and the life which is eternall which is the gist of God through Jesus Christ in whom the Law of the Spirit of life is But now all who are pleading for sin and say None be free from sin here they are still under the Law of sin and death which Paul sayd he was made free from Sin is still a Law to them and they are servants to it and so they are free from righteousness as the Apostle said While ye were servants of sin ye were free from righteousness but being made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness That at sin had reigned unto death so righteousness might reigne unto life through Jesus Christ our Lord And againe His servants ye are whom ye obey whether sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness Therefore come all ye Teachers and Professors of the World what say you Can none be made free from Sin and Death here while he is upon Earth what is there not a living man amongst you all who is quickned Is there none of you come up out of the Grave that can truly say Oh Death where is thy Sting Oh Grave where is thy Victory Thanks be to God who hath given me Victory over Death What are you all as Graves which men go over unawares Have none of you heard the Voyce of the Son of God yet which they that hear shall live Are you all dead in your sins and trespasses unquickned yet in the Fall in the first Adams state in the Disobedience by which Sin entare dinto the World and Death by Sin Are you all there still where Death reigns Is there none come to Life which is through the Obedience to Christ Jesus the second Adam the quickening Spirit the Lord from Heaven Have none of you the Word of God abiding in you which Word is Quick and Powerfull and the enterance of it gives Life Come forth and answer for your selves What are you all shur up in the unbelief untill this day and have not beleeved in him whom God hath sent who is the Resurrection and the Life who saith he that beleeveth in me shall live for ever he shall never dye for he hath Life in himself and he gives Life to every one that beleeveth What are you all searching the Scriptures which testifies of Christ and thinke to have eternall Life in them and you not yet come to Christ that you may have Life him whom the Scriptures testifies of and saith He is the trus Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the World that all might beleeve in the Light and become Children of Light and he who followeth him should not walke in darknesse but he shall have the Light of Life and know Christ Jesus who is the way so the Father the Truth and the Life who saith No man cometh unto the Father but by me I am come a Light into the World c. What doe you not beleeve Christ Or doe you thinke to find another Way to the Father an easier Way then Christ or a broader Way a Way which is not a Crosse to your Wills or a Way where you may walke your selves without a Guids that ye may goe whither you list but that 's not the Way to God as Christ told Peter when he was young he girt himself and went whither he would c. Answer me plainly to these Queries Oh ye Priests and Professors who have been so long talking of the Scriptures but have been out of the Truth and out of the Life of Righteousnesse and out of the Light and out of the Way who have been wandering in the Darknesse not knowing whether you goe and seeking the Living amongst the Dead and are erred from the Truth in your hearts and hold it in the unrighteousnesse professing the true Words but are and have been out of the Truth and so could never be established there for none can ever be established but in the Truth and in the Righteousnesse But ye have been out of the Life and so are dead men still and are yet in the Graves and have not heard his Voyce that should raise you up yet because you have not hearkened diligently that your souls might live though you have been long talking of him and searching for him without in the Observations and have been saying Lot here is Christ and Lot he is there in this Form or in that Forme of Worship and in this or that Ordinande so Death hith heard of the fame of Wisdome and hath been talking of the fame of Wisdome which is justisied of her Children but ye who only have been talking of Wisdome and speaking of it while you were in the Death and did not learne the Way to Life ye are but soolish Children and are not justified for you have all been but as the foolish Virgins the best of you who have had Lamps but wanted Oyle and so ye are in the darke still your Lamps are not burning nor your Lights shining neither hath your Light so shined before men that they may see your good workes and glorifie the Father But you have all professed that which ye did not possesse and so are found in the hypocrisie and your righteousnesse hath been like the Righreousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees whom Christ told should in is wise enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Now all that are but there will be shut out though you have