with the Light you will see the Kingdom of Heaven within which never gave consent to Sin and Evil like to a grain of Mustard-seed and to a Leaven which leaveneth into a New Lump And with the Light you will see the Field which is the World placed in your hearts where the Pearl is hid and with what you must dig to find the Pearl the Power of God and what you must sell for its sake to purchase the Field And waiting in this Light you will receive the Spirit of Truth the Comforter to to lead you into all Truth and to bring the Words which Christ hath spoken to your remembrance and it will shew you things to come and it shall receive of those which are Christs and give it unto you So loving the Light you love Christ and receiving it you receive Christ the first and the last For in the Light Christ is seen and handled his Voyce is heard and he is followed So in the Light you will see Christ to be your Teacher who saith Learn of me I am the Way the Truth and the Life by whom Life Eternal is given And you are brought again to Christ the Shepherd who draws you out of the Fall to God into his Image where the Green Pastures of Life are known and fed upon And no man commeth to the Father saith Christ but by me who enlighteneth every man that cometh into the World that by the Light all may believe And saith Christ Believe in the Light whilst ye have the Light that you may be Children of the Light So you being enlightned with the Light which if you believe in it you come to be Children of the Light and Heirs of Promise and Mercy and of the Power of a Life that hath no End And believing in the Light you pass from Death to Life from Darkness to Light and you come to know a Translation from Darkness to Light and from Satans Power to the Power of God and to know the begotten of God into his own Image by his Power as you have been degenerated from God and have lost his Image by the Prince of Darkness and so translated from the Image of God into the Image of Satan from the Power of Christ into the Power of Darkness so you must come to the Light that ye may have another Conversion from Satans Power to God from Darkness to Light to be renewed into the Image of God and this is felt within and as you feel this within you will know the Word of God within in your hearts which is the Word of Faith which the Apostles preached to the Romans which they were to hear obey and do And that is the Word which seperates the pretious from the vile your pretious thoughts affections motions and words from your vile So the Word is in your Hearts and Mouthes to obey it and to do it And it is quick and powerful sharper than a two-edged Sword And you shall not need to say Who shall bring it from Heaven or who shall fetch it from beneath But it is in the Heart and Mouth and this is the Word of Faith which the Apostles preached And the same Word is called a Hammer a Sword and a Fire to beat down to cut down and to burn up whatsoever is contrary to it So it is the same Word which sanctifieth and purifieth and reconcileth to God as beats down and cuts down that which is contrary to God and which seperates betwixt you and God So you may hear obey and do the Word for it is with you in all places and in all your occasions dividing good thoughts from bad good words and motions from bad For if all Christendom would hear and obey the Word in their Hearts which is pure and lives and remaines and endures for ever by which they would come to be born again of the Immortal Seed this Word would keep them from evil Actions and Words which are spoken and acted by them And so by the Word every one should be taught and should know the engrafted Word which is able to save the Soul which beats down and cuts down and burns up that which wars against it and keeps the Soul from the enjoyment of God And so in this Word they should know the annointing in themselves to teach them so that they should not need any man to teach them but as the same annointing teacheth them which teacheth Truth in all things And in this Light and Word which is in the heart they should know the New Covenant of God the Law written in the heart and put in their mindes by which they should not have need to say one to another Know the Lord for all should know him from the least even to the greatest And those are true Christians who come to witness this as thousands in England do witness it in this his Day among whom the pretious Pearl is found and the Field is bought among whom the Law of the Spirit of Life sets free from the Law of Sin and Death Who witness the Ages to come of which the Apostle spoke In which the kindness and exceeding riches of the Grace of God should be manifested again which the Lord in the Primitive Times made manifest amongst the Apostles who sat together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus In which places thousands are now come to sit Glory be to him for ever I. Concerning WORSHIP The Promise of Redemption is from that State in which Adam and Eve their Sons and Daughters are in the Fall driven from God into a State in which they were before they were driven from God to the Church in God Now they that sit down in a State driven from God are People far off from the Church in God Our Worship is in Spirit and in Truth in which the Devil abode not but is out of it who is the Author of strife and unrighteousness amongst People which Truth maketh the Devil to bow and cringe yea and destroys him and it is the Spirit that mortifies sin which makes the Separation from God Now we say that if all Christendom had worshipped God in Spirit and in Truth they had all been in Him out of which the Devil is and had been in the holy Mountain and had felt the Spirit ruling them in their own particulars and had felt the Spirit of Truth guiding and teaching them in them in their own hearts II. Concerning the CHURCH Our Church is in God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which he Redeems with his own blood without spot or wrinkle or deformity or any such thing which blood we feel in our Hearts purging us from all sin with which blood we feel our Consciences cleansed from dead works to serve the Living God So this blood is witnessed in us and the excellency thereof by which we come to know the price of Redemption III. Concerning the WAY We say that Christ is Our Way which is Light which enlighteneth you and
of War those were only Tythes of the Spoil and not by a Command And Christ was according to the Order of Melchisedeck who puts an end to War and destroyes the Devil its Author and redeems out of the Earth And although we are many thousands yet there is not a Beggar among us neither do we read there were any Beggars in the Primitive-Times which Church denyed Tythes and said The Priesthood was changed that took them together with the Law by which they were set up and also the Commandment which gave them So they who take Tythes and they who pay them are both Anti-christs and deny Christ to be come in the Flesh XII Of the HIGHER POWER Moses who had the Law saw over all Transgression and before it was he saw the state which Adam had in the Garden before he Fell he saw his state in the Fall and how Death reigned from Adam to Moses who received the Law which Law passed over all Transgression which Law did answer to the Witness of God in all which was a Command to people that they might not sin and that they might be kept from sin and so from Death which raigns from Adam to Moses which Law passeth over both sin and Death And this was the Higher Power higher than the Transgression which answereth to the Witness of God against the Rebellions which Witness is true holy righteous and equal which Law is just holy and good a true Measure and just Weight this is called the Higher Power this was added untill the Seed came which is Christ and this Law they were to hear even Moses To whom Wisdom was given to make the Pattern and to set forth Figures and Shaddows under the Law till Christ should come Of which Moses said The Lord will raise up a Prophet like unto me him shall ye hear in all things And when Christ himself came he put an end to all those Types Figures and Shaddows and changable things for in him there is no Shaddow who is called Gods Righteousness So the Law was in use untill the Seed came and Moses who had it said God shall raise up a Prophet like unto him and now he is come which we hear to wit the Seed who is the end of all the Prophets who Prophesied of him and so He is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believe So Believers are Members of the true Church of which Christ is the Head So Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Which Christ purgeth his Floor and burneth up the Chaffe commeth with his Fan Baptizeth with his holy Spirit and Fire and bringeth his Wheat into his Garner And Christ is the end of all Oaths which were under the Law and which was before the Law viz. of Oaths which put an end to strife among Men. XIII Of the KINGDOM of CHRIST how it is held up and how not The Kingdom of Christ is not held up by Carnal Weapons for saith Christ My Kingdom is not of this World therefore his Servants fight not Now all you that profess your selves to be Christians and bringers of glad Tydings yet ye are Fighthers with Clubs and Swords about Religion you are not the Servants of Christ who are fighting for an Earthly Kingdom for in Christs Kingdom we must fight with Spiritual Weapons in Patience and Long-suffering And Christ said to his Disciples who would have had fire to come down from Heaven to consume those that were contrary to them as it was in the dayes of the Prophet Elias That they knew not what spirit they were of So they who destroy Mens Lives and doth not save them they are not according to the mind of Christ nor the way of Christ but are under the Condemnation of it neither do they know what Spirit they are of And so they who are Spiritually wise cannot commit their Souls Bodies nor Spirits into the hands of such XIV Concerning Teachers Prophets Pastors Bishops Presbyters c. Teachers Prophets Pastors Presbyters and Bishops ought not to be such as are given to filthy lucre nor covetous nor given to wine nor strikers nor brawlers nor covetous of earthly things nor to teach for filthy lucre nor to contend about words and fables and vain Phylosophy and beggarly Rudiments and Traditions and Doctrines of men nor their Commandements neither ought they to compel People to observe Dayes Meats and Drinks nor such like things nor to bear Rule by their Means nor they ought not to be such who seek their gain from their quarter such were forbidden and such as teach for money and handfulls of Barly and pieces of Bread and such as teach for lucre were forbidden and opposed by the true Prophets Teachers and Apostles and such as wore long Robes and were called of Men Master and followed and loved Salutations in Markâ—ts and the uppermost Roomes at Feasts and such like all such are out of Christ and against such Christ himself cryed Woe woe who said Ye have one Master even Christ and ye are all Brethren And that it should not be so among them as it was among the Gentiles And so all they who have the Scriptures of Christ of the Apostles and Prophets and not in the Power and Spirit that gave them forth and do not obey it which reproves them that they may come into it but stop their Ears and shut their Eyes against it such are like the Pharisees these cannot worship God in the Spirit neither can they pray in the Spirit nor sing in the Spirit but quench it and burthen it and vex it These are out of the Fellowship of the Spirit and out of the Fellowship of God the Father of Spirits Those erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of God And such go hither and thither to change their Way and go from the Spirit of God in their hearts which would lead them to Christ the Way the Truth and the Life So all such who have the Form of Godliness and are not in the Power and Spirit in which they were in who gave forth the words such are to be denyed And the true Praying is in the Spirit and the true Worship true Praysing and true Singing must be in the Spirit So they who grieve and vex the Spirit and quench it they cannot Worship God in the Spirit XV. An Exhortation to all Christendom to mind the Grace of God to wit the Light All ye People in that part of the World which is called Christendom come to the Light wherewith Christ hath enlightned you that with it you may see your Salvation and may know Christ you Teacher the Captain of your Salvation and the Grace which comes by him which brings your Salvation which Grace teacheth us which Grace is sufficient in weakness and temptations which brings the Salvation and by it we are saved And this Grace teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly and
for those that are of a contrite heart who were for Signes and Wonders to both the Houses of Israel when they shall be confounded ashamed and astonished And before you know sin rooted out and wasted out of your flesh and the Earth shaken and removed out of its place and ye brought into that state which Man was in before he Fell you must know the trembling and shaking of that which is to be shaken and the removing of that which is to be removed before Christ the Seed will appear who is the foundation of many Generations and the Rock of Ages who is the First and the Last Who cannot be shaken neither can be changed So that the whole unjust wicked World hath much to suffer before they come to this they must know the Devils to tremble the Heavens to be shaken and the Earth also before he who cannot be shaken will appear by whom the World was made XX. Concerning the BODY of DEATH It s evident that they who plead for a body of Death and Sin about which the world so earnestly jangle and which they plead for as long as they live upon the earth that they also plead for its Author viz the Divel and this is not to plead for Christ who destroyes him who is the Author of sin and the Body of it Object Now if you Object that John hath said If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Answ John saith If we say we have not sinned we make him a lyar mark but if we confess and forsake our sins the blood of Jesus Christ the son of God cleanseth us from all sin Further he saith He that is born of God sinneth not neither can he because the Seed of God remains in him Because of which Seed he cannot sin for that Seed keeps the Holy so that the Evill one cannot touch him In this the children of God and the children of the Divel are manifest Whose children of both kinds contends and pleads for his own so there is a time in which men may say that they have sinned and have sin and a time to confess and to forsake sin and then a time to know the blood which cleanseth from all sin and then the Birth born which doth not commit sin and the Seed which remaines in him so that he cannot sin for as I said before it keeps the Holy that the Evil cannot touch him And though Paul cryed out of a Body of Death and of a Warfare yet afterwards he gave thanks to God that he had gotten Victory through Jesus Christ over the Body of Death and that the Law of the Spirit of Life had freed him from the Law of Sin and Death And afterwards the Apostle never complained of a Body of Death but he thanked God that he had obtained Victory through Christ who destroyes the Devil the Author of it who destroys Death and its Body and said that he was freed and that there was no condemnation to them who were in Christ Jesus and that the Life that he now lived was by the Faith of the Son of God which Faith gives Victory over Sin Death and the Devil which sin separates from God by which man hath displeased him by which Faith man is purified and hath victory and pleaseth God and hath access to him and is justified and saved Amen XXI Concerning the word THOU to a Single Person It is the manner among us to use the word Thou to a single person and You to more than one as in the Primitive times among the Saints according to Scripture and the Principle of God placed in every man which distinguisheth many from one and hath the proper word both to singular and plural to wit the singular word to a single person and the plural word to more than one according to the true understanding and Spirit of God in every man and the Testimony of all the Prophets But they are degenerated from the Spirit of God they are degenerated from the Scriptures and from their own Translations calling this manner of speaking Thou to one and You to many nonsence and improper when they themselves are gone from the true understanding which whosoever are in it comprehends them who are degenerated from it XXII Concerning putting of the HAT and Bowing the KNEE and Cringings and Complements To put off Hatts bowing Knees Cringing and Complements are from below and Customes and Manners of the World which shall pass away and never came from God neither is that honour wherewith men ought to honour one another for if all men had honoured and esteemed one another they had been of an higher Spirit than the Spirit of the World and of a more noble and generous Spirit Then neither Man nor Woman throughout all Christendom had received wrong or injury if they had esteemed and honoured one another for he that honours men will in no wise hurt them in this consists Breeding and Civillity And every Knee shall bow to me saith the Lord. For this is the cry Worship God and Fear him and Reverence him And if you Object That some in times past bowed them-themselves to an Angel but in the time of the Gospel which is the Power of God which was before the Fall in the state of Reformation and Restauration John was forbidden to bow to the Angel and the Apostels reproved them that bowed to them And although Jacob bowed for a time to his Brother Esau yet it is not said that he bowed to him all his Life time For it is written The Elder shall serve the Younger So the Elder shall bow among the Cringers and Knee-bowers one to another who will kill and envy one another and to them this is a Mystery XXIII Concerning GOOD MANNERS Evil Words and Evil Communications corrupts Good Manners And if Christendom would learn good Manners they must all come to the Light of Christ Jesus to the Spirit of God in themselves and to the Word of God in their hearts and months which will teach them to leave off Evil Words and will lead them from them and to deny them and this is the way to come to Good Manners But they who live in high Expressions and Complements and full of Evil Words and Flatteries and Dissimulations and call such Good Manners their Words and Works testify and manifest that they are Evil and Corrupt and such whose Manners are evil and corrupt they quench grieve and vex the Spirit of God in themselves and hate the Light and will not come to it because it reproves them of their evil words Such do love envy wrath vanity pride rashness hastiness and yet they are found in flattering Expressions and bowings one to another and they call it Good Manners and Honour when all such things are altogether out of that Honour that comes from above and are those things which the Witness of God in themselves testifieth against and testified in the Name of
them sued men at the Law and therfore we cannot but utterly deny them Deut. 14.29 Heb. 7.12 They arâ— such Priests as beside their Tythe of Corn Hay Beast Sheep Hens Pigs Geese Eggs Cherries Plumbs take ten shillings for preaching a Funeral Sermon more or less as they can get it and ten shillings for the death of a man and Money out of Servants Wages and Money for Smoke passing up the Chimneys and Easter reckonings and Midsummer dues and Money for Churching of Women and thus by every device get Money and burthen poor people that labour very hard and can scarse get Food and Raiment to maintain them in idleness and pride these are they that have hearts exercised with covetousness burthening the Truth and making the free Gospel chargable if the Apostle was here he would be ashamed of them and so are we and therefore turn from them and deny them 2 Pet. 2.3 They are such Priests as not only take Tyths and Money for many other things of their own Hearers and sue them at Law for it but they take money of them they do no work for but only raile against them and say They that wayt at the Alter are pertakers with the Alter but live of them who are not of the Alter and say The Labourer is worthy of his hire but take Wages of them that have not hired them and if they will not give it them cast them into Prison or take their Goods by Justices Warrants these are they that Christ cryed wo against who lay heavy burthens upon the people who oppress tender Consciences that own the Everlasting High Priest where do they find any of the Ministers of Christ bargaining for so much a year here they abide not in the Doctrine of Christ but are Hirelings and therefore we deny them Mat. 23.2 They are such Preachers as have told us They have been gifted men and we find in the Scriptures that the gift of God is free and not to be bought and sold for money and Job said Wisdom is not to be purchased for money nor Gold but they will not sell their gift under 200 l. 100 l. 80 l. or 50 l. a year more or less as they can get it here we find they have not received the Gift of God but are like Simon Magus and therefore we deny them Acts 8.20 Job 28. They are Babylons Merchants that make a trade of Scriptures and the Saints conditions which the Prophets and Apostles spoke forth freely without money and without price and bad all come freely How many hundred thousand pounds in England is gained by the Scripture and humane Authors joyned to it Where is there a more profitable trade Here they make Scriptures their Cloak and colour to get Mnoey by and so make an Idol of it and if any come to witness it fulfiled as it was in them that gave it forth they cry out to the Magistrates against them as Blasphemers and Deceivers And if they answer He that administers spiritual things ought to reap carnal let him consider the Apostle wrote not that to the the World but to those that they had gathered out of the World to whom the ends of the World were come and let them gather people out of the World and then they shall not need to bargain with them for things of the World but their trading is with the World and therefore we deny them Isa 55.1 They are such Teachers as take a Text out of the Saints conditions and take a Weeks time to study what they can raise out of it adding to it their own wisdom Inventions Imaginations and heathenish Authors and then on the first day of the week go amongst the people having an hour glass to limit themselves by and say Hear the Word of the Lord and for Money tell people what they have scraped together These are they that speak a divination of their own heart and not from the mouth of the Lord which the Lord sent Jeremiah to cry out against Jer. 23. These are they that use their tongues and say The Lord saith when as the Scriptures say so and the Lord never spake to them Jer 23.30 These are they of whom the Lord speaks I am against all such as steal my word every one from his Neighbour and so we are against all such as Jeremiah was sent to cry wo against the Pastors that now steal the words of the Prophets of Christ and the Apostles the Lord hath shaken his hand at their dishonest gain and to them belong the Plagues that are written in the Book they make a trade on for adding to it their own inventions therefore do we come out from amongst them and deny them Jer. 23.31 These are they of whom the Apostle speaks That creep into Houses leading silly women captive which are led away with divers lusts which be ever learning and never able to come to the knowledg of the truth though some have learned 50 60 or 70 years covetous proud high-minded self-willed lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God who have gotten a form of godliness but deny the power thereof from which the Apostle bad turn away and so do we 2 Tim. 3.6 They are such Teachers as gave us and give people Davids conditions in Meeter and when we had no understanding we sung after them as ignorant people do now his tremblings his quakings his weepings fastings prayers prophesies and when we sung we put of our hats and when they read them we kept them on and so they caused us to worship the works of their own hands here they shew the spirit of Error making wicked people to sing O Lord I am not puft in mind I have no scornful eye I do not exercise my self in things that are to high when they are puft in mind and have scornful eyes and do exercise themselves in things that are to high and are full of Filth Pride and Loftiness and can scarce look at one another here they make poor people to offer a Sacrifice of Lyes and make them Hypocrites deceiving themselves saying what they are not But the Singing with the Spirit and with understanding we own and therefore the Priests that Sing without understanding we deny 1 Cor. 14.15 They are such Teachers as deny the conditions that the Saints witnessed viz. trembling and quaking when as we find the Holy men of God that gave forth the Scriptures witnessed such things Moses who was Judge over all Israel feared quaked and trembled exceedingly and the Son of man was to eat his bread with quaking and Daniel the man of God trembled and was sore astonished and Jeremiah the Prophet of the Lord reeled to and fro like a drunken man and all his bones did shake and David who was a King trembled and quaked and Ephraim when he trembled was exalted in Israel and Habakkuk who was a Prophet trembled and his belly shook his lips quivered and Isaac in whom the seed was called trembled