into contempt who are seeking honour and glory to your selves in the earth whose peace is your life who love the praise of men and pleasures more then God a sword is coming upon you all and you are for the slaughter of the great King who is our lawgiver and Saviour and our peace who is come a light into the world and is the true light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world meek and lowely upon the wild asses coalt hear this ye deaf and see ye blind and be still and hearken ye flouds of ungodly men who compass the Saints about and the beloved city with lies and plottings of falsehood whereby you think to weary out the dear children of the most high fire is coming down from God out of heaven to devour you and you shall not be able to quench it ye are the pricking briars to the house of Israel ye are the thorns the dross and the stubble the Lord God Almighty of power will you consume the decree is sealed against you a witness I am for the eternal God of life against you all in all your deeds of darkness and hard speeches my outward life is not deer unto me ye devouring beasts of the field I have given it up and you may take it for he that departeth from iniquity is become your prey But the Lord God will plead our cause in righteousness and his eternal witness the light in your consciences will answer your condemnation to be just and your destruction to be of your selves for you have been warned from time to time by the servants of the Lord without you and reproved by the light his true prophet within you that you might escape flee from the wrath to come which if you proceed in the harness of your hearts in afflicting his dear children it will over take you and because of these things my soul is moved knowing the terrors of the Lord against you and a doleful lamentation is on me and my very bones are pained and my heart is hot within me the whole earth is moved with the fierce indignation of the Lord his vengeance plagues and eternal judgements without mercy do I proclaim against you all from the mouth of the Lord God of hosts except you speedily repent for you have greived his spirit and you have afflicted his dear children these many months yet have you been intreated by them with many tears and often warned and the Lord have we even intreated for you as Abraham did for Sodome Moses for Pharaoh that you might not wholly be condemned with an utter overthrow but rather that you might repent and live but our righteous souls are vexed and grieved with your pride rebellion and filthy conversation from day to day and no answer from the Lord have we concerning you but the red sea of his wrath wherein you will be utterly swallowed and drowned and not one will be left and fire from heaven as snares upon you will be rained for every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire and every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up Consider this ye that forget God ye that forget mercy whose bowels are shut up whose hearts are hardned from his righteous dreadful fear lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you for our God is a consuming fire and is terrible to the heathen that know him not whose fire is in Sion and his furnace in Jerusalem and from thence our deliverer comes who turns away ungodliness from Jacob. But is not envy persecution and oppression ungodliness and wrath pride and injustice are not these things ungodliness and unrighteousness consider and weigh it in the even ballance the light in your consciences to which I speak which will answer the truth without covering and is my witness in you all for the Lord God and heareth my voyce therefore stop not the ear lest you are shut out for ever then shall you cry but he will not hear you and is not the wrath of God to be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men or is envy pride cruelty oppression tiranny and persecution and laying snares for the innocent and harmeless without cause is this good fruit or the fruit of the spirit of God who among the saints in these things is your example or doth the heavenly plant bring forth such fruit nay verily will Gods witness answer me and are any the sons and children of God but who are joyned to the heavenly plant or led by his spirit which guides unto all truth out of unrighteousness into soberness quietness love peace patience long-suffering humility and gentleness c. and are not the children of God in these things manifest and are not the children of the divel in the other ground bringing forth other fruit of the curse also manifest But if you will not hear nor lay these things to heart and give over afflicting oppressing and grieving my dear children and tender babes that cry unto me night and day and give glory to my great and dreaful name by returning from the evil that is in your hands I will destroy you and your seed from off the face of the whole earth blot out your name from under heaven and your remembrance shall stinck and be a grief to my chosen yet shall they rejoyce over you when the smoke of your torment shall ascend up for ever and ever saith the Lord God Almighty For thus saith the Lord God these people whom you hate and seek many waies to ensnare and take counsel together against and abuse and persecute and imprison whip stone revile and reproch by the name QUAKERS who abide faithful to my son the light of the world that lighteth every man that cometh into the world they are dear unto me my chosen my dear children my beloved ones and he that toucheth them toucheth the apple of mine eye whose cry is entred into my ears and my pitty is towards them and my bowels are moved for them for whose sake I will reprove Kings and kingdomes shall be overthrown that rise up against them and every tongue that rise up in judgement against them will I condemne for I the Lord search the heart and try the reins and will reward every man according to his deeds Therefore consider these things ye proud and scornful men who are of the birth born after the flesh persecuting the birth of the spirit being moved with envy wrath which is of the Divel against an innocent people whom the Lord God will preserve and doth though out of your sight whom the God of this world hath blinded and all you false teachers deceitful workers who use your tongues both to pray and also to lye flander and revile whose hearts are exercised in covetous practises and yet sometime for a cloke will speak against it as if one
the sword is to come or whether he is your peace that brings the sword upon the earth who seeks not honour from men who is the condemnation of them whose deeds are evil And see if you can endure the salting with fire and the day of tryal and the hour of temptation that will come upon all them that dwell on the earth to try them and do you not dwell on the earth who are seeking earthly honour and imprisoning for it and will not the sword of Gods righteous judgements come upon you for these things see how you exceed your father who did but tempt and not imprison the son of God when he would not bow down nor worship him think on this and tremble ye seed of evil doers and consider your vvaies and the vvhole course of your life and the end thereof and see if you can dvvell vvith devouring fire and vvith the everlasting burnings for a fire the Lord God of our life is kindling among you and the thickets of the forrest and the ravenous beasts and the false Prophets shall be consumed by it and the day is at hand that a sword shall be upon your right arme and it shall be dryed up and your right eye shall be utterly darkned and you shall look for light but behold darkness and dimness and blindness and anguish and vexation of spirit with bitter lamentation and for a comforter but there will be none because you have despised reproof and did not choose the fear of the Lord but have said in your hearts there is no God and what Lord shall controle us therefore Gods righteous witness the light in your consciences which makes manifest the hidden things of dishonesty will judge and condemne you for all your ungodly deeds and hard speeches that you ungodly have committed and spoken against him and his dear children and that is nigh you wh ch will tell the matter and he that seeth in secret will reward you openly according to the works of your hands and will let you see all that ever you have acted in vvhose living povver and life I novv vvarn you to consider your vvaies and repent vvhile you have yet time and prise this your visitation lest it stand a dreadful vvitness for the Lord God against you and the thing that belong to your eternal peace be for ever hid from your eyes and your house left unto you desolate This is a warning from the spirit of the living God in his servant who suffers in the spirit of meekness for his precious truths sake who desires not the death of a sinner but rather that he might turn from his wickedness and live and am in the house of correction at Winchester where I have freely given up my life in the will of God if it be to the finishing my testimony against a sinful and adulterous generatition to which prison I was sent as a wanderer from the town in which I was born and which is in the same county and have been kept neer 12. months because I cannot promise to go home against whom no evil or breach of law hath been charged though too Assises and four Sessions have past in the time of my imprisonment who am of the world called William Bayley A voice and visitation of God to the Inhabitants of the Isle of Wight THe Lord God Almighty of heaven and earth who is the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob is risen with his eternal dreadful power to gather and to scatter and no people powers or nations shall be able to stop his way for he in whose presence all the nations of the earth are but as a drop of a bucket is risen as a Giant to the battlel and he who maketh war in righteousness is gone forth conquering and to conquer out of whose mouth goeth a sharp two edged sword with which he will slay the wicked and cut the heathen that rage asunder for the Lord God of life and terrible Majesty is now risen to judge for the meek of the earth and to plead the cause of the poor against him that is too strong for him and is now making inquisition for blood and he remembreth the cry of the humble for the year of his redeemed is come and the day of vengeance is in his heart he proclaimeth liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound who hears the groanings of his pretious seed and for its sake is come down to deliver Therefore woe thick darkness and dreadful plagues vvill come upon Pharaoh and all his host vvho oppresseth the righteous seed the born of God in the land of your darkness and house of bondage for the Prophet of the Lord God like unto Moses vvho setteth before man good and evil life and death the blessing and the curse vvhich God hath raised up in the midst of his brethren vvhich all are to hear he is novv trying Pharaoh or the sons and daughters of men vvho are hardned from his fear vvho loves the darkness rather then the light because their deeds are evill and refuseth to let that go vvhich groaneth and doth sigh and cry for deliverance and hungers and thirsts after righteousness vvhich being desolate and trodden under foot in many it mourneth unto him and the cry of it is entred into the ears of the Lord God of rest and this is the seed vvhich the Lord is gathering into his gardner of eternal dominion and peace and all the chaffe vvhich about it oppresseth though in a profession without the life and power of the seed will the Lord God consume with the unquench able fire Therefore take heed and be you warned of the Lord God of heaven all ye rulers governers and people of the earth and all you of this isle and whom the Lord God Almighty hath moved many of his dear servants in the dreadful pure power of his might and in the bowels of love to visit your souls I say take heed of striving to hinder this the great mighty and powerful work of Gods love amongst the Children of men as you will answer it before the throne of God and of the Lamb who is the light of the world and lighteth every man that cometh into the world to whom all judgement and power is committed who is now come to judge the world in righteousness and the people with his truth and he must reign till all his enemies are brought under his feet the Lord God of everlasting strength hath spoken it for he is now coming in ten thousands of his saints to convince all that are ungodly among you of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him who is the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world who upon them will execute the judgment written for now is the Lord of life fulfilling his promise which he hath spoken by his former
Prophets that in the last dayes the mountain of the Lords house shall be established upon the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and many people shall flow unto it and shall goe and say come ye and let us go up unto the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his waies and we will walk in his paths and let us walk in the light of the Lord so that the head stone the mountain of the Lords house which the wise master-builders have rejected and refused who is the light of the world the eternal wisdome and power of God is he establishing upon the top of all your dark mountains of pride envy and ambition and exalting above your lofty hills of oppression and rage and his day who is the light shall be upon every one that is proud and upon every one that is high and lifted up and he shall be brought low and the Lord God alone shall be exalted on that day for the decree is gone forth and the consuming fire is kindled among the thickets of the forrest and his eternal love is streaming forth toward the meek in the earth and against this his mighty and powerful work the gates of hell and all the ru lars of the darkness of this world shall never prevail the eternal Lord God of heaven and earth hath spoken it Therefore in vain do all the potsheards of the earth strive vvith their maker and they that resisteth resisteth not man but God who is the higher power that lighteth every man that cometh into the world and such receives to themselves damnation for to him we are subject who rides meekly upon the foal of an ass the wild asses colt he that readeth let him understand and he is our peace in whose mouth is found no guile therefore let none be high minded but fear for thou ô man who art lifted up above the Stem of Jesse and the off-spring of David bearest not the root but the root thee therefore thou art to fear and dread the presence of the living God and depart from evil and this is the beginning of the eternal wisdome which is justified of her children which is from above pure peaceable meek gentle sober and easie to be intreated whose voice is to you in the power of its love ye people of this Island and this will lead you if you embrace it into its own paths which is eternal peace and this leads out of rashness crookedness and perversness and out of headiness and high mindedness and out of all the lusts and pleasures of sin which are but for a season and this brings to be just merciful and tender hearted and to speak truth every man to his neighbour and this will lead to entertain strangers when by it you come to see your selves have been strangers to the life of God which is holy just and righteous and full of good 〈◊〉 and this will let you soldiers see that you ought not to do violence or accuse any man falsly and that you ought to live soberly and righteously in this present world for all men shall know that the Captain of our salvation vvhich vvas made perfect through sufferings vvho is the true light that is gone forth conquering and to conquer vvith his eternal arme of povver that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and must reign over the world and all its enmity and haughty povvers of darkness vvhich is but as a vapour for by him the vvorld vvas made and he is the heir that is novv come to take peace from the earth and to call and gather into his Vineyard of eternal life and those that are vvilling and obedient shall eat the good of the land but those that refuse and rebel shall be devoured vvith his svvord the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it This of the Lord of life vvas I moved in this Island to speak forth as a visitation and vvarning from him unto you the inhabitants thereof both governernours soldiers priests and people on the 8th of the 11th month 58. By me vvho am a servant of the living God of Abraham called Will. Bayly London Printed 3. month 4 day for M. W.