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A40351 A visitation of love unto all people (in whose hearts there are any true honest tender desires begotten towards God and his righteousness) in what sect or opinion or profession soever they be ... / by a labourer in the power of truth (which doth make free) for the deliverance and freedom of the righteous seed, George Fox the younger. Fox, George, d. 1661. 1659 (1659) Wing F2018; ESTC R28243 10,997 17

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satisfaction now the manifestation of the spirit doth shew unto you your runings and willings and actings and strivings that ye have been in whereby ye could never obtain satisfaction unto that in you which breathes to do the will of God now you must mind that which makes manifest these things unto you and as you take notice of that which is the light and waite in it you will come to feel it drawing you into stilness and coolness and quietness of spirit and then with the light you will come to discern the subtilty and the motions thereof which hath oft beguiled you by drawing you from quietness and stilness into the Airy imaginations whereby he hath tossed and unsetled your minds and as you waite in that which doth make manifest which is the light and believe in it you will come to feel something arising in you in power to judge and condemn the subtilty as that stirs in you to draw you from waiting upon God and then you will come to know and feel the spirit of Judgement and burning placed in you to purge you and as you waite in the judgement in patience and stilness you will come to hear the still voice that is spoken of in the Scriptures saying This is the way and shewing it unto you and when you see the way as you waite in that which shewes it unto you then you will come to hear the command in power saying unto you walk in it and then you will come to know your Teacher which cannot be removed into a corner and so here the path of the just ye will all come to know and witness in your selves which is the shining light which shineth more and more until the perfect day for as you all waite in that which calls for stilness and silence to the flesh and the motions thereof ye will come then to see more light and so ye will come to witness what David spoke to be true who said to God in thy light shall we see light and then the just which hath been long oppressed and burthened in you will begin to spring and as you believe and waite in the light your minds being staid in it you will come to feel Gods living power working and opperating in you condemning and removing that in you which hath oppressed and burthened the just and so by Gods pure power as you waite and continue in it you will come to feel and witness the just holy seed raised up in you from under that which did oppress and burthen it and here you will feel the captive come out of captivity by the Gospel which is the power of God and the prison door set open and the prisoners set at liberty and then as you waite in the light you will come to feel Gods pure power ul presence and life and virtue running through you which will refresh the seed which is tender and give satisfaction unto it and so as you all waite low in the fear of God watching in the light that nothing may get up in you to boast and glory which is not of God you will then feel your love exceedingly encreased towards the pure living truth of God and your whole delight will be to walk in the truth in righteo●●●ess and holiness without wch no man shall see the living God as you all walk in the light obeying it you wil come into the pure fellowsh●p and Communion and unity of the Saints and then you will feel the life which is the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing you purging and purifying you from all sin and so as every one of you abide in the faith feeling it standing in the power of God that will purifie your hearts and give you victory over the world and then you will come to receive a particular satisfaction from Christ the power which is the Author and ground of the Saints faith and you will feels Gods spirit and power and life as you dwell in it drawing and leading you into whatsoever he requireth you to do and as you all waite and are still in that which doth discern the thoughts and the intents of your hearts and makes them manifest unto you you will clearly come to discern the sub ilty and the motions thereof which would draw you to act such things as the Lord doth not require you to act So all take heed to that which discerns the thoughts and intents of your hearts for this is a measure of the word of life which is quick and powerful and as you all waite in it you will feel it to be so for you will feel it dividing the precious in you from the vile and this is the ingrafted word which is able to save your souls So this is not written to feed the carnal mind in any but it is written for your sakes who are truely breathing and thirsting after Gods righteousness and cannot be satisfied without it that so you may all come into the true light wherewith you are enlightened and that you with it may come to see how you have been tossed and tumbled up and down by the subtiltie of the Serpent in those things which could never give you true peace nor satisfaction and that now through believing in the truth and obedience of the spirit you may all come to witness a particular satisfaction and that you may come to feel the pure image of the holy God restored in you even his everlasting righteousness his power his wisdom his life and glory raised up in you to have Dominion and to rule over all the earth and to subdue it that so the pure God of life and vertue might be glorified in your mortal bodies and that you might all come to feel and witness an everlasting habitation of rest and peace in him who is worthy of all honour and praise and thanksgiving and Dominion for evermore Amen Now some of you who have been ancient Professors will say to us if we should joyn to you we must lay down all then that ever we have professed and what have we been Professors so many years and yet have to begin all again have we known nothing of God all this time this is hard say they To this I answer friends if you come to joyn to the truth you must then lay down and leave and forsake all that which you have held up and practiced in your own wills which you were never led or required to hold up or practice by the spirit of truth but I do know and own that there was a pure living Principle of God oft stiring in you in your Profession by which Principle of God you oft saw that you were wrong and that you did that which was not well pleasing in the sight of God in your Profession for that Principle of God in you the light Judged and condemned you for many of your actions which you acted and sometimes the Lords witness brought you into a tender low condition and then opened
and trouble removed which ye felt So he having drawn you out of the senceableness and feeling of the light and power of God your understandings became wholly darkned as unto the counsel o● God and then these things which the subtil enemy present●d exceedingly pleased the affectionate part in you and some of you he perswaded to act such things as God never commanded any to act and so ye going from the light which never changeth and hearkning unto the subtilty which leads into changeableness● here ye began to run into Sects and opinions and heaps and parties and devisions yea here is the ground and rise and beginning of all Sects and opinions in the world peoples going from the light and power of God which leads into the substance and into onenese of minde and hearkning unto the subtilty which leads but into the likenesse of Truth and into selfe-separation and devisions and changeablenesse of mind and when the Serpent had drawn you into several opinions and practices in your worship then he fed you with knowledge that so each of you might be able to plead and contend for your opinions and practices and then he begot a strong hot hasty will in you which hath been called zeal for God whereby he drew you into hot contentions one with another and so by little and little he raised up a secret envie and prejudice in you one against each other till at length some of you break forth into rage and scorne giving one another scornefull Names And thus the Mistery of Iniquity wrought in many of you untill the seed grew weak in you as to your feeling and became as a dead thing unto you being thus strangled in you by your going from the Power into those things that the power of God never moved or drew you to act but the Serpent which abode not in the power So then you were not sensible of such a burthen indeed as ye were once when the seed which God had begotten in you was more quick and livelie and then the subtiltie perswaded you that now you were right because you felt not such a burthen and trouble in your mindes as you once did and then a joy sprung in you for a time and then the subtiltie perswaded you that you were now entred into the work and service and worship of God and that he had given you some reward now because you were not sensible of such a burthen and trouble in your minds as ye were before you acted those things in your worship and thus the subtiltie beguiled some of you But this condition continued not long with you for Gods eternal witnesse which ye had as it were slain and made merry over it that arose and appeared in you again for the seeds sake and desturbed and broke that false peace and joy and preswasion that you were got into through transgressing and going from that which is pure of God in you and acting those things in the transgression which God never required at your hands and then with Gods witnesse the light you saw your selves wrong again and the light judged you for your forwardnesse and then you begun to loath those practices in your worship which before you delighted in and then something you came to feel stirring in you again which was not satisfied but breathed and groaned and cried unto the Lord and then you were in a fine tender condition again But then the subtiltie soon appeared in you again and presented some other new things unto you and called those which he had formerlie led you into old emptie weak and beggerlie things and thus he wrought in the subtiltie to draw you from hearkning unto that which made manifest your condition unto you and thus he hath drawn some of you into most of the Sects and opinions that be in the World and through them and thus in the subtiltie hath he wrought in you to save his head or life for he knew that if you had hearkned unto the truth of God as it appeared in you and had obeyed it that then Gods power would mightily have been made manifest in you whereas the seed immortal would have been raised up in you which would have bruised his head So take notice how the Lords love the Light hath followed you and checked and reproved you for your hastinesse and forwardness and hath shewed unto you the emptiness and deadness of all the profession and worship that ever you have run into And some times when you have been brought into lowliness and tenderness by the power of the Lord which hath smitten you then the Lord hath opened mighty things in you unto his seed which breathed and thirsted after his righteousness and could not be satisfied without it and then the Serpent hath wrought in you again in the subtilty to lead you from that which opened and from the pure and so lead you up in the boasting nature to hold forth those things in the fleshly Principle which the Lord opened unto his own seed and thus he hath kept you out of the life and power of truth and he hath filled some of you a with many strange imaginations and expectations concerning God and Christ and his appearance without you and so all along he hath strove to keep you from minding Gods appearance within you by drawing your minds into the visible changeable things and yet the Lord in love to his own seed hath spared you so mind the Lords long patience and forbearance which hath been great towards you for his Seed sake in you which breathes and thirsts after his righteousness and cannot be satisfied without his life and presence And truely friends my love is exceeding tender and large towards you in whom there is such a pure tender seed stirring and my desire is who have seen the emptiness of all profession without the life that you might come to witness the seed satisfied in you with the pure power and life and virtue of the living God which hath suffered long in you and hath not been satisfied by reason of your disobedience unto the light Therefore in tender bowels of love and compassion unto you I do freely declare unto you all the new and living way which hath been from the beginning which is Christ Jesus the true light which lighteth every one which cometh into the world whereby every one of you believing in the light may come to receive a particular satisfaction from Christ from whence the light doth come Friends the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit withall but you have transgressed and gone from the manifestation of Gods Spirit in your own particulars and so it is impossible for you for to profit in the things of God or come to receive a particular satisfaction until you come to own that and believe in that which you have transgressed and gone from which was given you to profit withall and to lead you into the substance which giveth