to Unity and Concord amongst Friends which while he lived he was Careful to preserve he had a great Delight in it and laboured much for it In a word he was a Man of Peace and as he Delighted in it now is a Possessor of it and of that Joy that is Immutable in which he lives with his God a Possessor of that Blessedness and Reward which through the same Faith and Patience we that are yet behind shall assuredly obtain as therein we keep in the Lord's time Many good things he wrote in his Day if thou read this Book thou wilt perceive and meet with good Exhortations in it which will I hope tend to thy Strength and Incouragement William Fallowfield A short TESTIMONY Concerning that Faithful Servant of the Lord Thomas Taylor Whose Memory is Blessed DEAR Tho Taylor he was a Man who loved the Truth with a sincere Mind and sought the Honour thereof and not himself He was ready at all times to speak a word for God as there was occasion to inform the Minds of People to that which would stand them in stead when time here shall be no more He was a very good Instrument amongst us and a blessed Example in his Conversation which did bespeak him to be the Servant of Christ Jesus He loved the Prosperity of Truth more than all other things whatsoever and for that was he given up in Soul Body and Spirit to serve the Lord and his Generation Faithfully Travelling from Place to Place for that end and as he lived in the Truth so he finished his Testimony in the same And though his Body be removed from us and gone to the Earth from whence it came yet his Spirit lives amongst us and his Life shall never die Truly I am not without a living Sence upon my Spirit what a Loss we have of him amongst us who was always ready to serve the Truth and the least in it and Sorrow is ready to seize upon me in the Consideration thereof yet when I consider that it is according to the Will of the Lord I am therein well content knowing that he hath this Advantage of us that are left behind viz. Is freed from Danger of falling into the Snares of this World which we are liable to whilst in this Body except we keep in that which is only able to keep us whilst we remain here And I do believe that the Lord will raise up the same Life in others to Testifie to the same Truth which he lived in and that the Testimony thereof shall never fall This is great Comfort to me and all who love the Lord to whom be living Praises Honour Glory and Obedience given for ever and for ever more from my living Soul which he hath quickned to himself by his Living Power and Heavenly Life to him I say be all the Glory given now and always Amen Mary Comberford The 26th of the First Month 1681. Thomas Taylor 's EPISTLES TO FRIENDS MY Dear Friends and longed after in the Lord whose Minds are turned in by the Light of Jesus Christ from the Worlds Worships and Ways in measure to wait upon God that you may learn by the Teaching of his Spirit in you how to worship him in Spirit and Truth who is the Fountain of all your Soul's Happiness prize his great Love to your Souls every one of you in particular and wait to receive the Law from his own Mouth to the quickning and reviving your Souls out of the Death and for the daily watering and refreshing that which lives of himself in you for if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the Dead dwell in you he shall by that Spirit quicken your Mortal Bodies for all whose Hearts are purisied through the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ are in the Covenant of that Everlasting Love of the Father which gives to all that waith on him a full Possession of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light but Wo and Misery from the Lord to the Unclean in the Earth And therefore mind your Soul's Guide which is pure Light of Jesus Christ and be Faithful unto the Lord in whatever he makes manifest in you to be his Will and let not the Worlds Frowns or Smiles cause you to draw back from the Truth in any thing which the Saints have so great Recompence of Reward in but be simple be pure be harmless be innocent be Lambs and walk as Lights amongst a Generation of crooked and devouring Minds and think not strange concerning any Trial but imbrace the Cross which is the Saints Rejoicing and in Patience wait to see the Fleshly Mind Crucified with it which would have ease below God and do all things in the fear of God and let not the Ear be open to the Enemy but mind that which shows you the strait way continually and learn to love one another more and more for Love is of God but none can love as Brethren of Christ but those that love God and keep the Commandments and as you follow Christ in the way of his Cross and Sufferings you will Delight in one anothers Fellowship but as any depart from the Light and Iniquity abounds in any the Love in that Person waxeth cold So God Almighty Bless you with his Everlasting Mercy to set free your Minds from all your Sins to run the way of his Holy Commandments so rests Thomas Taylor TO FRIENDS AT Stickland-head DEAR and precious Friends of God who into the Fellowship of the everlasting Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God the Light of the World that Lighteth every Man that cometh into the World are called and who have tasted of that Heaventy Gift and upon that true Bread do feed Grace Mercy and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be among you and in you all every where in every place multiplied with the Increases of the eternal Power of the Holy Spirit in all your Hearts Amen Thomas Taylor your Brother and Companion in the Patience Sufferings and Kingdom of Christ unto you all sendeth Greeting and by the Spirit of the Lord God doth hereby give you all to understand That it is the true Grace of God and Power of Life into which you are called and which you have received and wherein you stand and whereby you are inlightned and have been given to see the old dead way of Sin and Formality to avoid it and the good and living way of Truth and Righteousness in Spirit to embrace and follow it to the Praise of our Holy Heavenly Father World without end And this Grace of God that hath thus brought Salvation to us and is our Teacher and Guide in the good Way is the same that would teach all and would have all Men to be Saved and to that purpose hath appeared to all Men to leave all without Excuse So Dear Hearts all in the Light and Power of this Pure Truth of our God made manifest in us
Testimony lives with me to bear for my Dear Father Thomas Taylor that True and Faithful Servant of the Lord who was Born near Skipton in Yorkshire and was brought up a Scholar and sent to the University and in process of time he came to be a National Minister and so continued for some Years but in those Days he had not many Equals for he was a Man of a Tender Spirit seeking after a further Attainment of the Knowledge of God and his Holy Way whom to know is Life Eternal which the Lord in his own due time made known unto him After he had heard the Word of Life declared in the Demonstration of God's Holy Spirit through his Faithful Messenger George Fox he was then evidently Convinced of the Blessed Truth as it is in Jesus he never after turned his Back upon it many Days and Nights of great Sorrow and Anxiety of Spirit he underwent until the Old Leaven was purged out by the Spirit of Judgment and then he became a Vessel of Honour fit for the Lord's Service and left his Benefice which he then had at Richmond in Yorkshire not consulting with Flesh and Blood what he should do for a Livelihood but trusted the Lord that he would provide for him and his Family he having then a Wife and Five small Children whom he afterward through the good Providence of God lived to see brought up to be Men and Women Now this Faithful Servant of the Lord not distrusting of the Mercies of God gave up freely whatsoever was Dear and Near unto him that the Lord required of him that he might win Christ the Lord who had Visited him with his Day-spring from on high and Ruled him by his Grace and gave unto him the Word of Life to declare unto the Sons and Daughters of Men Warning and Admonishing them to turn from their evil ways and to seek the Lord whilst he might be found and great was his Labours and Travels in those Days being moved often to go into Market-places and Steeple houses to declare the Word of the Lord to the People where he often met with great Opposition and Sufferings from the Hands of Unreasonable Men but the Lord by his Mighty Power delivered him wonderfully out of their Hands and many long and tedious Imprisonments this good Man underwent in his Day but with great Patience and Contentedness of Mind knowing it was for his bearing his Testimony to the Lord's Blessed Truth and not for evil-doing And this I have further to say for this Worthy and Honourable Servant of Christ who loved not his Life unto the Death that he might serve the Lord in his Day who was a Faithful and True Minister of the Everlasting Gospel and laboured mightily in Word and Doctrine and many in this Nation were Convinced by that powerful Word of God that run through him and they have great Cause to Bless and Praise the Name of the Lord even as I may say on his behalf for he was a Zealous Man for the Truth in his Day and was one of the Worthies in Israel who went through many Combates both with Professors and Prophane and by the Assistance of God's Holy Spirit oftentimes put them to silence and the Truth prevailed over all Blessed be the Name of the Lord for Ever And now not being willing to be too tedious to the Reader else I could mention many more things concerning my Dear Father who was a Faithful Follower of the Lamb wheresoever he led him through good Report and bad Report for he valued nothing so much in this World as the Propagation of the Truth for his Life was hid with Christ in God at whose Right Hand there is Joy and Rivers of Pleasure and that for Evermore And a little before my Father's Departure out of this World as he lay upon his Sick-bed several Friends that came to Visit him standing by him he being very sensible to the last spoke on this wife I am going to my Father and your Father to my God and your God and so departed like a Lamb and is gone to his Everlasting Rest to receive that weighty Crown of Glory that is laid up in store for all them that loves the Appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ and keeps their Garments unspotted of this World Thomas Taylor Jun. Middlesex the 3d Day of the 3d Month called May 1697. A short TESTIMONY OF Hannah Taylor Concerning her Dear Father Thomas Taylor THis I have to say concerning this dear Servant of the Lord who followed the Lamb through many Tribulations and wash'd his Garmens white in his Blood That he served the Lord with a perfect Heart and that he was endued with the Spirit of Wisdom and of Understanding in the Truth which he did value above all the World and all the Preferments thereof For he counted all as Dross and Dung in Comparison of that Pearl of Price which he Laboured for both Night and Day Yea for Sion's Sake he could not rest and for Jerusalem's Sake he could not hold his Peace Because the Spirit of the Lord was upon him and he had Anointed him to be a Preacher of Glad-Tidings to the House of God's Israel But he was a Reprover of the Vngodly yea his Testimony was against all Wickedness and Evil-doers Yea he was clad with Zeal as with a Cloak and with the Righteousness which God had put upon them as with an Helmet Yea he was a Valiant Soldier indeed he fought a good Fight he kept the Faith and from henceforth for him was laid up a Crown of Life which at the time appointed he did receive with all the Redeemed of the Lord who rest from their Labour and their Works follow them Hannah Taylor Robert Barrow's TESTIMONY Concerning Thomas Taylor HE being a Man with whom I was Acquainted and Conversant for the space of Thirty Years some part of our Acquaintance in the time of our Notion and Outward Profession of Religion in the form thereof but the most of our time was after God in Mercy had opened our Understanding and revealed his Son in us by the Word of Life and Spirit of Truth to know Christ in us the Hope of Glory He was Educated and Bred up at one of the Colledges of Oxford and became a Parish Preacher and had a Place in the County of Westmoreland yet in those Days he was a Seeking Man having Real Desires to understand the Things of God and the Mysteries of his Kingdom and was a Man of an Honest Life and Clean Behaviour and in his Preaching and Judgment was more Refined than the rest of his Neighbouring Priests and many of his Hearers were a People commended of the Common Hireling Priests of the World which Priests Nick-named his Hearers Roundheads and Puritans and many of those so called came frequently from the next Parish and Town of Kendall to hear him amongst whom I was one and he used to let John Audland and Francis Howgill sometimes Preach in his
our Heavenly Treasure to the pure in Heart who hunger and thirst after Righteousness as we have received them even so doth the same Love and the Wisdom thereof engage us to do as our Heavenly Father doth who hides the things of his Kingdom from the Serpent's Seed the Wise and Prudent of the World and so the Cross is the safe way and so as we stand in the Cross our preaching is to the Jew outward a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness as in former Times 1 Cor. 1. And so in all our Disputings and Reasoning with the World about the Things of God's Kingdom we must mind the Cross lest for want of a Hedge the wild Boar of the Forrest get in and hurt the tender Plants of God Friends strive not in your Wills for Victory but wait in the Light to feel the Spiritual Weapon the sharp Two-edged Sword of the Spirit of God to cut down the Adversary There came one to Christ and said Are there few that shall be saved And he said Strive thou to enter in at the strait Gate so his Answer was in the Cross and he minded more the Edification of the Man's Soul than to please the busiebody's curious Mind so we must dwell in his Wisdom and that will lead into Christ's Work Another asked him What he must do to enter into Life He answered What readest thou So to such as profess Scripture to be their Rule or so to bring them to the Obedience and Judgment of their Rule and if they cannot believe Scripture which they acknowledge to be true how can they believe our words whom they look upon to be as Hereticks and Deceivers The Servant of God saith the Apostle must not strive but in Meekness instructing them that oppose themselves to the Truth must seek to bring them to the Truth that thereby they may be delivered out of the Snares of Satan whom their Ignorance are led Captive by him at his Will Now the Servant of God in this weighty Matter may consider what manner of Opposers these are whether they stand in a lower or higher place of wickedness for some are wicked in a high measure who will neither enter into the Kingdom of God themselves nor suffer others as Elimas the Sorcerer Acts 13.9 10. who withstood Paul seeking to draw the Deputy from the Faith These may be more severely reproved as was thereby the Apostle but still with this Cantion that all be done by the pure Sword of God's Spirit and not by the Wrath of Man for the Wrath of Man works not the Righteousness of God And such Opposers as this had Christ to do withal against whom he pronounced so many Woes declaring their wicked Root by calling them Vipers and Serpents and Children of their Father the Devil Mat. 23. throughout and John 8.44 But to others who are not so high and strong in their Wickedness much Wisdom Tenderness and Patience must be used that if God may at any time give them Repentance that from the Darkness to the Light of God they may be turned as Jude saith in his Epistle Ver. 22 23. Of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the Fire hating even the Garments spotted by the Flesh And all my Dear Friends in Christ Jesus who are at any time called forth by the Power of the Lord God to Encounter your Spiritual Adversaries the Disputers of this World who Goliah like are so wise and strong in their own Conceit and have so armed themselves with their Carnal Weapons that they are not afraid to defie Israel yea Israel's God I say keep in the Power of God and trust not to Saul's Armour but wait to feel the little Stone cut out of the Mountain without hands to hit the Enemy in the Forehead and to bruise his Head and to strike at his Feet that the false Foundation whereon he standeth may be removed and so the Image may fall into nothing at once And in this great Business to wit the Lord's Controversie my Friends always mind your own Standing and Foundation to keep close to it and not to be driven from it by any means for the Enemy will seek to draw you from your sure Ground the measure of Life and Experienced Truth in you into vain Janglings and fruitless Disputes to gratifie their Corrupt Minds wherein is no Edification to the Soul which the Servant of God must wait in all things to edifie and though for our Work herein we may be accounted as Fools by the World who cannot judge but by the outward Appearance of things yet with God shall we be accepted because Doers of his Will and our Jay in his Sight and Presence shall abide and none shall take it from us as thus we abide in God's Will Work and Covenant who is over all Blessed for Evermore And Friends of Scorners we must beware for their Root is Rottenness and their Ground Accursed and the good Seed in them hath no place to grow And of such as Professing Scripture and Wisdom and neither can nor will believe that Christ lighteth every Man that cometh into the World with sufficient Grace or Light though John saith expresly That in the Word Christ Jesus was Life and that Life is the Light of Men and the Light of that Life shineth in Darkness to wit in Men lighting every Man that cometh into the World and that such as received him in that his Appearance to them he gave Power to become Sons of God John the first Chapter I say of these Unbelievers before-mentioned it may be truly said they are Children of Darkness and so much is not to be said to them but even to bring them to Christ's Light in them to know it and learn of it for till then they will never understand Also such Professors as have been long Reading Scripture and have heard the like Testimony of the Kingdom of God from the Spirit of God in his Servants in these Days and yet plead for outward Shadows and Sounds and things that perish with them to be the Way and Means of the Kingdom and are Ignorant of the Mystery of it in Man and so deny the Word and Power of God nigh in the Heart and yet in this their Darkness separate themselves in Profession from others thinking themselves to be something when indeed they are nothing these are to be turned away from and judged As also such as deny sinless Perfection and so know not the Birth of God in Man but will plead for Sin yea in the Regenerate during term of Life as though Christ were a Minister of Sin and could make nothing perfect like the weak Figures of the Law Though the Scripture saith expresly The Birth of God sins not and he that abides in Christ sinneth not and that Christ the better Hope makes perfect See Heb 7.19 and 1 John 1.5 6 7 8 9 10. Now the Reason why the Law could make nothing
perfect was because it could not take away Sin and so that Perfection that is not sinless is no Perfection at all therefore it 's said That Christ by One-offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 And behold the Lamb of God that takes away the Sin of the World Amen TO FRIENDS That Abide in the Truth AS ALSO To such as are gone from it FRIENDS all still mind the Light of God in you even that which is not of this World but leads out of the World and the Worships Lusts Customs Fashions Traditions and Inventions thereof up to God from whom it comes which Light was preached unto you in the Beginning and as your Minds were turned to it and believed in it true Judgment was executed upon the Man of Sin in you and through the Light wherein God's Saving Power is felt you became more than Conquerours over the World and the Mind thereof and so you became Lovely in the Eye of the Lord the Father of Light and so he entred into Covenant with you and you became his and he yours in Truth Power and Righteousness and his Banner over you was Love and is Love to all who have kept their first Love and have continued Faithful to his Witness and have brought forth Fruits to God you have reaped Life because you have lived in the Spirit and walked in the Spirit and sown to the Spirit of Life which God hath freely given you to profit withall and to be a Blessing unto you in the midst of the Earth But to such amongst you who came out of Egypt with you and saw God's wonderful Working at the Red Sea and came through the Sea to the dry Land amongst the Israclites of God but are now fallen a Lusting in the Wilderness and with your Hearts turned back again into Egypt and so cannot enter Rest with God's People because of Unbelief I say your Condition is Sad and greatly to be lamented and your Bondage is great that after all your Experiences of Pharoah's Oppression and the Mourning of the Seed under his Yoke and your Knowledge of God's great Power for you at the Red Sea that you should so soon forget your own Miseries yea and the Mercies of God also in delivering of you so Miraculously from under the Enemies Power that you would be yea are in the Brick-kills again What Is it the Onyons and Garlick of Egypt and Flesh-pots that hath bewitched you that you are so weary of the Lord's Yoke that the Heavenly Manna hath no Savour to you O Foolish People How are you bewitched that you should not love nor like to follow the Truth which hath wrought such Wonders for you O the Treacherousness of your Unbelieving Hearts How have they deceived your selves and all who looked for Good from you How Foolish and Unwise are you become to sell the Hope of eternal good Things for that which you have seen to be nothing but meer Husks Shadows and Vanity But now therefore if it be possible call in your Minds consider in your Hearts what it is that the Lord requireth of you you cannot be Happy without God and his Truth but he can be eternally Happy and Glorious without you he can cloth himself and wrap up himself in eternal Light Life Power Fullness and unspeakable Glory and Satisfaction without you but you without him cannot enjoy one dram of Light Life Comfort Satisfaction or any Good for in Christ the Light God's Gift all Fullness dwells and out of him or without him nothing but Emptiness Misery Disappointment and endless Woe yea Vanity of Vanities and a sore Travel as all things under the Sun in your best Condition without Truth whilst here and endless Woe without all Comfort when gone hence Without me saith Christ ye can do nothing And so say I Without Christ ye are nothing nor have nothing but are meer Beggars Prodigals Lost Undone Blind Wretched and Naked Out casts profitable for nothing so Return Return Renent Repent saith my Soul in the Light of the Living to you all So be it TO FRIENDS MY Dear Friends in Christ Jesus who are Faithful in God's Covenant of Light and Life to dwell grow and increase yea and to bring forth Fruit of Righteousness to God's Glory abundantly my true and tender Love salutes you all and my Spirit in God rejoyceth because of you all and I cannot but evermore upon every remembrance of you Praise Laud and Magnifie the great and glorious Name of our Heavenly Father for his tender Love and tender Mercy to you all and for the Power of his Love in Christ whereby he hath reached help to your Souls in the needful time when all help of Creatures was at an end and hath raised you up from the Dead to be his living Witnesses in the Day of his Love to Israel and hath chosen you for his People and to bear the Name of Sons and Daughters Servants and Hand-maids in his House to do his Service and to bear his Name in Righteousness before the Children of Men. O my Soul is even filled with the sweet heavenly Vertue of this Love of God upon every Remembrance of you even of you all and every Member of the Holy Body of Jesus Christ in every place For who can express the Beauty of your Life and Fullness of your Treasure which you possess in his Love O Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath chosen us and set his pure Love upon us whereby it comes to pass that we are more than Conquerors over all the things of Darkness and Powers of Evil that would separate us from his pure Love O Glory Glory to his great Name who by his pure Love hath begotten us again from the Dead into the Image of his living pure and holy Nature of Love to love one another and to reach forth pure Love in Spirit and Truth unto all yea unto Enemies for at the Birth of Jesus this was sounded forth by the Heavenly even Peace on Earth Good Will to Men. So that when Men have us and speak Evil of us we know they have no Cause for it for if they know our Love and good Will to them they would love us and much more the Father of our precious Life by whom we are begotten into such a pure heavenly Love as even labours and travels night and day how we may fulfil that great Service of Love and continual Duty of good Will that we owe to the whole Creation of God For Oh how great is the Bondage of a great part of it as yet being so burdened with the weight of Corruption that lyes upon it that it ever cries unto God by reason of Oppression and waits for the Manifestation and Enjoyment of the pure and holy Liberty of the Sons of God wherein God alone may be glorified and the Creature set free to run in the ways of his Commandments with Joy and the wicked one
agree to set at naught The living Virtue by which Saints are taught And so at large the wicked Mind is left In Vnbeliâ—vers to make up by theft And stealth in their out-side and vain Profession What they of Truth do want in true Possession But Babes of Zion feed upon that Bread The real Substance Jesus Christ their Head Which came from Heaven and thither hath them led With him to rest in his Eternal Bâ—d They feed upon him in the Mistery Hid from the Raven and the Vulters Eye For where the Body is the Saints Resort And there are kept secure as in a Fort Of Brass or Iron where the Table 's Ready All day full fraught with Dainties for the Needy Yea for the Needy and the Hungry Soul To take and freely Feed without Controul When false prophane Professors in the double Mind Much seem and dream they Eat but all 's but Air and Wind. Of Prayers WHen as a tuned Instrument my Mind is in the Lord Well set and with his Power Assist O then I can Record The mighty Acts and wonders great of him that Rules on High And of his great Magnificence from whom the Heavens do fly And Earth also when he is pleased to make his Power known In Mercies and in Judgments deep for such as are his own When â—â—e an Arm of Help doth reach unto the needy Soul When he the daring Power of the Enemy doth Controul O then I say what Treasure can before his Presence stand Before his Glorious Face who is the Lord of Sea and Land Where Kings and Princes are as Dust and nothing in his sight Yea all who in their carnal Minds against his Glory fight Yet he doth make his Residence with every humble Heart That loves his Name and from his Truth by no means can depart His presence is their perfect stay and they in him can say He is our Rock that nothing shall our Spirits much dismay Yea though our Troubles for a Night or so upon us lye Yet in the Morning we are Saved as we to him did cry So be it Concerning ZION IF I Jerusalem forget a People sav'd from Pride Then let my Skilful Hand forget the warbling Harp to guide And if Mount Zion in my Joy I do not still set up Then let my Tongue cleave to my Mouth and taste of Sorrows Cup. said David So shall the Seed of David now in Heart and Pen endeavour The Praise of Zion to Record and of her God for ever And Blessed are those Men on Earth that with us now take part In this our Work of Innocence when all the rest must smart For how can Israel 's Kingdom be the Portion of such Wights As will not have God's Truth to Raign but still against it Fights The Life more than Cloaths and Meat O Lord God my Life is in thy Service and my Soul 's Everlasting Peace and Satisfaction in thy Love all the Things of this World are of an empty fading Nature and yield not the least true Content unto the Immortal Soul but only answer a Mortal Necessity as the Apostle saith Meat 's for the Belly and the Belly for Meats but God will destroy both iâ— and them so Cloaths for the Back and the Back for Cloaths but God will destroy both it and them and so for other things of the World they serve but only for Worldly and Temporal Necessities but now Man made in the Image of God breaths after a more Excellent Good than this World hath to give for in the Soul which is Mortal there abides an Immortal Desire and from that an Immortal Cry after that Holy and Heavenly Food of Life which is in the full Hand of God to give and so when that is received and digested in the pure Mind then goes forth Praises and Thanksgivings to the Lord the pure and fall Fountain of all Everlasting and Eternal good Things and so happy they who come through the Obedience of the Truth to have their Hearts seasoned with this Heavenly Salt of the Word of God the Living Word which abides for Ever For in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and that Word was God and is the Lise and Light of Man and all places in Man which is not filled with this Living Light is full of Darkness and the dark places of the Earth are full of the Habitations of Unrighteousness and Cruelty and there is engendred all the Ravenous Birds and Beasts of Prey all the fiery stinging Serpents and every Venemous Thing which annoys hurts and disquiets the Living Plant which God hath planted in the Paradise of his Pleasure and seeks to devour the Man-child as soon as it is Born but into the Arms of the Eternal Power of Life is the Babe taken and by the Choicest Angel is the Plant watered and defended and so the wicked is disappointed of his Prey and therefore doth he retreat into his Den of Darkness gnawing his Tongue because of his Plagues So be it O Lord our Strength and mighty Joy How Glorious is thy Name within our Hearts We cannot cease to Preach thy Truth Though for it at us Satan shoot his Darts Though Hell be broken loose upon the Earth To vent its Malice for a little time And make the Righteous Man his Butt to shoot at Yet God will Plague them for their mighty Crime The greatness of their Evil passeth thought Their Sins in number far exceeds the Sand And therefore will the Lord against them plead With all his Judgments in his Wrathful Hand And though great Trials be to try the Faith Of pure and upright hearted People now Yet that pure holy Power will us defend Who makes the very Devils fear and bow To the Unsatiable Devourers of Strong Drink WHat Hellish Spark is that in your Inflamed Brest Which neither suffer's God nor Man to Rest But doth disorder even the whole Creation Bringing God's Judgments thick on every Nation Ye will not hear nor learn the thing that 's good But eat and drink up Sin your daily Food Be filthy still ye filthy Ones and when Your Measure is full your dreadful Doom comes then Thomas Taylor HE that to Glory would attain And many Happy Days would see His Tongue from Evil must refrain And eke his Heart from Sin keep free He must both watch and ward in Heart And persevere in that good deed Lest Satan wound him with his Dart As he doth all that take not heed Such must not promise to themselves Great things on Earth as Sinners do Who build and plant and root therein As from it they would never go But he that to the Heavens would come To dwell in that which never fades Must not in the World set up his Rest Nor shelter under Mortal shades TO MY Dear Friends every where O My Friends and Faithful to God whose Hearts are Tender and Zealous after the Lord and his Honour in this day of the Tryal of our most
precious Faith Grace Mercy and Power from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ be abundantly multiplied in you and the Blessed Arm of his Power support you and carry you through all the present and future Tryals for the Gospels sake on Earth for us hath the Lord drawn out of the many Waters and set our Feet upon the sure Rock of Ages the tryed Foundation and brought our Souls into the unmoveable Rest Glory to his Name for ever that we might be to his Praise and Glory and Honour for ever that he might dwell in us and we in him for ever and so be safe for ever under his Wing where the Wicked cannot come because of Unbelief and that great Violence whereby they have stopt the way of all good from their Souls But now Dear Hearts and Beloved in the Lord you who have loved the Light and received the Power which makes all manifest and cleanseth from all Sin you are Blessed even the Blessed of the Lord God of Heaven and Earth who loves your Souls with a perfect Love and fills your Hearts day by day with his Infinite Goodness Therefore as a Recompence for all his Mercies give up your selves to his Holy Will in all things and love the Lord the same our everlasting God and Father with all your Hearts Souls Mind and Strength and he will do abundantly for you and us all even his whole Israel in every place beyond all that we can ask or think Look not out at the World nor their Love nor Hatred for they are Men and not Gods but keep in the Sanctuary of God the Spirit of Christ and there is Safety with him is the Well of Life which refreshes our Souls continually and makes all things easie and possible to us through Faith in his Name and Patience So let Patience have its perfect Work for we have daily need of it that we may continually see and feel the Love of the Lord in the Land of the Living and not be clouded with the Spirit of this World which gendreth to Bondage in any thing For if Lot's Wife look back she is presently turned into a Pillar of Salt and if the Israelite turn back but in his Heart into Egypt he is snared in Unbelief So my Dear Friends look up to the Lord in Spirit and Truth and wait continually to feel his living Presence in you to keep you open and single to him that of the powerful Spirit of his Holiness which slays the Sin and quickens the Soul to God you may be Witnesses and so come to possess the Immortal Kingdom where Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost only reigneth So with the Dear Salvation of my Love unto you all I commend you to the Lord to bless keep and water with his Goodness continually to his Glory who only is Holy and gives us freely every good thing to enjoy both for Soul and Body who is near to the Righteous in every Necessity to Help and Save to the uttermost To whom be Glory and Immortal Praise Even so rests with you in the full Assurance of his Tender Mercies in Christ Jesus your Dear Brother Thomas Taylor TO FRIENDS TO the Called and Chosen of God the Dear Vessels of Life and Glory in all the Earth doth the Tender Salutation of me your Dear Brother reach who as a feeling Member in the Holy Body of the Lord Jesus do daily partake with you of the Blessed Joys of Life Eternal and of the present Sufferings for the same who therefore cannot but continually through the pure Love and Lifes Motion breathe out amongst you the Happy state of our Innocent Souls because of Truth upon every Occasion to the stirring up and refreshing of the tender good thing the Heavenly Mind in all to the joint Praising Blessing and Magnifying of the Lord 's great Name for his abundant kindness towards every Particular Faithful Ones for Ever and Ever for he is good to Israel unspeakably unalterably true to them for Ever And now Dear Friends seeing God hath been so gracious to us above all the People of the Earth as to set his Name upon us in Righteousness to the Amazement and Astonishment of many and hath caused our Rod that was dry even as others to flourish and bear Fruits in the midst of the Earth to the Praise of his Living Power as a Token of his Acceptance and Choice And seeing God hath so graciously performed his Promises to us his Seed made to his Israel of Old in bringing up our Souls from Death and our Life from the devouring Sword and hath unloosed our Tongues to speak of his Wonders in the great Congregation why shall we not then speak good of this the Name of our God the true Everliving God in Comparison of whom the whole World with their many Idols Gods and Lords are nothing We may not be hindred by the Adversary from breathing forth our pure Life given us of God for his Glory in a continual mention of his Holiness for if we should be silent the very Stones would do it for now is the Lord Jesus arisen indeed and ascended far above all Heavens Principalities Powers Names and Greatnesses whatsoever and come again to our Spirits according to his Blessed Promise that of his unspeakable Fulness we might all partake in abundance to the causing of our Cup to overflow with all Holy and Heavenly Consolations and Praises for the perfect Salvation of our God to the watering of every tender holy Plant in Israel that waits for the same For as the Dew to the tender Herbs so is thy Blessing O Immanuel to the Garden of thy own planting thy Beloved Plants that waits for thee amongst whom the pourings forth of thy Name is as sweet Ointment And Blessed are all that wait for thee who hast inclosed thy Beloved People in the Arms of thy own Almightiness and filled them with thy own Blessed Kingdom and Righteousness who hungred after thee even so Father of Life be it for Evermore to thy own unspeakable Glory who alone art worthy So now Dear Friends into the Unity of the Holy Life Power and Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ let every Soul of us gather and retire it self to be nourished up thereby and preserved to a daily and perfect Victory over all Temptations and Provocations whatsoever that upon the very Head of the Serpent we may tread and let us not look at the seen things for therein lyes the Wiles and Temptations but let us eye and feel the Blessed Invisible Life and Powerful Heavenly Spirit of our God to carry us through and over all to his Glory who hath said That he will never leave nor forsake his tender breathing Seed that waits on him so Blessed are all that are found in this his Covenant and follow him as Dear Children and Obedient Servants in the sure and safe way of the daily Cross and Self-denial to a perfect mortifying and subduing of the fleshly
His limitless Nature to a creatural Form like thy self as the Wicked do who know him not And so of that Beast and mysterious Babylon thou art who this day with their many Heads and Horns and Forms of False Knowledge and Worships and Churches so called do all with one Consent push and fight against the Lamb the Light and Son of the Incomprehensible and Infinite Father and his Faithful Followers but the Lamb both hath and ever shall have the Victory and the Mouth of all Iniquity shall be stopped saith my Soul And so well had it been for thee if thou hadst continued Faithful amongst us but a Wanderer and Unfaithful in Heart hast thou been many a day and so the Whore that watched in the Evening for the unwary young Man hath caught thee in her Net and there thou art a Slave in the Bands of Darkness to the great Wounding of thy poor imprisoned Soul Thomas Taylor TO George Ward And those that had Fellowship with him GEorge Ward to thy self and those in Fellowship with thee whether Speakers or Hearers a few Words from the Movings of God in my Heart You are weighed in the Ballance and are found wanting and the Glory of the Holy Kingdom of God you are fallen short of in your Unbelief and have not a Heart as yet to walk in the strait and narrow Way that leads unto it You have not suffered your Minds and Souls to be guided by the pure Light of Jesus Christ that hath Visited you in great Love in these Days but have rather chosen to follow your own Thoughts and wrong Expositions of Scripture to your great hurt And because you have Preached and Professed that washing the outward Water is the only Gate in the Christian Fellowship you are both to loose your Credit amongst Men by owning the more Excellent and Everlasting Way though it be most plainly declared and by the Spirit demonstrated to you in these Days And so you go about to Establish that which makes nothing perfect in Opposition to the Power of God which only makes Perfect And so you resemble them of old who stuck in the Shadows of the Law in Opposition to him that was the End of the Law and came to fulfil it Christ Jesus over all God Blessed for ever And so if I could have found in you a true Desire after God's Kingdom may be I might have gotten a little Liberty to have Reasoned with you at this time of the things thereof But seeing there hath been so many Endeavours and Desires in us after your Eternal Good and ye will not come to Christ to know him in you that you may have Life for this time I thus rest in Peace with my God the Righteous Judge believing that in his own Way and Time he will Silence every Tongue that moves against his Blessed Truth the Light and those that love it and follow it in the Regeneration in this Day of his Power wherein the willing People are brought up through the Death of the Flesh to serve the Lord in the Land of the Living in new Jerusalem as our Souls do this Day ever Praised be his Name the Arm of his Holiness for it is worthy And now where is the Disputer of this World who pleads for seen things which Quicken not the Souls and will not have the Invisible God who is the Resurrection of the Life to Rule in them but are glad when they can get any thing seemingly that makes for them in their perishing Way But our Work is Praised be God to hold the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints in a pure Conscience and in the Ability that God giveth us to help to bring People to God where is the true Rest for ever And those that will not submit their Minds Hearts and Souls to the Light of the Eternal Word which is nigh in the Heart shall never be Established in Righteousness and Peace but shall weary themselves in the very Fires for Vanity and this we have Learned through many Tribulations Blessed be God for his Unspeakable Gift and so if you be Wise be Wise for your Souls and Learn with us to sit in Silence at Jesus Feet to know what he requires of you and cease your running and doing without him for you have spent too much time in Vain already seeing the Spirit of the World is unfallen in you Rests your Souls Friend and a Lover of the whole Creation of God being become a willing Sufferer for the Holy Seeds Sake And whereas you or some of you seem Offended that Widdow Cock hath left you and come amongst us and say she hath done it and yet given you no sufficient Reason and Satisfaction for her so doing I say that Reason I suppose she hath shown sufficient to some of you but to give Satisfaction to you in it that is hard seeing you Speak Evil of the Good Way of God which she hath tasted of amongst us for of a Truth the Lord and his Power and Presence is with us Blessed be his Name for ever And she stayed too long upon the barren Mountains where your Flocks Feed Thomas Taylor TO A Plundering Priest YOUNG Man all thy Prayers Preachings and Praises are Abomination to God so long as thou keepest the Just in Bondage Thou being but newly as it were come on to the Stage of the World begins thy part very badly if thou hadst been as an old over-grown Tree in Customs of Covetousness less could not be expected from thee than what some in Swaledale have sound But thou being as I hear a young Man under the Notion of a Schollar nay more of a Minister of the Gospel to fall on a Suing People at Law and putting in Prison upon account of Hire quite stains all thy Glory and blasts thy Reputation with the Odium of a Hireling and Fersecutor Thou might consider if the God of this World had not blinded thy Mind what thou daily as it were reads in the Scripture Whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you even so do unto them for this is the Law and the Prophets And if thou be not come so far as the Law and the Prophets thou art most unfit to take the Gospel into thy Mouth For without all question if thy Condition had been Michael Râ—w's thou would have accounted it hard Measure to have been so dealt withall as thou hast dealt with him A Man with a Wife and ten or eleven Children depending much upon his Labour for their Maintenance and this Man to be put into Prison and there kept from year to year for nothing at all but because for Conscience-sake to God he cannot put into thy Mouth What a Cry this hath and will have in the Ears of God it concerns thee deeply to consider for he is well known not to with-hold Right from any where it is due But though his Sufferings for time be long yet thine if thou repent not will be very
we cannot give over to worship God as he hath taught us seeing to God the Judge of Quick and Dead we must give account and if we could give over our Meetings and Holy Exercises and please God we should certainly do it for God's Fear and Love is in our Hearts but seeing it is God's Good Will and Holy Command that we should assemble our selves together as we do to edifie one another in our most Holy Faith and so to hold forth God's Truth as we have received it before all Why should the King or the Parliament or any of his Counsellors think much that we should obey God rather than Man in this matter Wherein we can with Safety of our Conscience to Christ we do obey you but wherein we cannot is it not your Wisdom to bear with us as your selves in the like case would be done by And so fulfil the Royal Law indeed which saith As you would that Men should do unto you even so do unto them And this is a Law worthy a King to meditate in night and day and not to follow the Counsel that is contrary And this is a Foundation which all Parliaments and Councils ought to build upon or otherwise how is it possible their House should continue for from the height of Heaven hath the Lord beheld the Afflictions and Oppressions and heard the Groans and Cries of the Innocent Sufferers in England this day and will certainly deliver those that wait for him But I would not have the King to be an Object of God's Wrath in that day if possible And therefore in the Name of the Lord God am I thus moved to write unto thee and lay these things before thee desiring that thou maist read them and well weigh them for they are of greatest Concernment And that which rightly made use of tends not only to thy Well-being in this World but also to the Eternal Good of thy Soul Rests God's Servant and thy Soul and the Nations Friend Thomas Taylor To Informers LEt all such in these days as are Informers against the People of God for their Holy Worship and Service to God consider if they have not lost all savour of Good and care of their Souls What became of all such Informers in days past whom the Scriptures make mention of And first let Haman one of the great Informers come into your Mind and consider his Work and End a woful Work did he work against his own Soul in his Informing and Incensing the King Ahasuerus against the Jews because honest hearted Mordecai could not bow to his Pride as the Heathen did and see his End and tremble ye when ye read the History of the Matter as at large you may in the Book of Esther And consider ye in the cool of the Day what became of the Princes mentioned in Daniel who not only in their Wickedness got a Law from the King without cause but also Informed against the Holy Man Daniel for breaking the King's Law which the King never intended against Daniel because he pray'd to God as at other times And read in the History of Daniel where at large you may read it and tremble what a miserable End came upon them Informers who themselves were destroyed in that very Den of Lyons in which they had thought to have seen the end and destruction of honest-hearted Daniel but the Lord did deliver him as he will ever do all them that fear him from the Mouths of all the Lyons And let the dreadful End of those miserable Jews in Jeremiah's Time that Informed against him for speaking the Word of the Lord And in after time of those Jews that Informed against Jesus Christ and his Apostles come into your Minds and affright you at Midnight and terrifie you at Noon-Day for assuredly if you go on with them and be still found with them in their Work of Informing against and Persecuting of the Righteous you must partake of their Plagues as saith God's Truth which never failed in his Servant Thomas Taylor Some Serious Considerations concerning the Priests of the High Places called Churches their Sprinkling Infants Marrying People and Burying their Dead c. 1. IN their Sprinkling they abuse and miserably wrest Scripture to prove their Practice For that Scripture Suffer little Children to come unto me c. speaks not a word of Sprinkling them much less of their Doings and Doctrines about it And for that Scripture Except a Man be born of Water and the Spirit c. it is nothing at all for them neither For it is certain the Spirit of God both can and hath and daily doth Regenerate People without outward Water but the Water without the Spirit never did nor never can Regenerate any and how the Spirit cometh to the Insensible Infants that by their own Confession cannot act Faith or whether it come to them at all in or by this doing of theirs I am sure they cannot tell neither have they any reasonable Ground to say or think it doth seeing there is no Command nor Promise at all in all the Scripture for it upon such their Doings upon such Subjects unless they will say with the gross Papists that Grace is conferred upon People ex opere operato viz. by the Priests meer doing about them 2. They commit another great Evil in this Matter in bringing in People to promise that for the little Children which they neither do nor of themselves never can do nay which they have not Faith so much as to believe that ever any can do by any means whilst they are upon the Earth to wit to forsake the Devil and all his Works c. which is manifest by their denial of sinless Perfection since all Sin is the Devil's Work And after the old Popish manner calling them Godfathers and Godmothers so taking God's Name in vain and otherwhile calling them Sureties so taking Christ's Office from him who is the alone Surety Mediator and Advocate between God and Man 3. And Thirdly In their great Blindness and Presumption calling upon the People to give God Thanks with them for that he hath Regenerated as they say the Infant or Infants then under their hands by such doings though as I said they have neither Precept nor Promise for it nor Manifestation from God then upon the Child for their so believing and concluding And so for their manifold taking God's Name thus in vain and causing you their Followers to do so also how shall they be held Guiltless For saith God I will not hold them Guiltless that take my Name in vain And how can these Priests blame the blind Papists for their foolish Doctrine of washing away Original Sin by their Baby Baptism when they by the like doing proclaim Regeneration and Inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven to such as can neither Exercise Faith nor Repentance in it Tell me whether is greater washing away Original Sin or Regenerating and giving Inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven O what