waited upon him who hath the living Words that be Spirit and Life and give Life to all that believe and receive them which thing is true in him as God is true forever and in them also who have an Ear open to hear as David and all the holy men the Prophets and Apostles had to hear him who speaketh in Righteousness and maketh War in Righteousness against all Unrighteous Spirits of men by whom the Man of Sorrow that hath been acquainted with Grief hath deeply suffered and doth still suffer in their mortal Bodies who know and love him and be filling up the Sufferings of Christ that are yet behind for his Bodies sake the Church And this I say for the Encouragement of all who love Justice and Equity to see it run down our Streets to sweep away all that 's loose and filthy and to make clean and white even as a Flock of Sheep newly come up from the Washing you that have suffered or do yet suffer for Righteousness sake by Unruly and Unreasonable men who hold not the Head nor the Mystery of his Faith in a pure Conscience be ye not afraid of their Revilings which comes on you by such as are turning back again into Aegypt in their Hearts and making themselves By and Crooked Pathes and a wider Way to dwell in than that which the pure God owneth or giveth or walks with his People in to their great Joy and his own Glory who be the men that have Eyes and see not as God sees who hath not Eyes of Flesh nor sees not as Man sees that cause the Just and Innocent to suffer by their Slanderous and Reproachful Tongues who are not afraid to speak Evil of Dignities and Dishonour them as Christ said to the Jews whom his Heavenly Father did Honour I say as any ones Sufferings abound by these men who are against Justice and Equity and against good Orders and so against our God of Order so shall your Consolation abound and your Comforts be renewed as the Morning upon the Mountains so that you will not be weary nor faint in your Minds whilst the Eye is to the Lord only neither shall this heavy Work of yours which be doing Gods Work diligently become a burden too heavy for you to bear because of the Hand that helps and the Everlasting Arm that is underneath all to sustain and uphold all that love him and dare not be negligent in the Work of God's House and Vineyard for their Lord and Masters sake who is calling all out of the Idle state to be workers together with him therein and Counsellors with him who is the First and the Last the only Potentate the Wonderful Counsellor the Everlasting Father and King of all our Peace which every one of his true Subjects ought to see diligently kept in his Church which is his House But as for the Weeds Thorns and Bryars which as David saith be the Sons of Belial and which I say be Co-workers with their Prince of Darkness who in all Ages stands ready as a Red Dragon filled with Wrath against the Rule and Government of the Man Child whose Right it is to Rule and he shall Rule for evermore when the Wicked our Enemies shall be brought under they shall be caught in their own Pit they have digged for the Innocent and in their own Net which they have privily laid for others shall they be taken and they shall be silent in Darkness But if these things grow up amongst us how will the Wayes and Walks be prepared and cast up in which the Lord delights to dwell and walk with his People Doth not he walk in the midst of the Golden Candlesticks And is it not through the Golden Pipes that the holy Oyl runs from God and empties it self into the Souls of all such that love God's Charge so as to keep it which is to judge his House that they may be with him on his Throne who is the chief Judge judging with him and with his Spirit of Judgment which is a free Gift from him which he hath promised to give to them that sit in Judgment and walk by the way of his Righteous Judgments and such as be of Moses's Mind of Paul's Mind and of David's Mind that the Righteous Judge in Israel he hath said He will never leave them nor forsake them Hearken what a pure Mind was in all these three men for Justice and Judgment the Substance of their Words I shall hereafter insert for your sakes who have either lost your Zeal for Justice or that be climbed up above the Door the meek Spirit into God's House to tread his Courts to offer your vain Oblations to stop Justice and Judgment from running down as a River even as Corah and his Company with their Censers their Incense and Offerings with an intent to withstand the holy Spirit and holy Offering in the holy Men Moses and Aaron this is several of your States and Conditions as before the Lord who hath shewed it me and that searches me and sees my end in writing to be your Salvation and Deliverance out of your own Net and Pit and what are such better than Balaam who had seen the Vision of God and had his holy Will and Counsel revealed to him That God was not minded to Curse but to Bless Israel his People altogether and yet after this he would fain have Cursed them for a Self-end even for the Rewards sake of Unrighteousness which Balack King of Moab and Confederate with Ameleck another Unrighteous People had promised to give him and to promote him to very great Honour if he would come and Curse but the uttermost parts of Israel So Balaam went into the Error as Peter saith of him when he went to ask Counsel of God for a Wicked End whom the Lord answer'd according to the Idol he had set up bid him Go but his Way was perverse before the Lord and his Heart not right in his sight who knows and sees full-well what is in the Darkness of man's Heart but the Dumb Ass speaking with Man's Voice told the Prophet of his Madness and yet he would go from place to place with his Offerings with his Master Balack for with Balaam he and his Promotion was esteemed better than the Lord his Counsel and People just like Baal's Prophets who cryed Peace to the Wicked at whose Table they did eat and like too many of our Parish-Masters and Priests who speak Peace even to all which put into their Mouthes and against the rest they prepare War although with God in Jesus Christ they be in Rest and Peace But Wo to them from the Lord that rejoyce the Wicked and make the Heart of the Righteous sad with their Lyes and Lightness that be pufft up in their Fleshly Mind above the Fear of the Lord where their Tongue is not bridled but what they list almost they can say they can pervert and wrest words and things to gratifie the
Goodness and tender Mercies of the Lord in which I send this Epistle abroad but more chiefly to all you who be found in the Spirit of Opposition and Gain-saying the Order of the Power and those things which be no other but Effects and Branches thereof and the good Order which is in the God of Order and the things which be Lovely and of a good Report and which have Praise and Virture in them and be good before the Lord and before his Saints yea and before all sober People My Desires to you all in the Love of our Lord Jesus Christ even you who be not Violently Willful resolving to go on because you have begun to refrain your selves from this evil Work and turn to the Lord from whom indeed you have swarved aside and turned your back as did the men of Ephraim in Battel who kept not the Covenant of God but dealt falsly with that which should have made them stronge and wise and given them counfel how to order the Battle for the Trumpet alwayes gives an uncertain Sound where the Covenant of God is not kept I do desire you to come down out of your own Wisdom Thoughts and Reasonings out of the House of your Imaginary wherein ye by searching can never find out God nor the things of God as in him and his People they are Oh! come into a perfect stillness of Mind and be not as the Horse and Mule without the good Understanding and humble your selves under the mighty Hand of God who would not the Death of any that dye in their Sin but rather they would turn and that Iniquity might not be their Ruin and wait upon him in the Singleness of Heart which cannot be done by you but as ye take up a Cross daily which will Humble Self and make it of no Reputation as did Christ Jesus and then will the living Father hear you and in things you know not he will teach you and as he shews you that ye have done foolishly do so no more your own Souls good is concerned in it I speak as one that seeks your good and will not do nor take that Evil Way which some of you have done to me whose Tongues have devised Evil like a sharp Rasour speaking deceitfully for I say Wo to me and all that can rejoyce to see their Enemy fall or tread upon him when he is down that vaunteth himself and is puffed up at the Sin of others and mourneth not rather for such that have sinned that God may give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth and that doth not in the midst of Judgment remember Mercy and that rather Loving-kindness from the Lord may over-shadow such And several of you being Aged men having done and suffered much on the Lord's Account I would not have you to lofe that full Reward that is in God or have your good Deeds blotted out before him for you know in the Day we Sin Death will enter and Darkness will darken the Understanding and who can see the Lord when our own Sins hide his face from us But that you may come to dye the Death of the Righteous and that your Last End may be like unto his that when you come to receive the Sentence of Death as did Hezekiah from the Spirit of God in the Prophet you may then say with him and not Lye Lord thou knowest how I have walked before thee with a Perfect Heart and have done that which is right in thy Sight This is my earnest Desire and fervent Prayer to the Lord for you for my Heart Lamenteth and a breaking Pity there is in the Bowels of my God towards such that have once tasted how good the Lord is that they should turn out of the Way of Peace into By-pathes and Crooked-wayes where the Serpent is Leader and Teacher who is a Teacher of Lyes of Slandering false Accusing and Back-biting such as love the Lord and hold their Integrity as if they were the worst of men and greatest Apostates whereby the Way of God and his Truth which is a perfect Guide and a Shield and Buckler comes to be blasphemed by your means who are glad to take hold of loose men to help you to run them down whom God will build up and to despise those things as Idols which are no other but effects as Branches and Leaves of the good Spirit of God but alas will not this Covering be too narrow to hide you Can you stretch your selves upon this Bed long where ye lie at ease above the Witness of God not regarding the Afflictions of Joseph nor the Sighing of the Poor nor the Cry of the Needy but are become one with that Spirit which makes it to Cry and Sigh in secret for your Pride and High-mindedness who are become Full Rich and Wise and say you see too like those fat and full Cattle whom the Prophet speaks of whom the Lord would feed with Judgment who had indeed drunk of deep Waters as many of you have done but now are fouling them with your feet and have eat of the fat Pastures but be treading down the Residue thereof with your feet but Wo be to you that be filled after this Manner to kick against him that fed you that have any thing in your Heavens but the living and true God or in the Earth that ye have desired or set up in your Hearts in comparison with him Ye have played the Prodigals part with your Portion and be gone out from that living Root and Spring that first divided to you goodly Talents that for the Lord and not for Self ye should have improved I say out of Humility and that living Fear and Dread of God that was at first in the Heart be many gone who be wise and honourable but not in the true Wisdom nor Honour to whom the Apostle spoke in his day Ye are Honourable but we are Contemptible and Despised ye reign as Kings even above the true King without us I would to God ye did reign that we might reign with you and to whom Christ spoke when he wept over Jerusalem where great and mighty Works had been done by him and in whom great Salvation was wrought for the poor of the Flock and for the weak and diseased who saw a true need of a Physician and saw their Sicknes and Sore their Bruises and putrified Wounds which could not be bound up nor healed by another hand than the Lord's which is not shortned this day Glory Glory Praises and Thanksgiving to him be given in the midst of the Church for his Mercies which endure forever who made bare his holy Arm that brought Salvation and caused his Day of Salvation in which Abraham rejoyced and was glad to spring forth in this our Age and Generation for his Mercies sake that endureth forever that we might tell to our Children and they might tell to another Generation what the Lord hath done for the poor of the Flock that
Evil-doer and to condemn the Innocent although it be to their own Destruction and to the darkening the good Understanding till they be past feeling of the holy Spirit to lead them out of Darkness the Land of the Shadow of Death where the First-born of Death rules and reigns without any good order and in this Confusion saying in Word and gain-saying in Deed with your Words as smooth as Oyl but War in the Heart of that Seed and Spirit yea ejoyned to and led by against the very Heart of God and his Light and Life which his People live with him in and yet can cry You have nothing but Love in your Hearts to all when the Poyson is flung out before against the holy Child and against his holy Government and Order in his Church which all the Upright in Heart delight to see and in which the Apostle rejoyced when he wrote to the Church after this manner I am rejoyced greatly to behold your good Order and the Stedfastness of your Faith in Christ Jesus And again he saith in another place Now we live if you stand fast And what must they stand in but even in that holy Liberty which God who is not a God of Confusion but of Order gave them which is but one and of one Mind in all and all that be led by it and stand in its Counsel they be by it made of one Mind Heart and Soul there is no Division nor Rent amongst them for they all be for Christ their Head who purely put on and keep within this holy Vesture and Garment although ten thousand times ten thousand together this Holy Order that is in the Power being observed we have all but one Spirit the Author of our Faith and of our Hope which is but one and stands in one and makes all of one Heart and Mind having all things common where we all speak one and the same thing where we all seek the things that be Jesus Christ's and not our own these shall not hit each other nor break their Ranks nor fall before their Enemy when he shoots sore at them that they might fall and never rise again but they that put on this holy Garment must be girt about with Righteousness also and out of the Armoury of God which is built as the holy Tower of David where be the Shields of thousands of holy Men and Women which they wore and put on in their time of War and Distress but when the War was ended and Peace with God proclaimed over their Enemies the World and the Devil then they laid them down there again giving Glory to God and the Lamb whose Weapons they were crying Thou and the Lamb are worthy to have the Praise and the Honour of all our Salvation and Deliverance now and forever and ever And so I come to re-mind you of those Scriptures which some in their Darkness say I slight that ye may see whether you be in the same Love those holy and true men were in or in that Love that is of the Spirit of this World that 's Enmity with God for they said even Paul and Moses Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy Heart nor suffer Sin to lie upon him but thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Brother and this is the Love which the Lord owneth and which he himself is the Author and Root of which hates the Evil and loves the Good and loves to see it exalted in Righteousness and in Judgment over all Deceit of Men that be Cunning and Crafty inventing Wayes to hold the Truth in Unrighteousness and to press into the Kingdom and holy Inheritance among the Saints in Light but yet have not known the holy equal and just Law of God fulfilled in them which fits and makes meet to inherit it And Paul saith who was a man that dyed daily to the Love the Friendship and Fashions of this Evil World through the Rejoycing he had in Christ Jesus the true Light he had Power to do this and to testifie what manner of Love the Love of God was and said Let Love be without Dissimulation abhor that which is Evil or as Peter saith Hating the Garment spotted of the Flesh And now hear some of the Sayings of David who hearkned to the Lord and to his words which were pure words to his Precepts and Statutes which were Life to his Soul and rejoyced his Heart greatly nay saith he I took the Testimonies of the Lord for my Heritage in the House of my Pilgrimage and all thy Precepts were before me and I did not put away thy Righteous Judgments from me more are they to be desired by me than Gold yea than much fine Gold and at Midnight will I arise to praise the Lord for his Righteous Judgments for Sion 's Children which be God's Children they be saved through Judgment and Righteousness So you may see who be turning Judgment backward with your feigned Love and Pity like old Ely to his Sons whilst they were in the Transgression whilst he that made them would not have Mercy on them and he that formed them from the Womb as it were to be his Servants and to wear an Ephod and a holy Prieft's Garment before him but seeing his Covenant was broken by them and the Sacrifices kicked at which he appointed in his Habitation therefore would he shew them no Favour but judged them and their Father's House forever But how did this good man David love to be judged searched and tryed by the Lord he was afraid of his Wayes like Job lest there should be any Iniquity in him hid in his Heart as a sweet Morsel and lest he had not a true Respect and Regard to all God's Commandments which he said were pure and gave Light as a Lamp Lanthorn to his Vnderstanding to the making Wise of the Simple And I do beseech you all who say You are led by the same Spirit to consider whether the same Fruit be brought forth by you in this respect or whether you love it in its Root and Buddings forth or whether the other thing that 's contrary be not budded even whether Pride be not budded and broken forth into a Rod of Violence to smite the Innocent with who in true Love dare judge nothing in you but the Bad. I will sing of Mercy and Judgment unto thee O Lord will I sing I will behave my self wisely in a perfect Way Psal 101. O when wilt thou come unto me I will walk within my House with a perfect Heart I will set no wicked thing of Belial before mine Eyes I hate the Work of them that turn aside from the path of Vprightness it shall not cleave to me a froward Heart shall depart from me I will not know a wicked Person we all in so doing shall know the Heart of God a coming to us for I am sure if we open to him when he judges he in Bowels of tender Mercy will open to