we in it and so be put out of all doubts and questions in the reasonings concerning us and receive satisfaction in all things that pertaine unto us in life and godliness in which our Religion is pure holy and undefiled and was before unholiness or unrighteousness was and will remaine in iâ—s purity vvhen years shall pass avvay and be no more and this is the meaning of our doctrin to bring people to the everlasting word of God in themselves that they may come into rest and peace in the pure Religion where God is known in his loves grace and riches of mercy Q. If your Faith give you such assurance of your principle and Religion to be true and right then why cannot you defend it by force and so free your selves from that outward bondage which you suffer for your Religion A. Our Faith doth give us such an assurance but yet we cannot strive with our opposers and oppressours nor any way by force of carnal weapons seek to defend it for we know that it is sufficient to defend it self also to defend us that live in it and our weapons are Spiritual and not carnal we fight the good fight of Faith in the power of the Prince of peace and so we war against sin but followes peace with all men and can be ready in every office of love to doe good to our greatest enemies and herein we have been sufficiently proved to be a peacable people under every power by which we have or doe suffer and we have never resisted nor sought revenge upon any but in all things commits our cause unto God in whose sight we stand approved and he knows that as we are in words or appearance even so we are the same in heart and unto his judgement and tryall we appeale in our innocency and the principle of his life in every one doth bear witness for us and all that hearken unto it will receive a true evidence in themselves concerning our innocent and peaceable life Q. And doe you refer your tryal in all things to your own principle in others which you say is Christ the light and life and witness of God A. Yes We doe so for as we know that all judgement in heaven and earth is committed unto Christ so we know that there is not another that can truly try or judge of us besides him and therefore we have boldness to refer our tryal in all things unto him alone as knowing that his tryal and judgement is according to truth in every man and as our Faith is in him and our love unto him so we know that he will not condemne the works of his own hands but justifie the fruit of his own life power and virtue and his tryal and judgement will clearly evidence for us that we are his and not our own Confession It may now be perceived that you do not hold or maintain the things that you do to be from your selves or in your own wills but from Christ the foundation and principle A. Yes it is plainly so for of our selves we can do nothing but through Christ in whom vve have our strength vve are able to do all things so that our sufficiency is in him alone and by his power in us all our good works are wrought for us and unto him they all return that he in all things may have the preheminence and the glory for ever Resolved It being so there is no good ground why you should be called in question or any way suffer for your Faith and Religion seeing that what you do is from the power of Christ and his works are not to be denyed by any nor you to suffer in any case for the faith you have in him and the love you have to him and seeing that you deny your selves in what you do which many hitherto have thought you did not and that you are willing to be tryed and Judged according to the Judgment of truth in Christ you ought not in any wise to suffer by any other Tryal or Judgment whatsoever and all sober moderate people may be well satisfied with this Demonstration that your principle is of God and that your faith and love is unto God and your good will unto all men and none need not any farther stand in doubt of the truth of it but may be fully perswaded that you have Salvation and Eternal life by Jesus Christ which may overcome all that are yet contrary minded unto you to joyne with your principle that they may be of your Faith and Religion who are a people that loves God so singly and lives amongst men so peaceably which indeed doth clearly manifest your principle and Religion to be of God W. S. THE END A manifestation of Prayer in Formality and Prayer in the Spirit of God IT hath been a common Observation through Ages and Generations to perform something as a duty unto God by way of Prayer this common observation hath descended from one generation to another ever since the Apostacy entred in a customary and formal way still observing the practice in words and continuing the same as a duty unto God in the same manner and form not at all regarding or considering the present want or necessity of the present Age or Generation nor the present states and conditions of particular people but praying in the same Words and in the same Form from time to time and from generation to generation and so it flows as a natural stream in a common and customary practice from one generation to another and hence it is that people continue asking but do not receive because they ask amiss not feeling the Spirit that makes intercession And so the Pharisees made long prayers but received the greater damnation because they prayed not in the Spirit but in the customary formality which by the Spirit was condemned And it is very sad that people should all their life-time be complaining and asking and never come to receive satisfaction And this is the common way of Prayer in this present generation who have many prayers in formed words and with their mouths do often repeat them and in the formality make a practice of them and so at set-times and in set-prayers spend away their dayes but feel not the Lord nor his goodness And this common way of Prayer now used in the common Worship never brings people to obtain but keeps them alwayes asking where in answer to the Commandments they pray no this wise Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law and write all these thy Laws in our hearts we beseech thee Now if they would encline their hearts to the Spirit of God in themselves and obey it then the Spirit would encline their hearts to keep God's Law and the Spirit would write his Law in their hearts and put it into their inward parts and it would keep them that they should not depart from it and there they would feel
Gods mercies and so come to receive an answer of their Prayers For when the heart of man doth not encline to the Spirit of God it is in rebellion against him and God doth not shew mercy to the rebellious and so people pass over their time in words but want the life which should do them good and when they come to finish their dayes their hearts are as far off from Gods Law as the first day when they began to pray That he would encline their hearts to keep it and they have no assurance that God will shew them mercy though they have been praying in words all their life-time And likewise in answer to the Lettany where they pray after this manner Good Lord deliver us And We beseech thee to hear us good Lord. And this is the same in their latter dayes as in the beginning and it is manifest that they are not delivered from those things as in words they pray to be delivered from nor are not heard in those things which they beseech the Lord to hear them in and so they spend their dayes in observing a customary formality and never come to any assurance that they are delivered or that their requests are heard and answered And again in that which they call the Creed they confess they believe in God now they that believe in God their hearts are enclined to keep his Law and he shews them mercy and hears them and delivers them for they that believe in God they do his will and if any man do his will him he heareth And then again they confess That they are miserable sinners and do those things they ought not to do And if so then not Believers for they that believe in Christ are not miserable sinners neither do those things they ought not to do but by believing in Christ they are saved and he takes away their sin that makes them miserable and sets them free from their misery and they do those things that are well-pleasing in his sight for they that truly believe in Christ they do not only confess their sins but also forsake them and so find mercy with the Lord and they are not alwayes complaining that they do those things they ought not to do but know his Will and do it and are blessed in their deed And again in that which they call the Lords Prayer they generally say Our Father Now the Children of God are not miserable sinners nor do not those things they ought not to do for whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin And Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him neither known him And there are not any that believe in God or can call God Father in truth but those that are born of him for those that are born of flesh and of blood and of the will of man they do not believe in God neither can truly call God Father for that is the nature in vvhich sin is committed vvhich makes people miserable and that is the nature in which they do those things they ought not to do and that is the nature in which there is no saving health and there is not any prayer accepted of God which in that nature is performed for none in the flesh can please God and whatsoever is offered unto him in that nature he doth not regard it for it is the nature from which all wickedness proceedeth and the prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto God And though there may be many which may deny the common vvay of Prayer as it is used in the common Worship and set up some other way of Prayer as more excellent yet whilst the Flesh and Blood and Will of man conceives it and performs it there is no difference in the ground between that vvhich they deny and that which they set up and practise neither doth God regard it any more than that which they deny And though such Prayers may not appear so formal as those that are commonly used in the common Worship yet they are conceived in the very same womb and do not at all differ in the ground for as the Wisdom of the flesh hath composed so many set-prayers in words and hath prescribed a way to observe and practise the same and that none is either to add or diminish as to vvhat is so composed even so the same Wisdom may deny that prescribed way as being formal and may invent something instead of it in a higher mistery of iniquity and though they may not speak in such formal composed words yet in the same Wisdome their words are formal not at all differing in the ground or conception but only in the expression and observation and in their practise it is as formal as that which they deny for they have a constant observation by way of Prayer in what they practise which in it self is as formal as the set-prayers commonly used in the common Worship for they can set their own time both to begin and to make an end and when they will they can utter vvords and vvhen they will they can be silent and they have their own conceptions at command and can either perform or not perform in their own time and this is the uncleane part vvhich offers unto God which he doth not accept neither is any Prayer regarded or accepted of God but the Prayer which is offered to him by his own birth So that these few things being seriously considered it is manifest that the way of Prayer as it is now commonly used observed and practised in the common Worship is not true prayr but a bare formality and not onely so but also contradictory so is not performed with a right understanding and it is as manifest that all other wayes of praying which are conceived and performed in the wisdom of the flesh is not true Prayer neither doth God regard it more then the other because it is performed in the same nature and differs in nothing but in the manner and however they may differ in the practice yet they meet in the ground and are offered up in the unclean part and so are not performed with an understanding as Prayer in the Spirit of God is Now the Spirit of Life which is manifest from God in every mans conscience doth so enlighten him as to make him sensible that he is a sinner and in himself is miserable and eternally liable to the Wrath of God without the Lord appear for him and work his deliverance and as man takes heed to that Spirit which doth so enlighten him and makes manifest his condition to him then the Spirit begins to quicken and stir up something in him that desires after God and breathes after God and the sighs and groans begin to arise in a true sence of misery and the breathings go forth in the earnest of the Spirit unto God and the cry arises for help and deliverance and though that which is quickened by the Spirit to breath in the Spirit be but
it is but the dispensation of it as it is the Law is not for the Law makes nothing perfect and there can be no true rest and peace but in that which is perfect and makes perfect Q. What then doth the administration of the Law serve unto if it make nothing perfect A. It serves as a Schoolemaster to bring unto Christ Q. How is it as a Schoolemaster in its administration A. In correcting and judging the transgressour and instructing and teaching in righteousness for the Law was added because of transgression Q. Is not Christ manifest through the dispensations of the Law and and the Prophets A. According to that dispensation unto which they serve he is so but it is but darkly as in a glass Q. How must the Law and the Prophets be passed thorow to come unto Christ who fulfills them A. By observing the Statutes and Ordinances that is therein contained whereby there is a going forward to the more full enjoyment of the perfection of Christ who fulfills the Law and the Prophets in the more glorious appearance of his own fulness and perfect life Q. Is the administration of the Law in force in this present age A. Yes it is in force to take hold upon all transgressours and it is Ministred in justice against the transgressour which erres from the Statutes and Ordinances that is therein contained Q. But are not people in this age under a Gospel administration and are they to be brought back again under the Law A. They that have not passed thorough the administration of the Law in themselves they are not under a Gospel administration and therefore they cannot be brought back again because they never went forward but they are to be brought into that which hitherto they have not known nor understood for a Gospel administration barely professed will not doe people any good and so it is that many in this age looks over the Law as an administration below their profession and that the Law was a more proper administration in ages past and more particularly to the Jews not understanding that it hath its proper administration in man whilest sin and transgression remaines in him and so it is in as full force in this age upon all transgressours as ever it hath been in ages past for whosoever in this age that doth offend in one point of it they will be found guilty of all and the judgement will take hold to the correcting of the guilty for God will by no means clear the guilty Q. And is the throne of judgement set up under the Law to judge and condemne the transgressors of the Law A. Yes it is so that every man might fear the Lord God who gives forth his Law in man to be kept and not to be broken Q. But is it possible that man can keep the Law in all things and not offend in any thing or that he can performe the requirings of God in that dispensation as it is a Covenant of works A. If there was not a possibility on mans part to keep it then it would seem hard that the Lord should command it and require it and for not keeping it to judge and condemne for it and there was some in ages past that walked before the Lord with perfect hearts and that under the administration of the Law but the shortness of observing or mans part is the weakness and unprofit ableness of the flesh so that he many times cannot doe the things that he would and therein the first Covenant is found faulty not in it selfe but in the sinfull flesh and if it had not been so concerning the observing of the first Covenant there could not be place for the second and therefore the works of the first Covenant doth not obtaine life and salvation but the free grace in the second Covenant that all people might dye to themselves according to the flesh and live unto God according to the spirit that so life and salvation may not be of works but by Grace in the rich mercy of God through Jesus Christ who in his full and glorious appearance in man is the end of the Law for righteousness and brings life and immortality to light by the Cospel and then there is no more servitude or bondage under the Law because of the weakness of the flesh but redemption wrought by the power of Christ from under it into a more perfect state of freedome and liberty in his own life Q What is signified by the Prophesies A. The nearer approaching or drawing nigh of Christ in his own fulness and and perfect life that whereas he hath been seen but darkly as in a glass under the Law he may be seen with open face in the compleat beauty of his own glory in the Cospel Q Of what service are the Scriptures as they are given forth and recorded without A. Much every way unto those that have received the same Spirit from which they were givenforth for unto such they are profitable and makes wise unto salvation and are unto them of service for instruction edification and comfort the same Spirit in them receiving the Testimony of the Spirit as it is declared in the Scripture and there is an agreement and union in the Spirit within and also in the words without and so there is instruction edification and comfort by the Scriptures unto all that are in the same Spirit as gave them forth Q. But are they of no further service then onely a Testimony of those things which was present in that time A. So much of them as was given forth by the holy men of God through the inspiration of the Almighty they testifie of Christ who was and is and is to come and that is onely their service in their place that through the Testimony therein declared unto Christ all people might come unto him and have life Q. By what doth Christ manifest his life so as that it may be known to be his life A. By his light he manifests it and as the light is received by which it is manifest so is life received in it Q. Is the light and the life distinct Principles A. Nay the light is Christ and the life is Christ and they are not distinct Principles but he is known to be light in manifesting and life in quickening Q. What is the administration of Christ in the appearance of his own fulness and perfect life A. An administration of love grace and mercy Q. And doth he appear to salvation in that administration of his love grace and mercy A. To as many as receives him in that appearance he becomes their salvation but such as reject him he is their condemnation Q. Is not that administration universal to salvation A. The manifestation of it is universal unto all but unbelievers have no part in it as an administration to salvation Q. What is his administration in that appearance of love grace and mercy unto such as reject him A. An administration