lodged in a secret Suckling Breast Like as the young ones in the Turtles nest Dear Lambs true number of the Shepheards tale As one by one I hugg and kiss you all Remembring you I drop like molten marrow Yea rent like fallow torn with the barrow Ah! feel my Bowels which like Rain distils And runs like Rivers down the steepest hills Yea touch my panting heart and thereby learn My soul most frequent after you doth yearn I 'm Ravished beholding Virtues graces Of Heavens glory to o're spread your faces And cannot utter how my deeps abound Of love to you which in the life are found You 're at the Fountain pure I plainly see And so am I yet still remember me There in the Spirit of Life Joy and Peace Pray for your Brother pray and never cease For I am God's and Yours in every Tryall The which you know full well without denyall So read me You We One through life's infusion In the first principle and last conclusion All dear seed and Plants of the Lord God from the Crown of the head to the sole of the foot of the entire perfect body every member which stands Purely Firmely and Sollidly knit Joint by Joint Bone to Bone by the strength of the Sinews which holdâ— all in the soundnesse free from maimes or haltings My dear soul sealed in Spirit greets salutes and kisses you as Gods dearest Children pitched as Torches Lanthorns and shining Lamps of his praise in your respective Places and Callings and everlasting glory which shall never have end And so all Saints dwell in the holy City and there I am with you all known to you a brother in the life of the brother-hood John The 20th of the 5th Month. 1660. To the Brethren in the Unity and Fellowship of the Life of the Virginity of Innocency called Quakers in ENGLAND and else-where YE the Born of God of the Incorruptible and Immortal-Seed of the Covenant which is AMEN for ever and ever In the substance which ministreth you Dayly-Bread and the fresh and new wine of the kingdom mine endless Love reacheth you and with the sweet Armes of the Grace and Peace of my Heavenly Father I Embrace you I Greet Salute and kiss you one by one yea all as one in the one only in whom is no Variation or Changing with the undefiled lips of Sincerity which never uttered Uncleanness Lewdness Deceit or a Lye Feel and know mee as near you as the Flesh which cleaveth to your Bones as purely and perfectly in you as the bloud of Life in your hearts Ah Sion if thee I forget let my Bowels burst in my body and let my Carcase quickly become meat for hungry Eagles and let the Vultures also tear my flesh from my bones I cease not Night nor Day in every Watch to present you as a living Sacrifice upon the Altar in the Holiest of Holiests And I full well know that when fire is kindled in your proper habitations which is the Seat of God's Rest I am as a writt of Remembrance before you God Almighty Augment your portion as faithfull Stewards and continually of his fulness give you all fulness Though I am as the Least and as a Door keeper in the house of God yet of a truth the Vertue of the Lord God is with mee The which I have to say that you all in my behalf be full of the praise of my Heavenly Father in your hearts and that your Thanksgiving in Spirit may abound before him Amen The God of peace possess your soules to the utmost in his everlasting peace And the most Dreadfull Lord of Holiness preserve you to pass the time of your Pilgrimage in Feare and Trembling Againe I say unto you Feare Dread and Tremble yee before the ever living God J. P. LONDON Printed for Robert Wilson at the Sign of the Black Spread-Eagle and Wind-mill in Martins near Aldersgate 1660.
ye Rivers and speak to the Barren Mountaines And declare O ye fruitfull valleys unto the dryest hills though you be dry yet we were as you are when both the Sun shined and the Heavens showred upon the just and the unjust upon the Corn and the weed upon the Lilly and the Thorn the Rose and the Briar And we knew it not Wherefore Weep your part O ye Wildernesses and Lament your part O ye parched places and fall down ye craggy Rocks and come and drink of our waters in the valleys and loe you shall be such streames as are our streames and you shall be a Vineyard of sweet grapes as we are a fruitfullness to the Lord of the whole Earth and there shall be no difference betwixt you and us for we were as you are and in all things like unto your unfruitfulness in the parching times when the earth did Cleave and Chap and Gape for water before that we found the Way to the fountain And O ye sweet Waters of the Consolation of Jacobs Well Speak speak unto the Waters of Meribah which once was a hard Rock but now are the streams of the waters of Bitterness why runneth thy streames as a brook of such great Bitterness O Waters remove the Rock which is in the bottome of thy Waters and then let a drop of our Waters fall into thy Waters and behold they shall be no more a bitterness but as our Waters like the Milk of the breast to the babe and so our Consolation shall be thy Consolation and thou shalt be an habitation of joy in the Land And O ye Branches of the Olive tree Your leaves are shades and fruit is life to mee God's wisdom which surpasseth mans devices Hath built you as a Bowre of fragrant Spices Your Walks are Joyfullness and peace your Seat Your Life is Bread and Wine and Love is meat My soule is planted in your holy ground And here your flames of love doe me surround And on your substance which distills as drops Of heavenly dew I feed like honey sops Partaker with you in Community Of good in Gods house in the Vnity And in the stem my branch with you reposes Which bears the bud and all the Damask-roses You are the bed compos'd of heavenly pleasure Vnto my soule yea Gods peculiar Treasure How purely runs these most refreshing streames In dayly Visions and Nocturnal dreames The fulness verily is in the Father Who doth our Minds into his bosome gather Like tender Chickens by the Clucking-hen Whose Name be prais'd by Life by Voyce and Pen. Let me descend from Sions glorious Mountain To shew a Seed the Vale wherein 's the Fountain For surely I could freely lay down life With bloud to buy a stranger for my wife For what 's so purchased by Joynt-consent Is as the Seed of Judah's saved Tent What Forreigner would'st thou walk in the Way Of Life and Peace in this God's saving Day Thy whole Affection must in substance bend To that which brings to Flesh a final end And that from Darkness thou the Day mayst know The Proud must bow down to the poore and low For loe the Sun which gives the Day her light Remaines below the Horizon all night Such is the Principle and Spark in thee Vail'd by Sins cloud whereby thou canst not see To know the Poore the Oppressed and his cryes Within thy Selfe which in a Dungeon lyes Wherefore draw near unto the Earth's short end To see the Day-Star and the Sun ascend For know thou whil'st that thou dost there remaine Assuredly art bound in Death's black-chaine And whil'st thou dost from Mountain run to Hill Seeking a Stream to drink thy lustfull fill Arive thou canst not unto Jacobs Well For so thou run'st to ring a broken bell Stand still I 'le touch a Stone and thou shalt know That Waters in thee out of it shall flow In Conscience there 's a secret Light within Which doth distinguish Truth from every sin That is of God which Judgeth works of Evill And thoughts in man mov'd of the tempting Devill The Soul which faithfully it 's Judgment keepes Shall know Salvation from the Darkness deepes Then follows Faith and Hope which God alone Th' internall knowledge of the vertuous Stone Out of which waters pure of life do gush And in the same 's conceal'd the Burning bush Then will his River run and Flames ascend Of Heavenly Vertue which shall never end Remember man the light within 's the Way From darkness dwelling to the door of Day Which leads to fullnesse free from every doubt Obey'd Within possest but lost without And therefore Wanderer at home retire Least that thou sink and perish in the mire For that which leads man from the light within Spurs on the ear to end the life in sin And then of sin in which he Lives and Dyes Shall have his Wage for as he Falls he Lyes Yet still my Heart doth in my body burn Towards the Doves to whose door I return With Corn in hand to spread before their eye Vpon the Stage whereto they dayly flye Which is the place whereon they allwayes feed Amidst the house wherein their young they breed To all the Hungry and the Thirsty Lambs I 'm Broken-bread and Wine drawn out in drams And of a truth it is my souls sweet care That every babe may eat and drink a share My life in Sion would be allwayes found Among the Seed a Salve to every wound And perfect Medicine to every grief And to th' Opprest an Arm of good reliefe Let not my Love's heart languish under sorrow For lo thy Joy approacheth with the Morrow The YOKE to selfe and CROSSE to flesh fly never That DEATH may Dye and LIFE may live for ever For suffering Sword contentedly to slay The Mortal thou in battle wins the day Then thin's the Standard and the Ensign spread And thou in Sion knowest the Ruling head Then peace then joy then pleasures pure abound And solace sweet as Walls do thee surround Then Sobs and Grief God from thy Land doth banish And Sighs and Sorrowes as a shade do vanish Yea of thy Trouble whilest thou wert forlorn Remains not thought for joy a Son is born Wherefore O Plants wait in the Spirit-Meeke And in the drouth from God the showers seeke In which sweet state you shall me witnesse bear God's fullnesse feeds each low heart full of fear Who doth Exalt the spirit of the Humble But the Exalted from his seat doth Tumble When as the Woods in Summer time are green The Thrustles tune is heard though she not seen By any Mortall yet there is an eye Which sees how she from Tree to Tree doth fly And doth perceive whence her sweet notes Aspire And what 's the thing her life doth most desire Which is the Book wherein I read your Race Beyond wide-Lands Sea's Time and utmost Space And here with you I rest I live and dwell Like Silk-worms hid in one wrought Case and Shell Yea
J. P. The follower of the Lamb to the Shepheards Flock Salutation Grace and Peace is with you in the Spirit of Power and Life and be Infinitely multiplyed unto you Amen HEare O HEAVENS and learn O EARTH For O third Heavens in thy Antient Records it was enrolled thy Elevation from the lowest deepes and Exaltation unto the glory of the Supernall Dominion to be made the most Glorious Throne of the most Glorious of Glorious which in this the Day of the mighty power of God is come to pass according to the predestination of Time by Eternall Councell from of old and now manifestly reveal'd in the Resplendent year which is the one Day without Night and as a thousand years with God and more than ten thousand times ten thousand and thousand of thousands of years with the Sonne of man through generation of the Word of the Power of Creation through the fullfilling of the naturall Course of time untill the Travell and through her Pangs to the Birth and after it through Temptations and Tryalls through Sorrows Persecutions Combats and Battles through Fire and Water through over-whelming floods and exceeding strong ascending flames whereby the Ample advantage hath accrued in all which may be possibly conceived yea more in the superabundance of the Immortall vertue then can be spread upon the longest and largest Land of the Kingdom of Comprehension but this is undoubtedly understood the man-child hereby which you know to be the fruit of the womb of the woman which the Dragon drove into the Wilderness is grown unto the Stature of a man full of the Power of Wisdom Life and Light And as Deborah was a famous and Renowned Judge in Israel even so also is become the Virgin-Daughter of Sion excelling all of her Sex that ever were before her This is shee which was born of the Virgins womb in which also was conceived the Man-child Behold I speak a Riddle for these three are the Twins and the Twins suck at one Breast and the Breast is the man's mouth and the milk is the Fathers voyce and the man's strength is the Fathers might and the Man the Son and the Father is one and the Father hath married the Son to the Virgin and the Virgin Daughter And so all souls in the sweetness your maker is become your husband for you have given the Virgin your impolluted and undefiled Souls to the Spirit your Brother and Husband and so call him Lord and give him the Reverence as Sarah did unto Abraham and hereby the Kingdome is known to be In you and the Lord in the Kingdome as the Lord and you in the Kingdome with the Lord not as your owne but as the Lords and so the whole substance is consecrated unto him who is the Lord of the whole Earth And thus whether your body Lives or Dyes whether you in the Body or out of the Body the Soul is the same with the Lord in the Kingdom though the Last you will finde to be Best Ah Jerusalem Jerusalem thou art my Sister the glorious work manship of thy Maker yea thou art my Lifes love prepared for thy Spouse in the bed of the Bride-Chamber Thy Beauty hath enamoured me in Vertues lodg of Rest A flaming Torch thine eye may see of love burns in my breast Thou art the Stone which doth my spirit whet Like as the Razor which is newly set Ah feel my edge that 's ground exceeding sharp To sing thy Vertues praise to Davids Harp For as an Host in Sions Coast Of much more strength than Nations Thou dost Arise before mine Eyes In all my Contemplations Ah Clear Christall City of God come down from above thou blessed womb of Princes and renowned habitation of holy Iudges thy SPOUSE hath endowed thee with Infinite Riches and adorned thee with the rarities of farr Countreys and Costliness of Lands and Kingdomes thy LINNEN is as white as the snow of Heaven and is a Lanthorne of light to a great Nation thy ROBE is of the Die of the Bloud of Life as precious as the Ransome of Kings thy CROWN is an Innumerable trayn of starrs which shall follow thee to the end of Time blessed is the fruite of thy fruitfull Womb for thy Daughters are the fairest of thousands their face is as the Christall glass which shews every Soule its shape they are as the Gold of Ophir in Judah's Land and as Pearls in the City streets they hang as Iewels at thy Breast and Bracelets upon thy Right-arme they are the Beautifullest Princesses in the whole Earth the glory of God is their Dowry I am Over-flowne Over-whelmed and swallowed with the floods of their Love which pursue me Thy Vertue O JERVSALEM is as an Impress of ten Thousands upon my little Cottage-Walls I am surprized by the Bow of thy battle made Captive to love Everlasting for the hand of thy Husband did break a Chayn and truth lincked me to the love of Life and her I am full of thy weight which is augmented in the Ballance of the Sanctuary and weigheth the world as wind I kiss the cheeks of thy Daughter I wooe her as a Spouse for my bed shee is mine in the Covenant of Conjunction as the Coupled Dove to her Mate I am Bowels of her true Body and shee is Bloud of my heart-bloud Ah surpassing sweet SHILOH thou art the Husband of Jerusalem my Mother and my Brother Sion is the only Son JVDAH my Sister is a faithfull Daughter Treachery is no more lodged in her Land I am plentifully filled with the sweetest refreshment in the solace of endless Life Beholding the order of thy house What Gravity What Modesty What Chastity What Wisdome What fear and trembling What Faith-undoubted What Patience and Content What Charity and Unity Yea What Bowels of Love and Life Ah! how plentifull doth the glorious vertue of the Lord God abound in the mantion of thy dwelling among all thy dearest pure-born seed and Children And thou O GOD art Rest to the wearisomness of the Weary and Bread to the hunger of the Hungry thou art Strength to the weakness of the Weak and a Support of the feeble knees thou visitest the Sick with the medicine of mercy and raisest the languishing with love thou droppest thy dews upon the Heaths of the Mountaines as on the green herbs of the valleys thou hast made Rocks in mountaines and Stones in dry walls to sweat with moysture though they changed not from the nature of their hardness great hath thy Grace been to all Generations though the Rebellious have kicked against thee my soule is a fire of praise and a sacrifice of thanksgiving before thee my spirit saith in this behalf Glory Glory Glory to God my God for ever and ever Amen Speak ye Barren-Mountaines and Answer ye Dry-hills Where Where are the parched Heaths which say Or the Rocky places which can Avouch that alwayes they were dry without the Distilling drops of the Heavens Stand up ye Brooks and Surmount